Notes for lines 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand
| 3505 Worse then the mutines in the {bilbo} <Bilboes>, rashly, 3505 | 5.2.6 |
|---|
1656 Blount
Blount
3505 bilbo] Blount(1656, rpt. 1969, bilbo): “blade] “from Bilboa a City of Biscay in Spain, where the best blades are made.”
[Coles has a similar definition].
1744 han1
han1
3505 bilbo] Hanmer (ed. 1744, 6:Glossary): “a sword-blade of Bilbo which will bend almost round in a circle without breaking.”
1753 blair
blair ≈ han
3505 bilbo] Blair (ed. 1753, Glossary): “‘like a good bilbo,’ I. 229. a sword-blade of bilbo, which will bend almost round in a circle without breaking.”
1755 Johnson
Johnson: standard
3505 bilbo] Johnson (1755, bilbo): “n.s. A sort of stocks, or wooden shackles for the feet, used for punishing offenders at sea. ‘Methought I lay, Worse than the mutines, in the bilboes.” Hamlet.
1760 Johnson2
Johnson2
3505 mutines] Johnson (2nd ed. 1760, mutine): “s. [mutin, French] A mutineer. Shakespeare.”
1765 Heath
Heath :
3505-6 rashly, And praysed be rashnes for it: let vs know . . . ]
Heath (1765, p. 251) : <p. 251>“
(And prais’d be rashness for it ) lets us know; Or indiscretion sometimes serues us well,When our deep plots do fail .
“This too is an emendation of Mr. Warburton’s, according to which Rashness is said to let us know, though nothing appears from whence we can learn what it is which Rashnesss lets us know. Our critick indeed informs us, that it lets us know ‘what we cannot penetrate to by plots.’ But then this information comes merely from him, not from the text, which in no construction of which it is capable acquaints us with any such matter. The common reading was, ‘——Rashness (And praid’s be rashness for it) lets us know, Our indiscretion sometimes serues us welll, When our deep plots do fail. ‘
“The sense is obvious; Rashness suggests to us, that a lucky indiscretion sometimes puts us in possession of those advantages which we should in vain hope for from deepp contrivance. What defect is there in this observation, that Mr. Warburton so positively assures us, ‘it could never be Shakespear’s sense?’ “
1765 john1
john1
3505 mutines] Johnson (ed. 1765) : “seditious or disobedient fellows in the army or fleet. Bilboes, the ship’s prison. ”
1770 han3
han3 = han1 +
3505 bilbo] Hanmer (ed. 1770, 6:Glossary): “Bilboes is the ship’s prison.”
This is an addition by Hawkins
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1
3505 mutines]
1774 capn
capn :
3505 mutines] Capell (1774:1:1:Glossary) : “[Jn 2.1.378 (795)] Mutineers. Fre. Mutins. to mutine ,to mutiny, play the Mutine. Fre. mutiner.”
3505 bilbo] Capell (17741:1:Glossary) : “Bilboes a Kind of Stocks, us’d on Shipboard for the Punishment of refractory or negligent Mariners.”
3505 bilbo]
Capell (1779-83 [1774] 3:220): <p. 220> “Not ‘
Bilbo steele,’ nor brasse from
Corinth ‘fet,’ </p. 220>
This is a line from Capell’s inclusion of Complaints, or, sundry small Poems of the World’s Vanity from Spenser, dated 1591, a quarto for William Ponsonbie. Nares includes it for this word.
3505-6 rashly . . . knowe] Capell (1779-83 [1774]1:1: 147) : “The changes in the opposite page [p. 122; 3505-6 rashness/lets us know/do fail] are in the four latter moderns [ POPE, THEOBALD, WARB, HANMER].”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773
3505 mutines]
v1778:
3505 bilbo] Steevens (ed. 1778) : “The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where instruments of steel were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand Shakespeare’s allusion completely, it should be known, that as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very close together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep . Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. The bilboes are still shewn in the Tower of London, among the other spoils of the Spanish Armada. The following is the figure of them. [See image] STEEVENS”
1780 mals
mals : see n. 3502
1784 ays1
ays1 ≈ v1773 (john1) w/o attribution
3505 mutines] Ayscough (ed. 1784) : “Mutines, the Fench word for seditious or disobedient fellows in the army or fleet.
ays1 ≈ v1778 (minus “Every motion . . . The following is the figure of them” ; minus [image])
3505 bilbo]
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
3505 mutines]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
3505 mutines]
1790 mal
mal : mals (see n. 3502; modified) + magenta underlined
3503ff Sir, in my heart . . . ] Malone (ed. 1790) : “So, in Troilus and Cressida : ‘Within my soul there doth commence a sight, Of this strange nature,’ &c.
“The Hystorie of Hamblet, bl. let. furnished our author with the scheme of sending the prince to England, and with most of the circumstances described in this scene: ‘(After the death of Polonius) ‘ Fengon (the king in the present play) could not content himselfe, but still his mind gave him that the foole (Hamlet) would play him some trick of legerdemaine. And in that conceit, seeking to be rid of him, determined to find the meanes to doe it by the aid of a stranger, making the king of England minister of his massacrous resolution; to whom he purposed to send him, and by letters desire him to put him to death.’ Now, to beare him company, were assigned two of Fengon’s faithful ministers, bearing letters ingraved in wood, that contained Hamlet’s death, in such sort as he had advertised the king of England. But the subtil Danish prince (being at sea), whilst his companions slept, having read the letters, and knowing his uncle’s great treason, with the wicked and villainous mindes of the two courtiers that led him to the slaughter, raced out the letters that concerned his death, and instead thereof graved others, with commission to the king of England to hang his two companions; and not content to turn the death they had devised against him, upon their own neckes, wrote further, that king Fengon willed him to give his daughter to Hamblet in marriage.’Hyst of Hamb. sig. G2.
“From this narrative it appears that the faithful ministers of Fengon were not unacquainted with the import of the letters they bore. Shakspeare, who has followed the story pretty closely, probably meant to describe their representatives,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as equally guilty; as confederating with the king to deprive Hamlet of his life. So that his procuring their execution, though certainly not absolutely necessary to his own safety, does not appear to have been a wanton and unprovoked cruelty, as Mr. Steevens has supposed in his very ingenious observations on the general character and conduct of the prince throughout this piece. See [3850: ed. 1773, 10: 412] Vol. X. p. 412.
“In the conclusion of his drama the poet has entirely deviated from the fabulous history, which in other places he has frequently followed.
“After Hamlet’s arrival in England (for no sea-fight is mentioned), ‘the king (says The Hystory of Hamblet ) admiring the young prince—gave him his daughter in marriage, according to the counterfeit letters by him devised; and the next day caused the two servants of Fengon to be executed, to satisfy as he thought the king’s desire.’ Hyst. of Hamb. Ibid.
“Hamlet, however, returned to Denmark, without marrying the king of England’s daughter, who, it should seem, had only been betrothed to him. When he arrived in his native country, he made the courtiers drunk, and having burnt them to death, by setting fire to the banqueting-room wherein they sat, he went into Fengon’s chamber, and killed him, ‘giving him (says the relater) such a violent blowe upon the chine of the necke, that he cut his head clean from the shoulders.’ Ibid sig. F3
“He is afterwards said to have been crowned king of Denmark.
I shall only add that this tremendous stroke might have been alledged by the advocates for Dr. Warburton’s alteration of naue into nape , in a contested passage in the first act of Macbeth , if the original reading had not been established beyond a doubt by Mr. Steevens, in his supplemental note to Vol. X [p. 358 in v1785 edition] late edition. “ MALONE”
Malone adds the Tro. headnote to this note moved from 3502 in ed. 1790, adding a bit to the start of the note, as well as excising the closing paragraph.
mal : john1; v1785 +
3505 mutines] Malone (ed. 1790) : “To mutine was formerly used for to mutiny . See p. 337, n. 6. So mutine , for mutiner , or mutineer : ‘un homme mutin ,’ Fr. a mutinous or seditious person. In The Misfortunes of Arthur , a tragedy, 1587, the adjective is used: ‘ Suppresseth mutin force, and practicke fraud.’ Malone”
1791- rann
rann : standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo] Rann (ed. 1791-) : “mutineers confined in the ship’s prison.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785 ; mal +
3503ff Sir . . .
sleep]
Steevens (ed. 1793) :
“I apprehend that a critick and a juryman are bound to form their opinions on what they see and hear in the cause before them, and not to be influenced by extraneous particulars unsupported by legal evidence in open court. I persist in observing that from Shakespeare’s drama no proofs of the guilt of
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern can be collected. They may be convicted by the black letter history; but if the tragedy forbears to criminate, it has no right to sentence them. This is sufficient for the commentator’s purpose. It is not his office to interpret the plays of Shakspeare according to the novels on which they are founded, novels which the past sometimes followed, but as often materially deserted. Perhaps he never confined himself strictly to the plan of any one of his originals. His negligence of poetick justice is notorious; nor can we expect that he who was content to sacrifice the pious Ophelia, should have been more scrupulous about the worthless lives of
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Therefore, I still assert that, in the tragedy before us, their deaths appear both wanton and unprovoked; and the critick, like Bayes, must have recourse to somewhat
long before the beginning of this play, to justify the conduct of its hero.
Steevens.”
v1793 = mal
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
3503ff Sir . . . sleep]
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
1807 Pye
Pye : v1803 ; see n. 3547-9
3503-4 Ham. Sir . . .
sleepe]
Pye (1807, p. 326) : <p. 326> “Steeven’s note on Malone’s observation respecting this fact in a preceding passage is insolent and impudent; and he is, as usual, positive in the wrong; there is not one word uttered by
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern throughout the play that does not proclaim them to the most superficial observer as creatures of the king, purposely employed to betray Hamlet, their friend and fellow students; the brutal behavior of hamlet to Ophelia may be perhaps accounted for from Shakespeare thinking of the novel and / the history by Saxo Grammaticus; where I believe a young woman, from whom he took the idea of Ophelia, is employed to betray him.
Comments on the Commentators, 8vo. 1807, p. 326.” </p. 326>
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
3503ff Sir . . . sleep]
v1813 = v1803
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
1818 Todd
Todd ≈ John +
3505 bilbo] Todd (1818, bilboes): “n.s. A sort of stocks, or wooden shackles for the feet, used for punishing offenders at sea. Dr. Johnson might have added, that they are so called from being fabricated at Bilboa. Great quantities of them were shipped on board the Spanish Armada; and some of them are yet to be seen in the Tower of London. ‘Methought I lay, Worse than the mutines, in the bilboes.” Hamlet.
1818 CLRFR
The Friend
3503-65 Coleridge (Essay iv [Essays on the Principles of Method], The Third Landing-Place, or Essays Miscellaneous,
The Friend, vol. 3, 1818; rpt.
Coleridge, 1969, 4.1:451-3): <p.451>“METHOD, therefore, becomes natural to the mind which has been accustomed to contemplate not
things only, or for their sake alone, but likewise and chiefly the
relations of things, either their relations to each other, or to the observer, or to the state and apprehension of the hearers. To enumerate and analyze these relations, with the conditions under which alone they are discoverable, is to teach the science of Method.
“The enviable results of this science, when knowledge has been ripened into those habits which at once secure and evince its possession, can scarcely be exhibited more forcibly as well as more pleasingly, than by contrasting with the former extract from Shakespeare [[2H4 2.1.74-86]] the narration given by Hamlet to Horatio of the occurrences during his proposed transportation to England, and the events that interrupted his voyage.
[[Ccites 3503-27]]</p. 451>
<p. 452> “Here the events, with the circumstances of time and place, are all stated with equal compression and rapidity, not one introduced which could have been omitted without injury to the intelligibility of the whole process. If any tendency is discoverable, as far as the mere facts are in question, it is the tendency to omission: and, accordingly, the reader will observe, that the attention of the narrator is called back to one material circumstance, which he was hurrying by, by a direct question from the friend to whom the story is communicated, ‘HOW WAS THIS SEALED?’ But by a trait which is indeed peculiarly characteristic of Hamlet’s mind, ever disposed to generalize, and meditative to excess (but which, with due abatement and reduction, is distinctive of every powerful and methodizing intellect), all the digressions and enlargements consist of reflections, truths, and principles of general and permanent interest, either directly expressed or disguised in playful satire. [[C cites 3532-65 I . . . opposits]] </p. 452>
<p.453>“It would, perhaps, be sufficient to remark of the preceding passage, in connection with the humorous specimen of narration,
Fermenting o’er with frothy circumstance,
in Henry IV.; that if overlooking the different value of the matter in each, we considered the form alone, we should find both immethodical; Hamlet from the excess, Mrs. Quickley from the want, of reflection and generalization; and that Method, therefore, must result from the due mean or balance between our passive impressions and the mind’s own re-action on the same.”</p.453>
[Ed: Rooke notes that the source of the quotation “Fermenting o’er with frothy.] circumstance” is “untraced.”
1819 cald1
cald1 : mal (Tro. // only) +
3503 -6 Sir, in my heart . . . knowe ] Caldecott (ed. 1819) : “Misgiving and distrust of ill practices against him, produced this struggle or agitation in his bosom, not so much on any personal consideration, as on that of his revenge being unsatisfied; and, should he by any impending chance be cut off, that his promise also, and his oath, would be unfulfilled.”
cald1 = v1813 (minus visual image)
3505 bilbo]
cald1 : standard
3506 let vs knowe] Caldecott (ed. 1819) :: “Be it understood.”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
3503ff Sir . . . sleep]
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
v1821
3505 mutines] Boswell (ed. 1821, 21:Glossary): “mutineers.”
1822 Nares
Nares : Todd : mal
3505 mutines] Nares (1822; 1906): “s. A mutinous or rebellious person; used twice by Shakespeare. For this, and the verb to mutine, see Todd. Of the latter he has found three examples; of the former only those in Shakespeare. Mr. Malone found it as an adjective also. ‘Suppresseth mutin force, and practicke fraud.’ Misfortunes of Arthur, 1587.”
Nares : standard ; capn (School of Shakespeare) (1876 add. in magenta underlined)
3505 bilbo] Nares (1822; rev. & enl. 1876; rpt. 1905): “The town of Bilboa in Spain being famous for the manufacture of iron and steel, a fine Spanish blade was often called a Bilbo. ‘Next, to be compass’d, like a good Bilbo, in the circumference of a peck, hilt to point.’ MW 3.5.114-5 (1776-7) ‘When down their bows they threw And forthe their bilbows drew.’ Drayt. Ballad of Agine. Works, p. 1379. ‘Nor Bilbo steel, nor brasse from Corinth fet.’ Complaints, Capel Sch. Sh. p. 220
“Pistol calls Slender a ‘latten bilboe,’ by which is probably meant only a weak blade of base metal. The commentators have disputed the design of the allusion. MW. 1.1.165(149)
“From the same source was derived the name of a kind of stocks or fetters, used at sea to confine prisoners: ‘Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. ‘Ham. 5.2.? (0000).
“There is a figure of these bilboes, in Steeevens’s Shakespeare, at the above passage of Hamlet.”
1826 sing1
sing1 : v1821 ; capn (KJ //)
3505 mutines] Singer (ed. 1826) : “i.e. mutineers. See [Jn 2.1.378 (795) (0000)].”
sing1 : v1821 without attribution
3505 bilbo] Singer (ed. 1826) : “The bilboes were bars of iron with fetters annexed to them, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where implements of steel were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand Shakespeare’s allusion completely, it should be known, that as these fetters connected the legs of the offenders very closely together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep . Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower of London, among the other spoils of the Spanish Armada. “
1833 valpy
valpy ≈ standard
3505 mutines] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Mutineers.”
Valpy ≈ sing1 w/o attribution
3505 bilbo] Valpy (ed. 1833): “The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed, by which disorderly sailors were anciently linked together.”
1841 knt1 (nd)
knti : sing1
3505 mutines] Knight (ed. [1839]) : “mutineers.”
knti : sing1
3505 bilbo] Knight (ed. [1839]) : “bilboes]] a bar of iron with fetters attached to it.”
1843 col1
col1 : sing1; v1821 (its v1778 elements)
3505 Worse then the mutines in the bilbo] Collier (ed. 1843) : “Here again we have ‘mutines’ for mutineers, as in [Jn. 2.1.378 (795)]. The bilboes seem to have been so called from the place where they were made, Bilboa, and they consisted of an iron bar with rings for confining the hands or legs of offenders. It is said that the punishment was made known to this country by the Armada.”
1844 verp
verp ≈ COL1 w/o attribution (“. . . confining the hands or legs of offenders on board ship”; minus “It is said . . . Armada”)
3505 Worse then the mutines in the bilbo]
1848 Strachey
Strachey
3503-3510 Strachey (1848, p. 91-2): <p. 91>“ In our former investigations of the progress of Hamlet’s own enquiry into the principles of his character and conduct, we found that he had come to the conclusion, first that his inaction was the consequence of his sense of moral responsibility, and dread of unknown consequences; and secondly, that this scrupu- lousness might easily run to excess ; and that when a man had once found reasonable ground for action, he should ponder the matter no further, but instantly proceed </p. 91> <p. 92> to act, shutting his eyes to the consequences.* But the practical difficulty remained, how to ascertain the right moment for ceasing to think, and beginning to act : the evil of doing wrong for want of previous thought, is as great as that of abstaining from doing right through excess of thought; and who, in practice, shall strike the balance, and give the command to act ? This secret too, Hamlet has been taught by the events of his late voyage. The bodily restlessness of a sleepless night, suddenly induced him to go to the cabin of Guildenstern and
Rosencrantz, and take their dispatches to read. He had every reason to believe that they contained some evil design against himself, but it was the sudden spur of that bodily restlessness, and not a deliberate resolution, that caused him to take this step.”</p. 92>
<n><p. 92>“*As Lady Russell expresses it in her letter to I)ean Tillotson:—’ Pray do not turn this matter too much in your head; when one has once turned it every way, you know that more does but perplex, and one never sees the clearer for it.’" </p. 92></n>
3505-10 rashly . . .
will]
Strachey (1848, pp. 92-3): <p. 92> And this is the conclusion he draws:—</p. 92> <p. 93>[cites 3505-10] That is to say, that when we have exhausted all our powers of thought and reasoning upon the consideration of the course we should pursue, and when it yet remains dark to us—’sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought’-—then a higher wisdom and providence than our own will assuredly come to our aid, and employ some apparently unimportant accident—something which to us seems merely a rashness or indiscretion—to strike the hour, and give the command for action. This is Hamlet’s final, crowning, discovery: a discovery which every man of Hamlet’s tendency of mind must make for himself, before it is possible for him to turn his intellectual powers to practical account, and to make his philosophical speculations available in the every day-service of God and man. Till such a man has learnt the value of
accidents, in breaking the thread of his meditations when it is spun long enough, and has formed the habit of seizing and using these accidents, be must remain an unpractical visionary. And Hamlet perceives, that thus to get the aids of accidents is a very different thing from being the slave of them, and the victim of circumstances: that, on the contrary, it is only falling into his proper place in God’s great order and government of the world—as he points out farther in the new accident (of finding that he had his father’s seal) without which the rest would have been vain:— [cites 3551-3]” </p. 93>
Hor. I How was this sealld t Eatn. Why, even in that was heaven ordinate; I had my father’s signet in my purse,
Which was the model of that Danish seal.
And now observe the result of all this, in Hatuiet’s prac-
1854 del2
del2
3505 mutines in the bilbo] Delius (ed. 1854) : “bilboes, wahrscheinlich nach der spanischen Stadt Bilbao (engl. Bilboa) benannt, waren eiserne Stangen, an welche meuterische Matrosen oder Seesoldaten mit den Füssen festgeschlossen wurden. Ueber mutine vgl. Anm. 35, A. #, Sc. 4. Der Vergleich lag dem Hamlet um so näher, da die bilboes eben auch zur See angewandt wurden.” [“bilboes , probably taken after the Spanish state Bilbao (engl. Bilboa ), were iron rods, to which mutinous sailors or sea soldiers were fastened by the feet. Concerning mutine , see note 35, Act 3.4. [p. 102 and note on line If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones : “The obsolete mutine Shakespeare often used as a substantive, meaning mutineer, Rebel, as also in the verbal, as to revolt”] The comparison lay so close to Hamlet, when the bilboes were applied on the sea.”]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 ≈ sing1 without attribution
3505 bilbo] Hudson (ed. 1856) : “The bilboes were bars of iron with fetters annexed to them, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where the things were made. To understand the allusion completely, it should be known, that as these fetters connected the legs of the offenders very closely together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep . Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower of London, among the other spoils of the Spanish Armada.—Mutines is for mutineers. See [Jn. 2.1.378 (795)], note 10.”
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1
3505 mutines]
3505 bilbo]
1857 fieb
fieb
3505 rashly] Fiebig (ed. 1857): "[. . .] rashly may as well be joined in contraction with the following words—’in the dark grop’d I to find ou them.’ Those reflections from—And praised be rashness etc. until—That is most certain, may be regarded as parenthesis."
1857 elze1
elze1 : v1778 ; standard ; Nares
3505 bilbo] Elze (ed. 1857): "Bilboes ((von dem in Mittelalter durch seine Eisen-und Stahlwaaren berühmten Bilbao so genannt)) waren eiserne Stangen, an welche die Matrosen zur Strafe mit den Füssen gefesselt zu werden pflegten. Sie sollen mit der von der Armada gemarchten Beute in England bekannt geworden sein, und Steevens hat zu d. St. eine Abbildung davon gegeben. Vgl. Beaumont und Fletcher The Double Marriage II, 3, wo die Bühnenweisung lautet: Ascanio discovered in the bilboes. Ausserdem bedeutet Bilbo eine Art sehr biegsamer Klingen. Merry Wives of W. I,i. III,5. Nares s. Bilbo.—Wegen ’mutines’ s. zu §150: If thou canst mutine." ["Bilboes ((from which the famed Bilbao was named because of its iron and steelworks)) were iron bars, to which sailors for punishment were accustomed to be bound by their feet. They should have been known by those who from the Armada made prey in England, and Steevens has provided a drawing of it in his edition. Compare Beaumont and Fletcher The Double Marriage II, 3, where the stage direction sounds: Ascanio discovered in the bilboes. Besides, bilbo means a very supple, light bell. . Merry Wives of W. I,i. III,5. Nares s. Bilbo.—Because of ’mutines’ see section §150 [n. 2458]: If thou canst mutine."
1858 col3
col3 : sing
3505 Worse then the mutines in the bilbo] Collier (ed. 1858) : “Here again we have ‘mutines’ for mutineers, as in [Jn. 2.1.378 (795)]. The bilboes seem to have been so called from the place where they were made, Bilboa, and they consisted of an iron bar with rings for confining the hands or legs of offenders. It is said that the punishment was made known to this country by the Armada.”
col3
3505 mutines] Collier (2nd ed. 1858, 6: Glossary): “mutineers, mutiny.”
col3 : standard
3505 bilbo] Collier (2nd ed. 1858, 6: Glossary): “fetters.”
1859 stau
stau : standard
3505 bilbo] Staunton (ed. 1859) : “bilboes]] An instrument of torture, consisting of a bar of iron with fetters attached, used formerly for the punishment of sailors, and supposed to have been named from Bilboa, in Spain.”
1861 wh1
whi ≈ stau
3505-11 rashly . . . certain] White (ed. 1861) : “All from ‘Rashly’ . . . to these words [Up from my cabin] is parenthetical.”
wh1 : standard
3505 bilbo] White (ed. 1861) : “—The bilboes—so called from Bilboa in Spain, where the best fetters were made—were composed of an iron bar with rings or staples, by which mutinous sailors were confined by the hands or feet.”
1864 glo
glo
3505 mutines] Clark & Wright (ed. 1864) : “ s.b. a mutineer.”
glo
3505 bilbo] Clark & Wright (ed. 1864) : “s.b. fetters or stocks.”
1864-68 c&mc
c&mc ≈ standard
3505 bilbo] Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary):
c&mc ≈ standard
3505 mutines] Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary)
3505 mutines] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864-68, rpt. 1874-78): “An abbreviated form of ‘mutineers.’ See Note 55, Act ii, [Jn.].”
c&mc ≈ hud1 w/o attribution
3505 bilbo] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864-68, rpt. 1874-78): “Bars of iron with fetters annexed to them, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The term is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain, implements of iron and steel were fabricated with great excellence. See Notes 22, Act I, and 48, Act iii, [MW].Inasmuch as these fetters connected the legs of the delinquents very closely together, their attempts at rest must have been as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose ‘heart there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep. Every motion of the one ‘mutine’ in his cramped position must have disturbed the other man linked close beside him. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower among the other spoils of the Spanish Armada.”
c&mc
3505-06 rashly, And praysd be rashnes for it] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864-68, rpt. 1874-78): “The parenthetical construction of this passage [and praysed be rashnes for it] is completely characteristic of Hamlet’s mind, which digresses to philosophise upon every thought that strikes him as he proceeds. The thought itself, too, harmonises with Hamlet’s disposition: which lets a sudden impulse and a casual opportunity occasion him to enact a purpose long cherished but long deferred.”
1865 hal
hal : standard
3505 mutines, bilbo] Halliwell (ed. 1865) : “Mutines, mutineers. The bilboes wa a kind of stocks used at sea for the purpose of punishing offenders. See Howell, sect. 6.
“‘The pore feloe was into the bilboes, he being the first upon whom any punyshment was shewd.’—MS. Addit. 5008”
1869 tsch
tsch
3505 bilbo] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Von dem Compositum bil-boes erklärt Ed. Mueller den zweiten Theil aus niederl. boeye=handyser, voetyser, doch ist der erst Theil immer noch nicht erklärt. Die Ableitung des Ausdrucks von der span. Stadt Bilboa ist wunderlich, das sich nicht denken lässt, dass zu Fussfesseln besonders guter Stahl von Nöthen war, weshalb sie wohl nur auf den egriff ‘Schwert’ zu beschräanken sein wird.” [“From the compound bil-boes, Ed. Mueller explains the two parts from the Dutch boeye=handyser, voetyser,, though the first part is still not explained. The derivation of the expression from the Spanish city Bilboa is strange, because one can’t think that especially good steel was for foot shackles, why it would be restricted still only for the concept “Sword.””]
1870 Abbott
Abbott
3505-12 rashly . . . Cabin] Abbott (§514): “Interruptions are sometimes not allowed to interfere with the completeness of the speaker’s verse. . . . when a man is bent on continuing what he has to say:
“ ‘Ham. Rashly—and that should teach us
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
“ Rough-hew them how we will—
“(Hor. That’s certain).
“Ham. Up from my cabin,’ &c.”
1872 cln1
cln1 : standard (SING? COLLIER?)
3505 mutines] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “mutineers. Compare [Jn. 2.1.378 (795)]: ‘Do like the mutines of Jersalem.’ For the verb ‘to mutine’ see this play, [3.4.83 (2458)]
cln1 : standard (≈ SINGER? & v1821?)
3505 bilbo] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “stocks or fetters used on board ship, and made of a bit of iron, with rings attached to it, in which the legs of the prisoners were placed. Steevens gives a figure of them as they are preserved in the Tower of london among the spols of the Spanish Armada. The word is derived from Bilbao or Bilboa in Spain, which was famous, as early as the time of Pliny, for the manufacture of iron and steel. For the same reason a sword-blade made there was called a ‘bilbo.’ See [Wiv.1.1.165 (149)]; 3.5.112 (1776-7)].
cln1 : standard (STAUNTON?)
3505 rashly] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “hastily. What follows, to the end of Hamlet’s speech [3510] is parenthetical. Compare [R3 3.5.43 (2127)]: ‘What, think you we are Turks or infidels? Or that we would, against the form of law, Proceed thus rashly to the villain’s death?’”
1872 Staunton
Staunton
3505-6 praise ]
Staunton (1872, p. 530): <p. 530> Staunton cites this word as evidence of "the extent to which confusion of final
d and
e prevails in our old dramatists . . . Shakespeare’s plays alone there are probably fifty examples as undeniable as these.” </p. 530>
[Staunton, H. "Unsuspected Corruptions of Shakespeare’s Text." The Athenaeum, October 1872, p. 530.]
1872 hud2
hud2
3504 That . . . sleepe] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Hamlet has from the first divined the King’s purpose in sending him to England. Since the close of the Play, when the King was ‘frighted with false fire,’ Hamlet knows that the King did indeed murder his father, and he also knows that the King suspects him of knowing it. Hence, on shipboard, he naturally has a vague, general apprehension of mischief, and this fills him with nervous curiosity as to the particular shape of danger which he is to encounter.”
hud2 ≈ HUD1
3505 bilbo] Hudson (ed. 1856) : “The bilboes were bars of iron with fetters annexed to them, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where the things were made. To understand the allusion, it should be known, that as these fetters connected the legs of the offenders very closely together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep . Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower of London, among the other spoils of the Spanish Armada.—Mutines is for mutineers. See [Jn. 2.1.378 (692)], note 10.”
1873 rug2
rug2 ≈ standard
3505 bilbo] Moberly (ed. 1873): “Bilbao was in the days of Spanish greatness the seat of important steel works, whence the name ‘bilboe’ is applied to swords, and, as her, to fetters, such as are figured in Johnson’s Shakespeare at this place.”
1877 v1877
v1877 : ≈ mal (minus Misfortunes of Arthur //)
3505 mutines]
v1877 = v1778 (STEEVENS; minus illustration)
3505 bilbo]
1877 neil
neil ≈ standard
3505 bilbo] Neil (ed. 1877, Notes): “from Bilboa, the chief town of Biscay, in Spain, famous from Roman times for the manufacture of iron and steel. Bilbo was a sword-blade, but bilboes are stocks used on shipboard, having a bar of iron to which rings were fastened, into which the legs of prisoners were put.”
1881 hud3
hud3 ≈ hud2
3504 That . . . sleepe] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Hamlet has from the first divined the King’s purpose in sending him to England. Since the close of the interlude, when the King was ‘frighted with false fire,’ Hamlet knows that the King did indeed murder his father, and he also knows that the King suspects him of knowing it. Hence, on shipboard, he naturally has a vague, general apprehension of mischief, and this fills him with nervous curiosity as to the particular shape of danger which he is to encounter.”
1882 elze2
elze2
3505 bilbo] Elze (ed. 1882): “See note on §140 [2303]. Compare Gower, Surrey Provincialisms, s.v. Bilboes (Original Glossaries, ed. W.W. skeat, for the English Dialect Society, III).”
1883 wh2
wh2
3505 mutines, bilbo] White (ed. 1883): “mutines=mutineers. bilboes=fetters made by rings running on iron rods, used on shipboard, and manufactured in Bilboa, Spain, like the bilboa blades: whence their name.”
WH2 = WH1
3505-11 rashly . . . certain]
1884 Gould
Gould
3505-12 rashly . . .
cabin]
Gould (1884, p. 41): <p. 41> “From ‘Let us know’ down to Horatio’s speech, ‘That is most certain’ appears to have been interposited at some time, and ‘Up from my cabin’ read on after ‘rashness for it.’ ‘Let us’ should be ‘Yet we.’ The passage might be printed: ‘Rashly And praise be rashness for it.—[
Yet we know Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well When our dear plots do pall; and THAT should teach us There’s a divinity that shapes our ends Rough-hew them how we will.
Hor. That is most certain]
Ham.—Up from my cabin, etc.’ Read in this way, and putting a slight stress on ‘THAT,’ the sense is perfect and needs no fighting over. There is a passage in [
Lr. 4.1.19-21 (2198-2200)], which should be read in connection with the above, as serving to explain one another. ‘Full oft ‘tis seen Our means secure us; and our mere defects Prove our commodities.’”
1885 macd
macd
3504 That . . . sleepe] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “The Shaping Divinity was moving him.”
macd ≈ standard
3505 bilbo
1885 mull
mull ≈ standard
3505 mutines]
mull ≈ standard
3505 bilbo]
1889 Barnett
Barnett
3505 mutines]
Barnett (1889, p. 62): <p. 62>“
mutineers. In [
Cor. 1.1.254 (279)], we have
mutiner, and in [
Jn. 2.1.378 (795)], we have as here
mutines, ‘
mutines of Jerusalem.’”</p. 62>
Barnett
3505 bilbo]
Barnett (1889, p. 62): <p. 62>“
bilboes]]
fetters. bilbo, a
sword; so called from Bilbao in Spain, famous for its iron and steel manufactures. The bilboes are an iron bar with rings attached in which to place the legs of the prisoner.” </p. 62>
Barnett
3505 rashly]
Barnett (1889, p. 62): <p. 62>“
hastily. After rashly comes ‘Up from my cabin,’ [3512]; the intermediate words are parenthetical.” </p. 62>
1890 irv2
irv2 : standard
3505 mutines] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “mutineers.”
irv2 : standard
3505 bilbo] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “fetters used on board ship.”
irv2 ≈ v1877 w/o attribution+ magenta underlined
3505 bilbo] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Steevens, who gives a cut in illustration (Var. Sh. vol. vii. p. 486), says: [cites Steevens’ 1778 gloss from v1821]. Boyer defines Bilboes as a ‘Sort of Punishment at Sea.’”
irv2 : standard
3505 rashly] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “hastily.”
1891 oxf1
oxf1 : standard
3505 bilbo] Craig (ed. 1891: Glossary): “sub. a species of fetters used at sea.”
3505 mutines] Craig (ed. 1891: Glossary): “sub. mutineers, [Jn 2.1.378 (795)].”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ cln1 w/o attribution
3505 mutines]
ard1 : standard + magenta underlined
3505 bilbo] Dowden (ed. 1899): “The earliest example of the word in New Eng. Dict. is of 1557 from Hakluyt’s Voyages.”
ard1
3505 bilbo]
Dowden (ed. 1899, Appendix III, p. 237): <p. 237> “Mr.
Craig notes and earlier example than any in
New English Dictionary: Elyot,
Latin Dictionary (1538), ‘
arca, the pillory, stocks, or bilboes.’” </p. 237>
ard1 : stau?
3505 rashly] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Pope read Rashness. Tyrwhitt, retaining Rashly, and reading for it lets, would place And praised to certain, [3506], thus connecting Rashly with ‘up from my cabin.’”
1905 rltr
Rltr : standard
3505 bilbo]
3505 mutines]
1905 Nares
Nares : standard ; capn (School of Shakespeare)
3505 bilbo] Nares (1822; 1905): “The town of Bilboa in Spain being famous for the manufacture of iron and steel, a fine Spanish blade was often called a Bilbo. ‘Next, to be compass’d, like a good Bilbo, in the circumference of a peck, hilt to point.’ MW 3.5.110-1 (1776-7) ‘When down their bows they threw And forthe their bilbows drew.’ Drayt. Ballad of Agine. Works, p. 1379. ‘Nor Bilbo steel, nor brasse from Corinth fet.’ Complaints, Capel Sch. Sh. p. 220
“Pistol calls Slender a ‘latten bilboe,’ by which is probably meant only a weak blade of base metal. The commentators have disputed the design of the allusion. MW. 1.1.165(149)
“From the same source was derived the name of a kind of stocks or fetters, used at sea to confine prisoners: ‘Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. ‘Ham. 5.2.? (0000).
“There is a figure of these bilboes, in Steeevens’s Shakespeare, at the above passage of Hamlet.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn : standard
3505 bilbo] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)
nlsn : standard
3505 mutines] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)
nlsn : standard
3505 rashly] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
crg1 ≈ standard
3505 Rashly] Craig (ed. 1931): “goes with [3512].”
1934 Wilson
Wilson
3505 bilbo] Wilson (1934, 2:237) sees the Q2 as a mistaken singular form which the Ff version corrects.
1934 rid1
rid1 : standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):”mutineers in irons.”
1934 cam3
cam3 : OED
3505 bilbo] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “a kind of stocks used on board ship, ‘a long iron bar, furnished with sliding shackles to confine the ankles of prisoners, and a lock by which to fix one end of he bar to the floor or ground’ (N.E.D.).”
cam3 : standard
3505 rashly] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary)
3505 mutines] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary)
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ standard
3505 mutines]
3505 mutines] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):
3505 bilbo] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):
3505 Rashly] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):
kit2 ≈ standard +
3505 bilbo] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “‘The punishment at the bilboes is when a delinquent is put in irons, or in a kind of stocks made for that purpose, the which are more or less heavy and pinching, as the quality of the offence is found to be, upon good proof’ (Capt. Nathaniel Boteler, Dialogues, 1634, ed. Perrin, p. 17).”
3505 Rashly] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “obeying a sudden impulse.”
1937 pen1a
pen1a : standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
1942 n&h
N&H ≈ standard
3505 mutines]
N&H ≈ standard
3505 bilbo]
1947 cln2
Cln2 ≈ standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
1951 alex
Alex ≈ standard
3505 mutines] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary)
Alex ≈ standard
3505 bilbo] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary)
1951 crg2
crg2=crg1
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
1954 sis
sis ≈ standard
3505 mutines] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary):
sis ≈ standard
3505 bilbo] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary)
1957 pel1
pel1 : standard
3505 mutines]
pel1 : standard
3505 bilbo]
1970 pel2
pel2=pel1
3505 mutines]
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ standard +
3505 mutines] Evans (ed. 1974): “. . . the term mutiny was in Shakespeare’s day used of almost any act of rebellion against authority.”
evns1 ≈ standard
3505 bilbo]
3505 Rashly]
1980 pen2
pen2
3503 fighting] Spencer (ed. 1980): “agitation.”
pen2
3504-05 my . . . bilbo] Spencer (ed. 1980): “it seemed to me that I felt more uncomfortable in my bed than do mutineers in their iron fetters.”
pen2
3505 rashly] Spencer (ed. 1980): “After five lines of interpolation, the sentence is resumed, not quite logically, at [3512]: Up from my cabin.”
1982 ard2
ard2
3505 mutines] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “mutiners, mutineers. All three forms occur in Shakespeare’s texts.”
ard2
3505 rashly] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “on impulse ((in contrast to deep plots)). The word evokes a parenthetic reflection; the narrative resumes at [3512] with the incidents which rashly describes.”
ard2 ≈ standard
3505 bilbo]
1984 chal
chal : standard
3505 mutines]
3505 bilbo]
3505 rashly]
1985 cam4
cam4 ≈ standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
cam4
3505 rashly] Edwards (ed. 1985): “‘rash’ ((etc.)) in Shakespeare means as often ‘hasty’, ‘sudden’ as it does ‘unconsidered’ or ‘ill-advised’. The sense here is of a sudden, impulsive act without forethought.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4 : Abbott 92 ; OED
3505 mutines in the bilbo] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “i.e. worse than mutineers in shackles are supposed to do. The word the is used here to denote notoriety ((Abbott 92)), to show that his is a recognized example of human discomfort at its worst. Mutine, also found in [Jn.2.1.378(795)], was an older word than mutineer, for which OED’s first citation is [Temp. 3.2.34 (1383]. A third variant, mutiner, appears in [Cor. 1.1.248 (279)]. A bilbo is ‘a long iron bar, furnished with sliding shackles to confine the ankles of prisoners, and a lock by which to fix one end of the bar to the floor or ground’ ((OED)).”
oxf4 ≈ standard
3505 rashly]
1988 bev2
bev2: standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
bev2: standard
3505 rashly]
1992 fol2
fol2≈ standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
1993 dent
dent : standard
3505 mutines in the bilbo]
dent : standard
3505 rashly]
1998 OED
OED
3505 bilbo] OED bilbo’ (blb). Forms: 6 bilboa, 6–7 bilboe, -bowe, 7 bilbow, 6–bilbo. [App. (as stated by Blount in 1656) from Bilbao in Spain, long called in Eng. Bilboa. `Bilbow blades’ were, according to a marginal note to Drayton Agincourt (1631) p. 10, `blades accounted of the best temper.’ Cf. Damascus blade, Toledo blade. The swords of Bilbao, according to Moll’s Geogr. 1701,`are famous over all Europe.’]Pl. bilboes (blbz). Also 6 bilbows, 7 bilbowes, bylboes, 8 (comb.) bilboo-. [Of uncertain derivation. It is usually, like the prec., referred to Bilbao, on the alleged ground that many of these instruments were manufactured there, and shipped on board the Spanish Armada, for the confinement of English prisoners expected to be made; but the word occurs in English many years before 1588.]
A long iron bar, furnished with sliding shackles to confine the ankles of prisoners, and a lock by which to fix one end of the bar to the floor or ground 2. transf. ? One who bears a bilbo. (Doubtful.)
2000 Edelman
Edelman
_3505 bilbo] Edelman (2000): “‘a long iron bar, furnished with sliding shackles to confine the ankles of prisoners’ (OED sb2).”
1592 GREENE Disput. Wks. (Grosart) X. 236 Let them doe what they dare with their
*bilbowe blades.
1656 BLOUNT Glossogr., *Bilbo blade from Bilboa..in Spain where the best blades are
made.
1621 FLETCHER Wild-G. Chase III. i, That this *bilbo-lord shall reap that maidenhead That
was my due.
1611 BEAUM. & FL. King & No King v. 59 You are much bound to your *Bil-bow-men.
1632 B. JONSON in Brome North. Lasse Pref. Verses, An honest *Bilbo-Smith would make
good blades.
bilbo”. Pl. bilboes (blbz). Also 6 bilbows, 7 bilbowes, bylboes, 8
(comb.) bilboo-. [Of uncertain derivation. It is usually, like the PREC.,
referred to Bilbao, on the alleged ground that many of these instruments were
manufactured there, and shipped on board the Spanish Armada, for the
confinement of English prisoners expected to be made; but the word occurs in
English many years before 1588.] A long iron bar, furnished with sliding
shackles to confine the ankles of prisoners, and a lock by which to fix one end
of the bar to the floor or ground.
1557 in Hakluyt’s Voy. I. 295, I was also conueyed to their lodgings..where I saw a pair of
bilbowes. 1591 J. HORTOP Narr. in Arb. Garner V. 316 Whom he presently commanded to
be set in the bilbows. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. V. ii. 6 Me thought I lay Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes.
3505
