Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2146-7 {Thus} <So> runnes the world away. | Would not this sir & a forrest of fea- | |
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| 2147-8 thers, if the rest of | my fortunes turne Turk with me, with <two> prouinciall | |
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| 2149-50 Roses on my {raz’d} <rac’d> shooes, get me a fellowship in a cry | of players? <sir.> | |
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1723- mtby2
mtby2
2149 raz’d] Thirlby (1723-): “fsql [low-level probability] lac’d cave [be cautious about that conj.].”
1726 theon
theon: contra pope (see VN), Q5, Q10, “Hugh’s Impression”; xref.;
2149 raz’d]
Theobald (ed. 1726, pp. 91-93): <p. 90> “
Hamlet, applauding himself upon the Discovery his additional Lines in the Play have made of his Uncle’s Villany, asks
Horatio, whether he does not think, that his Skill, and a few Thea- </p.91><p.92> trical Equipments join’d with it, would not, upon a Shift, help him into a Share among the Players by their own Voices. But, what are we to understand by
ray’d Shoes? Mr.
POPE tells us, at the Bottom of his Page, that in some Books he found it
rac’d; in others,
rack’d. ‘Tis true; and no less than three Editions that I know of, (
viz. the
Quarto’s of 1637 and 1703, and Mr.
Hugh’s Impression,) have it,
raz’d: And all the four Readings, I believe, are equally mistaken; tho’ the last mentioned, perhaps, will bring us nearest to the
true one. ‘Tis plain to me,
Hamlet, from the Discovery that his Lines in the Play have extorted, is complimenting himself on his Taste and Judgment in the Powers of Tragedy; and seems to think that he wants Nothing but a Stock of
Plumes, and
Buskins, to set him up for one of the Profession. If this be the true Sense of the Passage, as I believe verily it is, I am apt to think the Poet wrote it thus. ‘
Would not This, Sir, and a Forest of Feathers, if the rest of my Fortunes turn Turk
with Me, with two provincial Roses on my RAIS’D
Shoes, get me a Fellowship in a Cry of Players, Sir?’ By rais’d Shoes, as I take it, he means the Tragedy-Buskin, (or
Cothurnus, as it was call’d by the
Romans;) which was as much higher in the Heel than other common Shoes, as
Chioppines, worn by the
Venetians, are, mention’d by our Poet in the foregoing
Act of this Play [
Ham.
[2.2.427 (1472)].. It was the know Custom of the Tragedians of Old, that they might the nearer resemble the Heroes they personated, to make themselves as tall in Stature, and, by an artificial Help to Sound, to speak as big, as they possibly could. But of this I shall have Occasion to speak more at large in the
Dissertation to be prefix’d to my
Translation of
ÆSCHYLUS’s
Tragedies. HORACE, in his short History of the Progress of the Stage, takes Notice of these two Things, as peculiar Supplements to Tragedy; —
magnumque loqui, nitique Cothurno: And
SHAKESPEARE himself, in his
Troilus and
Cressida, seems to rally the Actors both on Account of stretching their Voices and Persons (
pag. 24) </p. 92><p. 93> ‘
And like a strutting Player, whose Conceit Lies in his Ham-string
, and doth think it rich To hear the wooden Dialogue, and Sound, Twixt his stretch’d footing and the Scaffoldage.” </p. 93>
1733 theo1
theo1: Littleton, Cotgrave
2149 raz’d] Theobald (ed. 1733): “I once suspected, that We ought to read, raised Shoes. By a Forest of Feathers, he certainly alludes to the Plumes worn by the Stage-Heroes; as, by raised Shoes, he would to their Buskins; the Cothurni, as they were call’d by the Romans, which were as much higher in the Heel than other common Shoes, as the Chiopines worn by the Venetians are. It was the known Custom of the Tragedians of old, that they might the nearer resemble the Heroes they personated, to make themselves as tall in Stature, and by an artificial Help to Sound, to speak as big, as they possibly could. To both these Horace has alluded; ‘—magnumq; loqui, nitiq; Cothuruo.’ And Lucian, describing a Tragedian, calls him GREEK HERE, a Fellow carried upon high Shoes; and these were rais’d to such a degree, that the same Author calls one, who had pull’d them off, GREEK HERE, descending from his Buskins. But, perhaps rayed Shoes may have been our Author’s Expression; i,e, striped, spangled, enrich’d with some shining Ornaments: Bracteati Calcei, Shoes variegated with Rayes of Gold. Bractea, a Ray of Gold, or any other Metal. Littleton. A Ray of Gold, Fueille d’Or, Cotgrave.—”
theo1: Pope; Tro., Cor., 2H4 //s
2149 cry] Theobald (ed. 1733): “city] Thus Mr. Pope, with some of the worser Editions: but we must read, Cry, with the better Copies; i.e. in the Vote and Suffrage of a Company of Players.
“Tro. [3.3.184 (2036)] ‘The Cry went once for thee.——’
“Cor. [[4.6.147-8 (3074-5)] ‘You common Cry of Curs, &c. [Cor. [3.3.120 (2408)] And, again; ‘Menen. You have made you good Work, You and your Cry. Ibid.
“2H4 [4.1.134-5 (2002-3)] ‘For all the Country is a general Voice Cry’d Hate upon him;.’ ”
1733- mtby3
mtby3=mtby2 for emend. “lac’d”
2149 raz’d] Thirlby (1733-): “new ribbons to your pumps”
Transcribed by BWK.
1744 han1
han1
2149 raz’d] Hammer (ed. 1744: glossary): “RAIED, blotted stained, fouled: the same as Beraied, which is the term more known of late days. Fr. Rayé .”
1746 Upton
Upton: xref.
2149 raz’d shooes]
Upton (1746, Bk. II, Sect. 16, p. 277): “I suppose Sophocles’ white shoe was what Shakespeare in
Hamlet, Act 3 [2149], calls
rayed shoes: i.e. with rays of sylver, or tinsel. Homer’s epithet of Thetis is
GREEK HERE, which Milton hints at in his Mask, ‘By Thetis tinsel-slipper’d feet.’”
1747 warb
warb
2149-50 a cry of Players] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Allusion to a pack of hounds.”
1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson Dict.
2149 razed ] Johnson (1755): To raise- 1. “To lift; to heave.”
2. “To set upright.”
3. “To erect; to build up.”
4. “To exalt to a state more great or illustrious.”
5. “To amplify to enlarge.”
6. “To increase in current value.”
7. “To elevate; to exalt.”
8. “To advance; to promote; to prefer.”
9. “To excite; to put in action.”
10. “To excite to war or tumult; to stir up.”
11. “To rouse; to stir up.”
12. “To give beginning to.”
13. “To bring into being.”
14. “To call into view from the state of separate spirits.”
15. “To bring from death to life.”
16. “To occasion; to begin.”
17. “To set up; to utter locally.”
18. “To collect; to obtain a certain sum.”
19. “To collect; to assemble; to levy.”
20. “To give rise to.”
1765 john1
john1=warb (for cry of Players)
john1
2149 prouinciall Roses] Johnson (ed. 1765): ““When shoestrings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband, gathered into the form of a rose. So in an old song, ‘Gil-de-Roy was a bonny boy,/ Had roses tull his shoon.’
john1
2149 raz’d] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Rayed shoes, are shoes braided in lines.”
1773 jen
jen
2148 raz’d]
Jennens (ed. 1773): “The qu’s read
rez’d; the fo’s and
R.’s octavo,
rac’d; his duodecimo,
rack’d.
P. and all the rest read,
rayed; i.e.
striped, spangled, or
enriched with shining ornaments. But this is no reading before
P. and
rais’d comes nearer the old reading raz’d.”
1771 han3
han3: Warton
2148 prouinciall] Warton (apud Hanmer in ed. 1771, glossary): “provincial (Vol. 6. 282) ‘with two provincial roses on my rayed shoes.’ Why provincial roses? Undoubtedly we should read Provencial, or (with the French ç) Provençal. He means roses of Provence, a beautiful species of rose, and formerly much cultivated. Mr. Warton.”
1773- mstv1
mstv1 ≈ han3
2148-9 prouincial Roses] Waron (ms. notes, in Steevens, ed. 1773): “He means roses of Provence; a beautiful species of roses, formerly much cultivated. Mr. Warton.”
1773 v1773
v1773 = warb, john1, han3 (Warton) w/o attribution); Holinshed, Stubbs, Holland analogues
2149 raz’d shooes] Steevens (ed. 1773): “The reading of the quarto is raz’d shoes. Probably the poet wrote raised shoes, i.e. shoes with high heels; such as, by adding to the stature, are supposed to increase the dignity of a player—Holinshead, however, mentions raie cloth, p. 733. vol. .2.
“In Stubbs’s Anatomie of Abuses, there is a chapter on the corked shoes in England, ‘which (he says) beare them up two ‘inches or more from the ground, &c. some of red, blacke, &c. razed, carved, cut, and stitched.’ &c.
“P. Holland, in his translation of Pliny’s Nat. Hist. p. 253. says of shell-fishes—’some be striped and raied with long streaks.’”
1774 capn
capn
2149 raz’d] Capell (1774, 1:1: glossary, ray’d): “(H. 73, 16.) streaked or striped. Fre. rayé.”
capn ≈ [pope]
2149 raz’d] Capell (1774, 1:1:137): “‘ray’d,’ (another of this gentleman’s corrections) [is followed] by all his [Pope’s] successors.”
1778 v1778
v1778: Ado //; Greene, Dekker, Barker analogues
2148 turne Turk] Steevens (ed. 1778): “This expression has occurred already in Ado [3.4.57 (1554)], and I have met with it in several old comedies. So, in Greene’s Tu Quoque, 1599: ‘This is to turn Turk, from an absolute and most compleat gentleman, to a most absure, ridiculous, and fond lover.’ It means, I believe, no more than to change condition fantastically. Again, in Decker’s Honest Whore, 1635: ’—’tis damnation,/If you turn Turk again.’ Perhaps the phrase had its rise form some popular story like that of Ward and Dansiker, the two famous pirates: an account of whose overthrow was published by A. Barker, 1609: and, in 1612, a play was written on the same subject: call’d A Christian turn’d Turk.—Steevens.”
v1778 = v1773 (Warton note) +
2149 Roses] Steevens (ed. 1778): “These roses are often mentioned by our ancient dramatic writers. So, in the Devil’s Law-case, 1632: ‘With over-blown roses to hide your gouty ancles.’ Again, in the Roaring Girl, 1611: ‘—many handsome legs in silk stockingts have villainous splay feed, for all their great roses.’”
v1778 = v1773 minus Holland +
2149 raz’d shooes] Steevens (ed. 1778):”Again, in Warner’s Albion’s England, 1602, b. 9. ch. 47: ‘Then wore they shoes of ease, now of an inch-broad, corked high.’ Stowe’s Chronicle, anno 1353, mentions women’s hoods reyed or striped. Raie is the French word for stripe. Johnson’s Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws informs us, under the years 1222 and 1353, that in disobedience of the canon, the clergy’s shoes were checquered with red and green, exceeding long, and variously pinked.
“The reading of the quartos may likewise be supported. Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, speaks of gallants who pink and raze their satten damask, and Duretto skins. To raze and to race, alike signify to streak. See Minsheu’s Dict. The word is used in the same signification in Markham’s Country Farm. p. 585. ‘—baking all (i.e. wafer cakes) together between two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts after the manner of small squares.’ It should be remembered that ray’d is the conjecture of Mr. Pope.”
v1778 = v1773 +
2149-50 cry of players] Steevens(ed. 1778): “A pack of hounds was once called a cry of hounds. So, in the Two Noble Kinsmen, by Beaumont and Fletcher: ‘—and well have halloo’d/To a deep cry of hounds.’ Again, in the Midsummer Night’s Dream [MND 4.1.145 (1645)]; see also [4.1.124 (1638)]: ‘—a cry more tunable/Was never hallood to or cheer’d with horn.’ Milton, likewise, has —’A cry of hell-hounds—.’”
1780 malsi
malsi
2147 feathers]
Malone (1780, 1:356): <p.356> “It appears from Decker’s Gull’s Hornbook, that feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakespeare’s time.”
malsi: Nashe analogue
2149 raz’d]
Malone (1780. 2:713): “
Hamlet is here speaking of a company of strolling players, who in our author’s time usually travelled on foot.
Rayed, (if that be the true reading) I therefore believe, means
covered with dust or mire. The word is used in this sense by Nashe in
Summer’s last Will and Testament, a comedy, 1600: “Let there be a few rushes laid in the place where Backwinter shall fall, for feare of
raying his cloathes.’”
malsi: contra warb
2149 cry] Malone (1780, 1:356): “There is surely here no allusion to hounds (as Dr. Warburton supposes), whatever the origin of the term might have been. Cry means a troop or company in general, and is so used in Cor. [4.06.147 (3074-5)]: ‘—you have made good work,/You and your cry.’ Again, in A strange Horse-race, by Thomas Decker, 1613: ‘The last race they ran (for you must know they had many) was from a cry of serjeants.’”
1783 malsii
malsii = v1778 +
2149 raz’d] Malone (1783, p. 58): rayed] “Add to my note.—In the old Taming of a Shrew, 1607, a strolling player says to one of his fellows: ‘Go, get a dishclout to make clean your shoes,/And I’ll speak for the properties.’”
1783 Ritson
Ritson: pope, v1778
2149 raz’d] Ritson (1783, p. 203): “After such a conclusive note in support of the old reading (raz’d or rac’d), why is mr. Popes capricious alteration still suffered to usurp a place in the text?”
1784 ays1
ays1 = v1778 minus Ado//; Greene, Dekker, Barker, and A Christian Turn’d Turk anals.
2148 turne Turk] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “Means, probably, no more than to change condition fantastically.”
ays1 = john minus “So in . . . shoon.’”
2149 prouinciall Roses] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “When shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband gathered in the form of a rose.”
ays1 = john
2149 raz’d shooes] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): Rayed Shoes, are shoes braided in lines.”
1784 Davies
Davies: Garrick
2147 forrest of feathers]
Davies (1784, pp. 94-5): <p.94>“The
forest of feathers alludes to large plumes of feathers which the old actors wore on their heads in characters of heroism and dignity. This practice was </p.94><p.95> adopted at the Restoration, and continued in force till Mr. Garrick’s æra of management. His superior taste got rid of the incumbrance.” </p.95>
Davies ≈ v1778
2149-50 cry of players] Davies (1784, pp. 95): “Cry of players is, as Mr. Steevens observes, a company of comedians.”
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778 minus Steevens’s note on cry of players (2149-500)
1790 mWesley
mWesley: v1785
2149 raz’d shooes] Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “(S. suggests ‘raised shoes’) This is very probable.”
1790 mal
mal = john1, malsi minus dismissal of warb +
2148 prouinciall Roses] Malone(ed. 1790): “The old copies have provincial, which as Mr. Warton has observed, was undoubtedly a misspelling for Provencial, or Provençal, i.e. roses of Provence, ‘a beautiful species of rose formerly much cultivated.’ Here, roses of ribbands must be understood.”
mal: Minsheu, Stubbs
2149 raz’d] Malone(ed. 1790): “The quarto has raz’d; the folio—rac’d. It is the same word differently spelt. Razed shoes are shoes strteaked. See Minsheu’s Dict. in v. To rase. ‘To these their nether-stockes,, (says Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses, 1583.) they [the people of England] have corked shoes, pinsnets, and pantoffles, which beare them up a finger or two from the ground; whereof some be of white leather, some of blacke, and some of red; some of black velvet, some of white, some of red, some of greene,—raced, carved, cut,, and stiched all over with silke, and laied on with gold, silver, and such like.’”
mal ≈ malsi
2149 cry] Malone(ed. 1790): “There is surely here no allusion to hounds (as Dr. Warburton supposes), whatever the origin of the term might have been. Cry means a troop or company in general, and is so used in Cor. [4.06.147 (3074-5)]: ‘—you have made good work,/You and your cry.’ Again, in A strange Horse-race, by Thomas Decker, 1613: ‘The last race they ran (for you must know they had many) was from a cry of serjeants.’”
1791- rann
rann: Davies without attribution +
2147 forrest of feathers] Rann (ed. 1791-): “The actors of heroic characters formerly wore large bunches, or plumes on their heads.”
rann: Ado //
2148 turne Turk with me] Rann (ed. 1791-): “should frown upon me. Ado [3.4.57 (1554] Marg.”
rann
2149 raz’d] Rann (ed. 1791-): “raised, with high heels.”
Theobald (1726, p. 92) conjectures rais’d and provides annotation, but offers counter-annotation for rayed.
rann
2149 fellowship] Rann (ed. 1791-): “a share in a company.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785, mal +
2147 forrest of feathers] Steevens (ed. 1793): “I believe, since the English stage began, feathers were worn by every company of players that could afford to purchase them.”
v1793
2148 prouinciall Roses] Steevens (ed. 1793): “They are still more cultivated than any other flower of the same tribe.”
v1793 : pope, john
2149 raz’d] Steevens (ed. 1793): “Mr. Pope reads—rayed shoes, i.e. (as interpreted by Dr. Johnson) ‘shoes braided in lines.’”
1807 Douce
Douce: v1773 (Warton) +
2148 prouinciall Roses]
Douce (1807, pp. 247-248): <p. 247> “The old copies read
provincial, which led Mr. Warton to ask, why provincial roses? and to conclude that roses of
Provence were meant, on which conclusion the text has been
most unnecessarily changed; because the old reading was certainly correct. There is no evidence to show that
Provence was ever remarkable for its roses; but it is well known that
Provins, in
La Basse Brie, about forty miles from Paris, was formerly very celebrated for the growth of this flower, of which the best cataplasms are said to have been made. It was, according to tradition, imported into that country from Syria, by a count De Brie. See Guillemeau
Histoire naturelle de la rose. It is probable that this kind of rose, which in our old herbals is called the Great Holland or
Province rose, was imported into this </p.247><p.248> country both from Holland and France, from which latter country the Dutch might have first procured it. There is an elegant cut of the Provins rose, with a good account of it, in the first edition of Pomet
Hist. des drogues, 1694, folio, p. 174.” <p.248>
1815 Becket
Becket ≈ v1773 + magenta underlined
2148 raz’d shooes] Becket (1815, 1:53): “The best reading (in speaking of players) appears to be ‘raised shoes’ as proposed by Mr. Steevens [v1773]. The raised shoe will be the buskin, or cothurnus, of the ancient stage.”
Becket
2149 cry] Becket (1815, 1:53): “‘Cry’ is contracted of Cryptic. It is of precisely the same import as mystery, and which was formerly much used to signify a trade, a calling. ‘Cry’ is here a noun of number and applied to persons—that is to persons of any particular profession or class, and not to mankind in general.”
1819 cald1
cald1
2147 forrest of feathers] Caldecott (ed. 1819):“‘Forest of feathers’ is a numberless supply of that indispensable article of stage dress.”
cald1: v1778 (Greene analogue) + magenta underlined
2148 turne Turk] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Turn turk is turn topsy-turvey, undergo a total and ruinous change. We have this phrase in Ado [3.4.57 (1554)], Marg. Mr. Steevens cites Greene’s Tu Quoque, 1614. ‘This is to ‘turn Turk,’ from an absolute and most complete gentleman, to a most absurd, ridiculous, and fond lover.’”
cald1: Warton, Douce; john
2148 prouinciall Roses] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Provencial, provençal, provincial, are the same words. Mr. Warton thinks roses of Provence, formerly much cultivated, are here meant; but Mr. Douce says, ‘there is no evidence to shew that Provence was ever remarkable for its roses; but it is well known, that Provins, in La Basse Brie, about forty miles from Paris, was very celebrated for their growth: of which the best cataplasms are said to have been made. According to tradition, it was imported from Syria. It is probably this kind, which, in our old herbals, is called the Great Holland or Province rose.’ Illust. II. 247.
“Johnson observes, when shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband, gathered in the form of a rose. So, in an old song: ‘Gil-de-Roy was a bonny boy,/Had roses’”
cald1: Cotgrave, Minshiew; v1778 (Stubbs, Bulwer); ≈ v1778 (Markham)
2149 raz’d shooes] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Race, rase, and raze, are the same word, as raye nearly is: and signify, as may be seen in Cotgrave and Minshieu, to streak or stripe, to dash, or obliterate. It means here slashed, i.e. with cuts and openings, says Mr. Steevens, who quotes Stubbs’s Anatomy of Abuses, 1595. ‘Razed, carved, cut, and stitched.’ He adds, that Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, speaks of gallants who pink and raze their satten, damask, and Duretto skins. The word, though differently spelt, is used in nearly the same signification in Markham’s Country Farm, p. 585: ‘—baking all (i.e. wafer cakes) together between two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts after the manner of small squares.”
cald1 ≈ v1778 (MND, Cor. //s; Dekker analogue); mal
2149-50 a cry of players] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “A chorus, a set, company; and it is used in other occupations. Of hounds we have a cry in MND (4.1.145 [1645)]; see also [4.01.124 (16380]. Thus and of hell-hounds in Par. Lost. II. 654. We have a crie of curs in Cor. 3.3.120 [2408], Coriol. and of citizens, Cor. [4.6.147 (3074-5)], Menen.; and from Decker’s strange Horse-race, 1613, Mr. Malone instances a cry of serpents. The quartos read ‘a city.’”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1793 on forrest of feathers 2147); v1778 on turne Turk (2148); DOUCE on prouincial Roses (2148-9)
1822 Nares
Nares: pope1, v1778 (Stowe) +
2149 raz’d]
Nares (1822, glossary, rayed}: “Striped, or braided in lines; from the French
raie, a stripe. [
Hamlet line cited] The first folio, however, reads
rac’d; and
rayed is only a conjecture of Pope’s. Stowe’s
Chronicle is quoted for the mention of women’s hoods. ‘
reyed or striped.’ The word certainly had that meaning, and Chaucer is quoted as describing a feather bed
rayid, or striped with gold.”
1826 sing1
sing1
2148 turne Turk] Signer (ed. 1826): “To turn Turk was a familiar phrase for any violent change of condition or character.”
sing1: Warton (v1773), Douce +
2148 prouinciall Roses] Singer (ed. 1826): “Provincial was erroneously changed to Provençal, at the suggestion of Warton. Mr. Douce rectified the error by showing that the Provincial roses took their name from Provins, in Lower Brie, and not from Provence.”
sing1: standard
2149 raz’d] Signer (ed. 1826): “Razed shoes are most probably embroidered shoes. The quarto reads, rac’d. To race, or rasé, was to stripe.”
sing1 ≈ cald1 (one of the Cor. //s); Boke of St. Albans analogue
2149 cry] Singer (ed. 1826): “It was usual to call a pack of hounds a cry; from the Frenche meute de chiens: it is here humorously applied to a troop or company of players. It is used again in Cor. [4.6.147 (3074-5)]: Menenius says to the citizens, ‘You have made good work, you and your cry.’ In the very curious catalogue of The Companyes of Bestys, given in the The Boke of St. Albans, many equally singular terms may be found, which seem to have exercised the wit and ingenuity of our ancestors; as a thrave of throshers, a scull or shoal of monks, &c.”
Two attributions are provided, though comments can be traced to earlier editions: for example, Coriolanus parallel first appears in theo1, and the definition for cry first appears in WARB.
1839 knt1 (nd)
knt1
2148 turne Turk] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “if the rest of my fortunes deal with me cruelly. ‘To turn Turk, and thrown stones at the poor,’ is a proverbial expression for the conduct of one who is tyrannical and hard-hearted.”
knt1: standard
2149 raz’d] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “slashed. The cut shoes were tied with a riband gathered in the form of a rose. The feathers and the fine shoes were the chief decorations of the players in Shakspere’s day.”
knt1: Collier (Hist. of the Stage)
2149-50 A fellowship of players] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “A
cry of players was a company; a
fellowship was a participation in profits.
Hamlet had managed the play so well that his skill ought to entitle him to such a fellowship:—‘half a share,’ says
Horatio; ‘a whole one,’ says
Hamlet. In Mr. Collier’s History of the Stage, vol. iii. p. 427, we find many curious details on the payment of actors, showing that the performers at our earlier theatres were divided into whole-sharers, three-quarter-sharers, half-sharers, and hired men.”
1843 col1
col1
2147-8 if . . . me] Collier (ed. 1843): “This phrase seems to have been equivalent of old to a total change, and it is found in several writers of the time.”
col1: Three Ladies of London analogue
2147 turne Turk] Anon. (ms. notes in ed. 1843): “The Three Ladies of London.” Also the writer says that in Naples an equivalent Italian phrase means “you can be quite certain of that”: “Questo non si per Turco.”
Transcribed by BWK from copy (BM 134.f.1.vol.7), who describes the signature of the writer of this inserted letter as “signed E. and backward E,” adds: “He refers to the expression turns turk in a play of 1584 and 1592 . . . which seems to be a source for MV, about a Jewish merchant”
col1
2149 raz’d]
Collier(ed. 1843): “razed] The folio has
rac’d, and the quartos
raz’d: possibly all ought to read
raised, as several writers show that shoes with thick cork soles were used to give people additional height. On the stage, as one of ‘a cry,’ or company, of players, this might be important, especially to R. Burbage, the original actor of
Hamlet, who was of short stature. ‘Razed shoes’ may, however, possibly mean
slashed shoes.”
Collier shows a tolerance for alternative interpretations of raz’d and alludes to performer’s height to support the first of them.
1847 verp
verp ≈ col1
2148 turne Turk]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “This phrase seems to have been equivalent of old to a ‘total change,’ and is found in writers of the time.”
verp: Warton, Douce
2149 prouinciall Roses]
Singer (
apud Verplanck, ed. 1847): “‘Provincial’ was erroneously changed to ‘Provençal,’ at the suggestion of Warton. Mr. Douce rectified the error by showing that the
Provincial roses took their name in
Provins, in Lower, Brie, and not from
Provence.”
verp ≈ sing1
2149 raz’d]
Singer (
apud Verplanck, ed. 1847): “‘Razed’ showes are most probably
embroidered shoes. The quarto reads, ‘rac’d.’ To
race or
rase, was to stripe.—
Singer.”
1853 coln
coln ≈ col1 minus alternative interp. based on razed variant
2149 raz’d]
Collier (1853, pp. 425-6): <p.425> “it has been doubted when
Hamlet . . . speaks of ‘two Provincial roses on my
rac’d shoes’ (we spell it as in the folios; the quartos print it
raz’d), he means
rayed shoes,
razed shoes, or
raised, that is, elevated shoes. The old corrector spells it ‘
raised shoes,’ and we may presume that that is what was intended; namely, shoes which gave </p.425><p.426> the actor artificial height. This is the more probable, because Richard Burbage, the original
Hamlet, was a man probably, of rather short stature.” </p.426>
Ed. note: Collier’s "old corrector" is a forgery, presumably Collier’s own.
1853 Singer
Singer: coln, v1778
2149 raz’d] Singer (1853, p. 264): “The correctors show a remarkable sympathy with Mr. Collier’s suggestions to read ‘raised shoes’ instead of ‘rac’d’ or ‘raz’d.’ Steevens had the merit of first proposing this reading, which is most probably the true one.”
Singer is “vindicating” Shakespeare from “the interpolations and corrumptions” advocated by Collier.
1854 del2
del2
2147-51 Delius (ed. 1854): “Zum Kostüm eines Schauspielers gehörten auch mit Federn geschmückte Hüte und geschlitzte Schuhe mit Bänderschleifen in Gestalt von Rosen darauf. Wenn er diese beiden Dinge zu der eben bewiesenen dramaturgischen Geschicklichkeit
(would not this, Sir) besässe, meint
Hamlet, so könnte er, falls seine sonstigen Glücksgüter ihm abtrünnig würden
(turn Turk), einen Gesellschaftsantheil in einer Schauspielertruppe bekommen.
Fellowship und
cry sind die dahin einschlagenden technischen Ausdrücke. Ebenso bezeichnet
share den Antheil, den das Mitglied einer Schauspielunternehmung an dem Gewinn der ganzen Einnahme hatte.
Hamlet macht Anspruch auf einen vollen Antheil, während
Horatio ihm nur einen halben zuerkennt. [To the costume of an actor belonged also hats decorated with feathers and slit shoes with rosettes on them. If he possessed these things in addition to his just proven skill as a director (
would not this, Sir), says
Hamlet, then he could get a place in a troupe of actors were his other wealth to desert him (
turn Turk).
Fellowship and
cry are the technical expressions for striking the bargain. Likewise
share refers to the part of the earnings a member of a dramatic production had. Hamlet claims a full share, while Horatio grants him only a half.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 ≈ sing1 without attribution minus Warton
2148 prouinciall] Hudson (ed. 1856): “Mr. Douce has shown that the Provincial roses took their name from Provins, in Lower Brie, and not from Provence.”
hud1 ≈ cald1 (Markham)
2149 raz’d] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Rac’d shoes are most probably embroidered shoes. The quartos read, raz’d. To race, or rase, was to stripe. So in Markham’s County Farm, speaking of wafer cakes: ‘Baking all together between two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts after the manner of small squares.’”
hud1 ≈ sing1 (Cor. //)
2149 cry] Hudson(ed. 1851-6): “It was usual to call a pack of hounds a cry; from the French meute de chiens, it is here humourously applied to a troop or company of players. It is used again in Cor. [4.6.147 (3074-5]]: Menenius says to the citizens, ‘You have made good work, you and your cry.’”
1856b sing2
sing2 = sing1 +
2148 prouinciall Roses] Singer (ed. 1856): “The wearing of enormous roses on the shoes was a prevalent folly of the time, of which old full length portraits afford striking examples.”
1857 fieb
fieb ≈ v1793) for forrest of feathers (2147)
fieb
2147 this] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “i.e. this poetry together with my art of delivery.”
fieb ≈ v1778 + magenta underlined
2147-8 if . . . me] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “I.e. if I should lose the rest of my fortunes, if I had nothing else to live upon. To turn Turk, a proverbial saying which means, to change condition; then, to be lost, to go to the dogs. So, in Greene’s Tu Quoque, 1614: ‘This is to turn Turk, from an absolute and most compleat gentleman, to a most absurd, ridiculous and fond lover.’ Steevens mentions, that, in 1612, a play was written called A Christian turn’d Turk, and that perhaps the phrase had its rise from some popular story like that of Ward and Dansiker, the two famous pirates; an account of whose overthrow was published by A. Barker, in 1609.”
fieb ≈ john1, v1778
2149 prouinciall Roses] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Old copies have provincial, though undoubtedly we should read Provencial, or, with the French ç, Provençal roses, a beatiful species of roses, and much cultivated.—When shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband, gathered in the form of a rose (J.). So, in The Devil’s Law-case, 1623: ‘With over blown roses to hind your gouty ancles.’ Again in The Roaring Girl, 1611: ‘—many handsome legs in silk stockings have villainous spay-feet, for all their great roses.”
fieb ≈ v1778
2149 raz’d shooes] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “rezed shoes] This is the reading of the quartos; that of the folio, rac’d shoes. Razed shoes may mean, slashed shoes, i.e. with cuts or openings in them.—To raze and to race, says Steevens, though differently spelled, alike signify to streak, which to support he quotes from Markham’s Country Farm, p. 585: ‘—baking all (i.e. wafter cakes) together between two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts after the manner of small squares.’ Besides the same proposes to read raised shoes, i.e. shoes with high heels; such as by adding to the stature, are suposed to increase the dignity of a player. His conjecture receives additional support by a quotation from Stubb’s Anatomy of Abuses, 1595. In the chapter on the corked shoes in England, ‘which beare them up two inces or more from the ground, etc. some of red, blacke, etc. razed, carved, cut, and stitched.’ etc.—Pope reads—rayed shoes, i.e. shoes braided in lines, or striped, from the French raie, stripe. Stowe’s Chronicle, anno 1353, is quoted for the mentino of women’s hoods reyed or striped.”
fieb ≈ v1778
2149 cry] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “i.e. a troop or company of players, by an allusion to a pack of hounds, which was once called a cry of hounds; so Milton has — a cry of hell-houngs. Shakspeare, in Coriolanus, says ‘—You have made good work. You and your cry.’ See p. 82.”
Fiebig, in general, compresses and reduces the number of pars. and anals.
1858 col3
col3 ≈ verp + magenta underlined
2148 turne Turk] Collier (ed. 1858): “This phrase seems to have been equivalent of old to a total change, and it is found in several writers of the time. In the play ‘The Three Ladies of London,’ printed in 1584 and 1592, a Merchant turns Turk in the East, in order to avoid the payment of his debt to a Jew: Mercadorus, the merchant, who speaks broken English, (an early specimen of the kind) says, “Darefore mele go to get some Turks apparell,/Dat me may cossen de Jew, and end de quarrell.’—Sign. E3. The expression of ‘turning Turk,’ still in use, may have originated in some transaction of the kind, and Questo non si fa Turco is well understood in Italy to indicate confidence or assurance.”
col3 = col1 (minus “On the stage . . . shoes,” ) + magenta underlined
2149 raz’d] Collier (ed. 1858): “The folio has rac’d, and the 4tos. raz’d: possibly all ought to read rais’d, as several writers show that shoes with thick cork soles were used to give people additional height and it is amended to ‘rais’d shoes’ in the corr. fo. 1632. Burbage, being short, may have worn ‘rais’d shoes;’ but still it seems unlikely that he would thus be made to advert to his own deficiency.”
1859 stau
stau ≈ rann (Ado //) without attribution
2148 turne Turk] Staunton (ed. 1860): “A popular phrase to express apostacy of any kind. Shakespeare uses it again in Ado [3.4.57 (1554)]—’Well,, an you be not turned Turk, there’sno more sailing by the star.’”
stau: sing1 (Douce and Warton ) + magenta underlined
2148 prouincial] Staunton (ed. 1860) “Provincial roses, Mr. Douce asserts, were not so called , as Warton and others conjectured, from Provence, but from Provins, in Lower Brie, a place early celebrated for the cultivation of the flower.”
stau ≈ v1778
2149 raz’d] Staunton (ed. 1860): “The folio reads, ‘rac’d,’ and the quartos ‘razd;’ by razed, if that be the true word, must be meant slashed or opened shoes. It should be noted, however, that Steevens and other critics thought that Shakespeare probably wrote raised shoes, i.e. shoes with high heels.”
Theobald first conjectured rais’d and Jennens (ed. 1773) first emended the text.
1861 wh1
wh1 ≈ Douce
2148 prouinciall] White (ed. 1861): “The Provincial rose, as Douce remarked, is the beautiful variety raised at Provins, in La Basse Brie, which was called in the old English Herbals the Great Holland or Province rose.”
wh1
2149 raz’d] White (ed. 1861): “Raz’d shoes appear to have been slashed, or perhaps, pumps.”
1864a glo
glo
2149 raz’d] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: glossary, Razed): “p.p. slashed. Ham. 3.2.279 [2149].”
1865 hal
hal ≈ v1778 (adjusts date on Greene’s Tu Quoque from 1599 to 1614) +
2148 turne Turk] Halliwell (ed. 1865):“But if the god of warre abroad should range, And catch these men that long to see a change, You then should see them all within one day, For very feare of death to turne Turke away. King’s Halfe-Pennyworth of Wit, 1613.
“They have a law in Turkey that, if a Chirstian do strike a Turk, he must either turn Turk, or lose his right arm, which law did cause us to endure many stripes with patience.—Shirley’s Travels in Persia. MS.” </p.277>
hal = cald1 +
2148 prouinciall Roses]
Halliwell (ed. 1865): “I did never beleeve the Popes
transubstantiation, but now I see charitie is transubstantiated into brave apparrell, when we shall see him that in a hat-band, a scarfe, a payre of garters, and in
roses for his shoe-strings, will bestow more money, then would have brought his grandfather a whole suite of apparell to have served for Sun-dayes.—
Rich’s Honestie of this Age, proving that World </p. 277><p.278>
was never honest till now, 1611. The annexed specimens of shoe-roses are selected by Mr. Fairholt from portraits of the time of Elizabeth and James.” Here Halliwell supplies five drawings. </p. 278>
hal = cald1 +
2149 raz’d] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “Concerning shoes roses either of silke or what stuffe soever, they were not then (in the reign of queen Elizabeth) used nor known; nor was there any garters above the price of five shillings a payre altho at this day (James) men of meane rank weare garters and shoe roses of more than five pounds price.—Stowe, ed. 1631.
“Oh, the fine excuses of wit, or rather folly, late businesse over night makes you keepe your beds in the morning, when indeed it is for lacke of meate to dinner, and perhaps no great banquet at supper, when a crust and an orenge, a sallad a cup of sack makes a feast for a bravo; then, after all, a stretch, and a yaune, and a pipe of tomacco, weare bootes, for want of shooes, or else that the garters and the roses are at pawne.—Breton’s Courtier and Countryman, 1618.”
hal = sing1 on cry (2149)
1866a dyce2
dyce2=v1773
2149 raz’d] Steevens (apud Dyce in ed. 1866): “The reading of the quartos is ‘raz’d shoes;’ that of the folio ‘rac ‘d shoes.’ Razed shoes may mean slashed shoes, i.e. with cuts or openings in them. The poet might have written ‘raised shoes,’ i.e. shoes with high heels; such as, by adding to the stature, are supposed to increase the dignity of a player,’ &c. Steevens”
DYCE credits STEEVENS, though his note is without the allusions provided by Steevens as early as ed. 1773. In fact, the form of this note does not match any single note provided by Steevens.
1866 ktlyn
ktlyn
2149 raz’d] Keightley (ed. 1866, glossary): “rayed] bewrayed.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc: Shr. //
2149 raz’d]
Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “‘Cut,’ ‘slashed.’ French,
rasé. The mode of slashing the shoes was at one time prevalent, as also was slashing the dresses. See Note 67, Act 4
Shr. [4.3.88-168 (2072-151)].”
1869 tsch
tsch
2148 prouinciall] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Das Wort Provincial giebt gar keinen Sinn und hat hier der Dichter offenbar provisional, als Aushilfe dienend, (wie it. provisionale) gemeint, also ein Paar Interims-Rosen.” [The word Provincial makes no sense, and here the poet evidently meant provisional (like Italian provisionale), thus a pair of temporary roses.]
tsch: Dreake, Douce
2149 raz’d] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “raised, razed, und wie die Edit. lesen mögen, ist doch wohl nur jenes razed, das bei Drake II. p. 105 (1817) erwähnt wird: Corked shoes or pantofles are described by Stubbes as bearing up their wearers two inches or more from the ground as being of various colors and razed, carved out, and stitched. Die ganz wunderliche Annahme, dass sich die Schauspieler frische (?) Rosen aus der Stadt Procius hätten kommen lassen, hatte sich wohl Douce Illustr. of Sh. p. 467 so wenig überlegt wie die anderen Kritiker, die ihm gefolgt sind. Etwas anderes als buntes Papier wird wohl zu ihrer Herstellung kaum verwendet worden sein.” [raised, razed, and however the editions may read, is probably still only that razed that is mentioned by Drake II. p. 105 (l817): Corked shoes or pantofles are described by Stubbes as bearing up their wearers two inches or more from the ground as being of various colors and razed, carved out, and stitched. The strange assumption that the actors would have ordered fresh (?) roses from the city Procius had Douce Illustr. of Sh. p. 467 probably considered as little as the other critics who followed him. It is unlikely that anything other than colored paper was used for making the roses.]
tsch ≈ hud1
2149 cry] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “eigentl. eine Koppel Jagdhunde, cf span. cria, Brut, Wurf, Hecke von Thieren.” [actually a pack of hunting dogs; cf. Spanish cria batch, litter, or brood of animals.]
1869 Romdahl
Romdahl: Minshew; v1785, pope
2149 raz’d shooes] Romdahl (1869, p. 34): “The readings are very various; the quartos have: razed, the folios: raced. ‘To raze and to race alike signify to streak. See Minshew’s Dict. (1617) in v. To rase” (Steevens1). One editor (Mr. Pope) has conjectured: rayed (= striped). According to those readings the expression consequently is an allusion to the custom at that time of wearing carved and stitched shoes. Some editors have: raised (an allusion to the high heels of the shoes).”
[<p.34> “1) Reed p. 199.” </p.34>]
Romdahl: standard (incl. //s)
2149-50 cry of players] Romdahl (1869, p. 34): “company of players. The expression alludes to a pack of hounds, formerly called a cry of hounds. Cry applied to hounds, see MND [4.1.117 (1638)]; to players, see Cor. [4.6.148 (3075)].”
1870 rug1
rug1
2147-50 Moberly (ed. 1870): “If I had striped shoed with Provins roses on them, and a fair supply of feathers, would not any company of actors admit me at once; after this highly distinguished dramatic success?”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1 for turne Turk, prouinciall, (2148) and raz’d (2149)
hud2: “Soldier” (letter to Walsingham)
2147 forrest of feathers] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Alluding, probably, to a custom which the London players had in Shakespeare’s time, of flaunting it in gaudy apparel, and with plumes in their caps, the more the better. Some one calling himself a Soldier wrote to Secretary Walsingham in 1586, complaining,—‘It is a woeful sight, to see two hundred proud players jet in their silks, where five hundred poor people starve in the streets.’”
hud2: standard
2149-50 fellowship in a cry of players] Hudson (ed. 1881): “a partnership in a company of players. The Poet repeatedly uses cry thus for set, pack, or troop.”
1872 del4
del4=del2; ≈theo
1872 cln1
cln1: stau (Ado //) + magenta underlined
2148 turne Turk] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “To ‘turn Turk’ is to change completely, as from a Christian to an infidel. Compare Ado [3.4.57 (1554)]: ‘Well, an you be not turned Turk, there’s no more sailing by the star.’”
cln1 ≈ Douce, Warton without attribution; Fairholt + magenta underlined
2148 prouinciall roses] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “that is, rosettes of ribbon in the shape of roses of Provins, or Provence. Douce favours the former. Warton the latter locality. Cotgrave (French Dict.) gives both: ‘Rose de Provence. The Prouince Rose, the double Damaske Rose;’ and ‘Rose de Provins. The ordinarie double red Rose.’ In either case it was a large rose. The Province or damask Rose was probably the better known. Gerarde, in his Herbal, says that the damask rose is called by some ‘Rosa provincialis.’ Mr. Fairholt (Costume in England, p. 238) quotes from Friar Bacon’s Prophecy, 1604” ‘When roses in the gardens grew, And not in ribbons on a shoe: Now ribbon-roses take such place, That garden-roses want their grace.’ At p. 579 he gives several instances of the extravagances to which this fashion led.”
cln1 ≈ v1773 (Stubbes) + magenta underlined
2149 raz’d shooes] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “shoes slashed or streaked in patterns. Stubbes, in his Anatomie of abuses, quoted by Steevens, has a chapter on corked shoes, which he describes as ‘some of black veluet, some of white, some of red, some of greene, rezed, carued, cut, and stitched all ouer with Silke’ (fol. 28, ed. 1585). In Randle Holme’s Academy of Armory, Book iii. ch. I. p. 14, we find, ‘Pinked or raised Shooes, have the over leathers grain part cut into Roses, or other devices.’”
cln1 ≈ theo1 (Cor. //s); ≈ cald1 (Cotgrave)
2149 cry] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “company. Used of a pack of hounds, and metaphorically in Cor. [3.3.120 (2408)]: ‘You common cry of curs!’ and gain [4.6.148 (3075)]: ‘You have made Good work, you and your cry!’ Compare Cotgrave (French Dict.): ‘Meute: f. A kennell, or crie of hounds.’”
1872 del4
del4 = del2 +
2149 raz’d] Delius (ed. 1872): “Theobald raisd’d shoes vor=Schuhe mit hohen Kork-sohlen.” [Theobald has suggested rais’d shoes = shoes with high cork soles.]
1874 Corson
Corson
2146 Thus] Corson (1874, p. 27): ‘The more general and indefinite ‘So’ seems preferable here to the formal ‘Thus.’”
In each of his “jottings on the text,” Corson notes variants between F1 and CAM1, stating his preference and, to a greater or lesser extent, offering a rationale.
1877 v1877
v1877=Corson
2146 So]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Corson: The more general and indefinite ‘So’ seems preferable here to the formal ‘Thus.’”
v1877 ≈ malsi
2147 feathers]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Malone: It appears from Decker’s
Gul’s Hornbooke that feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakespeare’s time.”
v1877 ≈ v1778, cald1
2148 turne Turk]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Steevens: See
Ado [3.4.57 (1554)]; and, in Greene’s
Tu Quoque,
i6i4: ‘This it is to turn Turk, from an absolute and most compleat gentleman, to a most absurd, ridiculous, and fond lover.’ It means no more than to change condition fantastically.
Caldecott: To undergo a total and ruinous change.”
v1877 ≈ Warton, Douce, john1, cln1, tsch
2148 prouinciall]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Warton:
Hamlet means the roses of
Provence, a beautiful species; therefore read
Provencial [
Capell,
Malone, and
Steevens adopted this reading] or
Provencal.
Douce: Change is unnecessary. There is no evidence that
Provence was ever remarkable for its roses; whereas,
Provins, about forty miles from Paris, was formerly very celebrated for the growth of this flower, which, according to tradtion, was imported into that country from Syria by a Count de Brie.
Johnson: When shoe-strings were worn they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribbon gathered in the form of a rose.
Clarendon: Cotgrave gives born localities: ‘Rose de Provence. The Prouince Rose, the double Damaske Rose;’ and ‘Rose de Provins. The ordinarie double red Rose.’ In either case it was a lare rose. The Province or Damask Rose was probably the better known. Gerarde, in his
Herbal, says that the damask rose is called by some ‘Rosa provincialis.’ Fairholt (
Costume in England, p. 238) quotes from Friar Bacon’s
Prophecy, 1604: ‘When roses in the gardens grew, And not in ribbons on a shoe: Now ribbon roses take such place, That garden roses want their grace.’ At p. 579 he gives several instances of the extravagances to which this fashion led.
Tschischwitz wildly proposes and adopts ‘provisional’ for the following reason: ‘The passing strangeness of the assumption that actors procured fresh (?) roses from the town of Provins occurred neither to Douce nor to the critics who follow him. It is probable that nothing more than parti-colored paper was used as a substiture.’ Hence, ‘Since “
Provincial” yields no meaning, it is clear that Sh. here wrote
provisional (like the Italian
provisionale), that is, a pair of makeshift-roses.’
v1877 ≈ theo, v1778, Hunter, col3, stau, cln1
2149 raz’d]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Theobald: I once suspected that we ought to read ‘
raised shoes.’ It was the know custom of the tragedians of old, that they might nearer resemble the heroes they personated, to make themselves as tall in stature as they possibly could. But perhaps it may have been ‘
rayed shoes,’ that is, that is,
striped, spangled.
Steevens: ‘Razed shoes’ may mean
slashed shoes,
i.e. with cuts or openings in them. Sh. might have written ‘
raised shoes,’
i.e. shoes with high heels. Stubbes,
Anatomie of Abuses,
i595, has a chapter on corked shoes, ‘which,’ he says, ‘beare them up two inches or more from the ground, &c. some of red, blacke, &c., razed, carued, cut, and stitched,’ &c. To
raze and to
race alike signify to
streak. See Markhan’s
Country Farm: ‘--baking them all (
i.e. wafer cakes) together between two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts after the manner of small squares.’.
Hunter (ii, 254) cites from Peacham,
The Truth of Our Times,
i638, to show that gallants sometimes paid thirty punds for a pair of shoe-ties, called roses.
Collier (ed. 2): The (MS) reads
rais’d, which is possibly right. Burbage, being short, may have worn ‘rais’d shoes,’ but still it seems unlikely that he would thus be made to advert to his own deficiency.
Staunton: If ‘razed’ be right, it must mean
slashed or
opened shoes.
Clarendon: In Randle Holme’s
Academy of Armory, bk. iii, ch. i*, p.
i4, we find: ‘Pinked or raised Shooes, have the over leathers grain part cut into Roses, or other devices.’”
v1877 ≈ warb, v1778, cln1
2149 cry]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Warburton: ‘Allusion to a pack of hounds,’ which, says
Steevens, was formerly called a
cry. Here it means a troop or company. See
Cor. [4.6.
168 (3075)], and [3.3.1
20 (2408)].
Clarendon: Compare Cotgrave: ‘Meute: f. A kennell, or crie of hounds.”
1877 col4
Col4: standard (for defs. of both variants)
2149 raz’d] Collier(ed. 1877): “The folios have rac’d, and the 4tos. raz’d: possibly all ought to read raised, i.e., with thick soles and high heels. ‘Razed shoes’ may, however, possibly means slashed shoes.”
1877 neil
neil: standard for forest of feathers (2147)
neil: Daborne analogue
2148 turne Turk] Neil (ed. 1877): “become totally reversed. Robert Daborne wrote a play The Christian turned Turk, printed in1612.”
neil: standard, includ. Friar Bakon’s Prophesie anal. for prouinciall Roses (2148-9)
neil: standard for cry of players (2149-50)
1878 rlf1
2148 turne Turk]
Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Proverbially=to undergo a complete change for the worse (
Schmidt). Cf.
Ado [3.4.57 (1554)]. Steevens quotes
Greene’s Tu Quoque: "This is to turn Turk, from an absolute and most compleat gentleman, to a most absurd, ridiculous, and fond lover."”
rlf1≈ cln1 (Fairholt); contra tsch
2148 prouinciall] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Some make this refer to Provence, others to Provins near Paris. Both were famous for roses. The reference is to rosettes of ribbon worn on shoes. Fairholt quotes Friar Bacon’s Prophesy, ‘When roses in the garden grew,/And not in ribbons on a shoe;/Now ribbon-roses take such place,/That garden-roses want their grace." Tschischwitz (who is given to these fantastic tricks of emendation—God save the mark!) is sure that S. wrote ‘provisional roses!’”
rlf1: v1773, Stubbes,
theo, Schmidt
2149 raz’d]
Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Slashed; that is, with cuts or openings in them (Steevens). Stubbes, in his
Anatomie of Abuses, 1585, has a chapter on corked shoes, which, he says, are ‘some black veluet, some of white, some of red, some of greene, razed, carued, cut, and stitched all over with Silke.’ Theo. conjectured ‘rais’d,’ that is, with high heels.
Schmidt wavers between these two explanations.”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2 + magenta underlined
2147 forrest of feathers] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Alluding, probably, to a custom which the London players had in Shakespeare’s time, of flaunting it in gaudy apparel, and with plumes in their caps, the more the better. So in Chapman’s Monsieur D’Olive, 1606, iii. I: ‘Three of these goldfinches I have entertained for my followers: I am ashamed to train ‘em abroad; they say I carry a whole forest of feathers with me.’ It was matter of complaint with some, that many ‘proud players jet in their silks.’”
hud3: standard
2148 turne Turk] Hudson (ed. 1881): “To turn Turk with any one was to desert or betray him, or turn traitor to him. A common phrase of the time.”
hud3: standard
2148 prouinciall] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Provincial roses took their name from Provins, in Lower Brie, and not from Provençe.”
hud3
2149 raz’d] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Razed shoes are most probably embroidered shoes. To race, or raz, was to stripe.”
hud3=hud2 + magenta underlined
2149-50 fellowship in a cry of players] Hudson (ed. 1881): “a partnership in a company of players. The Poet repeatedly uses cry thus for set, pack, or troop. The word was borrowed from the chase, as hounds were selected for a pack according to their barking tones. See vol. iii. page 71, note 13.”
1882 elze2
elze2: standard (Dekker, City Gallant analogues), v1803
2148 turne Turk] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part I, IV, I (Middleton, ed. Dyce, III, 80): if you turn Turke again. On this passage Reed has added the following note: To turn Turk seems to have been a cant phrase for departing from the rules of chastity. The City Gallant (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, XI, 226): ‘S foot she plays the terrible tyrannising Tamberlane over him. This it is to turn Turk; from a most absolute, complete gentleman to a most absurd, ridiculous and fond lover.”
elze2
2148-9 with prouinciall Roses] Elze (ed. 1882): “Prouincal, in the text, is a misprint.”
1883 wh2
wh2: standard
2148 provinciall] White (ed. 1883): “Provençal.”
wh2: standard
2149 raz’d] White (ed. 1883): “cut down, razed, pumps.”
1885 macd
macd: standard
2148-9 prouinciall Roses] Mac Donald (ed. 1885): “‘Roses of Provins,’ we are told—probably artificial.”
macd: standard
2149 raz’d] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “rac’d] The meaning is very doubtful. But for the raz’d of the Quarto, I should suggest lac’d. Could it mean cut low?”
macd: standard
2149 fellowshp] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “a share, as immediately below [3.2.279 (2151)].”
macd: Lr. //
2149 cry] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “A cry of hounds is a pack. So in Lr. [5.3.18 (2959)], ‘packs and sects of great ones.’”
1885 mull
mull
2148 turne Turk] Mull (ed. 1885): “be overthrown.”
1889 Barnett
Barnett: standard
2148 turne Turk] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “i.e. to turn completely round, also to be a Turk, to act cruelly.”
Barnett: standard
2148 prouinciall] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “roses, rosettes of ribbon resembling the large roses of Provence.”
Barnett: standard
2149 raz’d shooes] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “slashed shoes.”
Barnett: standard
2149 cry] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “pack. From Lat. quiritare, to cry, a frequenative of queri, to lament. It is used in Cor[3.3.120 (2408)]—’You common cry of curs.’”
1890 irv2
irv2: mal + magenta underlined
2147 a forrest of feathers] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Malone observes: ‘It appears from Decker’s Gul’s Hornbooke, that feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakespeare’s time;’ but the only reference that I can find to feathers on the stage (ch vi.: How a Gallant should behave himself in a Playhouse) does not refer to the actors, but to the ‘gallant’ who takes his seat upon the stage. ‘But on the very rushes where the comedy is to dance, yea, and under the state of Cambyses himselfe, must our feathered estrich, like a piece fo ordnance be planted valiantly, because impudently, beating down the mews and hisses of the opposed rascality.’ Compare T. Randolph, The Muses’ Looking-Glass, i. 1 and 2 (Works, ed. W.C. Hazlitt, p. 182). The scene is at the Globe Theatre. ‘Mrs. Flowerdew (wife to a haberdasher of small-wares). I come to sell ‘em pins and looking glasses. Bird. (the feather-man). I have their custom too for all their feathers. Enter Roscius, a Player. Bird. Master Roscius, we have brought the things you spoke for. Roscius. Why, ‘tis wellMrs. Flowerdew. Pray, sir, what serve they for? Roscius. We use them in our play.’”
irv2 ≈ v1778
2148 turne Turk] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “ Steevens cites Greene’s Tu Quoque, 1614: ‘This is to turn Turk, from an absolute and most compleat gentleman, to a most absurd, ridiculous, and fond lover’ (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xi, 226). Compare [5.3.18 (2959)].”
irv2 ≈ Hunter
2148-9 prouinciall Roses] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Roses were the rosettes worn on shoes, much as they were still used, sometimes, by ladies on their slippers. The word is of very frequent recurrence in the dramatists; one of the stage-directions in Massinger’s City Madam, i.1, is: ‘Enter Luke, with shoes, garters, fans, and roses.’ Provincial roses are rosettes in the shape of roses of Provence or of Provins. Cotgrave has: ‘Rose de Provence. the Prouince Rose, the double Damaske Rose;’ and ‘rose de Provins. The ordinary double red Rose.’ Gerarde in his Herbal speaks of the damask rose as Rosa provincialis. Hunter (Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii, p. 254) gives an extract from Peacham’s Truth of our Times, 1638, showing that as much as £30 was sometimes given for a pair of roses.”
irv2 ≈ Furnivall, cln1
2149 raz’d shooes] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Razed shoes were probably slashed shoes. See Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, ed. 1583; p. 57, New Sh. Soc. Reprint, ed. F.J. Furnivall, 1877: ‘To these their nether-stocks, they have corked shooes, pinsnets, and fine pantofles, which beare them vp a finger or two [two inches or more, ed. 1505] from the ground; wherof some be of white leather, some of black, and some of red, some of black velvet, some of white, some of red, some of green, raced, carued, and stitched all ouer with silk, and laid on with golde, silver, and such like. The Clarendon Press edd. quote Randle Holme, Academy of Armory, b.iii. ch.1. p.14: ‘Pinked or raised Shooes, have the over leathers grain part cut into Roses, or other devices.’”
irv2: standard
2149 cry] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “company (from a cry of hounds).”
1891 oxf1
oxf1: rann (Ado //)
2148 turne Turk] Craig (ed. 1891, glossary, turn Turk): “to become wicked, Ham. [3.2.279 (2149)]; Ado [3.4.57 (1554)].”
oxf1
2149 raz’d] Craig (ed. 1891, glossary, raz’d): “part. adj. slashed, Ham. [3.2.279 (2149)].”
oxf1: cln1 (Cor. //)
2149 cry] Craig (ed. 1891, glossary, cry): “sub. pack, Cor. [3.3.120 (2408)]; a company Ham. [3.2.279 (2149)].”
1891 dtn
dtn
2146 Thus runnes . . .
away]
Deighton (ed. 1891): “so . . . away] such is the course of the world. Evidently a snatch from some old ballad, chanted by
Hamlet not necessarily as applying to what has happened, but in exultation at the success of his scheme.”
dtn: mal
2147 a forrest of feathers] Deighton (ed. 1891): “i.e. with appropriate costume. Malone says it appears from Decker’s Gul’s Hornbooke that feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakespeare’s time.”
dtn ≈ rann (Ado //)
2147-8 if the rest . . . me] Deighton (ed. 1891): “if I fail in every other way to get my livelihood: turn Turk, a proverbial phrase for any change of condition for the worse, used specifically of changing one’s religion ; cp. Ado [3.4.57 (1554)], ‘Well, an you be not turned Turke, there’s no more sailing by the star.’”
dtn: standard
2148-9 prouinciall Roses] Deighton (ed. 1891): “rosettes as large as the roses of Provence, at he mouth of the Rhone, France.”
dtn: standard
2149 raz’d shooes] Deighton (ed. 1891): “slashed shoes, shoes with ornamental cuts in the fore part, a fashion revived of late in the case of ladies’ shoes.”
dtn: standard
2149-50 get me . . . players] Deighton (ed. 1891): “procure me a partnership in a company of actors; cry, more usually of a pack of hounds, from their giving tongue, hence a troop generally.”
1895 goll
goll ≈ cald1
2148 turne Turk] Gollancz (ed. 1895, glossary): “change utterly for the worse.”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ rann (Ado //)
2148 turne Turk] Dowden (ed. 1899): “prove renegade, or turn cruel. See Ado [3.4.57 (1554)].”
ard1: cln1
2148 prouinciall] Dowden (ed. 1899): “rosettes of ribbon, like the roses of Provence, or else of Provins (forty miles from Paris), which was celebrated for its roses. ‘Cotgrave gives both: ‘Rose de Provence. The Province rose, the double Damaske Rose,’ and ‘Rose de Provins, the ordinarie double red Rose.’ Gerarde, in his Herbal, sasys that the damask rose is called by some ‘Rosa provincialis’ (Clar. Press).”
ard1: cln1 (Holme)
2149 raz’d] Dowden (ed. 1899): “slashed, or streaked in patterns. Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, writes of shoes ‘razed, carved, cut, and stitched over with silk.’ Clar. Press quotes Randle Holme, Academy of Armory, III. I. p. 14, ‘Pinked or raised Shooes have the over leathers grain part cut into Roses, or other devices.’”
ard1: Cotgrave; Cleveland analogue
2149 cry] Dowden (ed. 1899): “company; transferred from the meaning pack of hounds. Cotgrave, 1611: “Meute, a kennell, or crie, of hounds.’ Cleveland, London Lady, 35: ‘A small cry of tenants.’”
1900 ev1
ev1
2148 turne Turk] Herford (ed. 1900): “change for the worse; ‘go to the bad’.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3=rlf1 minus Schmidt attrib., v1778 for
turne Turk (2148)
rlf3=rlf1 minus contra tsch for prouinciall (2148)
rlf3 ≈ rlf1 minus v1773
attrib
., Theo, Schmidt for
raz’d (2149)
1904 ver
ver = Brandes (1898) + magenta underlined
2147 Verity (ed. 1904): “Feathers were much worn on the Elizabethan stage. “The only department of decoration [in the Elizabethan theatre] which involved any considerable expense was the costumes of the actors. On these large sums were lavished that the Puritans made this extravagance one of thei chief points of attack upon theatres” – Brandes.
“The feather-makers who supplied the theatres lived in the favourite Puritan quarter of London, Blackfriars, where there was one of the chief theatres. Apparently, many of them were themselves Puritans, for their dealing in wares for the stage furnished the dramatists with a stock piece of sarcasm against Puritanism. See London Past and Present, I. 195 (Wheatley and Cunningham).”
ver ≈ rann (Ado //)
2148 turne Turk] Verity (ed. 1904): “a proverbial phrase = ‘to change utterly for the worse.’ The original idea was to turn renegade to Christianity and embrace Mohamedanism. Cf. Ado [3.4.57 (1554)].”
ver: MND //
2148-9 prouinciall Roses] Verity (ed. 1904): “i.e. rosettes worn on the front of the shoe to hide the laces. The masquers in Browne’s Inner Temple Masque (1614) wore “green pumps and red roses doen on with silver leaves.” The fashion, which is often referred to by Elizabethan writers was not limited to the stage.
“Ordinarily these rosettes were made of ribbons—cf. MND [4.2.36 (1781)]—but sometimes part of the leather of the shoe was used to form them; this was so with “razed shoes,” i.e. sheos with the leather ‘slashed or streaked in patterns.’ Razed (Quarto) also appears as raced (Folio). (F.) They are merely variant forms of rase, ‘to scrape, scratch’ (F. raser).
“Provincial rose was the Elizabethan name for a large double damask rose; Provincial being a corruption of Provencal (Lat. provincialis), ‘belonging to Provence,’ a former province of south-eastern France, famous for its roses. The Century Dict. does not recognise the alternative derivation from Provins (near Paris), also said to be well known for rose-growing.”
1905 rltr
rltr: standard
2148 prouinciall] Chambers (ed. 1905): “Provence.”
rltr: standard
2149 raz’d] Chambers (ed. 1905): “razed] slashed.”
rltr: standard
2149 cry] Chambers (ed. 1905): “troupe.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn ≈ ver minus Ado //
2148 turne Turk] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “to change completely for the worse.”
nlsn: standard
2148 prouinciall Roses] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “rosettes.”
nlsn: standard
2149 raz’d] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “raze] vb, to strike, slash; erase.”
nlsn: standard
2149 cry] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “a pack, a troop.”
1929 trav
trav: Adams; xref.
2147 this]
Travers (ed. 1929): “(‘waving the manuscript of his
Mouse-trap,’ J. Q. Adams). That he refers to his share in the play just performed with such effect, is, at least, a natural interpretation. The singing
might count also; cp. [3.2.270 (2141)] n. 3.”
1931 crg1
crg1
2146 this] Craig (ed. 1931): “i.e., the play.”
crg1: standard
2147 feathers] Craig (ed. 1931): “allusion to the plumes which Elizabethan actors were fond of wearing.”
crg1: standard
2148 turne Turk with] Craig (ed. 1931): “go back on.”
crg1: standard (both alternatives)
2147-8 prouincial Roses] Craig (ed. 1931): “two Provincial roses] rosettes of ribbon like the roses of Provins near Paris, or else the roses of Provence.”
crg1: standard
2149 raz’d] Craig (ed. 1931): “cut, slashed (by way of ornament).”
crg1: standard
2149-50 fellowship . . . players] Craig (ed. 1931): “partnership in a theatrical company.”
crg1: standard
2149 cry] Craig (ed. 1931): “pack (as of hounds).”
1934b rid
rid: standard
2147 forrest of feathers] Ridley (ed. 1934): “were much used and used on the stage for ornaments.”
rid: standard
2148 turne Turk] Ridley (ed. 1934): “make a complete change (as from Christian to infidel).
rid: standard
2148 prouinciall Roses] Ridley (ed. 1934): “rosettes (imitating the Rose de Provence).”
rid: standard
2149 raz’d] Ridley (ed. 1934): “‘slashed.’”
rid: standard
2149 cry] Ridley (ed. 1934): “company.”
1934 cam3
cam3: xref.; Malcontent analogue
2147-9 a forrest of feathers . . . prouinciall . . . raz’d] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Plumes were worn by tragic actors and contemporary references to the fact are frequent. Cf, note [5.2.92-3 (3597-8)] for a passage from The Malcontent in which Sh.’s fellow-actors appear decked out in feathers, prob. in mockery of some other company. v. G. ‘Provincial roses’: rosettes shaped or coloured like damask roses from Provins in N.E. France (v. N.E.D. [OED] ‘Provence’); ‘razed’: slit, slashed.”
cam3: xref.
2148 turne Turk] Wilson (ed. 1934): “v. G.: prove renegade, go to the bad. Another reference to Ham.’s lack of means, cf. note [1.5.184 (881)].”
cam3
2149-50 a fellowship . . . players] Wilson (ed. 1934): “= a partnership in a theatrical company, v. G. ‘cry’: (sb.), a pack of hounds; ‘share’: (sb.), one of the parts into which the capital and profits of a theatrical company were divided (v. Chambers, Eliz. Stage, i. 352-58).”
1935 ev2
ev2
2147 this] Boas (ed. 1935): “the success of my play.”
ev2
2147 forrest of feathers] Boas (ed. 1935): “appropriate actor’s costume.”
ev2
2147-8 if . . . me] Boas (ed. 1935): “if I can’t get my living in any other way.”
1936 cam3 Glossary
cam3b: Chambers
2149-50 share] Wilson (ed. 1936, Glossary): “(sb.), one of the parts into which the capital and profits of a theatrical company were divided (v. Chambers, Eliz. Stage, i. 352-58).”
1937 pen1
pen1
2146-7 forrest of feathers] Harrison (ed. 1937): “elaborate plumes affected by actors.”
pen1 ≈ rid
2147-8 prouinciall Roses] Harrison (ed. 1937): “rosettes.”
pen1
2149-50 fellowship . . . players] Harrison (ed. 1937): “a full share in a company of players; ‘cry’ is literally a pack of hounds.”
1938 parc
parc ≈ ev1
2148 turne Turk] Parrott and Craig (ed. 1938): “ go bad.”
1939 kit2
kit2: xref.
2147 this]
Kittredge (ed. 1939): “this declamation; the way in which I have spoken these verses.
Hamlet has relieved his excitement by a bit of theatrical spouting. We may compare his apparent flippancy [at 1.5.115-63 (802-60)].”
kit2: standard
2147-9 feathers . . . shooes] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “The feathers and razed shoes are allusions to actors’ costumes.”
kit2 ≈ ver
2148 turne Turk] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “apostatize (like a Christian who becomes a Mohammedan); play me false.”
kit2: cln1
2148-9 prouinciall Roses] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “huge rosettes. Clark and Wright note that Rosa Provincialis was a name for the damask rose. Provins, a French town, was famous for its roses.”
kit2: Hunter (Peacham analogue)
2149 raz’d] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “slashed; ornamented by cross-cuts in a pattern. Hunter quotes Henry Peacham, The Truth of Our Times, 1638, pp. 61, 62: ‘Shoo-tyes taht goe under the name of Roses, from thirty shillings to three, foure, and five pounds the paire. Yea, a Gallant of the time not long since, payd thirty pound for a paire.’”
kit2: standard
2149 a cry] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “a pack—used ordinarily of hounds but here jocosely for actors.”
1942 n&h
n&h
2147 feathers] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “Tragic actors wore plumes.”
n&h= parc
2148 turne Turk] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “go bad.”
n&h: standard
2148 prouinciall Roses] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “rosettes like the rose of Provence.”
n&h: standard
2149 raz’d] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “slashed.”
n&h: standard
2149 cry] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “company.”
1947 cln2
cln2
2147 a forrest of feathers ] Rylands (ed. 1947): “a plumed hat.”
cln2 ≈ n&h
2148 turne Turk] Rylands (ed. 1947): “go to the bad.”
cln2: standard
2148-49 prouinciall Roses ] Rylands (ed. 1947): “Provencal rosettes.”
cln2: standard
2149 raz’d ] Rylands (ed. 1947): “slashed (Fr. raser).
cln2: standard
2149-50 a fellowship in a cry of players] Rylands (ed. 1947): “a partnership in a theatrical company.”
1951 alex
alex
2149 razed] Alexander (ed. 1951): “raz’d shoes, uppers cut pattern-wise.”
1974 evns1
evns1≈ n&h
2147 feathers] Evans (ed. 1974): “the plumes worn by tragic actors.”
evns1
2148 turne Turk] Evans (ed. 1974): “i.e. go to the bad.”
evns1: standard
2048 prouinciall Roses] Evans (ed. 1974): “rosettes designed to look like a variety of French rose.”
evns1: standard
2149 raz’d] Evans (ed. 1974): “with decorating slashing.”
evns1
2149 fellowship] Evans (ed. 1974): “partnership.”
evns1: standard
2149 cry] Evans (ed. 1974): “company.”
1980 pen2
pen2
2146 Thus . . . away] Spencer (ed. 1980): “it’s the way of the world.”
pen2
2147 this]
Spencer (ed. 1980): “Perhaps this refers to
Hamlet’s skill in play-revision, or to his managerial ability in selecting a play and bringing about its intended effect on its audience (King Claudius). Characteristically
Hamlet, while excitedly triumphing in his theatrical success, has no thought of any action to deal with the new situation.”
pen2
2148 turne Turk] Spencer (ed. 1980): “make a complete change for the worse (like a Christian becoming a renegade to the Turks, the great non-Christian power in the seventeenth century).”
pen2 ≈ kit2
2148-9 prouinciall Roses] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(double rose patterns, made of ribbons, worn on shoes, and named from Provins, a town in northern France famous for its roses).”
pen2: xref.
2149 cry]
Spencer (ed. 1980): “company. The word is normally used of a pack of hounds; so
Hamlet is thinking of the way they
mouth their lines [3.2.2 (1852)].”
1982 ard2
ard2: contra kit2
2147 this]
Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Surely not (as Kittredge)
Hamlet’s declamation of the preceding stanza but his striking success with the play. Cf.
WHH, p. 197.”
ard2: standard for feathers (2147)
ard2: standard for turne Turk (2148)
ard2: Friar Bacon’s . . . Prophecy analogue; Stow/Howes, Cotgrave, Tradescant/Gunther
2148-9 prouinciall Roses]
Jenkins (ed. 1982): “
LN Not withstanding some ambiguity about the term
provincial,
Hamlet’s general meaning is clear enough. Cf. the rhyme (
in Friar Bacon’s Brazen-head’s Prophecy by Wm. ‘Terilo’, 1604), ‘When roses in the gardens grew, And not in ribbons on a shoe’. The ‘roses’ which concealed the shoe-fastenings were a development for the bows formed by the ribbons with which the shoes were tied on, or sometimes, in the case of slashed (
razed) shoes, by strips of leather itself. They seem to have become fashionable about the 1590’s and to have rapidly grown in size and cost (see Linthicum, pp. 243-5). In the 1631 edition of Stow’s
Annals the continuator Howes notes that ‘men of mean rank wear. . . shoe roses of more than five pound price’ (p. 1039). The difficulty about the Provincial or Province, rose has been aggravated by the commentators, who have contradicted one another as to whether it was the rose of Provence or of Provins, a town in the south-east of Paris famous for roses said to have been originally brought there by returning Crusaders; and this supposed origin may have encouraged the further confusion with the damask rose (
rosa damascena). But the rose of Provins is
rosa gallica, and horticulturalists (who do not include the editors of
OED) regard the term
provincial rose as applying to the rose of Provence, which is the cabbage rose,
rosa centifolia. This seems to accord with the practice of the 16
th-century herbalists and with the distinction made by Cotgrave between
Rose de Provence ‘The Provincial Rose, the double Damaske Rose’ and
Rose de Provins, ‘The ordinarie double red Rose’. Yet
provincial rose was a very versatile term. Some of the Herbals (Lyte, 1578, p. 665; Gerard, 1997, p. 1079) give it as an alternative name for the
damask rose, others distinguish the province rose from the damask as being less scented but deeper in colour and ‘more double’. It is sometimes equated with the Holland rose (Gerard, p. 1080; Parkinson,
Paradisus Terrestris, p. 413), though this is more often distinguished from it by greater size and thickness. The normal colour is variously described as ‘a mixt colour betwixt red and white’ (Lyte), ‘carnation’ (i.e. flesh-pink) or ‘blush’; yet a red and a white provincial rose are also recognized (in a list of 1634 by John Tradescant, printed in Gunther,
Early English Botanists, p. 341; cf. Parkinson, pp. 413-14). What persists, through many shifts of identity, as the essential feature of a ‘provincial rose’, and one of particular relevance to
Hamlet’s shoe-roses, is the thick profusion of it layers of petals.”
ard2 ≈ cald (syn. only)
2149 raz’d] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “slashed.”
1984 chal
chal: standard
2147 feathers] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “feathers players were noted for their feathered hats.”
chal
2147 turne Turk] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “turn Turk renounce one’s allegiance for another (as a Christian did who embraced Mohammedanism).”
chal
2147-8 prouinciall Roses] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “Provincial roses prob. The cabbage-roses of Provence: here referring to the elaborate shoe-ties affected by players, and known as ‘roses’.”
chal
2149 raz’d] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “slit, prob. To show off a coloured lining.”
chal: standard
2149 cry] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “pack.”
1985 cam4
cam4: malsi (Dekker analogue)
2147 forrest of feathers] Edwards (ed. 1985): “The plumes which were a derided feature of the gallant’s outfit were a notable feature of theatre costume. Dekker talks of a gallant who is furious at finding the forty-shilling ‘felt and feather’, which he has bought for his mistress as a new creation, being worn on the stage (Gull’s Hornbook, end of ch. 6).”
cam4
2147 turne Turk with me] Edwards (ed. 1985): “To ‘turn Turk’ is to renounce one’s religion, apostasise or become a renegade. ‘with’ has here the sense of ‘against’ (as we still use it in ‘fight’ or ‘compete’ with someone). So the phrase means ‘renege on me’, or ‘renounce and desert me’.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4: Tilley
2147 turne Turk with me] Hibbard (ed. 1987):“ desert me (like a renegade deserting the Christian faith to become a Moslem). A proverbial phrase (Tilley T609).”
oxf4: OED
2149 raz’d] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “slashed (OED race v. Ib).”
oxf4: OED
2149 fellowship] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “partnership (OED sb. Ia), the position of a sharer, i.e. a regular member of an actin company who was not paid wages but received a share, or half a share (l. 263, of the takings.”
oxf4: OED; Cor. //
2149 cry] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “pack (used contemptuosly for ‘company’). Cry is the technical term for ‘a pack of hounds’ (OED sb. 13, 13b). Compare Cor[3.3.120 (2408)], ‘You common cry of curs’.”
1988 bev2
bev2
2146 this] Bevington (ed. 1988): “i.e., the play.”
bev2
2147-8 turne Turk with] Bevington (ed. 1988): “turn renegade against, go back on.”
1993 dent
dent
2148 turne Turk with me] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Betray me. The Muhammadan Turks were viewed as untrustworthy infidels.”
dent: xrefs.
2149-50 Fellowship . . .
players]
Andrews (ed. 1993): “Part ownership in an acting troupe.
Hamlet alludes to the plumes (’Feathers’) and rosette-adorned shoes worn by the players.
Cry, a hunting term, compares the ’Players’ to a pack of clamorous hounds in hot pursuit of the ’strooken Deer’ (line 297 [2143]). Compare 4.2.31-32 [2659-60], where
Hamlet says, ’Hide, Fox, and all after’.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: ≈ pen2; Wiles
2146 Thus . . . away] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. This is the way of the world. Wiles reads this as an explicit reminder that Will Kempe had sold his share in the Chamberlain’s Men and thus ’danced himself out of the world.’”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2 ≈ pen2
2147 this] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. my contribution to the play.”
ard3q2 ≈ ard2
2147 forest of feathers]
Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “
Hamlet assumes that actors favoured extravegently plumed hats.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
2148 turn . . . me] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “desert me, betray me (like a Christian renouncing his faith to become a Muslim).”
ard3q2: ≈ ard2; 2147 xref; Jenkins
2148-9 provincial roses] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “rosettes in the French style of Provins or Provence - like feathers of 267 [2147], an affected style (Jenkins).”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2 ≈ ard2
2149 razed] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(fashionably) slashed.”
ard3q2 ≈ evns1
2149 fellowship] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “share, partnership; like the one Shakespeare had with the Chamberlain’s Men whereby he received a share of their profits.”
ard3q2: standard
2149 cry] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “pack - a contemptuous expression.”
2146 2147 2148 2149 2150
