Line 91 - 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
| 91 Why such impresse of ship-writes, whose sore taske | 1.1.75 |
|---|
1656 Blount
Blount
91 impresse] “Prest or Imprest money (from the Fr. prest, i. ready) for that it binds those that have received it to be ready at all times appointed.”
1785 v1785
v1785: Barrington
91 impresse] Whalley (apud ed. 1785) says that “Judge Barrington, Observations on the more Ancient Statutes, p. 300, having observed that Shakespeare gives English manners to every country where his scene lies,”] infers from this passage that in Q. Eliz.’s time, not only seamen but also shipwrights were forced to serve.”
1787 ann
ann = v1785
91 impresse]
1793 v1793
v1793: v1785 + Douce
91 impresse] Steevens (ed. 1793): “Impress signified only the act of retaining shipwrights by giving them what was called prest money (from pret, Fr.) for holding themselves in readiness to be employed. See Mr. Douce’s note on [Lr.] King Lear, Vol. XIV. p. 233, n.4.”
v1793 Lr.
91 impresse] Douce (apud ed. 1793: 14: 233 n. 4) Lr. 4.6.87 (2535). This is from the Lear/Gloucester scene: “ ‘There’s your press-money’: It is evident from the whole of this speech, that Lear fancies himself in a battle; but, There’s your press-money has not been properly explained. It means the money which was paid to soldiers when they were retained in the King’s service; and it appears from some ancient statutes, and particularly 7 Henry VII.c.1. and 3 Henry VIII.c.5. that it was a felony in any soldier to withdraw himself from the king’s service after receipt of this money, without special leave. On the contrary, he was obliged at all times to hold himself in readiness. The term is from the French ‘prest,’ ready. It is written preset in several places in King Henry VIIth’s Book of household expenses still preserved in the Exchequer. This may also serve to explain the following passage in [5.2] ‘And turn our imprest lances in our eyes;’ and to correct Mr. Whalley’s note in [Ham. 91] —‘Why such impress of shipwrights?’”
1793- mSteevens (Bod.)
mSteevens as in v1803
91 Impress] Steevens (1793-) : “Thus, Chapman in his version of the second book of Homer’s Odysseus: ‘from the people straight, will press for you Free voluntaries ;—’”
HLA
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793; mSteevens (1793-)
91 impresse]
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
91 impresse]
1819 cald1
cald1
91 impresse] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “It is not any where shewn by the commentators, who have laboured the point, that the prest-money for the retainer of soldiers, has any thing to do with shipwrights. The word seems to be here used in its ordinary signification, as in [Tro. 2.1.96 (951)] ‘No man is beaten voluntary. Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress.’ Achil.”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
91 impresse]
1826 sing1
sing1 ≈ Douce; v1821; Blount +
91 impresse] Singer (ed. 1826): “To impress signifies only to retain shipwrights by giving them prest money for holding themselves in readiness to be employed. Thus in Chapman’s second book of Homer’s Odyssey:— ‘I, from the people straight, will press for you, Free voluntaries.’ See [Lr. 4.6.86 (2535)]; and Blount’s Glossography, in v. prest.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1; ≈ Blount (or sing1) without attribution
91 impresse]
Caldecott (ed. 1832): “But it is said to import a retainer from
Prét, Fr.; as by the acceptance of what was called
prest-money being bound to hold themselves in readiness to be employed.”
1854 del2
del2
91 impresse] Delius (ed. 1854): “Zum Bau der Kriegsschiffe, der als dringlich Sonntage wie in der Woche betrieben wird, werden die Werkleute aufgegriffen und gepresst.” [For the building of the warships, which is carried on urgently on Sundays as well as during the week, workers are seized and conscripted.]
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1
91 impresse]
1865 hal
hal = cald2 minus the sneer about the commentators
91 impresse]
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ Steevens in v1813 without attribution
91 impresse]
1869 tsch
tsch
91 impresse]
Tschischwich (
apud Furness, ed. 1877) “will not tolerate the idea of impressment, which he says is an injustice of wholly modern origin, and that the word must be
imprest (Ital.
impresto), equivalent to ‘handsel,’ and of common usage in England aforetime; and thus it stands in his text.”
1872 hud2
hud2 ≈ cald without attribution
91 impresse] Hudson (ed. 1872): “here means pressing or forcing of men into the service.”
1873 rug2
rug2: Campbell
91 impresse] Moberly (ed. 1873): “Lord Campbell (Legal Knowledge of Shakspere) remarks that this passage has actually been cited, both by advocates and by the Bench, as an authority to prove the legality of impressing shipwrights as well as mariners.”
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ Whalley; Douce; Lord Campbell; tsch
91 impresse] Lord Campbell (apud ed. 1877): “Such confidence has there been in Shakespeare’s accuracy, that this passage has been quoted both by text-writers and by judges on the bench as an authority upon the legality of the press-gang, and upon the debated question whether shipwrights, as well as common seaman, are liable to be pressed into the service of the royal navy.”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
91 impresse]
1890 irv2
irv2: standard summary; Steevens on Chapman; tsch via v1877; // Tro. + contra tsch in magenta underlined
91 impresse] Marshall (ed. 1890): What Tschischwitz says may be true “but it is an undoubted fact that, in the only two other passages in which Shakespeare uses the word impress, he uses it in a sense of forcible or involuntary impressment; viz. in [Tro. 2.1.96 (951)]: ‘Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress’; and [Ant. 3.7.35 (1903): ‘Your ships are not well man’d.—Your mariners are muleters, reapers, people Impress’d by swift impress.’ Perhaps the latter passage may justify us in explaining the word impress, not in the sense of forcible impressment in the modern sense, by a press-gang, but as simply used for enrolment under an emergency such as a sudden war.”
1891 dtn1
dtn1
91-2 Deighton (ed. 1891): “why shipwrights are compelled to work in the docks week-days and Sundays.”
dtn1: Wedgwood (Dict), which is ≈ Whalley without attribution; +
91 impresse] Deighton (ed. 1891): “Wedgwood (Dict.) has shown that to be pressed, in the sense of compelled to serve, has nothing to do with press in the sense of ‘crush,’ ‘squeeze,’ but is a corruption of prest, ready, prest-money being ready money advanced when a man was hired for service, the shilling now given to recruits. ‘At a later period,’ he says, ‘the practice of taking men for the public service by compulsion made the word to be understood as if it signified to force men into the service, and the original reference to earnest money was quite lost sight of.’”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ hud3 without attribution (i.e. ≈ cald, w/ Tro. //)
91 impress]
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = v1877 without attribution; ard1 without attribution
91 impresse]
1913 tut2
tut2 ≈ rlf3 without attribution
91 impresse] Goggin (ed. 1913): “‘impressment, forced service.’”
1931 crg1
crg1: standard
91 impresse] Craig (ed. 1931): “impressment.”
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ standard
91 impresse] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Shipcarpenters were impressed (conscripted) in time of war.”
1947 cln2
cln2: standard gloss
91 impresse] Rylands (ed. 1947): “compulsory service.”
1957 pel1
pel1: standard
91 impresse] Farnham (ed. 1957): “conscription.”
1970 pel2
pel2 = pel1: standard
91 impresse] Farnham (ed. 1970): “conscription”
1974 evns1
evns1: standard
91 impresse] Kermode (ed. 1974): “forced service.”
1982 ard2
ard2: Hakluyt; Horsey
91
Jenkins (ed. 1982): “A reflection of Denmark’s contemporary war preparations under Christian IV [1577-1648]. A decade earlier [supply date] Sir Jerome Horsey (Travels, Hakluyt Soc., pp. 243-4) had complained to Christian’s predecessor of ‘the enticing away’ of English ‘shipwrights to fashion your navy’ and ‘the carrying away’ from England (cf. foreign mart) of ‘much ordinance, both brass and iron, pieces and other munition.’”
ard2: standard
91 impresse] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “impressment (for forced service), conscription, as in [Tro. 2.1.96 (951)].”
1992 fol2
fol2: standard
91 impresse] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “enforced service“
2000 Edelman
Edelman
91 impresse] Edelman (2000) for press : ““Conscription of men for service in the navy or (less frequently) the army (OED sb 1a) [. . . ].
“Although the government had the statutory power to impress a militia for domestic service to fight invasion or rebellion, all overseas service was supposed to be voluntary. [Thus Fortinbras has sharked up (115) his followers.]
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
91 impresse] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “forced labour, conscription”
91