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Line 3618, etc. - 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 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand

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

3618-9 and Poynards, with their assignes, as girdle, \| {hanger and} <Hangers or> so. Three

1760 Johnson2

John2

3619 hangers ] Johnson (2nd ed. 1760, Hanger): “s. [from hang] That by which any thing hangs: as, the pot hangers.”

Johnson2

3619 hangers ] Johnson (2nd ed. 1760, Hanger): “s. [from hang.] A short broad sword.”

1778 v1778

v1778

3619 hangers ] Steevens (ed. 1778) : “ It appears from several old plays, that what was called a Case of Hangers, was anciently worn. So, in the Birth of Merlin, 1662: ‘He has a fair sword, but his hangers are fallen.’ Again, ‘He has a feather, and fair hangers too.’ Again, in Rhodon and Iris , 1631: ‘—a rapier Patch’d with gold, with hilt and hangers of the new fashion.’ STEEVENS”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

3619 hangers ]

1785 Gents

[F.W.] : v1785 + magenta underlined

3619 hangers ] Anon. [F.W.] (1785, p. 199-200): “Mr. URBAN Mar. 6

“In the ‘extracts from a file of records which appear to have belonged to one Hamlet Clarke,’ in your valuable Magazine for last month, we read, ‘Item, one payre of raysed silver hangers and girdles of rugged purle,’ and two similar items. In the margin is a query, What are these ? The following extract from the Tragedy of Hamlet , Johnson and Steeven’s edit. 1778, vol. X. p. 397, appears to me a full explanation of the terms ‘hangers and girdles.’ [cites 3622-3623] </.p.199> <p.200>

[cites STEEVENS’S 1773 note in entirety, omitting only “old” from the quotation.]

“The extracts having belonged to Hamlet Clarke, should not pass unobserved by one who produces an extract from HAMLET in explanation thereof; nor should it be forgot, that one of the witnesses to Shakspeare’s will was named Hamlet Sadler*. F.W.”

<p.200> <n> “*The editor of the ‘Biliotheca Topographica’ also has lately picked out the few following articles from St. Bride’s Register, London, for the use of future commentators: ‘1590. xviith of May, Isabell the wife of Hamblet Panketman was buried. 1592. Hamlet Evans buried ixth of Nov.’” </n></p. 200>

1787 ann

ann = v1785

3619 hangers ]

1790 mal

mal : F.W. Gents ; + magenta underlined

3619 hangers ] Malone (ed. 1790) : “i.e. and so forth. The word hangers has been misunderstood. That part of the girdle or belt by which the sword was suspended, was in our poet’s time called the hangers . See Minsheu’s Dictionary, 1617: ‘The hangers of a sword. G. Pendants d’espée, L. Subcingulum,’ &c. So, in an Inventory found among the papers of Hamlet Clarke, an attorney of a court of record in London in the year 1611, and printed in The Gentleman’s Magazine , Vol. LVIII, p. 111: ‘Item , One payre of girdle and hangers , of silver purle , and cullored silke. Item , One payre of girdler and hangers upon white sattene.’ The hangers ran in an oblique direction from the middle of the forepart of the girdle across the left thigh, and were attached to the girdle behind.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal + preface material

3619 hangers ] Steevens (ed. 1793) : “Under this term were comprehended four graduated straps, &c. that hung down in a belt on each side of its receptable for the sword. I write this, with a most gorgeous belt, at least as ancient as the time of James I. before me. It is of crimson velvit embroidered with gold, and had belonged to the Somerset family.” In Massinger’s Fatal Dowry , Liladam, (who when arrested as a gentleman, avows himself to have been a tailor,) says ‘—This rich sword Grew suddenly out of a tailor’s bodkin; These hangers from my vails and sees in hell: ‘&c. i.e. the tailor’s hell ; the place into which shreds and remnants are thrown.”

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793 + closing analogues

3619 hangers ] Steevens (apud Reed, ed. 1803) : “Again, in The Birth of Merlin , 1662 ‘He has a fair sword, but his hangers are fallen.’ Again, in Rhodon and Iris , 1631: ‘—a rapier Hatch’d with gold, with hilt and hangers of the new fashion.’ The same word occurs in the eleventh Iliad , as translated by Chapman: ‘The seaberd was of silver plate, with golden hangers graet.’ Mr. Pope mistook the meaning of this term, conceiving it to signify—short pendulous broad swords . ‘”

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

3619 hangers ]

1819 cald1

cald1 = v1813 (minus “Rhodon and Iris” // and “Iliad” //)

3619 hangers ]

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813 (arranged as MAL ; v1793 ; v1803)

3619 hangers ]

1826 sing1

sing1

3618 hangers] Singer (ed. 1826) : “Hangers, that part of the belt by which the sword was suspended.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

3619 hangers ]

1833 valpy

valpy = sing1 w/o attribution

3618 hangers]

1845 gents

Mitford

3619 hanger] Mitford (1845, p. 131): <p. 131>“See Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour, Act. I. s.4, ‘I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, which I assure you both for fashion and workmanship was most peremptory, beautiful, and gentlemanlike.’” </p. 131>

1854 del2

del2 : standard

3618 hangers] Delius (ed. 1854) : “girdle, hangers and so= Gürtel, Gehänge und so ferner, bilden eben den Zubehör (assigns, wie der affectirte Osrick sagt), zu den Dolchen und Rapieren.” [Girdles, hangers, and so forth, constitute even the fittings (assigns , as the affected Osrick says) for the daggers and rapiers.]

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1

3619 hangers ]

1864 ktly

ktly : standard

3618 hangers] Keightley (ed. 1864 [1866]: Glossary): “that part of the girdle or belt by which the sword was suspended.”

1864-68 c&mc

c&mc

3618 hangers] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864-68, rpt. 1874-78): “Those portions of the girdle or belt by which the sword is suspended.”

1865 hal

hal : v1821 (arranged as v1793 ; v1803 ; mal) + magenta underlined

3618 hangers] Steevens (apud Halliwell, ed. 1865) : “Under this term were comprehended four graduated straps, &c. that hung down in a belt on each side of its receptable for the sword. I write this, with a most gorgeous belt, at least as ancient as the time of James I. before me. It is of crimson velvit embroidered with gold, and had belonged to the Somerset family.” In Massinger’s Fatal Dowry , Liladam, (who when arrested as a gentleman, avows himself to have been a tailor,) says ‘—This rich sword Grew suddenly out of a tailor’s bodkin; These hangers from my vails and sees in hell: ‘&c. i.e. the tailor’s hell ; the place into which shreds and remnants are thrown. So in The Birth of Merlin , 1662 ‘He has a fair sword, but his hangers are fallen.’ Again, in Rhodon and Iris , 1631: ‘—a rapier Hatch’d with gold, with hilt and hangers of the new fashion.’ The same word occurs in the eleventh Iliad , as translated by Chapman: ‘The seaberd was of silver plate, with golden hangers graet.’ Mr. Pope mistook the meaning of this term, conceiving it to signify—short pendulous broad swords . ‘ STEEVENS”

hal : v1821 (arranged as v1793 ; v1803 ; mal) + magenta underlined

3618 hangers] Malone (apud Halliwell, ed. 1865) : “i.e. and so forth. The word hangers has been misunderstood. That part of the girdle or belt by which the sword was suspended, was in our poet’s time called the hangers . See Minsheu’s Dictionary, 1617: ‘The hangers of a sword. G. Pendants d’espée, L. Subcingulum,’ &c. So, in an Inventory found among the papers of Hamlet Clarke, an attorney of a court of record in London in the year 1611, and printed in The Gentleman’s Magazine , Vol. LVIII, p. 111: ‘Item , One payre of girdle and hangers , of silver purle , and cullored silke. Item , One payre of girdler and hangers upon white sattene.’ The hangers ran in an oblique direction from the middle of the forepart of the girdle across the left thigh, and were attached to the girdle behind. MALONE”

hal : v1821 (arranged as v1793 ; v1803 ; mal) + magenta underlined

3618 hangers] Halliwell (ed. 1865) : ‘The hanger,’ observs Mr. Fairholt, ‘was a broad piece of leather cut into straps and decorated with stitched work, which was hung to the girdle by a hook and through which the sword was suspended. It was an improvement on the older fashion of thrusting the sword through the girdle, inasmuch as sword and hanger could be unlooked and detached immediately. It was a fashion that began and was very extensively adopted in Elizabeth’s reign, and the portraits of gentlemen and warriors of that period exhibit many examples of highly-enriched hangers, formed of velvet and deocratd with gold and silver lace, or needlework. The entire apparatus for securing the sword to the soldier’s waist, is best shown in our engraving, which is copied from a sculpture in the palace of the old Dukes of Burgundy at Dijon. It is one of two swords on each side the staircase leading to the Hall of Justice there. The hanger is attached by a hook, and the various hooks and rings used in securing it is very clearly shown [illustration]. It is the best example extant of this peculiar fashion and was sketched from the original in August, 1857.’”

1869 tsch

tsch

3618-19 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Kampfwetten sind urgermanischer Brauch. Schon Thor wetter mit Hrungnir und Thrymr. So Thorsteins Wette mit dem Berserker Moldi in der Svarfdoelasaga, bei Dietrich Altn. Lesb. p. 296.16.—3 mörkum silfrs skal sik af holmi leysa sâ er sârr verdr e[[th]]r ûvîgr. [[Th]]orsteinn segir: [[Th]ô [[t]]har liggi 6 merkr, heldr enn 3, [[th]]â [[th]]ikki mer [[th]]uî betr, sem ek tekr meira. Mit 3 Mark Silber soll sich vom Kampfplatz lösen, der welcher verwundet oder kampfunfähig wird. Thorstein sagt: Wenn dann lieber 6 Mark gesetzt würden, als 3, so dünkte es mich um so besser, als ich mehr davontrüge.” [Fighting wagers are not Germanic custom. Thor already bets with Hrungnir and Thrymr. So Thorstein’s bet with the Berserker Moldi in the [[saga?]] by Dietrich Aln. Leseb. p. 296. 16—. With 3 Marks silver, whoever becomes wounded or disabled should surrender the battlefield. Thorstein says: If then the 6 Marks placed would be dearer than 3, so it is thought better by me that I carry away more.”]

1872 del4

del4 = del2

3618 hangers

1872 cln1

cln1

3618 assignes] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “appendages, belongings.”

cln1 : standard (v1821?)

3618 hanger] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “the straps by which the sword was attached to the girdle. Florio (Italian Dict.), among other meanings of “Pendente,’ gives ‘a paire of hangers for a rapier.’ Steevens quotes Chapman’s Homer, Iliad, xi. 27: ‘The scabbard was of silver-plate, with golden hangers grac’d.’”

1873 rug2

rug2 ≈ standard

3623 hangers] Moberly (ed. 1873): “Straps pendent from a sword-belt.”

1877 v1877

v1877 : v1803 (steevens)

3619 hangers ] Steevens (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “Under this term were comprehended four graduated straps by which the sword was attached to the girlde. See Chapman’s Iliad, xi, 27: ‘The scaberd was of silver-plate, with golden hangers grac’d.’”

3619 hangers ] Furness (ed. 1877): “Knight and Halliwell give pictorial illustrations.”

1882 elze2

elze2

3618 Poynards] Elze (ed. 1882): “B. Jonson (ed. 1616, p. 174): poinards.”

elze2

3619 hanger and] Elze (ed. 1882): [Q1] and [F1] agree with respect to hangers, [Q1] and [Q2] with respect to and; hanger, in the text, is a misprint.—How sumptuous the hangers used to be, is shown by a passage in Dekker’s Honest Whore, Part II, IV, I (Middleton, ed. Dyce, III, 196): ‘I could feast ten good fellows with those hangers.’”

1885 macd

macd ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

macd ≈ standard

3619 hangers ]

macd

3619 and so] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “or so]] The ‘or so’ seems to indicate that Osricke regrets having used the old-fashioned word, which he immediately changes for carriages.”

1889 Barnett

Barnett : standard

3618, 19 assignes] Barnett (1889, p. 63): <p. 63>“belongings.” </p. 63>

Barnett : standard

3618, 19 hanger] Barnett (1889, p. 63): <p. 63> “the straps and pendents.” </p. 63>

1890 irv2

irv2 : standard

3618, 19 hanger] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “straps by which the sword was attached to the girdle.”

irv2 : v1821 (Steevens) ; elze

3618, 19 hanger] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Boyer, French Dictionary, has: ‘The hangers of a belt, Les pendans d’un baudrier, ou du’un ceinturon, les parties qui pendent au bas du baudrier & au travers desquelles on passe l’epée.’ Steevens compares Chapman’s Iliad, c.xi: ‘The scaberd was of silver plate, with golden hangers grac’d.’ Elze quotes Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part II. iv.1: ‘I could feast ten good fellows with those hangers,’ as a proof of the cost and sumptuousness of them.’”

1899 ard1

ard1 : standard

3618, 19 assignes] Dowden (ed. 1899): “appurtenances. No other example of this sense in New Eng. Dict.”

ard1 : standard + magenta underlined

3618, 19 hanger] Dowden (ed. 1899): “straps by which the rapier hung from the girlde—often richly ornamented, as that described by Jonson’s Matthew (Every Man in his Humour, i.iv.), ‘a hanger . . . both for fashion and workmanship . . . most peremptory beautiful.’”

1905 rltr

rltr : standard (poss. cln1)

3618, 19 assignes]

rltr : standard (poss. cln1)

3618, 19 hanger]

1906 nlsn

nlsn : standard

3618 hanger] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)

nlsn : standard

3618, 19 assignes] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)

1931 crg1

crg1 ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1934 Wilson

Wilson

3618 hanger] Wilson (1934, 1:133) sees the compositor as realizing that hanger needed an s.

3618 hanger] Wilson (1934, 2:238-39): <p. 238> “The Q2 ‘hanger’ at [3618] is also incorrect, since the </p. 238> <p. 239> context ‘as girdle, hanger and so’ clearly shows that the plural is intended, seeing that to each girdle two ‘hangers’ were attached.” </p. 239>

1934 cam3

cam3

3618-19 as girdle, hanger and so] Wilson (ed. 1934): “We should now say ‘as the girdle, the hangers, and so on.’ Each rapier had its girdle, with hangers attached, i.e. straps from which the weapon was hung; and fantastic fops, especially those wearing long rapiers (cf. note l. 263 [3724-25] below) attached grat importance to these hangers or ‘carriages.’”

cam3

3618, 19 assignes] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “appendages. Affected; Osric is perhaps thinking of ‘heirs and assigns.’”

cam3 : standard

3618 hanger] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary):

1934 rid1

rid1 : standard

3618, 19 assignes] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):

rid1 : standard

3618 hanger] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):

1939 kit2

kit2 ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

kit2 ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):

kit2 ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1938 parc

parc ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

parc ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1942 n&h

n&h ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

n&h ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1947 cln2

cln2 ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

cln2 ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1951 alex

alex ≈ standard

3618 hanger] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary)

1951 crg2

crg2=crg1

3618 hanger]

1974 evns1

evns1 ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

evns1 ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1957 pel1

pel1 : standard

3618, 19 assignes]

pel1 : standard

3618 hanger]

1970 pel2

pel2=pel1

3618, 19 assignes]

pel2=pel1

3618 hanger]

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

pen2 ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

pen2

3618 as] Spencer (ed. 1980): “such as.”

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

ard2 Linthicum ; contra Wilson (MSH) : PR) E 178/40006

3618 hanger] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “‘Attached to a man’s girdle was the hanger, which consisted of one or two straps and a plate or pad to which was buckled the scabbard of the sword’ ((Linthicum, p. 265)). The sense often prompts but ((contrary to MSH, pp. 238-9)) does not necessitate the plural form. Cf. Inventory of goods of John Grant ((PEO, E 178/40006)), ‘Item, one horseman’s coat, booh-hose, mittens, girdle and hanger’; Every Man in his Humour, I.v.81; Marston, What You Will, v.i.40.”

1984 chal

chal : standard

3618 Poynards]

chal : standard

3618, 19 assignes]

chal : standard

3618 hanger]

1985 cam4

cam4 ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

cam4 ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

cam4

3618 Poynards] Edwards (ed. 1985): “daggers.”

cam4

3619 and so] Edwards (ed. 1985): “and so on.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ standard OED

3618, 19 assignes] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “OED sb.2 3, citing no other instance)).”

oxf4 ≈ standard +

3618 girdle, hanger] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “For further details about the way in which hangers were beautified and embroidered see the note on this passage in Jonson, ix. 357.”

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

3618 Poynards]

bev2: standard

3618, 19 assignes]

bev2: standard

3618 hanger]

bev2 : cam4

3619 and so]

1993 dent

dent ≈ standard +

3618 Poynards] Andrews (ed. 1989): “The spelling in the Quarto text probably reflects Elizabethan pronunciation.”

dent ≈ standard

3618 girdle

dent ≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

dent ≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1992 fol2

fol2≈ standard

3618 girdle

fol2≈ standard

3618, 19 assignes]

fol2≈ standard

3618 hanger]

1998 OED

OED

3618 Poynards] 1. a. A small, slim dagger. Now chiefly hist.

3619 hanger] OED hanger(2) 4 b. A loop or strap on a sword-belt from which the sword was hung; often richly ornamented. 1598 B. JONSON Ev. Man in Hum. I. iv, This other day, I happened to enter into some discourse of a hanger, which..both for fashion and workmanship, was most peremptory beautiful and gentlemanlike. 1599 MINSHEU, Talabarte, sword hangers. Tiros de espada, sword hangers. 1601 HOLLAND Pliny II. 483 Their sword-girdles, hangers, and bawdricks, gingle again with thin plates of siluer. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. V. ii. 157. 1648 Bury Wills (Camden) 217, I give vnto my nephew..my guilt wrought sword and the girdle and hangers to it. 1676 HOBBES Iliad (1677) 289 The boys with silver hangers were adorn’d And golden swords. [etc.]