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Line 1681 - 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 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

1681 Affront Ophelia; her father and my selfe,<(lawful espials)>	3.1.31

1746 upton

upton

1681 Affront] Upton (1746, p. 297) defines Affront in this line to illustrate Shakespeare’s use of foreign language words: “i.e. meet her face to face. Ital. affrontare.”

1752 anon

ANON. (1752, p. 24): “Affront in this Place has the same Signification with confront, meet, face, &c. from affrontare, Ital. The old Folio adds,” lawful Espials” which has been omitted in all the late Editions. Espial, now obsolete, is the same as Spie, and often used by Shakespeare in that Sense.”

1765 john1

john1

1681 Affront] Johnson (ed. 1765): “To affront is only to meet directly.”

1766-70 mwar2

mwar2

1681 Affront Ophelia] Warner (1766-70): “Affront i.e. Meet her face to face. vid. Iunius & Skinner ad voc. Ital. Affrontare. So Cymbeline pge. 70. [?]Act. 5. and in an old Play call’d The Vow-Breaker[?], or the fair maid of Clifton printed 1636, we meet with the word in the same sense. Act. 2. Young Bakman[?]— ‘Pale Monster in thy meagerest[?] aspect Come and Affront me.’ Again. Old Bakman[?] ‘How sensible Young Cedars are o’th’wind When as the aged Oak affronts all storms[?]’”

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1 +

1681 Affront] Steevens (ed. 1773): “So, in Ben Jonson’s Alchemist: ‘To-day thou shalt have the ingots, and to-morrow Give the lords the affront.’ i.e. meet them face to face.”

1681 (lawful espials)] Steevens (ed. 1773): “spies.”

c.1775 mMAL1, BL 30,943 (f. 52v)

1681 Affront] Malone (1775): “Affront Ophelia So in Marston’s Satires 1599 ‘Seest thou that troop that now affront us thus?’ So in Montaigne’s Essays translated by Floris 1602 ‘That so he might have leisure to affront Death & to embrace it.’ This sense of the word seems to be borrowed from the Italian affrontare.”

1778 v1778

1681 Affront] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Affrontare. Ital. So, in the Devil’s Charter, 1607: ‘Affronting that port where proud Charles should enter.’ Again, in Sir W. D’Avenant’s Cruel Brother, 1630: ‘In sufferance affronts the winter’s rage.’”

1681 (lawful espials) ] Steevens (ed. 1778): “i.e. spies. So in one of our author’s historical plays: ‘--as he march’d along By your espials were discovered Two mightier troops.’ The words--lawful espials, are wanting in the folio.”

1783 ritson

ritson

1681 (lawful espials)] Ritson (1783, pp. 199-200): “‘The words—lawful espials, are wanting in the folio. Steevens.’ <M/p. 199><p. 200> This is not altogether so certain. At least both the first and second folios appear to read:‘Her father, and my selfe (lawfull espials)’.”

1784 ays

ays

1681 Affront Ophelia] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “To affront is only to meet directly.”

1681 lawful espials] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “i.e. spies.”

1785 v1785

v1785

1681 (lawful espials) ] STEEVENS (ed. 1785): “i.e. spies. See vol. vi. p. 204.

The words —lawful espials, are wanting in the quartos.”

1791- rann

rann=v1773+

1681 Affront] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—Confront, meet directly.”

1681 lawful espials] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—authorised spies.—“The prince’s ’spials.” HEN. VI. Part I.A.I.S.4. M. Gun.”

1793 v1793

1681 (lawful espials) ] Steevens (ed. 1793): “i.e. spies. So, in King Henry VI. Part I: ‘—as he march’d along, By your espials were discovered Two mightier troops.’ See also Vol. IX. p. 535, n.2. The words — ‘lawful espials,’ are found only in the folio.”

1805 seymour

seymour

1681 Affront Ophelia] Seymour (1805, p. 176): “I am afraid it will appear an idle task to endeavouor at repairing the various hemistics and the disturbed metre in this crude play: but some words have been lost—perhaps, such as these: ‘—And join converse with her.’”

1819 cald1

cald1

1681 Affront] Caldecott (ed. 1819): "‘To come face to face, v. encounter. Affrontare, Ital.’ Minshieu, 1617. ‘Tis to confront. There she comes, Affront her, Synon.’ Heywood’s Iron Age. Part II.”

1826 sing1

sing1

1681 Singer (ed.1826): “i.e. meet her, encounter her; affrontare, Ital. See Winter’s Tale [5.1.75. (2817)].”

1681 Singer (ed.1826): “that is lawful spies. An espiall in warres, a scoutwatche, a beholder, a viewer.’ —Baret. See 1 H VI, [1.4.8. (472)]. An espy was also in use for a spy. The two words are only found in the folio.”

1832- Anon.

1681 Affront Ophelia] Anonymous [possibly Thomas Carlyle ](ms. notes, ed. 1832): “He must suppose that Ophelia [will?] not hear this arrangement though she was present [?]

1839 knt1

1681 Knight (ed. 1839): “Affront, encounter, confront.”

1843 col1

col1

1681 Collier (ed. 1843): “ i.e. face, or confront Ophelia. This use of the word was not uncommon. In the preceding line, the folios have there for ‘here;’ and in the following line, ‘lawful espials’ is only in the folios.”

1844 dycen

dycen

1680-1681 That...<espials)>] Dyce (1844, pp. 211-212): <p. 211> “Arrange, by all means, with the other modern editors; ‘That he, as ‘twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia: Her father and myself (lawful espials) Will so,’ &c. (Just above we find; ‘With all my heart; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclin’d. Good gentlemen, give him a farther edge, And drive his purpose on to these delights.’ why did not Mr. Collier, for the sake of consistency, print as a single line of seventeen syllables, ‘With all my heart; and it doth much content me to hear him so inclin’d. Good gentlemen,’ &c.?)

“In the following page Mr. Collier adopts a different system, chopping up a line (as Malone does) for the sake of making the metre run on regularly from the one speech to the next,— though it is evident (not only from other places of the present scene, but from innumerable passages throughout his dramas) that Shakespeare was not at all solicitous about observing such a [Greek text]; </p. 211><p. 212> ‘that, with devotion’s visage, And pious action, we do sugar o’er The devil himself. King. O! ‘tis too true: [Aside.] how smart A lash that speech doth give my conscience!’ The old metrical regulation (as Mr. Knight saw) is the right one; ‘The devil himself. King. O ‘tis too true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!’” </p. 212>

1847 verp

verp

1681 Affront Ophelia] Verplanck (ed. 1847): “Not in our modern sense of the phrase, but, as confront, meet her.”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1

1681 Affront Ophelia] Hudson (ed. 1856): "That is, meet her, encounter her; affrontare, Ital. See The Winter’s Tale, Act v. sc. 1, note 5."

1681 (lawful espials)] Hudson (1856): "That is, lawful spies. ’An espiall in warres, a scoutwatche, a beholder, a viewer.’--Baret.--The two words are found only in the folio."

1856b sing2

sing2=sing1

1858 col3

COL2=COL1+

Collier (ed. 1858): “At the instance of Rev. Mr. Dyce we have placed ‘Affront Ophelia’ in a line by itself.”

1861 wh1

wh1

1681 White (ed. 1861): “‘Affront Ophelia’:--i. e., meet, encounter her. See the Note on ‘Affront his eye,’ The Winter’s Tale, Act V. Sc. 1.”

1867 ktlyn

ktlyn

1681 Keightly (1867 , p. 291): “As ‘lawful espials’ is only in the folio, injures the measure, and is not necessary, I would omit it.”

1869 romdahl

romdahl

1681 Affront] Romdahl (1869, p. 31): “Affront stands here in its original sense, to meet face to face; to encounter; now-a-days it always signifies a hostile encounter, to insult, to offend.”

1681 espials] Romdahl (1869, p. 31): “spies; O.Fr. espier.”

1872 cln1

cln1

1681 Affront] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “confront, meet. See Winter’s Tale, v.1.75: ’Unless another As like Hermione as is her picture, Affront his eye.’ "

1681 espials] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “spies. So 1 Henry VI, i. 4. 8: ’The prince’s espials have informed me.’ And 1 Henry VI, iv. 3. 6: ’By your espials were discovered."

1877 clns

clns

1681 Affront] Neil (ed. 1877): “i.e., meet face to face, from Italian affrontare.”

1881 hud2

hud2

1681 Hudson (ed. 1881): “Affront was sometimes used for meet, or, as it is explained a little after encounter. So in Cymbaline, [4.3.29-30. (2770-1)]: ‘Your preparation can affront no less than what you hear of.’ See vol. vii. p.248, n.4.”

1882 elze

elze

1681 Affront] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Cornelia (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, V, 211): The men, the ships, wherewith poor Rome affronts him. Greene’s Tu Quoque (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, XI, 265): Only, sir, this I must caution you of, in your affront or salute, never to move your hat. Fuimus Troes, II, 1 (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, XII, 469): — ‘to join With the four kings of Kent, and so affront His first arrival.’ Paradise Lost, I, 391: And with their darkness durst affront his light.”

1885 macd

macd

1681 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “confront.”

1899 ard1

ard1

Affront] Dowden (ed. 1899): “confront, encounter, as in Winter’s Tale, V. I. 75.”

espials] Dowden (ed. 1899): “spies, as in 1 Henry VI. I. iv. 8.”