Line 775 - 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.
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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 775 And gins to pale his vneffectuall fire, | 1.5.90 |
|---|
1747 warb
warb
775 to pale . . . fire] Warburton (ed. 1747): “i.e. shining without heat”
1753 Blair
Blair = warb
775 to pale . . . fire]
1765 john1
john1 = warb
775 to pale . . . fire]
See CN 771 for remainder of Johnson’s note.
1773 v1773
v1773: contra warb
775 to pale . . . fire] Steevens (ed. 1773) disagrees with Warburton : it “rather means, fire that is no longer seen when the light of morning approaches.”
See CN 770-773 for the remainder of this note.
-1778? Tollet
Tollet
775 to pale . . . fire] Tollet (ms. notes, p.190): “See Urry’s Chaucer p. 368 ‘The Sterre paleth her white cheres by the flambes of the sun &c.’”
Ed. note: The exact quotation is from “The second Boke of Boethius, Metrum tertium: “ . . . the sterre dymmed paleth her white cheres by the flambes of the sonne that overcommeth the sterre light . . .” In Boethius, the image supports the contention that everything is changeable on earth, “nothing that is engendred is stedfast ne stable.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773, Tollet without attribution + in magenta underlined. He then returns to uneffectual as in v1773 and adds the // to Per.
775 to pale . . . fire] Steevens (ed. 1778): “To pale is a verb used by Lady Elizabeth Carew, in her Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: ‘—Death can pale as well A cheek of roses as a cheek less bright.’ Again, in Urry’s Chaucer, p. 368: ‘The sterre paleth her white cheeres by the flambes of the sonne, &c’ [then counter warb as in v1773.] So, in [Per. 2.3.43], 1609: ‘—like a glow worm,— The which hath fire in darkness, none in light.’ Steevens.”
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
775 to pale . . . fire]
1787 ann
ann = v1785 minus Urry
775 to pale . . . fire]
1790 mal
mal = v1785
775 to pale . . . fire]
1791- rann
rann ≈ Steevens v1778 def.
775 to pale . . . fire] Rann (ed. 1791-): “light without heat, expiring splendour.”
1793 v.1793
v1793 = mal
775 to pale . . . fire]
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
775 to pale . . . fire]
1807 Pye
Pye: v1803 +
775 to pale . . . fire] Pye (1807, p. 314): “That Steevens should be wrong [about uneffectual fire] is not extraordinary, but that Warburton should be right is very extraordinary. Between the notes of Warburton and Steevens, we find this note, without any name, on the verb to pale. ‘To pale is a verb used by Lady Elizabeth Carew in her tragedy of Mariam, 1613.’ This is like citing Anna Commena for the authenticity of a word in Homer.”
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
775 to pale . . . fire]
Get this directly from the copy, which I have down to order from ILL.
1819 cald1
cald1
775 to pale . . . fire] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Make dim: shew less distinctly a flame that never shot a beam to any efficient purpose.”
ECN 102, p. 37
1820 Bicknell
Bicknell: standard
775 vneffectual fire] Bicknell (1820, p. 156n): “Fire that glows without burning; which is fire only in its appearance, not in its effect.”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
775 to pale . . . fire]
1826 sing1
sing1: warb; ≈ Steevens without attribution
775 to . . . fire] Singer (ed. 1826): “Uneffectual, i.e. shining without heat. The use of to pale as a verb is rather unusual, but not peculiar to Shakspeare. It is to be found in Chaucer and our elder writers.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1
775 to pale . . . fire]
1853 Dyce
Dyce ≈ sing1 + in magenta underlined
775 to pale his vneffectuall fire] Dyce (1853, p. 139): “According to Warburton, ‘uneffectual’ means ‘shining without heat;’ according to Steevens, ‘that is no longer seen when the light of morning approaches.’ The former explanation is, I apprehend, the true one. Compare Nash; ‘The moral of the whole is this, that as the Estrich, the most burning-sighted bird of all others, insomuch as the female of them hatcheth not hir egs by couering them, but by the effectual raies of hir eies,’ &c. The Vnfortunate Traveller. Or, The Life of Jacke Wilton, 1594, sig. H 4.”
1854 del2
del2: standard
775 to pale . . . fire] Delius (ed. 1854): “to pale = blassmachen, ein seltnes Wort. Das Feuer des Glühwurms heisst uneffectual, insofern ihm der sonstige Wirkung des Freuers abgehen.” [to pale means to make pale, a rare word. The gloworm’s fire is called uneffectualbecause the sun checks the effect of the fire.]
1856 hud1
hud1 = sing1 minus all but warb, without attribution
775 vneffectuall]
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1
775 to . . . fire]
1857 dyce1
dyce1, Glossary = Dyce
775 vneffectuall]
1865 hal
hal = Steevens +
775 pale his] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “Speaking strictly, his should be altered to her, the female only giving the light.”
Ed. note: depending on the species, both can emit light; males more commonly fly. In any case, his stands for its.
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ cald without attribution
775 pale his vneffectuall fire]
Clarke &
Clarke (ed. 1868): “There is double signification included in this word; it means the glow-worm’s light, which shines without giving heat, and which no longer shows when morning appears.”
1870 Abbott
Abbott § 442
775 vneffectuall] Abbott (§ 442): “Un- for modern in-; in- for un-. (Non- only occurs twice in all the plays of Shakespeare, and in [Ven.] 521 [. . .]. We appear to have no definite rule of distinction even now, since we use ungrateful, ingratitude; unequal, inequality. [. . .] Un- seems to have been preferred by Shakespeare before p and r, which do not allow in- to precede except in the form im-. [. . .]”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1 (minus all but 1st sentence)
775 vneffectuall]
1877 v1877
v1877 = hal
775 pale his]
v1877: warb, Steevens, dyce Glossary, Abbott, Mac. // 4.3.123 [where he quotes from Abbott]
775 vneffectuall]
v1877: Douce, see n. 743
775 fire]
1879 Clarke & Clarke
Clarke & Clarke ≈ c&mc (and cald)
775 vneffectuall] Clarke & Clarke (1879, p. 796):
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2+
775 vneffectuall] Hudson (ed. 1881): “does not burn.”
1929 trav
trav ≈ cln1 on transitive use, without attribution +
775 pale]
Travers (ed. 1929) notes that the transitive is not unique to Sh.
1939 kit2
kit2: standard + analogues
775 his vneffectuall fire] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "its fire which gives no heat and which dies out entirely and becomes of no effect as soon as day dawns. Cf. The Distracted Emperor (ed. Bullen, Old Plays,, III, 170): "As uneffectual as the gloaworms fyer’; Nashe, Strange Newes, 1592 (ed. McKerrow, I, 260): "A number of Apes may get the gloowworme in the night and thinke to kindle fire with iit, because it glisters so, but, God wote, they are beguiled, it proves in the end to be but fools fire.’ "
1980 pen2
pen2
775 vneffectuall] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(becoming feeble as day dawns). The glow-worm’s fire contrasts imaginatively with the purgatorial fires to which the Ghost is about to return (lines 11-13).”
1987 oxf4
oxf4
775 pale] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "dim, make pale – Shakespeare’s only use of the word as a verb."
oxf4: // Per. v1778 without attribution
775 vneffectuall fire] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "i.e. fire that no longer gives light. Compare [Per. 2.3.43-5], ‘a glowworm in the night, The which hath fire in darkness, none in light.’ Shakespeare does not use uneffectual elsewhere."
1988 bev2
bev2: standard
775 vneffectuall fire] Bevington (ed. 1988): “light rendered ineffectual by the approach of bright day.”
1989 OED
OED
775 gins] OED: Aphetic form of BEGIN (in early instances perh. rather of ONGIN); in ME. chiefly used in the pa. t. gan, also in the form CAN v.2 In modern archaistic use sometimes written ’gin.]
770 771 775