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Line 706 - 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.

706 But this eternall blazon must not be	1.5.21

1773- Steevens

mstv1:

706 blazon] Steevens (1773-): “blazon, divulgation, publication.”

1791- rann

rann

706 blazon] Rann (ed. 1791-): “display, disclosure of the things pertaining to our eternal state.”

1813 Gifford

Gifford

706 blazon] Gifford (1813, ?:401), re Poetaster 1.1.? “They are blazoned there,” glosses “to blazon is to set forth a coat of arms in its proper colours . . . .”

1819 cald1

cald1 ≈ rann without attribution; + in magenta underlined

706-7 eternall blazon . . . blood] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Such promulgation of the mysteries of eternity must not be made to beings of a day. The term eternal is used with much license by our author. See ‘eternal cell.’ [3858]. Fortinbr.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 +

706-7 eternall blazon . . . blood] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “and [JC 1.2.160 (259)]. Cass. ‘eternal devil.’ [Oth. 4.2.130 (2839)]. Emil. eternal villain; and ‘eternal moment.’ [Wiv. 2.1.49 (594)]. Mrs. Ford.”

1832- mEliot

mEliot

706 eternall blazon] Eliot (1853-): “Why eternal? infernal?”

1860 Walker

Walker: cald // without attribution

706 eternall] Walker (1860, 1:62): “The following are instances of an inaccurate use of words in Shakespeare, some of them owing to his imperfect scholarship (imperfect, I say, for he was not an ignorant man, even on this point), and others common to him with his contemporaries. Eternal for infernal. [cites and quotes Ham. 706, JC 1.2.160 (259); Oth. 4.2.130 (2839); Ham. 3858]. This seems to be still in use among the common people. In two tales of Allan Cunningham’s (Ollier’s Miscellany, and London Magazine) I observe the exclamation, ‘Eternal Villain!’ I need scarcely notice the Yankee ’tarnal.”

1865 hal

hal = cald2

706-7 eternall . . . blood]

1870 Abbott

Abbott

706 eternall blazon] Abbott (p. 16 n) says that “eternal” used for “infernal” in 706 is among the exceptions to the rule: “Many of the words employed by Shakespeare and his contemporaries were the recent inventions of the age; hence they were used with a freshness and exactness to which we are strangers.”

1870 rug1

rug1 ≈ hal (perhaps by way of cald) without attribution

706 blazon] Moberly (ed. 1870): “This promulgation of the mysteries of eternity.”

1872 Wedgwood

Wedgwood

706 blazon] “To Blaze.—Blazen. 1. To blow abroad, to spread news, to publish. . . . 2. To portray armorial bearings in their proper colours; whence Blazonry, heraldry. . . .”

1872 cln1

cln1: standard gloss, cald (Oth. ref.), Wedgwood + in magenta underlined, Walker 1:62 without attribution

706 eternall blazon] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “revelation of eternity. It may be however that Shakespeare uses ‘eternal’ for ‘infernal’ here, as in [JC 1.2.160 (259)]: ‘The eternal devil,’ and [Oth. 4.2.130 (2839)]: ‘Some eternal villain.’ ‘Blazon’ is an heraldic term meaning description of armorial bearings, hence used for description generally, as in [Ado 2.1.307 (695).] The verb ‘blazon’ occurs in [Cym. 4.2.170 (2464)].”

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1; +

706 blazon] Moberly (ed. 1873): “‘A blaze’ is ‘a white mark upon a horse:’ whence ‘to blaze trees’ is to notch them with an axe, so as to mark the way back. To ‘blazon,’ therefore, means properly to mark out; hence ‘to reveal.’”

Ed. note: See n. 621+16 where Ritson (1783, p. 193) justifies star for scar, “, , , a term of farriery: the white star or mark so common on the forehead of a dark coloured horse is . . . usually produced by making a scar on the place.”

1874 Schmidt

Schmidt

706 eternall blazon] Schmidt (1874): “This account of things e, of eternity.” For 3858, he says, “Used to express extreme abhorrence.”

1877 v1877

v1877 = Walker 1:62 (minus all after the word contemporaries)

706 eternall]

v1877 = cald, Wedgwood, mob

706 blazon] Furness (ed. 1877): “wedgwood: 1. to blow abroad, to spread news, to publish. 2. To portray armorial bearings in their proper colours.”

1878 rlf1

rlf1: rug2; Abbott, p. 16; //s JC, Oth.; Schmidt +

706 eternall] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Cf. the use of eternal in the provincial dialects of the rest of England, and in Yankee slang (‘tarnal’).”

1881 hud3

hud3 ≈ cln1 without attribution + in magenta underlined

706 eternall blazon] Hudson (ed. 1881): “The Poet repeately has eternal in the sense of infernal, like our Yankee ’tarnel; and is probably the meaning here; though some think it means ‘the mysteries of eternity.’”

1885 macd

macd≈ cln1

706 blazon] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “To blason is to read off in proper heraldic terms the arms blasoned upon a shield. A blason is such a reading, but is here used for a picture in words of other objects.”

1885 mull

mull = cln1 (minus Oth. //)

706 blazon]

w/ attribution

1891 dtn1

dtn1 ≈ Skeat

706 blazon] Deighton (ed. 1891): “according to Skeat, is a corruption of blaze, in the sense of blaze abroad, proclaim, the final n being due (1) to M. E. blasen, to trumpet forth, and (2) to confusion with blazon in the purely heraldic sense.”

1899 ard1

ard1: standard gloss; ≈ Walker without attribution on alternative; ≈ cald on alternative without attribution

706 eternall blazon] Dowden (ed. 1899): “promulgation of eternity. But ‘eternal} was used by Shakespeare as an adjective expressing abhorrence,” and he refers to JC 1.2.160 (259), and Oth. 4.2.130 (); “possibly it has a like sense here.”

1904 ver

verity: standard gloss + in magenta underlined

706 eternall blazon] Verity (ed. 1904): “literally ‘blazon of eternity’—that is revelation of eternity, disclosure of the mysteries of eternity.’ The form of phrase is thoroughly Shakespearian; [. . . ].” He thinks mortall coyle is similar, meaning, according to his note for 1721, “turmoil of mortality.”

He also has interesting derivations in the glossary, which I am not now recording.

1905 Blackwood’s

Maxwell: Skeat +

706 blazon] Maxwell (1905, pp. 40-1): <p. 40> “Professor Skeat, whom it would be difficult to catch tripping, gives two different words—(1) blazon, a proclamation, to proclaim, which he assigns to an Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian source; and (2) blazon, to portray armorial bearings, from the </p. 40><p. 41> French blason, a coat-of arms. He quotes ‘Brachet’s Etymological Dictionary’ to the effect that, in the eleventh century, blason meant a buckler or shield. It may be so, though one may venture to doubt it; but, technically, to blazon never means ‘to pourtray armorial bearings.’ To do so in colour is ‘to display’ or ‘to limn’ arms; to draw them without colour is ‘to trick’ them. ‘To blazon,’ says Guillim, ‘is to express what the shapes, kinds, and colours of things born in Armes are, together with their apt significations.’ Ruskin had quite lost sight of the true sense when he wrote: ‘Their effect is often deeper when the lines are dim than when they blazoned in crimson and pale gold’ (‘Modern Painters’). It may be said that literature has no concern with the technical meaning of words; yet it conduces to understanding that words should not be misapplied. . .. Shakespeare, at all events, frequently uses the term blazon, and never in any sense but that of describing or proclaiming. [quotes Ado, and Oth.]; whereas the Ghost in ‘Hamlet’ alludes to oral communication— [quotes 698-706]. Modern usage may be held to sanction the use of this word to signify the illumination of arms; but Dr Johnson knew better than so to interpret it, for he cited Addison for the primary meaning of the verb being ‘to explain in proper terms the figures on ensigns armorial.’ . . .” </p. 41>

1910 dtn2

dtn2 ≈ Gifford, expanded with ≈ Guillin

706 blazon] Deighton (ed. 1910): “‘To blazon,’ says Guillin, ‘is to express what the shapes, kinds, and colours of things born in Armes are, together with their apt significations.’ To portray armorial bearings in colour is to ‘display’ or ‘limn’ arms: to draw them without colour is to ‘trick’ them (Sir H. Maxwell in Ed. Rev., July, 1905).” So Addison, ‘to explain in proper terms the figures on ensigns armorial.”

1917 yal1

yal1: standard

706 blazon] Crawford (ed. 1917): “Literally, to portray armorial bearings in their proper colors.” Eternal blazon = “revelation of eternity.”

1934 rid1

rid1g: standard

706 eternall blazon] Ridley (ed. 1934): “account of the other world”

1938 parc

parc

706 eternall blazon] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “revelation of eternity.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

706 this eternall blazon] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "this proclamation or disclosure of the secrets of eternity, i.e., of the world beyond the grave."

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

706 eternall blazon] Rylands (ed. 1947): "revelation of the secrets of eternity."

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

706 eternall blazon] Farnham (ed. 1957): “revelation of eternity.”

1957 pen1b

pen1b: standard

706 eternall blazon] Harrison (ed. 1957): “description of eternity.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

706 eternall blazon] Farnham (ed. 1970): “revelation of eternity”

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

706 eternall blazon] Spencer (ed. 1980): “revelation about what has been appointed for all eternity.”

1982 ard2

ard2: //s; expanded gloss

706 eternall blazon] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “depiction of the world beyond. A richly suggestive phrase. Eternal, referring to what is beyond mortal experience (contrast flesh and blood [707]), enhances the notion of dread (cf. JC 1.2.160, ’Th’eternal devil’). Blazon has the usual figurative sense (influenced by blaze) of publication loudly and at large, while retaining, from the literal meaning of a coat-of-arms on a heraldic shield, the idea of a vivid representation (cf. Son. 106.5, ’the blazon of sweet beauty’s best’).”

1985 cam4

cam4

706 eternall blazon] Edwards (ed. 1985): "promulgation of what belongs to the eternal world."

1987 oxf4

oxf4: Schmidt

706 eternall blazon] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "revelation of the mysteries of eternity. Schmidt notes that Shakespeare sometimes uses eternal ‘to express extreme abhorrence’, and cites [JC, 1.2.159-161 (258-60)], ‘There was a Brutus once that would have brooked Th’ eternal devil to keep his state in Rome As easily as a king.’ A blazon, originally a heraldic shield, or the description of such a shield, is here equivalent to a publication or proclamation."

oxf4

706 be] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "i.e. be made."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

706 eternall blazon] Bevington (ed. 1988): “revelation of the secrets of eternity.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

706 eternall blazon] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “description of that which is eternal”

1995 OED 2nd ed. on Internet

OED:

706 eternall blazon] 3 transf. Pertaining to eternal things; having eternal consequences. 1605 SHAKS. Ham. I. v. 21 This eternall blason must not be To eares of flesh and bloud. 1732 LAW Serious C. iii. (ed. 2) 44 He has liv’d without any reflection..in things of such eternal moment.

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard; //; xref

706 eternall] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “relating to the realm of the supernatural. Shakespeare often associates the word with ’infernal’, as in Cassius’ reference to ’Th’eternal devil’ (JC 1.2.158) and Emilia’s evocation of ’some eternal villain’ (Oth. 4.2.132). See also [3858].”

ard3q2: standard

706 blazon] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(1) itemized description, (2) public announcement”

ard3q2

706 be] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “be delivered”