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Line 663+1 - 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.

663+1 {The very place puts toyes of desperation}	1.4.75

1723 pope1

pope1

663+1-663+4 The very . . . beneath] Pope (ed. 1723): *The 4 following lines added from the first edition. ”

1747 warb

warb = pope +

663+1 toyes] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Toys, for whims.”

1753 blair

blair = warb

663+1 toyes]

1765 john1 R3

john1 = warb

663+1 toyes] Johnson (ed. 1765, 5:231), in a note for R3 1.1.60 (64), defines toys as “Fancies, freaks of imagination.”

1771 han3

han3 = john without attribution

663+1 toyes] Hawkins (ed. 1771, Glossary): “[fancies, freaks of imagination.]”

Ed. note: The brackets indicate a Hawkins addition.

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

663+1 toyes]

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773

663+1 toyes]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778 minus warb +

663+1 toyes] Reed (ed. 1785): “See [7:8 (i.e. R31.1.60 [64])]. Editor.”

1787 ann

ann = v1785 minus vol p + R3 1.1.60 (64)

663+1 toyes]

1790 mal

mal = v1778; ≈ Pope’s VN without attribution

663+1 toyes] Malone (ed. 1790): “This and the following lines are omitted in the folio. Malone.”

Malone reinstates the Warb. note;

1791- rann

rann = john’s R3 CN without attribution + SP

663+1 toyes] Rann (ed. 1791-): “freaks. — ‘suchlike toys.’ [R3 1. 1.60 (64). Clar.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = v1778

663+1 toyes]

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

663+1 toyes]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

663+1 toyes]

1819 cald1

cald1

663+1 toyes] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Of itself unaided, and without other or further suggestion, raises horrible and desperate conceits in the mind. The whole of this passage from the quartos, as well as the preceding lines, ‘Tempt to the dreadful summit of the cliff, That beetles o’er his base into the sea,’ shew the strong impression which this scenery had made upon our author’s mind. It is Dover Cliff again; or the same image, recalling that picture to our minds.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

663+1 toyes]

1826 sing1

sing1 = warb without attribution

663+1 toyes] Singer (ed. 1826): “i.e. whims”

1832 cald2

cald2 ≈ cald1

663+1 toyes] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “i.e. ‘of itself unaided, and without other or further suggestion, raises horrible and desperate conceits in the mind. The whole of this passage from the quartos, as well as the preceding lines, ‘Tempt to the dreadful summit of the cliff, That beetles o’er his base into the sea,’ shew the strong impression which this scenery had made upon our author’s mind. It is Dover Cliff again; or the same image, recalling that picture to our own.”

[1832-] 1853- mEliot

mEliot

663+1 toys] Eliot (1853-): “tricks? J. ‘tricks of desperation,’ Temp. 1.2. [Tmp. 1.2.210 (324)]”

Ed. note: This note in ink is at the top of the page and has no brackets around the J. The 57 refers to the page in the 1832 ed. that has the phrase from Tmp. The word tricks followed by [J] is also in pencil in the margin. The note at the top, therefore, may be by Lewes.

1845 Hunter

Hunter: warb, Harington (ed. Ariosto)

663+1 toys] Hunter (1845. 2:223-4): <p. 223> “Shakespeare alludes here to what many persons feel when on lofty heights, a desire of throwing themselves headlong. Warburton explains toys as whims. But Harington uses it in a sense closer to the sense it bears in this passage, as </p. 223><p. 224> equivalent to charms, deceptions. See his Notes on Ariosto, p. 119.” </p. 224>

1852 Delius

Delius

663+1 - 663+4 Delius (1852, p. 182): “Diese vier Verse, deren Inhalt der Dichter später sehr erweitert und umgearbeitet im King Lear anbrachte, wie er in den Julius Caesar, eine vielleicht deshalb nachher gestrichene Stelle aus der ersten Scene des Hamlet ausnahm, fehlen vielleicht aus ähnlichem Grunde hier in der Fol.” [These four verses, whose content the poet later used in [Lr. 4.6.11ff (2446ff)] in an expanded and reworked form (as he brought into [JC 2.2.18ff (1005ff) a passage from the first scene of Hamlet [124+6ff], which was later left out [in F1] perhaps for that reason), are missing perhaps for similar reasons here in the Folio.]

Ed. note: Most commentators place Ham after JC.

1854 del2

del2

663+1 toyes] Delius (ed. 1854): “toys of desperation sind Einfälle, Grillen, die wahnsinnig machen können.—Die vier Verse fehlen in der Fol.” [toys of desperation are whims, notions that desperation can give rise to. —The four lines are missing in the folio.]

1856 hud1

hud1 toys = sing1 without attribution

663+1 toyes]

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1 +

663+1 toyes] Singer (ed. 1856): “See Harington’s Notes on Ariosto, p. 119.”

1858 col3

col3 = col1 +

663+1-663+4 Collier (ed. 1858): “This [663+4] and the three preceding lines are only in the quartos, 1604, &c. but the folios have no trace of them: such, as might be expected, is the case with the 4to, 1603, which however contains the disputed line with the expression, ‘sovereignty of reason’.”

1865 hal

hal = cald2

663+1- 663+4

1868 c&mc

c&mc: cald, john and others without attribution

663+1 toyes] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘desperate tricks of fancy,’ ‘desperate freaks of the imagination.’ See [R3 1.1.60 (64), n. 12].”

1870 rug1

rug1

663+1 toyes of desperation] Moberly (ed. 1870): “ Fancies of a desperate character: a desire to plunge headlong over the precipice.”

1872 cln1

cln1: sing without attribution

663+1 toyes] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “idle fancies.”

1872 hud2

hud2

663+1-663+4 Hudson (ed. 1872): “It was anciently believed that evil spirits sometimes assumed the guise of departed persons to do what is here apprehended of the Ghost, drawing men into madness and suicide.”

hud2 = hud1; cln1 without attribution

663+1 toyes] Hudson (ed. 1872): “whims or fancies.”

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1

663+1 toyes of desperation]”

1877 v1877

v1877: gloss = rann, john; Hunter (minus all but 1st sentence) + // Rom.

663+1 toyes] Furness (ed. 1877): “See ‘Inconstant toy,’ [Rom. 4.1.119 (2414)].”

v1877: Delius [see 1852 above]

663+1 - 663+4 Furness (ed. 1877): “Delius (Sh. Lex. p. 182): The substance of these lines Sh, afterwards introduced, much enlarged and elaborated, into King Lear, just as he introduced into Jul. Caes. a passage that had been erased from the first scene of Hamlet. This probably accounts for the omission of these lines in the Ff.”

Ed. note: Sh. Lex. p. 182. See bib of Dict. and bib. 1852

1881 hud3

hud3 ≈ rug2 without attribution

663+1 toyes] Hudson (ed. 1881): “freaks, whims, or fancies, here meaning any sudden mad impulse to suicide.”

1885 mull

mull: standard

663+1 toyes] Mull (ed. 1885): “fancies.”

1899 ard1

ard1 = del2

663+1-663+4

1899 ard1

ard1≈ hud3 without attribution; v1877 Rom. //

663+1 toys] Dowden (ed. 1899):

1929 trav

trav

663+1 desperation] Travers (ed. 1929): “active, here suicidal, despair.” He says that James VI of Scotland would have endorsed Horatio’s view; see Daemonology (1579).

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH: Furness on Delius +

663+1-663+4 Wilson (1934, p. 26) sees no particular reason (beyond abridgment) for the F1 omission of these lines and so thinks they must have dropped out of the promptbook, accidentally.

1938 parc

parc

663+1 toyes] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “whims, fancies.”

1939 kit2

kit2: F1 VN; Lr. // from Delius without attribution + in magenta underlined

663+1 - 663+4 Kittredge (ed. 1939): "The poverty of Elizabethan stage scenery made such descriptive passages necessary and thus incalculably enriched the drama. Compare the famous dfescription of Dover Cliff in [Lr. 4.6.11ff (2446ff)]."

kit2: standard

663+1 toyes of desperation] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "desperate fancies or impulses. Horatio refer to what is known as ’altitude fascinatuion’—the impulse to throw one’s self down from teh edge of a dizzy height. Cf. [Lr. 4.6.22ff (2457ff), and quotes]."

1947 cln2

cln2

663+1 toyes of desperation] Rylands (ed. 1947): "desperate impulses."

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

663+1 toyes] Farnham (ed. 1957): “fancies.”

1957 pen1b

pen1b: standard

663+1 toyes of desperation] Harrison (ed. 1957): “desperate fancies.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

663+1 toyes] Farnham (ed. 1970): “fancies”

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

663+1 toyes of desperation] Spencer (ed. 1980): “fanciful impulses leading to despair (and suicide).”

1982 ard2

ard2: //

663+1 - 663+4 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “ Cf.’the place’ described by Edgar, Lr. 4.6.11-24.”

ard2: xref; //

663+1 toyes] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “freaks, irrational impulses. Cf. 468 CN and Rom. 4.1.119, ’If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear Abate thy valour.’ 0√0”

1985 cam4

cam4

663+1 toyes of desperation] Edwards (ed. 1985): "whims of desperate behavior (i.e. suicidal impulses)."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

663+1 toyes of desperation] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "wild irrational impulses towards self-destruction. Compare [Oth. 3.4.155-7 (2312-14)], ‘Pray heaven it be state matters . . . And no conception nor no jealous toy Concerning you.’"

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

663+1 toyes of desperation] Bevington (ed. 1988): “fancies of desperate acts, i.e., suicide.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

663+1 toyes of desperation] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “desperate impulses”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: cam4; oxf4; xref

663+1-663+4 The . . . beneath] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “These lines are unique to Q2, Edwards argues that Shakespeare intended to delete them ’as confusing Horatio’s main point’ (Edwards 13-14), while Hibbard argues that they must be a deliberate cut because ’they have left no mark whatever on Q1’ and ’the excision is a neat one, affecting neither sense nor metre’. A similar thought is expressed by Edgar in Lr.: ’I’ll look no more/Lest my brain turn’ (4.6.22-3).”

ard3q2: standard

663+1 toyes of desperation] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “not just vertigo, but whims to behave desperately (in the context, these are impulses to suicide which are in fact frivolous or unjustified)”