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Line 89 - Commentary Note (CN) More Information

Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.
89 And {with} <why> such dayly {cost} <Cast> of brazon Cannon1.1.73
1605 Stow
Stow apud Srigley (which see) and from original
89 Stow (1605, p. 1436), discussing a visit from English ambassadors to the Danish court in summer 1603, describes the preparations of armaments in Denmark then and the ambassador’s admiration for them.
1773 jen
jen
89 with] Jennens (ed. 1773): “Qu’s with. Which reading will bear, otherwise pointing.”
jen
89 cost] Jennens (ed. 1773): “They might not have the art of casting cannon; if so, they consequently must buy it.”
1790- mTooke
mTooke
89 cost] tooke (ms. notes in Malone, ed. 1790): “casting of cannon.”
1872 cln1
cln1 = mTooke + xref
89 cost] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “casting. See line [72], and compare ‘impress.’ line [91], and ‘know’ for ‘knowing,’ the reading of the folios in [3546].”
72 91 89 3546
1880 Tanger
Tanger
89 with] Tanger (1880, p. 121): Q2 “probably owing to the negligence, inattention, or criticism of the compositor”; the Q1 reading “confirms, or at least countenances, [the F1] reading.”
1891 dtn1
dtn1
89 Deighton (ed. 1891): “and why, day after day, the casting of cannon proceeds without interruption.”
1912 dtn3
dtn3 = dtn1
89
1917 yal1
yal1
89 cost] Crawford (ed. 1917), for cast has founding.
1931 crg1
crg1 : casting is standard; founding ≈ yal1 without attribution
89 cost] Craig (ed. 1931): “cast, casting, founding.”
1934 Wilson
Wilson MSH
89 cost] Wilson (1934, p. 150) explains the Q2 variant as one of a group of 14 “which may be labelled misreading or miscorrections with equal probability. F1 has a similar list of 18 variants. In every instance there is a close graphical resemblance between the variants.
Ed. note: The other Q2 “miscorrections” include interr’d (634), fearefull (705), and roots (710), all of which are possible choices rather than, as Wilson thinks, mistakes.
1938 parc
parc: Kellner
89 with, cost] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938) consider with to be a printer’s error for why, which is found in both Q1 and F1, and due to the confusion of final h and final y in Elizabethan script (Kellner 199, 216). But they can rationalize the fact that Q1 and Q2 both have cost by surmising that Q2’s compositor consulted Q1 here or that both independently made the same error.
Cast in the sense of casting is quite unusual and a misunderstanding may have caused this agreement in error between [Q1 and Q2].”
1947 cln2
cln2: standard gloss
89 cost] Rylands (ed. 1947): “cast: casting.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4 ≈ Wilson (1934) without attribution
89 cost] Hibbard (ed. 1987): the only use of cast in Sh., a noun made from a verb. Thus Q1 and Q2 unsurprisingly, change it to the more familiar cost.
2000 Edelman
Edelman
89 cost of brazen Cannon] Edelman (2000): “The very first heavy guns were cast from Brass, an alloy of copper and either zinc or tin; it was not until the eighteenth century that the latter metal was called ‘bronze.’ [ . . .] While durable, brass had the disadvantage of being both more expensive and softer than iron.”
Iron cannons had a tendency to blow apart while brazen ones gave signs (bulges) of wearing out and so were safer.
A “radically new design developed in the 1490s, when French gun-founders changed the face of European warfare by finding a way to cast brass guns of proportions calculated to disperse the shock of a large explosion over the entire assembly. Marcellus’s brazen cannon could be much smaller and lighter than anything seen up to that time, with a barrel of eight feet or less in length [ . . .].”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: ard2 and others [see TNM]
89 with] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Most editors (including Jenkins, who usually favours Q2) adopt Q1/F ’why’, assuming ellipsis of ’there is’, but with makes acceptable sense.”

ard3q2 = Jen; OED; contra ard2 and others
89 cost] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The word makes good sense in parallel with foreign mart in [90]: as Jennens explains, ’They might not have the art of casting cannon; if so, they consequently must buy it.’ But many editors (again including Jenkins) prefer F’s ’Cast’, meaning casting or manufacturing (a unique usage, according to OED).”