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Line 581 - Commentary Note (CN)

Commentary notes (CN):

1. SMALL CAPS Indicate editions. Notes for each commentator are divided into three parts:

In the 1st two lines of a record, when the name of the source text (the siglum) is printed in SMALL CAPS, the comment comes from an EDITION; when it is in normal font, it is derived from a book, article, ms. record or other source. We occasionally use small caps for ms. sources and for works related to editions. See bibliographies for complete information (in process).

2. How comments are related to predecessors' comments. In the second line of a record, a label "without attribution" indicates that a prior writer made the same or a similar point; such similarities do not usually indicate plagiarism because many writers do not, as a practice, indicate the sources of their glosses. We provide the designation ("standard") to indicate a gloss in common use. We use ≈ for "equivalent to" and = for "exactly alike."

3. Original comment. When the second line is blank after the writer's siglum, we are signaling that we have not seen that writer's gloss prior to that date. We welcome correction on this point.

4. Words from the play under discussion (lemmata). In the third line or lines of a record, the lemmata after the TLN (Through Line Number] are from Q2. When the difference between Q2 and the authors' lemma(ta) is significant, we include the writer's lemma(ta). When the gloss is for a whole line or lines, only the line number(s) appear. Through Line Numbers are numbers straight through a play and include stage directions. Most modern editions still use the system of starting line numbers afresh for every scene and do not assign line numbers to stage directions.

5. Bibliographic information. In the third line of the record, where we record the gloss, we provide concise bibliographic information, expanded in the bibliographies, several of which are in process.

6. References to other lines or other works. For a writer's reference to a passage elsewhere in Ham. we provide, in brackets, Through Line Numbers (TLN) from the Norton F1 (used by permission); we call these xref, i.e., cross references. We call references to Shakespearean plays other than Ham. “parallels” (//) and indicate Riverside act, scene and line number as well as TLN. We call references to non-Shakespearean works “analogues.”

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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

581 Pol. I, {springs} <Springes> to catch wood-cockes, I doe knowe	1.3.115

23-79 Pliny

Pliny: see hal 1865 below

581 springs]

1604 Breton

Breton

581 springs to catch wood-cockes] Nicholas Breton (Grimello’s Fortunes, 1604, p. 5, col.1, apud Ingleby et al. 1932, 1:90): “Grimello. Why sir, I set no springs for Woodcocks . . . .”

1554-1624 Gosson

Gosson see cln1 1872 below

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1609 Dekker

Dekker see hal

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1778 v1778

v1778

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Steevens (ed. 1778): “A proverbial saying. ‘Every woman has a springe to catch a woodcock.’ Steevens.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1785 Mason

Mason: implicitly contra Steevens

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Mason (1785, p. 376): “This phrase has in this place no reference to women: what Polonius calls springes to catch wood-cocks, are the holy vows with which Ophelia tells him; Hamlet had given countenance to his speech.”

1787 ann

ann = v1785

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1790 mal

mal = v1785

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1810 Anon.

Anon [Croft?]

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Anon. (1810, pp. 21-2): <p. 21> “i.e. proverb; before gunpowder was invented, and the art of shooting the method of taking them was in cock gauls, and they made as it were a lane by cutting away all the trees leading through the wood, and by means of ropes and pullies hoisted up a net the breath of the avenue, and therefy intercepted all the woodcocks and </p.21 ><p. 22> other birds that were coming flying either in or out of the wood at twilight.” </p.22>

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1819 cald1

cald1

581 wood-cockes] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Witless things. See [Ado 5.1.157 (2245)] Claud.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1822 Nares

Nares

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Nares (1822, apud Furness, ed. 1877): “Proverbial for a simpleton; probably from the ease with which woodcocks suffer themselves to be caught in springes or snares, The phrase here means ‘arts to entrap simplicity.’”

1826 sing1

sing1 ≈ Steevens, cald, Nares without attribution,

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Singer (ed. 1826): “This was a proverbial phrase. There is a collection of epigrams under that title: the woodcock being accounted a witless bird, from a vulgar notion that it had no brains. ‘Springes to catch woodcocks’ means ‘arts to entrap simplicity.’ ”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1856 hud1

hud1 ≈ sing1 without attribution

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

hud1 = Coleridge

581-601 Coleridge (apud Hudson, ed. 1856): “I do not believe that in this or any other of the foregoing speeches of Polonius, Shakespeare meant to bring out the senility or weakness of that personage’s mind. In the great ever-recurring dangers and duties of life, where to distinguish the fit objects for the application of the maxims collected by the experience of a long life, requires no fineness of tact, as in the admonitions to his son and daughter, Polonius is uniformly made respectable. It is to Hamlet that Polonius is, and is meant to be, contemptible, because in inwardness and uncontrollable activity of movement, Hamlet’s mind is the logical contrary to that of Polonius; and besides, Hamlet dislikes the man as false to his true allegiance in the matter of the succession to the crown.— Coleridge. H.”

hud1 has this note at 601, but our method is to put the note at the earliest place.

1856 sing2

sing2 ≈ sing1

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1865 hal

hal: Decker

581 springs] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “‘And as those excellent birds, whom Pliny could never have the wit to catch in all his springes, commonly called woodcocks, whereof there is a great store in England, having all their feathers pluckt from their backs, and being turned out as naked as Pliny’s cock was before all Diogenes his scholars.’—Decker’s Gulls Hornbook, 1609.”

1872 cln1

cln1

581 springs. . . wood-cockes] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “snares, See [3784]. Compare Gosson, Apologie for the Schoole of Abuse, p. 72 (ed. Arber): ‘When Comedie comes vpon the Stage, Cupide sets vpp a Springe for Woodcockes, which are entangled ere they decrie the line, and caught before they mistruste the snare.”

1872 hud2

hud2 = hud1

581 springs . . . wood-cockes]

1877 v1877

v1877: Nares, cln1, Harting, p. 229

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Harting (p. 229, apud Furness, ed. 1877): “The woodcock for some unaccountable reason was supposed to have no brains, and the name of this bird became a synonym for a fool.”

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2; ≈ another idea from Nares

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Springe is, properly, snare or trap.”

1885 macd

macd: standard

581 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Woodcocks were understood to have no brains.”

1885 mull

mull: standard

581 springs] Mull (ed. 1885): “snares.”

1899 ard1

ard1: standard; cln1 Gosson

581 wood-cockes]

1913 Trench

Trench

581-3 I doe knowe . . . vowes] Trench (1913, p. 66): Polonius judges Hamlet by the course of behavior familiar to him from his own experience, which he winks at in Laertes [see drabbing, 918].

1938 parc

parc

581 springs] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “snares.”

parc

581 wood-cockes] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “stupid birds.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard gloss, xref; analogue

581 springs] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "snares. The woodcock (though in fact an intelligent bird) served as a proverbial synonym for credulous foolishness. It was even supposed to have actually no brain. See [3783-4]. Cf. Heywood, Pelopaea and Alope (Pearson ed., VI, 299): ’Mens flatteries Are just like Circes riches, which can turne Vain-glorious fooles to Asses, credulous Fooles To Woodcocks.’ "

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

581 springs] Rylands (ed. 1947): "snares."

1950 Tilley

Tilley: Gosson

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Tilley (1950, S 788): “A Sprynge to catch a woodcock 1579 Gosson Apol. Sch. Abuse, p. 72: Cupide sets vpp a Springe for Woodcockes.”

1950 van Lennep

van Lennep

581 springs to catch wood-cockes] van Lennep (1950, p. 21): “By casting aspersion [Polonius] has immolated the lovers on the altar of his unbelief. An unprincipled, conscience-less reprobate, an abandoned maker of vows as ’false as dicers oaths’ [2428], such as Hamlet’s mother’s, would have persisted [in his attempt to seduce a girl]. But for Hamlet thus to act would have been in no way consonant with his nature as depicted by Shakespeare.”

Ed. note: Though van Lennep is severe with Hamlet, he wants to give him his due.

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

581 springs] Farnham (ed. 1957): “snares.”

pel1: standard

581 wood-cockes] Farnham (ed. 1957): “birds believed foolish.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

581 springs] Farnham (ed. 1970): “snares”

pel2 = pel1

581 wood-cockes] Farnham (ed. 1970): “birds believed foolish”

1980 pen2

pen2

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Proverbially the woodcock was a foolish bird which easily fell into snares (springes, pronounced to rhyme with ’hinges’). Compare as a woodcock to mine own springe (5.2.300).”

1982 ard2

ard2: Tilley; Gosson; xref

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “springes, snares. A proverbial phrase, Tilley S 788. The woodcock was supposed easily caught. See Gosson, Apology for the School of Abuse (Arber, p. 72), ’Cupid sets up a springe for woodcocks, which are entangled ere they descry the line, and caught before they mistrust the snare’. Cf. 3783.”

1985 cam4

cam4

581 springs] springes Edwards (ed. 1985): "snares."

1987 oxf4

oxf4: Tilley; TN //

581 springs . . . wood-cockes] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "i.e. snares to catch simple-minded fools. The phrase was proverbial (Tilley S788), and appears again in a slightly different form, ‘Now is the woodcock near the gin’, in [TN 2.5.83 (1097)]. As the woodcock was supposedly an easy bird to catch, it became synonymous with gullibility."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

581 springs] Bevington (ed. 1988): “snares.”

bev2: standard

581 wood-cockes] Bevington (ed. 1988): “birds easily caught; here used to connote gullibility.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

581 springs] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “snares”

fol2: standard

581 wood-cockes] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “birds thought to be stupid and easily captured”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard

581 springs] springes Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(pronounced to rhyme with ’hinges’) snares, traps”

ard3q2: standard; Tilley; //; xref

581 wood-cockes] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “These birds were proverbially thought to be easy to catch (Tilley has ’A springe to catch a woodcock’, S788): characters in Shakespeare use the word derogatively of other people they are tricking at TN 2.5.82, and AWW 4.1.89 . See also Laertes’ reference to himself as ’a woodcock to mine own springe’ at [3783-4].”