Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 917 Pol. I, or drinking, fencing, swearing, | 2.1.25 |
|---|
917 918 3097
-1729 mtheo4
mtheo4
917 fencing] Theobald (-1729): “perhaps foyning and vid. Tearsheet in Harry 4th” [2H4 2.1.16 (629)].
See OED below for def. of Foining.
1744 han1
han1
917 fencing] Hanmer (ed. 1744, 6: Glossary): “to push in fencing.”
This gloss could explain Theobald’s conj.
1746 Upton
Upton
917-18 I . .
goe]
Upton (1746, pp. 341-2) <p. 341> considers 917-8 (through
go] to be a “trochaic tetrameter catalectic of six feet, and closing with a trochee and a semiped, what the Greeks call [GREEK].”
Ay or | drinking | fencing | swearing | quarrelling | drabbing | you may go The accents are on Ay, drink, fence, swear, drab, go. I don’t know why they are not on quar. and you <p. /341> <p. 342>
“This dancing measure is very proper to the character of Polonius, a droll humorous old courtier; and the mixture of the trochaic has no bad effect. The verses are thus to be ordered. [Ham.
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty. R. As gaming my Lord.
P. Ay or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarreling, drabbing, you may go
So far. R. My Lord, that would dishonour him. </p. 342>
1747 warb
warb
917 fencing] Warburton (ed. 1747): “an interpolation.”
1753 Blair
1753 = warb
917 fencing]
1765
john1john1 =
warb +
917 fencing]
Johnson (ed. 1765): “I suppose, by
fencing is meant a too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of violent and lawless young men.”
1768 cap
cap: see TNM; Capell introduces a change in lineation
917-18 The effect of Capell’s lineation change, placing quarreling at the end of 917, is to emphasize drabbing. But doubtless his purpose was simply to regularize the meter.
1773 v1773
v1773 =
john1917 fencing]
1774 capn
capn
917 fencing] Capell (1774, 1:1:129 “Fencing” means—the drawing of swords in a quarrel, and skirmishing lightly. . . . ”
Ed. note: Capell attitude is surprisingly lenien.. See n. 922 also.
1778 v1778
v1778 =
john +
917 fencing] Steevens (ed. 1778): “How fencing can be an interpolation, I know not. I find it in all the old copies.”
1784 Davies
Davies
917 fencing] Davies (1784, 3:35): “Fencing is here, I think, put, in our author’s phrase, for brawling or quarreling. A Fencer, in the days of Shakspeare, was generally understood to be one apt to be contentious and quarrelsome.”
1785 v1785
v1785 =
john1 minus warb;
minus Steevens v1778
917 fencing]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
917 fencing]
1790 mal
mal = v1785 +
917 fencing] Malone (ed. 1790): “Fencing, I suppose, means, piquing himself on his skill in the use of the sword, and quarreling and brawling, in consequence of that skill. ‘The cunning of fencers, says Gosson in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, is now applied to quarreling: they thinke themselves no men, if for stirring of a straw, they prove not their valure uppon some bodies fleshe’”
MAL is quite capable of omitting WARB on his own, and does quite often.
1791- rann
rann
917 fencing] Rann (ed. 1791-): “duelling.”
This certainly cuts down on the others’ verbosity.
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
917 fencing]
no WARB, no Steevens v1778 [Cf. 2719+19] Notice how here and often Steevens defers to Malone, or copies Malone, rather than use what he had had in the note for this line before.
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
917 fencing]
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
917 fencing]
1819- mcald
mcald = mal (minus Malone’s intro to Gosson quotation)
917 fencing]
1826 sing1
sing1 = mal (minus Malone’s intro to Gosson quotation) without attribution. The red and strike out show the only differences.
917 fencing] Singer (ed. 1826): “ ‘The cunning of fencers, says Gosson in his Schoole of Abuse, 1679, is now applied to quarreling: they thinke themselves no men, if for stirring of a straw, they prove not their valure uppon some bodies fleshe.’ — Gosson’s Schole of Abuse, 1579.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = sing1 but with attribution to Malone
917 fencing]
Caldecott (ed. 1832): “‘Their cunning is now applied to
quarreling: they think themselves no men, if, for stirring of a straw, they prove not their value upon some bodies fleshe.’ Gosson’s
Schoole of Abuse, 1579.
Malone.”
1854 del2
del2
917 fencing, swearing] Delius (ed. 1854): “Unter die erdichteten Fehler, die, als dem jugendlichen Uebermuthe entspringend, dem Laertes Schuld gegeben werden sollen, rechnet Polonius auch die zu Sh.’s Zeit von den jungen Herren mit leidenschaftlicher und thörichter Uebertreibung geübte Fechtkunst (fencing), den seinen Cavalier bezeichnende Gewohnheit des Fluchens (swearing). [Under the mentioned failings, which spring from youthful exuberance, those that would bring shame to Laertes, Polonius counts also fencing, praticed with passionate and foolish overzealousness, showing his Cavalier habit of swearing.]
1856 hud1
hud1 ≈ sing1 [i.e. Gosson] without attribution
917 fencing]
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1
917 fencing]
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ hud1 without attribution, a bit of del without attribution
917 fencing]
Clarke &
Clarke (ed. 1868): “This word, as here used, includes the liability to squabbling and brawling to which over-zealous cultivation of skill in the use of the weapon is likely to lead. [refers to and quotes from Gosson as in
hud and others.]”
1877 v1887
v1877 ≈
warb; = john; ≈ mal +
in magenta underlined917 fencing]
Furness (ed. 1877): “This is bracketed by
Warburton as ‘an interpolation.’
Johnson: A too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of violent and lawless young men.
Malone: I suppose it means, piquing himself on his skill in the use of the sword, and consequently quarreling and brawling. ‘The cunning of Fencers [[is now]] applied to quarreling.’—Gosson,
Schoole if Abuse, 1579,
p. 46, ed. Arber.”
1899 ard1
ard1: Middleton; Dekker
917 fencing] Dowden (ed. 1899) questions whether Polonius considers all Laertes’s peccadilloes to be equivalent to an addiction to fencing. He also discusses the ill-repute of fencers in Elizabethan drama, including M Middleton’s Spanish Gipsy 2.2; Dekker Gul’s Horn-Booke.
1901 gol
gol ≈ ard1 without attribution
917 fencing] Gollancz (ed. 1901) points out that fencers had ill reputes among players. He refers to Middleton’s Spanish Gypsy, 2.2, and to Dekker’s Gul’s Horn-Booke.
1904 ver
ver
917 fencing] Verity (ed. 1904): “in which Laertes, as we shall see and as Polonius probably knew, was thought to excel.”
1929 trav
trav
917 Travers (ed. 1929): “The ring of the line is trochaic. In traditional scansion,
Ay forms one foot by itself. . . ”; the ending is feminine.
trav: standard
917 fencing]
Travers (ed. 1929): Though good exercise in its own, it can lead to quarreling; and some fencers might be “sharpers” as well.
1939 kit2
kit2: standard gloss; standard Gosson analogue + page ref.; + Greene analogue
917 fencing] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Not discreditable in itself, but a valued accomplishment (see 3096ff]. The fencing schools, however, were frequented by wild young bloods, and to spend much time in such places might be a sign of dissipation. So Gosson [quotes]. . . fol 30r . . . . Cf Greene, The Debate betweene Follie and love, 1587 (ed. Grosarts, IV, 218): ’Hath not Follie inuented a thousand deuices to drawe a man from idlenesse as Tragedies, Comedies, Danciung schooles, Fencing houses, wrestling places, and a thousand other foolish sportes?’ "
1957 pen1b
pen1b: standard
917 fencing] Harrison (ed. 1957): “a young man who haunted fencing school, was likely to be quarrelsome and one of the sporting set.”
1982 ard2
ard2: standard
917 fencing] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “It is not really strange to find this traditionally noble art listed among the ’slips’ of the young. It completes a common pattern of wild living. Claudius will associate fencing with ’light and careless’ habits (3078. In The Debate between Folly and Love appended to Greene’s Card of Fancy it is joined with play-going, dancing, wrestling, ’and a thousand other foolish sports’ (Greene, 4: 218); Nashe in Pierce Penniless links it with dancing and tennis among the exercises of ’the unthrift abroad’ (1: 209); and Sir Andrew Aguecheek laments time bestowed on ’fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting’ (TN1.3.88). Gosson had complained that fencers were addicted to quarrelling (School of Abuse, ed. Arber, p. 46), and Dekker warned likely victims against being set on ’by fencers and cony-catchers’ (Gull’s Hornbook, Non- Dramatic Works, ed. Grosart, 2: 213).”
1985 cam4
cam4; Thomas Overbury
917 fencing] Edwards (ed. 1985): "i.e. spending time in fencing-schools. One of Sir Thomas Overbury’s ’characters’, An Ordinary Fencer, gives a scornful description of these places (1614)."
1987 oxf4
oxf4
917 fencing]
Hibbard (ed. 1987): "Fencing was, of course, a much admired accomplishment in Shakespeare’s day, as Claudius makes plain at 4.7.83-91; but fencing schools had rather a bad name as ‘academies of manslaughter’, and so had professional fencers. See
John Webster’s Character of ‘An ordinary Fencer’ (Webster, iv.27)."
1996 OED
OED
917 fencing] OED. Foin: 1. intr. “To make a thrust with a pointed weapon, or with the point of a weapon; to lunge, push.” The word is in use from the 14th to 19thc.
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: //
917 fencing] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “While the ability to fence was valued in young aristocrats in Elizabethan England, fencing schools were seen as a typical resort of the wilder kind of young men; see Sir Andrew Aguecheek’s regret: ’I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues [[languages]] that I have in fencing, dancing and bearbaiting’ (TN 1.3.90-2).”
917
