Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
| 1425-6 Ham. I am but mad North North west; when the | wind is Sou- | |
|---|
1426 therly, I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw.
1747 warb
warb
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Warburton (ed. 1747): “This was a common proverbial speech. The Oxford Editor alters it to, I know a hawk from a hernshaw. As if the other had been a corruption of the players; whereas the poet found the proverb thus corrupted in the mouths of the people. So that this critick’s alteration only serves to shew us the original of the expression.”
1766-70 mwar2
mwar2
1426 I...hand saw] Warner (1766-70): “A common Proverb. Sr. T.H. reads Hernshaw; which as Mr. W. observes, only serves to shew us the original of the expression. But neither of the Gentleman have told us, what the word means, which is a Young Heron. But there needs no alteration. To know a Hawk from a Hand saw is a common Proverb in [text missing].”
1774-79? capn
capn
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Capell (1779-83 [1774] 1:133): <p. 133> “Instead of ‘
hernshaw,’ l. 8, editions have– ‘
hand saw,’ and ‘
handsaw;’ the one a mis-spelling of
hernshaw, the other a corruption of that mis-spelling: The speaker’s meaning, in that and the expressions before it, is– that opportunity did not serve for his purpose; when it did, it would be seen he had his right senses.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773+
1425-6 when the wind is Southerly] Steevens (ed. 1778): So, in Damon and Pythias, 1582: ‘But I perceive now, either the winde is at the south, Or else your tunge cleaveth to the rooffe of your mouth.’ Similarity of sound is the source of many literary corruptions. In Holborn we have still the sign of the Bull and Gate, which exhibits but an odd combination of images. It was originally (as I learn from the title page of an old play) the Bullogne Gate, i.e. one of the gates of Bullogne; designed perhaps as a compliment to Henry VIII, who took that place in 1544. The Bullogne mouth, now the Bull and Mouth, had probably the same origin, i.e. the mouth of the harbour of Bullogne.”
1784 ays
ays
1426 I...hand saw.] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “This was a common proverbial speech.”
1784 Davies
Davies: han, warb
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Davies (1784, p. 49): "Hammer has, I think, very properly, altered the word handsaw to hernshaw, notwithstanding Dr. Warburton’s observation, that the poet found the proverb thus corrupted in the mouths of the people. but will a prince, or a well-bred man, adopt the vulgarisms of the mob? Will a Westminster scholar say, for The Little Cemetery, The little Sentry, because he hears it so pronounced every day? Will a gentleman say, the Pee-aches in Common Garden instead of the Piazza in Covent Garden, because the market-people use that corruption?"
c.1790 mf4ttc
mf4ttc
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] mF4TCC (MS annotations in Trinity College Cambridge copy of F4, shelfmark H.18.12): <f. 306v> “The common Heron was formerly in England a Bird of Game, heron-hawking being a favourite Diversion of our Ancestors, that Laws were enacted for the Preservation of the Species, & the Person who destroyed their Eggs was liable to a Penalty of twenty Shillings for each Offence. Not to know the Hawk from the Heronshaw was an old Proverb taken originally from this Diversion; but in Course of Time serv’d to express great ignorance in any Science--In aftertimes this Proverb was absurdly corrupted to He does not know a Hawk from a handsaw.--This Bird was formerly much esteem’d as Food, & was valued at the same Rate as a Pheasant.”
1791- rann
rann
1426 when the wind is southerly,] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—when I find it expedient to exert my faculties.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785
1425-6 when the wind is Southerly] RITSON (apud ed. 1793): “The Boulogne Gate was not one of the gates of Boulogne, but of Calais; and is frequently mentioned as such by Hall and Holinshed.”
1813 gifford
gifford
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] GIFFORD (ed.
Massinger’s Complete Works, vol. 4) “[Gloss on ‘a hearn put from her siege’] <p. 140>: Cites
The Gentleman’s Recreation, p. 135: ‘Hern at Siege, is when you find a hern standing by the water side, watching for prey, or the like.’ Cites Spenser’s
Faerie Queen VI.7.9 ‘As when a cast of faulcons make their flight / At an hernshaw, that lies aloft on wing.’
1819 cald1
cald1
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “A common proverb. ‘Ignorat quod distant ëra lupinis.’ Hor. ‘He knows not a Hawk from an Handsaw.’ Langston’s Lusus poeticus, 12 mo. 1675, p. 26.”
1826 sing1
sing1
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Singer (ed. 1826): “The original form of this proverb was undoubtedly ‘To know a hawk from a hernshaw,’ that is, to know a hawk from the heron which it pursues. The corruption is said to be as old as the time of Shakespeare.”
1832 cald2
cald2: =cald1+
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Caldecott (ed. 1832): "a bird of prey, from that which it makes its prey: a hawk from a hern or
hernshaw; of which
handsaw was the corruption: and the phrase of the text is the form in which the common proverb ran.”
1839 knt1 (nd)
knt1 (nd)
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Knight (ed. 1839): “Handsaw--- the corruption in this proverbial expression of heronshaw--- hernshaw, a heron. In Spenser, we have ‘As when a cast of falcons made their flight | At an hernshaw.’”
1843 col1
col1
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Collier (ed. 1843): “It is very likely, as Sir T. Hanmer suggested, that ‘handsaw ‘ is a corruption of hernshaw, i.e. a heron; but the expression, ‘I know a hawk form a handsaw,’ was proverbial in the time of Shakerapeare.”
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Collier (ed. 1843, penciled note in BM 134.f.1. Vol. 7, 249): ‘Hawk’ is a kind of hook in Oxfordshire & probably elsewhere (see Halliwell’s Dicty) and thus “hawk” and “handsaw” may have been in opposition without supposing any corruption in themselves.”
c1843 mcol
mcol : han
1426 I knowe a Hauk efrom a hand saw] Collier (ms. notes, ed. 1843): “It is very likely, as Sir T. Hanmer suggested, that ‘handsaw’ is a corruption of hernshaw, i.e. a heron; but the expression ‘I know a hawk from a handsaw,’ was proverbial in the time of Shakespeare.
“‘Hawk’ is a kind of hook in Oxfordshire + probably elsewhere (See Hallinwilles Dicty) and thus ‘hawk’ and ‘handsaw’ may have been put in opposition in henshaw.”
“mCOL [Collier’s MS note in BM 134.f.1. Vol. 7] : <p. 249> “Hawk” is a kind of hook in Oxfordshire & probably elsewhere (see Halliwell’s Dicty) and thus ‘hawk’ and ‘handsaw’ may have been in put opposition without supposing any corruption in themselves.”
1847 verp
verp
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “The original form of the proverb was, ‘To know a hawk from a
hernshaw;’ i.e. to know a hawk from the heron it pursues. The corruption was prevalent in the time of Shakespeare.”
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Hudson (ed. 1856): ’To know a hawk from a handsaw,’ was a proverb in Shakespeare’s time. Handsaw is merely a corruption of hernshaw, which means a heron. H."
1856b sing2
sing2=sing1+
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Singer (ed. 1856): “There is an old Italian proverb: ‘Saper discerner I Tordi da Stornelli’, for to know one thing from another.
1863 atkinson
atkinson
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Atkinson (1863, pp.721-22):<p.721> “In Mr. Donbavand’s Shakespeare emendations, in the
Athenaeum of the 21st instant, I think he is in error in stating that ‘
a heronshaw is a stuffed heron.’ The fact is,
heronshaw is synonymous with
heronry, the place where herons breed;
shaw being derived from
schawe, Dutch, or
scua, Saxon, which means a thicket or small wood. Shaw-bird, or show-bird, has no connexion with the hawk or the heron, but is merely an artificial mark for fowlers </p.721><p.722> to shoot at. One of the few heronshaws known in Engalnd is on the Earl of Yarborough’s estate, at Manby; and it is worthy of remark that, by the peasantry of the neighborhood, a single bird is called a
heronsew, hence Shakespeare’s line may have been written,—’I know a hawk from a heronsew.’ “
1863 donbavand
donbavand
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Donbavand(1863, p. 683):<p.683> “ Then again, ‘I know a hawk from a handsaw,’ is explained thus: ‘
Handsaw, the corruption on this proverbial expression of
heronshaw,
hernshaw, a heron.’ Now the true reading is:— ‘I know a hawk from a hawkshaw.’ that is, a real hawk from a sham hawk. A
hernshaw is not a heron. A
shaw is a
sham, and a
birdshaw is a sham bird. Mr. Knight may be told that a hernshaw is a stuffed heron.”
1863 husenbeth
husenbeth
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Husenbeth (1863, pp. 765-66):<p.765> “Though I have lived many years in Norfolk, I am not a Norfolk, nor an East of England man, and, on this account; probably, am the more observant of expressions peculiar to East Anglia. There is a heronshaw very near my </p.765><p.766>residence, and in Norfolk a heron is commonly called a
Harnsey, which Forby, in his ‘Vocabulary of East Anglia,’ explains as ‘a pretty obvious contraction, not to say a corruption, of the old name
Heronsewe,
Her’nsewe,
Harnsey.’ I do not think, however, that a
heronry is called here a
heronshaw; at least, I do not remember hearing one so called. Indeed, I have always had the imression that
Harnsey was a corruption of
heronshaw, and that both signified the bird exclusively.”
1863 mitford
mitford
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Mitford (1863, p. 884):<p.884> “ The following passage from the ‘Fairy Queen’ (B. 6, c. 7, v.9) seems to show distinctly that Shakespeare, in the passage in dispute, wrote
herneshaw, and not
handsaw, as it is commonly printed:—’As when a cast of falcons make their flight At an herneshaw, that lies aloft on wing, The whiles they strike at him heedless might, The wary-fowl his bill doth backward wring; On which the first, whose force her first doth bring, Hereself quite through the body doth engore, And falleth down to ground lie senseless thing: But the other, not so swift as she before, Fails of her souse, and passing by doth hurt no more’.”
1865 c.w.h.
c.w.h.
1426 I know a hawk from a handsaw] C.W.H. (1865, p. 928). “An ingenious friend suggests the following explanation of a difficulty in ‘Hamlet’: “The passage in ‘Hamlet,’ ‘I know a hawk from a handsaw’ or as corrected, ‘I know a hawk from a hernshaw,’ has greatly puzzled commentators. Is not this the true explanation? Among the ancient Egyptians the hawk signified the Etesian, or northerly wind (which, in the beginning of summer, drives the vapous towards the south, and which, covering Ethiopia with dense clouds, there resolves them into rains, causing the Nile to swell), because that bird follows the direction of that wind (Job xxxix. 26). The heron, or hern, or hernshaw, signified the southerly wind, because it takes its flight from Ethiopia into Higher Egypt, following the course of the Nile as it retires within its banks, and living on the smalle worms hatched in the mud of the river. Hence the heads of these two birds may be seen surmounting the canopi used by the ancient Egyptians to indicate the rising and falling of the Nile respectively. Now Hamlet, though feigning madness, yet claims sufficient sanity to distinguish a hawk from a hernshaw when the wind is southerly, that is, in the time of the migration of the latter to the north, and when the former is not to be seen. Shakspeare may have become acquainted with the habits of these migrating birds of Egypt through a translation of Plutarch, who gives a particular account of them, published in the middle of the sixteenth century, by Thomas Nash.”
1865 hal
hal
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “This is a very old proverbial saying, in which the term handsaw is generally supposed to be a corruption of hernshaw, but no evidence in support of this conjecture has been produced, the phrase always occurring in the form given in the text. It is not necessary to believe that the supposition is correct, the wildest incongruities being often found in proverbial phrases of this description.”
1865 msmith [or mheath ?]
msmith
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] mSMITH (TCC MS. b.60.F90 Letter from [?] Smith 28 June 1865 to W. W. Wright, including a note on Hamlet by J. C. Heath glossing north-north West): <f. 1r>“The expression obviously refers to the sport of hawking. Most birds, especially one of heay flight like the heron, when roused by the falconer or his dog, would fly down or with the wind in order to escape. When the wind is from the north the heron flies towards the South, and the spectator may be dazzled by the sun, and be unable to distinguish the hawk from the heron. On the other hand, when the wind is southerly, the heron flies towards the north, and it and the pursuing hawk, are clearly seen by the sportsman, who then has his back to the sun, an without difficulty knows the hawk from the heronsaw. A curious reader may further observe that a wind from the precise point, North-north-west, would be in the eye of the sun at half past ten in the forenoon, a likely time for hawking.”
1867 j.a.g.
j.a.g.
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] J.A.G (1867, pp. 3-4): <p. 3>“As I can find no explanation of this proverb, I will attempt one, by reading
anser for
hand-saw. ‘I know a hawk from an
anser,’ or goose, this being the generic name for our domestic waterfowl. In the ignorant mouth it soom became
handser (converying
no meaning), and at last
handsaw, bearing a very inadequate one. Had the expression occurred in a speech of the forgetful </p. 3> <p. 4>and garrulous, but still shrewd old man, Polonius, we might have understood that he know the difference between Hamlet the royal bird, when himself, and ths silly fowl that love had now likened him to. As it is, we understand that he advises his friend that he is only made for the nonce, as it suits him: and when he chooses to be sane, he can distinguish differences as well as another.”
1867 ktlyn
ktlyn
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Keightly (1867, p. 290): “The proper word is hernshaw: but the phrase may, as was not unusual, have undergone a change.”
1869 Romdahl
Romdahl
1426 hand saw] Romdahl (1869, p. 26): “Handsaw is a corruption of heronshaw, or hernshaw = heron; Fr. héronceau, héronneau = a young heron. Not to know a hawk from a handsaw was an old proverb taken originally from heron-hawking, a favourite sport in old England; but in the course of time it came to mean, great ignorance in any matter whatever.”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1
1426 I know a Hauke, from a hand saw] Hudson (ed. 1872): “ ‘To know a hawk from a handsaw’ was a proverb from S.’s time. Handsaw is merely a corruption of hernshaw, which means a heron.”
1878 Bulloch
Bulloch
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Bulloch (1878, pp. 225-6): <p. 225> “Nor, the question arises--is this word ‘handsaw’ really the well-known implement which everyone knows, and if so, may not the word ‘hawk,’ or as it is printed
hawk in the original be some other in a disguised form?
“The two emendations noticed refer to a bird of the
heron class, or to its place of breeding. Caldecott in ‘Notes on </p. 225><p. 226> Hamlet’ says that this expression is a common proverb, and quotes the following form--’He knows not a hawk from a handsaw’ from Langston’s
Lusus Poeticus, 1675. But may not this saying have originated from the play, as well as Hamlet’s saying from the proverb?
“Norwithstanding the weight of authority I am inclined to think there is an error in the passage. Hamlet, though counterfeiting madness, did not talk as an idiot, and the comparison between a bird and an implement of handicraft is not at all likely. Polonius truly observes in a previous case, ‘Though this be madness there’s method in’t’.
“It is a curious circumstance that the early Quarto of 1603 does not contain the passage in hand, and that same year the troop of London players were in Aberdeed, and the work required had been picked up and found its way into the text of the second Quarto and all otehrs, but in a pisprinted form. The two words would seem to have been implements, and the passage will read as follows-- ‘I am but mad notrh-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hake from a handsaw.’
“A hake is a triangular piece of household furniture for handing fish upon, often out of doors in olden times, with wooden pegs on two cross ribs; and may have been likened to the joiner’s tool, and became a joke for the occasion.”</p. 226>
1881 hud2
hud2=hud1+
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Hudson (ed. 1881): “It appears that
handsaw was a corruption of
hernsew, meaning what we call
heron. Probably our best explanation of the text is from Mr. J. S. Heath, as quoted by Mr.
Furness in his
Variorum: ‘The expression obviously refers to the sport of hawking. Most birds, especially one of heavy flight like the heron, when roused by the falconer or his dog, would fly down or with the wind, in order to escape. When the wind is from the North, the heron flies towards the South: and the spectator may be dazzled by the Sun, and be unable to distinguish the hawk from the heron. On the other hand, when the wind is southerly, the heron flies towards the North, and it and the pursuing hawk are clearly seen by the sportsman, who then has his back to the Sun, and without difficulty knows the hawk from the hernsew. A curious reader may further observe that a wind from the precise point north--north--west would be in the eye of the Sun at half--past ten in the forenoon, a likely time for hawking, whereas
southerly includes a wider range of wind for a good view.’”
1890 irv
irv
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw]
Symons (in
Irving &
Marshall ed. 1890): “F. A. Marshall, Study of Hamlet, pp. 187, 188, has the following note on this passage: ‘No adequate explanation of this passage appears to me to be offered by any of the commentators: the proverb ‘he doesn’t know a hawk from a hernshaw,’ that is, from a heron, is said to have been a common one, and is found in Ray’s Proverbs, p. 196, and in other collections; but the only passage quoted is from Langston’s ‘Lusus Poeticus,’ 1675 (see Pennant’s British Zoology, ‘The Heron,’ quoted in
Richardson’s Dictionary,
sub voce Heron). The corruption of
hernshaw into
handsaw may have originated in a vulgar mistake, or in a stupid attempt to be funny on the part of some person.
“‘Of the first part of this, in all the old commentators, I can find no explanation, and yet I cannot help thinking that the words ‘I am but mad north-north west’ must have had some inner meaning, or conveyed a reference to some well-known expression. The only attempt to throw any light on this obscure passage is to be found in the Notes to the ‘Clarendon’Hamlet (Oxford, 1872); and for this explanation the editors acknowledge their indebtedness to Mr. J. C. Heath, formerly Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. I take leave to insert it here: -‘The expression obviously refers to the sport of hawking. Most birds, especially one of heavy flight, like the heron, when roused by the falconer or his dog, would fly down or with the wind, in order to escape. When the wind is from the north the heron flies towards the south, and the spectator may be dazzled by the sun, and be unable to distinguish the hawk from the heron. On the other hand, when the wind is southerly, the heron flies towards the north, and it and the pursuing hawk are clearly seen by the sports-man, who then has his back to the sun, and without difficulty knows the hawk from the hernsew. A curious reader may further observe that a wind from the precise point north-north would be in the eye of the sun at half-past ten in the forenoon, a likely time for hawking, whereas ‘southerly’ includes a wider range of wind for a good view.’
“‘This explanation is very ingenious; but I should like to have seen it supported by some passages from any of the books on Falconry to which Shakespeare might have access. I have always thought that Hamlet here meant to intimate to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he was only mad in one direction (i.e. before the King and the Court), and that possibly by some gesture he may have indicated his meaning. The hawk and heron are certainly as unlike as any two birds can be; the only point of resemblance between them being that they are both mischievous, for the heron is quite as destructive to fish as the Hawk is to game. In the proverb the sense undoubtedly is, ‘he does not know a hawk from its prey;’ and Hamlet’s meaning may be thus expressed: ‘I am not so mad but I know a knave from a fool, even if that fool be a mischievous one.’’
1899 ard1
ard1
1425-6 I am . . . hand saw] Dowden (ed. 1899): “I am mad only in one point of the compass. T. Bright, in A Treatise of Meloncholy (1586), mentions the south and south-east winds as the most suitable for sufferers from meloncholy (chap. xxxix.). Burtin gives other opinions. A southerly wind would, according to Bright, favour Hamlet’s sanity. North and northwest, we may infer, would be the most unfavourable. The word hawk was and is used for a plasterer’s tool, but no example has been found earlier than 1700. Hack,, however, is an Elizabethan name for a tool for breaking or chopping up, and for agricultural tools of the mattock, hoe, and pick-axe type (New Eng. Dict.). Hand-saw might suggest hack, for we find in 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 187, ‘My sword hackt like a hand-saw.’ It is, however, generally assumed that ‘handsaw’ here is a corruption of heronshaw or hernsew; ‘no other instances of the phrase (except as quotations from Shakespeare) have been found’( New Eng. Dict.). J.C. Heath (quoted in Clar. Press) explains: the heron flying down the norht wind is ill seen, the spectator looking south towards the sun; flying north, on a south wind, it can be easily distinguished from the hawk. Does Hamlet imagine the two courtiers as hawks loosed to pursue him? Elsewhere he compares them to huinters driving him to the toils. The Gentleman’s Recreation gives directions for the pursuit of a hern by a pair of hawks. The south wind is generally represented by Shakespeare as a wind of evil contagion. Does Hamlet mean that he can recognise the King’s birds of chase flying on an ill wind?”
1934a cam3
cam3
1426 I knowe a Hauke, from a hand saw] Wilson (ed. 1934): CAM3=CLAR, MADDEN, BRIGHT+ “One of Ham.’s pregnant quibbles. ‘Handsaw’ is generally taken as a corruption fo ‘hernshaw’ (=heron), but the word, occurring in both Q2 and FI, is textually very strong, and must be accepted as it stands. Moreover, ’hawk’ like ‘handsaw’ is the name of a workman’s tool, while the expression was doubtless proverbial and is actually included (in slightly different form) in Ray’s Proverbs (1768, p. 196), without any reference to Sh. Mr J. A. Barlow, then of the Ministry of Labour, first suggested this to me privately in March, 1924, and interpreted ‘hawk’ as a plasterer’s mortar--board, still in everyday use under that name. Dowden, I find, anticipates this suggestion, and offers as alternative ‘hawk’ or ‘hack,’ an Eliz. word meaning a heavy cutting tool of the mattock or pick--axe type (v. N.E.D. ‘hawk,’ ‘hack,’ sb. I), which both in weight and manner of operation would form a more appropriate contrast to the light neat--cutting ‘handsaw.’ Anyhow, we need not hesitate to take Ham.’s words as meaning on the surface, ‘I am only mad on one point; in other respects I have wit enough to tell chalk from cheese.’ Thus Ham. also implies that he has ‘an eye of’ his seeming friends and knows them to be birds of prey.”
1982 ard2
ard2
1426 I knowe a Hauke from a hand saw] Jenkins (ed. 1982): "As a proverbial phrase this is not recorded earlier, and so may be a derivative rather than a source of the present passage. But in any event it is a variation on a common type : Breton (Pasquil’s Foolscap, 1600) refers to one who ’doth not know a buzzard from a hawk’. Among examples in Apperson’s English Proverbs recorded from the early 15th century are ’to know not A from the gable-end’ (alternatively, ’from a windmill’), ’to know not a B from a battledore’ (or ’a bole foot’, later ’bull’s foot’). Cf. SAB, XVI, 29-32. Such phrases are commonly in the negative, implying a charge of stupidity, which Hamlet is therefore repudiating. Behind the hawk and handsaw are often seen (1) a metaphor from falconry, with handsaw plausibly regarded as a corruption of hernshaw or heronshaw (though Kokeritz will have it to be a ’regular development’ from Fr. heronceau with an excrescent d, RES, XXIII, 315-20) and/or (2) a collocation of workmen’s implements, with hawk explained as a plasterer’s tool (though the earliest instance in OED is 1700). Yet proverbs often delight to join incongruous items, and with hawk and handsaw, as with chalk and cheese, alliteration is quite as important as likeness or unlikeness. Later variations on Hamlet’s pairing include an amusing one found in A Burlesque Translation of Homer (1762, etc.), where Agamemnon tells the seer Calchas : ’I don’t believe, you mongrel dog, You ken a handsaw from a hog.’(2nd edn, I. 254-5) Hence it is not necessary to suppose that the phrase as used by Shakespeare, whatever the fact of its origin, envisages either two birds or two implements. From the double field of reference we may catch a hint that Hamlet sees in his schoolfellows both birds of prey and the King’s tools.
“Among other attempts to connect the two terms, the suggestion that Falstaff’s sword ’hack’d like a handsaw’ (1H4 II. iv. 161) led Shakespeare to hawk via a pun on hack appears far-fetched. It may be no more than a coincidence that in Bright (p. 61) the bird hawk and the saw are actually brought together into a contrast between two kinds of ’instruments’ - one dead and destitute of motion ’as a saw before it be moved of the workman and a ship before it be stirred with wind’, and the other lively and apt for motion ’as the hound to hunt with, and the hawk to fowl with’."
1425 1426
