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Line 704 - 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.

704 And each particuler haire to stand an end,	1.5.19

1726 theon

theon

704 an end] Theobald (1726, pp. 47-8): <p. 47> “Thus [on end] Mr. Pope writes this Passage, as it ought to be; whereas all the Editions, both old and modern, that I have seen, concurr in reading—stand an end, &c. And yet this Passage either </p.47 > <p. 48> seems to have been rectified by Chance, or some others, where the same Phrase recurs, have been revised with a strange Carelessness [ex. from Pope’s 2H6, 6:164 where he keeps an end] And so in Hamlet [2502] ‘Your bedded Hairs, like Life in Excrement, Start up, and stand an end.’ Whereas in both these Places, we likewise ought to restore it, —on end.” </p.48>

1774 capn

capn

704 an end] Capell (1774, 1:1:127): “ ‘an end’ is made—on end, by the moderns: but ease is destroy’d by it; the expression is frequent, and usage supplies an—on without seeing it.”

1819 cald1

cald1

704 stand an end] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “A common image of that day. ‘Standing as frighted with erected haire.’ Drayton’s Moses his Birth B.II. 4to. 1633.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

704 stand an end]

1857 dyce1

dyce1: theo without attribution; counter cap without attribution

704 an end] Dyce (ed. 1857, 1: ccxv), correcting an end in his text to on end, says, “The spelling of the old eds., ‘an end,’ goes for nothing, because our early editors have both ‘on end’ and ‘an end:’ so Chapman in his Homer; ‘Yet (fearing he had far’d much worse) the haire stood vp on end On Agamemnon,’ &c. Iliad. b. iv. p. 43. 3e. folio. ‘And to the earth his body fell: the faire stood vp an end On Ajax,’ &c. Id. b. xv. p.209.”

Ed. note: Though an end is not obscure, Dyce perhaps changed to the more familiar form to avoid the appearance of an archaism that would not have been apparent in 1600.

1866 dyce2

dyce2

704 an end] Dyce (ed. 1866): “So quarto 1603.—The other old eds. have ‘stand an end.’ —See note 120 on [2H6 a.s.l. (2033)] vol. v. p. 217.”

1866 Eastwood & Wright

Eastwood & Wright

704 an end] Eastwood and Wright (1866, p. 2, apud Furness, ed. 1877): “This prefix a- or an- is generally said to be a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon particle on- , but more probably the two are essentially identical, and only different dialectical forms of the same. In many instances the two forms remain side by side, as in aboard and on-board, aground and on ground.”

1870 Abbott

Abbott § 24: Nares, Halliwell [but not in the part quoted here]

704 an end] Abbott § 24. Adverbs with prefix a-: (1) Before nouns, In these adverbs the a- represents some preposition, as ‘in,’ ‘on,’ ‘of’ &c.contracted by rapidity of pronunication. As might be expected, the contraction is mostly found in the prepositional phrases that are in most common use, and therefore most likely to be rapidly pronounced. . . . “The a [E. E. an or on] in . . . adverbial words sometimes for euphony retains the n: [quotes 704].”

Abbott § 192

See also 951 and other Ham. ref. in § 24

704 an end] Abbott § 182: has a xref to 704 and § 24 but the main discussion is about o- for of > on before a vowel for euphony: “Worth six on him.”

1872 cln1

cln1: Abbott, Eastwood & Wright

704 an end] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “In such adverbs as ‘ajar,’ ‘asleep,’ ‘a-tiptoe,’ ‘a’ is an abbreviation of the preposition ‘on,’ and when it comes before a vowel, as here, it takes the n for euphony, See Abbott, § 24, 182. Compare ‘on brood,” [1822] of this play, and ‘on sleep,’ Acts xiii.36. See also Eastwood and Wright, Bible Word-Book, p. 2.”

Notice that cln1 exaggerates the claims of Abbott, who said a is an abbreviation of several prepositions, not just on. And that sometimes the n is added for euphony.

1877 v1877

v1877: Abbott §24, §182, xref. Eastwood & Wright (from cln1?) + quotation

704 an end] Furness (ed. 1877): “See . . . [585 (a making), 1528 (a worke), 1822 (on brood), 2503 (an end), and [Mac. 5.5.49 (2373)] (a weary)].

1877 dyce3

dyce3 = dyce2 minus vol.p for 2H6 note

704 an end]

1885 macd

macd: standard

704 an end] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “like agape, an hundred. [see adoores 996, an end 2503].”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

704 an end] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "on end."

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

704 an] Rylands (ed. 1947): "on."

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

704 an] Farnham (ed. 1957): “on.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

704 an] Farnham (ed. 1970): “on”

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

704 an] Spencer (ed. 1980): “on.”

1982 ard2

ard2:

704 an end] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “An is not just a variant spelling of on but the preposition a, the weakened form of O.E. on (cf. afire, afoot, 1528 awork [a work in Q2) with n retained before a vowel. So at 2503, R3 1.3.304 (F), 2H6 3.2.318 (F). See OED A prep.1, An-end phr. Most eds. accordingly retain an end but (inconsistently) modernize an edge (1H4 3.1.133, WT 4.3.7).” Ed. note: Jenkins takes a more decided view than Abbott and others, above.

1985 cam4

cam4: standard

704 an end] Edwards (ed. 1985): "Obsolete form of ’on end’."

1987 oxf4

oxf4: standard

704 particuler] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "individual, separate."

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

704 an end] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “on end”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: ard2

704 an end] on end Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Jenkins argues that Q2’s ’an’ is not a variant of ’on’ but the preposition ’a’ (as in ’afoot’ or ’awork’) which takes an ’n’ before a vowel.”