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Line 917 - 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).

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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.

917 Pol. I, or drinking, fencing, swearing,	2.1.25

-1729 mtheo4

mtheo4

917 fencing] Theobald (-1729): “perhaps foyning and vid. Tearsheet in Harry 4th” [2H4 2.1.16 (629)].

See OED below for def. of Foining.

1744 han1

han1

917 fencing] Hanmer (ed. 1744, 6: Glossary): “to push in fencing.”

This gloss could explain Theobald’s conj.

1746 Upton

Upton

917-18 I . . goe] Upton (1746, pp. 341-2) <p. 341> considers 917-8 (through go] to be a “trochaic tetrameter catalectic of six feet, and closing with a trochee and a semiped, what the Greeks call [GREEK].”

“This dancing measure is very proper to the character of Polonius, a droll humorous old courtier; and the mixture of the trochaic has no bad effect. The verses are thus to be ordered. [Ham.

As are companions noted and most known

To youth and liberty. R. As gaming my Lord.

P. Ay or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarreling, drabbing, you may go

So far. R. My Lord, that would dishonour him. </p. 342>

1747 warb

warb

917 fencing] Warburton (ed. 1747): “an interpolation.”

1753 Blair

1753 = warb

917 fencing]

1765 john1

john1 = warb +

917 fencing] Johnson (ed. 1765): “I suppose, by fencing is meant a too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of violent and lawless young men.”

1768 cap

cap: see TNM; Capell introduces a change in lineation

917-18 The effect of Capell’s lineation change, placing quarreling at the end of 917, is to emphasize drabbing. But doubtless his purpose was simply to regularize the meter.

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

917 fencing]

1774 capn

capn

917 fencing] Capell (1774, 1:1:129 “Fencing” means—the drawing of swords in a quarrel, and skirmishing lightly. . . . ”

Ed. note: Capell attitude is surprisingly lenien.. See n. 922 also.

1778 v1778

v1778 = john +

917 fencing] Steevens (ed. 1778): “How fencing can be an interpolation, I know not. I find it in all the old copies.”

1784 Davies

Davies

917 fencing] Davies (1784, 3:35): “Fencing is here, I think, put, in our author’s phrase, for brawling or quarreling. A Fencer, in the days of Shakspeare, was generally understood to be one apt to be contentious and quarrelsome.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = john1 minus warb; minus Steevens v1778

917 fencing]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

917 fencing]

1790 mal

mal = v1785 +

917 fencing] Malone (ed. 1790): “Fencing, I suppose, means, piquing himself on his skill in the use of the sword, and quarreling and brawling, in consequence of that skill. ‘The cunning of fencers, says Gosson in his Schoole of Abuse, 1579, is now applied to quarreling: they thinke themselves no men, if for stirring of a straw, they prove not their valure uppon some bodies fleshe’”

MAL is quite capable of omitting WARB on his own, and does quite often.

1791- rann

rann

917 fencing] Rann (ed. 1791-): “duelling.”

This certainly cuts down on the others’ verbosity.

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

917 fencing]

no WARB, no Steevens v1778 [Cf. 2719+19] Notice how here and often Steevens defers to Malone, or copies Malone, rather than use what he had had in the note for this line before.

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

917 fencing]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

917 fencing]

1819- mcald

mcald = mal (minus Malone’s intro to Gosson quotation)

917 fencing]

1826 sing1

sing1 = mal (minus Malone’s intro to Gosson quotation) without attribution. The red and strike out show the only differences.

917 fencing] Singer (ed. 1826): “ ‘The cunning of fencers, says Gosson in his Schoole of Abuse, 1679, is now applied to quarreling: they thinke themselves no men, if for stirring of a straw, they prove not their valure uppon some bodies fleshe.’ — Gosson’s Schole of Abuse, 1579.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = sing1 but with attribution to Malone

917 fencing] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “‘Their cunning is now applied to quarreling: they think themselves no men, if, for stirring of a straw, they prove not their value upon some bodies fleshe.’ Gosson’s Schoole of Abuse, 1579. Malone.”

1854 del2

del2

917 fencing, swearing] Delius (ed. 1854): “Unter die erdichteten Fehler, die, als dem jugendlichen Uebermuthe entspringend, dem Laertes Schuld gegeben werden sollen, rechnet Polonius auch die zu Sh.’s Zeit von den jungen Herren mit leidenschaftlicher und thörichter Uebertreibung geübte Fechtkunst (fencing), den seinen Cavalier bezeichnende Gewohnheit des Fluchens (swearing). [Under the mentioned failings, which spring from youthful exuberance, those that would bring shame to Laertes, Polonius counts also fencing, praticed with passionate and foolish overzealousness, showing his Cavalier habit of swearing.]

1856 hud1

hud1 ≈ sing1 [i.e. Gosson] without attribution

917 fencing]

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1

917 fencing]

1868 c&mc

c&mc ≈ hud1 without attribution, a bit of del without attribution

917 fencing] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “This word, as here used, includes the liability to squabbling and brawling to which over-zealous cultivation of skill in the use of the weapon is likely to lead. [refers to and quotes from Gosson as in hud and others.]”

1877 v1887

v1877 ≈ warb; = john; ≈ mal + in magenta underlined

917 fencing] Furness (ed. 1877): “This is bracketed by Warburton as ‘an interpolation.’ Johnson: A too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of violent and lawless young men. Malone: I suppose it means, piquing himself on his skill in the use of the sword, and consequently quarreling and brawling. ‘The cunning of Fencers [[is now]] applied to quarreling.’—Gosson, Schoole if Abuse, 1579, p. 46, ed. Arber.”

1899 ard1

ard1: Middleton; Dekker

917 fencing] Dowden (ed. 1899) questions whether Polonius considers all Laertes’s peccadilloes to be equivalent to an addiction to fencing. He also discusses the ill-repute of fencers in Elizabethan drama, including M Middleton’s Spanish Gipsy 2.2; Dekker Gul’s Horn-Booke.

1901 gol

gol ≈ ard1 without attribution

917 fencing] Gollancz (ed. 1901) points out that fencers had ill reputes among players. He refers to Middleton’s Spanish Gypsy, 2.2, and to Dekker’s Gul’s Horn-Booke.

1904 ver

ver

917 fencing] Verity (ed. 1904): “in which Laertes, as we shall see and as Polonius probably knew, was thought to excel.”

1929 trav

trav

917 Travers (ed. 1929): “The ring of the line is trochaic. In traditional scansion, Ay forms one foot by itself. . . ”; the ending is feminine.

trav: standard

917 fencing] Travers (ed. 1929): Though good exercise in its own, it can lead to quarreling; and some fencers might be “sharpers” as well.

1939 kit2

kit2: standard gloss; standard Gosson analogue + page ref.; + Greene analogue

917 fencing] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Not discreditable in itself, but a valued accomplishment (see 3096ff]. The fencing schools, however, were frequented by wild young bloods, and to spend much time in such places might be a sign of dissipation. So Gosson [quotes]. . . fol 30r . . . . Cf Greene, The Debate betweene Follie and love, 1587 (ed. Grosarts, IV, 218): ’Hath not Follie inuented a thousand deuices to drawe a man from idlenesse as Tragedies, Comedies, Danciung schooles, Fencing houses, wrestling places, and a thousand other foolish sportes?’ "

1957 pen1b

pen1b: standard

917 fencing] Harrison (ed. 1957): “a young man who haunted fencing school, was likely to be quarrelsome and one of the sporting set.”

1982 ard2

ard2: standard

917 fencing] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “It is not really strange to find this traditionally noble art listed among the ’slips’ of the young. It completes a common pattern of wild living. Claudius will associate fencing with ’light and careless’ habits (3078. In The Debate between Folly and Love appended to Greene’s Card of Fancy it is joined with play-going, dancing, wrestling, ’and a thousand other foolish sports’ (Greene, 4: 218); Nashe in Pierce Penniless links it with dancing and tennis among the exercises of ’the unthrift abroad’ (1: 209); and Sir Andrew Aguecheek laments time bestowed on ’fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting’ (TN1.3.88). Gosson had complained that fencers were addicted to quarrelling (School of Abuse, ed. Arber, p. 46), and Dekker warned likely victims against being set on ’by fencers and cony-catchers’ (Gull’s Hornbook, Non- Dramatic Works, ed. Grosart, 2: 213).”

1985 cam4

cam4; Thomas Overbury

917 fencing] Edwards (ed. 1985): "i.e. spending time in fencing-schools. One of Sir Thomas Overbury’s ’characters’, An Ordinary Fencer, gives a scornful description of these places (1614)."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

917 fencing] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "Fencing was, of course, a much admired accomplishment in Shakespeare’s day, as Claudius makes plain at 4.7.83-91; but fencing schools had rather a bad name as ‘academies of manslaughter’, and so had professional fencers. See John Webster’s Character of ‘An ordinary Fencer’ (Webster, iv.27)."

1996 OED

OED

917 fencing] OED. Foin: 1. intr. “To make a thrust with a pointed weapon, or with the point of a weapon; to lunge, push.” The word is in use from the 14th to 19thc.

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: //

917 fencing] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “While the ability to fence was valued in young aristocrats in Elizabethan England, fencing schools were seen as a typical resort of the wilder kind of young men; see Sir Andrew Aguecheek’s regret: ’I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues [[languages]] that I have in fencing, dancing and bearbaiting’ (TN 1.3.90-2).”