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Line 499 - 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.”

7. Further information: See the Introduction for explanations of other abbreviations. Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.

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

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

499 “The chariest maide is prodigall inough	1.3.36

1736 Stubbs

Stubbs

499-502 Stubbs (1736, p. 19): “The Advice of Laertes to his Sister contains the soundest Reasoning, express’d in the most nervous and poetical Manner, and is full of Beauties; particularly, I can never enough admire the Modesty inculcated in these Lines: ‘The chariest Maid is prodigal enough. If She unmask her Beauty to the Moon.’”

1752 Anon.

Anon.

499-507 Anon. (1752, pp. 15-16): <p. 15> “This Play every where abounds with just, excellent and moral Precepts, which I cannot too warmly recommend to the serious Perusal and Consideration of every young Lady in Great-Britain; who, did they but seriously reflect, that each unguarded Word or Action, however innocent the Intention may be, is liable to be basely misrepresented by the designing Arts of malicious Slanderers, would have a greater Regard to their Conduct and Behaviour, than they seem to have at present. Their Universality and Power of this fashionable Vice is well described by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Philaster, or Love lies a Bleeding.‘O where is Honour safe? Not with the Living; They feed upon Opinions, Errors, Dreams, And make them Truths: They draw a Nourishment </p. 15><p.16 > Out of Defamings, grow upon Disgraces, And when they see a Virtue fortify’d Strongly above the Batt’ry of their Tongues, O, how they cast to sink it, and defeated, Soul-sick with Poison, strike the Monuments Where noble Names lie sleeping, ‘till they Swear, And the cold Marble melt.—’” </p. 16>

1765- mDavies

mDavies

499 chariest] Davies (1765-) writes: “The superlative is here put for ye positive—The cautious, careful & discreet Virgin.”

1773- mSteevens

mSteevens

499 chariest] Steevens (1773-): “most cautious, discreet.”

1773 gent1

gent1

499 chariest] Gentleman (ed. 1773): “The chariest—is the coyest—the most cautious.”

1778 v1778

v1778 ≈ mSteevens +

499 chariest] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Chary is cautious. So, in Greene’s Never too Late, 1616: ‘Love requires not chastity, but that her soldiers be chary.’ Again, ‘She liveth chastly enough, that liveth charily.’ Steevens.”

1784 Davies

Davies

499-500 Davies (1784, 3:13): “In the advice of Danaüs to his daughters, in the Suppliants of AEschylus, to guard against the inticements of youth, there are some lines, which bear a strong resemblance of Laertes’s instructions to Ophelia. ‘—I see your blooming age Inforcing soft desire. I know how hard To guard the lovely flowers that grace that season. The queen of love proclaims their opening bloom: Ah! would she suffer it to remain uncropt! For, on the delicate tints that kindling glow On beauty’s vermeil cheek, each roving youth With melting wishes darts the am’rous glance.’ [R.] Potter’s AEschylus.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778 subst.

499 chariest]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

499 chariest]

1790 mal

mal = v1785

499 chariest]

1791- rann

rann = john minus discreet

499 chariest] Rann (ed. 1791-): “The most cautious.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

499 chariest]

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

499 chariest]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

499 chariest]

1819 cald1

cald1: Steevens +

499 chariest] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “She who acts with due wariness, with the truest discretion, is dearest to herself, is &c. ‘Be charie of thy chastitie, which sutors seeke so shamefully.’ Peter Colse’s Penelope’s Complaint, 4to. 1590. Signat. G. ‘Sens by your meanes my life is become more deere unto me, I am muche more charie that it maye not be lost.’ Nic. Udall’s Erasm. Apopthegm. 12mo. 1592, fo. 221,b. ‘When a man hath a glasse of a brittle substance, and for the worth of great price and value, he is very chary and heedfull thereof.’ Nich. Breton’s Poste, &c. 4to. 1637. p. 2.

“Mr. Steevens [quotes his analogues]. We have chariness, [Wiv. 2.1.99 (641)] Mrs. Ford, and unchary, [TN 3.4.202 (1720)] Olivia, and ‘Diana too chary in her thoughts. Venus more charie of her face than her maidenhead.’ Greene’s Orpharion. 4to. 1599, p. 38.

1820 Bicknell

Bicknell

499 chariest] Bicknell (1820, p. 152n): “So in Beaumont and Fletcher’s ‘Faithful Friend,’ Act 3, Scene 1: ‘A desperate man That climbs a tower, whose top the wind ne’er touched, Must chary be, lifting his resolute foot; Or headlong down he comes.’“

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

499 chariest]

1826 sing1

sing1 = v1821 without attribution; cald1 without attribution

499 chariest] Singer (ed. 1826): “i.e. the most cautious, the most discreet. In Greene’s Never too Late, 1616: ‘Love requires not chastity, but that her soldiers be chary.’ And again:—‘She lives chastly enough, that lives charily.’ We have chariness in [Wiv. 2.1.99 (641)] and unchary in [TN 3.4.202 (1720)]

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 minus Wiv. parallel

499 chariest]

1833 valpy

valpy: standard

499 chariest] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Most cautious.”

1839 knt1

knt1 = standard

499 chariest] Knight (ed. 1839): “Most cautious.”

1854 del2

del2

499 chariest . . . prodigall] Delius (ed. 1854): “chariest steht dem prodigal gegenüber, wie Kargheit der Verschwendung.” [chariest contrasts with prodigal, as parsimony with waste.]

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1

499 chariest]

1866 dyce2

dyce2

499 chariest] Dyce (ed. 1866, Glossary, apud Furness, ed. 1877): “Most scrupulous.”

1868 c&mc

c&mc: standard

499 chariest] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘Most regardful of her honour,’ ‘holding her honour most dear.’ See [Wiv. 2.1.99 (641), n. 10].”

1870 rug1

rug1: standard gloss; + in magenta underlined

499 chariest] Moberly (ed. 1873): “Chary is the German ‘karg,’ niggardly. The meaning conveyed by the superlative is ‘a maid who is really far gone in chariness,’ that is, ‘one who is really chary.’ [. . . .]”

1872 Wedgwood

Wedgwood

499 chariest] Wedgwood (1872): “as, cearig (from cearian, to care), careful, chary. Du, karigh, sordidus, parcus, parcus, tenax.—Kil[ian, Dict. Teutonico-Lat.] g, karg, niggardly.”

1876 N&Q

Anon. [J. D.] ≈ rug on niggardly without attribution + local use

499 chariest] Anon. [J. D.] (5 N&Q 6 [18 Nov. 1876]: 405): “‘Chariest’ (5th S. vi. 345.)—Perhaps the meaning of Shakespeare will appear more clearly from the provincial use of this word. In the north and west of England chary means ‘sparing,’ ‘parsimonious,’ not, as our dictionaries generally interpret the word, ‘cautious’ or ‘sad.’ In Lancashire it was customary to say that a person was chary, i.e. sparing of his money, and in this sense it was almost exclusively used. Miss Baker has chary, sparing, careful.’ In meaning, therefore, it was the exact opposite of ‘prodigal.’ Shakespeare, then, appears to mean that the maid who was most sparing in her addresses during the day is prodigal enough of them, ‘if she unmask her beauty to the moon.’ I find, on consulting Bailey’s Dict. (1724) and Dyche’s (1758), that both explain the word as equivalent to ‘sparing.’ This meaning, then, was not provincial even so late as the middle of the last century. J. D.”

1877 v1877

v1877: DyceG, Wedgwood; rug minus 1st sentence, Hud3 minus last sentence

499 chariest] Wedgwood (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “Anglo-Saxon, cearig (from carian, to care), careful. Dutch, karigh, sordidus, parcus, tenax.—Kilian, Dict. Teutonico-Lat. German, karg, niggardly.”

v1877

499 chariest] Furness (ed. 1877): “ Hudson in his forthcoming ed. will read Th’unchariest maid’: ‘on the ground that ‘“chariest” gives altogether too weak a sense to suit either the character of the speaker or the occasion.’ Ed.”

1880 meik

meik: standard gloss; ≈ rug2 on Ger.

499 chariest] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “most careful or scrupulous. S. has also the phrase: ‘The chariness of our honesty’ = the scrupulousness of our honour. (The hard consonants, still found in H. Ger. Karg, have disappeared in chary.)”

1881 hud3

hud3

499 chariest] Hudson (ed. 1881): “The old copies read ‘The chariest maid.” This gives a very weak sense, and one, it seems to me, not at all suited to the occasion or the character. ‘The chary would be far better; but Laertes is apt to be superlative in thought and speech; and surely nothing less than unchariest would be intense enough for him here.”

1899 ard1

ard1= hud3; gloss

499 chariest] Dowden (ed. 1899) gives the Hudson (ed. 1881) reading, defining it as “the least reserved. ‘Chariest’ means entirely modest.”

1904 Thiselton

Thiselton

499 chariest] Thiselton (1904, p. 18) quotes passages from Daye’s “Daphnis and Chloe”(Jacobs) to throw light on chary in Sh.’s time. “These passages suggest that the word may carry three different meanings: ‘loving,’ ‘beloved’ or ‘dear,’ and ‘lovely.’

“Why should we not, then, interpret Polonius’ [sic] ‘The chariest Maid’ as ‘The most dearly beloved Maid,’ making ‘chariest’ equivalent to ‘la plus chérie’? Compare, perhaps, Shakespeare’s 22nd Sonnet: — ‘Bearing thy hert which I will keep so chary As tender nurse her babe from faring ill’ (11-2).

“Polonius’ meaning on these lines will be ‘A Maid, however dearly beloved, should not imagine she is so secure against being taken advantage of as to be safely to discover her beauty to her lover.’ While this seems the best explanation of the passage, it must be confessed that other interpretations are admissible: e.g., much might be said for ‘loveliest’ or for ‘most affectionate.’”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

499 chariest] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "most sparing; most cautious and circumspect."

1947 cln2

cln2

499 chariest] Rylands (ed. 1947): "most fasditious and modest."

Ed. note: see Century Dictionary, reachable from the hamletworks home page, for definition of chary.

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

499 chariest] Spencer (ed. 1980): “most cautious.”

pen2

499 prodigall inough] Spencer (ed. 1980): “quite sufficiently prodigal (if she does no more than unmask her beauty merely to the chaste moon, whose pale light will show little of it).”

1982 ard2

ard2:

499 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “This and 501, 502 are preceded in Q2 by the inverted commas which are often used in Elizabethan texts to signalize sententious sayings. So too 2762-5.”

ard2: analogue; //s

499 chariest] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “most modest. The general sense of chary as the opposite of prodigal combines with its particular sexual use. Cf. Rich, Apolonius and Silla (rpt. 1921, p. 79), ’I that have so charely preserved mine honour’; TNK 3.4.192, ’laid mine honour too unchary out’; Wiv. 2.1.87, ’sully the chariness of our honesty.’ ”

1985 cam4

cam4

499, 500, 501 Edwards (ed. 1985): "Q2 marks these lines with inverted commas, the signs of ’sentences’, or improving moral generalities--the ’saws of books’ which Hamlet later disavows. Laertes no doubt learned the trick of coining these sententious observations from his father. The tables are turned on him when, after these preachments to Ophelia, he is forced to listen to a battery of moral sentences from his father."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

499-505 Hibbard (ed. 1987): "In Q2 inverted commas are used at the beginnings of lines 36, 38, and 39 to show that the sentiments they introduce are of a proverbial and moralizing kind, commonplaces of the time."

oxf4

499 chariest] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "(1) shyest, most modest (2) most frugal (in displaying her charms). Compare [Wiv. 2.1.98-9 (640-1)], ‘I will consent to act any villainy against him that may not sully the chariness of our honesty.’ "

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

499 chariest] Bevington (ed. 1988): “most scrupulously modest.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

499 chariest] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “most careful”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: Dent

499, 501, 502 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “These lines are prefaced with double quotation marks in Q2, indicating that they are sententious or quasi-proverbial. Dent cites ’Envy (calumny) shoots at the fairest mark’ (E175) and ’The canker soonest eats the fairest rose’ (C56).”

ard3q2: standard

499 chariest] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “most cautious, shy”

ard3q2: standard

499 prodigall] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “extravagant, wasteful (also at [582]).”