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Line 124+11 - 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 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

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

124+11 {Disasters in the sunne; and the moist starre,}	1.1.118

1723- mtby2

mtby2

124+11 Disasters in the sunne] Thirlby (1723-): “in Virgil.”

He does not specify where; see Dodd 1752

1730 Bailey

Bailey

124+11 Disasters] Bailey (1730): “[[desastre, F. of astrum, L. a star, q. d. a malignant star]] ill luck, great misfortune, especially such as proceeds from malignant influence of the stars.”

1747 warb

warb

124+11 Disasters] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Disasters is here finely used in its original signification of evil conjunction of stars.”

1752 Dodd

Dodd ≈ warb +

124+11 Disasters] Dodd (1752, 1: 213): “Disaster, (says Skinner, and as its derivation plainly speaks) signifies malignum sidus, an evil star; and by the astrologists it was used for an evil or unlucky conjunction of stars; the great repute of that art, and the influence of the stars were supposed to have on man’s life, gave it the signification we now use it in. Shakespear uses it in its primary sense.”

1755 Johnson Dict.

Johnson

124+11 Disasters] Johnson (1755), for his first definition of disaster, “The blast or stroke of an unfavourable planet,” quotes lines from Hamlet.

1765 john1

john1 = warb

124+11 Disasters]

1765- mDavies

mDavies

124+11 Disasters . . . sunne;] Davies (1765-) glosses: “Eclipses obscured his splendor”

1773 v1773

v1773 = warb +

124+11 Disasters in] Steevens (ed. 1778): “The quarto reads Disasters in the sun; — Steevens.”

1774 capn

capn: rowe

124+11 Disasters . . . starre,] Capell (1774, 1.1:123): “The corruption of the line after this is not quite so enormous; for in that are some traces of the genuine reading, which is ‘dim’d’ and not veil’d as those editors [i.e., Rowe and other moderns] have it.”

1778 v1778

v1778 = warb

124+11 Disasters]

1783 mals2

mals2: rowe; Plutarch

124+11 Malone (1783, p. 54): “Disasters veil’d the sun;]] Instead of my former, I wish to substitute the following note.—The words shone, fell, and veil’d, having been introduced by Mr. Rowe without authority, may be safely rejected. Might we not come nearer to the original copy by reading—

“Astres, with trains of fire and dews of blood,

“Disastrous, dimm’d the sun.

“There is, I acknowledge, no authority for the word astre; but our author coined many words, and in this very speech there are two, gibber[124+9] and precurse [124+14], that are used, I believe, by no other writer. He seems to have laboured here to make his language correspond with the preternatural appearances that he describes. Astres [[from astrum]] is of exactly the same formation as antre, which he had introduced in Othello, and which is not, I believe, found elsewhere. The word now proposed being uncommon, it is not surprising that the transcriber’s ear should have deceived him, and that he should have written, instead of it, two words (As stars) of nearly the same sound. The word star, which occurs in the next line, is thus rendered not so offensive to the ear, as it is as the text now stands. If, however, this be thought too licentious, we might read, with less departure from the old copy than Mr. Rowe’s text,

“‘His stars, with trains of fire, and dews of blood,

“Disastrous, dimm’d the sun;—’

i.e. the stars that presided over Caesar’s fortunes. So, in our author’s 126th Sonnet:

“‘Till whatsoever star, that guides my moving,

“Points on me graciously with fair aspèct.’

“Each of the words proposed, and printed above in italicks, might have been easily confounded by the ear with those that have been substituted in their room. The latter, dimm’d, is fully supported not only by Plutarch’s account in the life of Caesar, [[‘also the brightness of the sunne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rose very pale, and shined not out,’]] but by various passages in our author’s works. [Here = mals1 on Tmp; R3 (mistakenly for R2, correct in mals1), Son. 18].

“In the first act of this play the quarto, 1611 [Q3], reads—“’Tis not my inky cloke could smother’—[[for good mother]]. If, as in the present instances, there had been but one copy, how could this strange error have been rectified but by the boldness of conjecture?”

1784 ays1

ays1: warb without attribution

124+11 Disasters]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778; mal2

124+11 Disasters]

1787 ann

v1787 = v1785

124+11 Disasters]

1790 mal

mal: cap text without attribution; ≈ v1785; Ovid

124+11 Disasters] Malone (1790): “The quarto, 1604, reads ‘Disasters in the sun.”For the emendation [dimm’d] I am responsible [Capell preceded Malone]. It is strongly supported not only by Plutarch’s account in the life of Caesar, [[‘also the brightness of the sunne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rose very pale, and shined not out,’]] but by various passages in our author’s works. [Here = mals1 and mals2 on Tmp; R3 (again mistakenly for R2, but corrected in mal appendex), Son. 18].

“I suspect that the words As Stars are a corruption, and have no doubt that either a line preceding or following the first of those quoted at the head, has been lost [≈ jen without attribution]; or that the beginning of one line has been joined to the end of anotjer, the intervening words being omitted. That such conjectures are not merly chimerical, I have already proved. See Vol. V, p. 228, n.8. and Vol. VI, p. 507, n.3 [unrelated “corruptions” from 1H4 4.1.98 and R3 2.2.84, respectively].

The following lines in Julius Caesar, in which the prodigies that are said to have preceded his death, are recounted, may throw some light on the passage before us; [quotes “There is one within [. . .] And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.” [JC 2.2.14-24 (1001ff.)].

“The lost words perhaps contained a description of fiery warriors fighting in the clouds, or of brands burning bright beneath the stars,

“The 15th book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, translated by Golding, in which an account is given of the prodigies that preceded Caesar’s death. furnished Shakspeare with some of the images in both these passages:

“‘—battels fighting in the clouds with crashing armour flew,

And dreadful trumpets sounded in the ayre, and hornes eke blew;

And Phoebus also looking dim did cast a drowsie light,

Uppon the earth, which seemde likewise to be in sory plighte:

From underneath beaneath the starres brndes oft seemde burning bright,

It often rain’d drops of blood. The morning star look’d blew,

And was besotted here and there with speacks of rustie hew.

The moone had also spots of blood.—

Salt teares from ivorie—images in sundry places fell;—

The dogges did howle; and every where appeared ghastly sprights,

And with an earthquake shaken was the towne.’

“Plutarch only says, that ‘the sunne was darkened,‘ that ‘diverse men were seen going up and down in fire’; there were ‘fires in the element; spirites were seene running up and down in the night, and solitairie birds sitting in the great market-place.’

“The disagreeable recurrence of the word stars in thee second line induces me to believe that As stars in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote:

‘Astres with trains of fire,—

—and dews of blood

Disastrous dimm’d the sun.

mal

124+11 moist starre] Malone (ed. 1790): “i.e. the moon, So in Marlowe’s Hero and Leander, 1598: ‘Not that night-wand’ring, pale, and watery star,’ &c.”

1791- rann

rann ≈ warb gloss without attribution; cap dimmed without attribution

124+11 Disasters] Rann (ed. 1791-): “Malignant conjunctions of the planets dimmed the sun; and the moon, &c.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

124+11 moist starre]

1793- mSteevens

mSteevens = v1803

124+11 Disasters in the sunne] Steevens (1793-): “Disasters dimm’d the sun]] So in [2H4 2.2.16 (807)] ‘—to bear the inventory of thy shirts; as, one for superfluity, &” Again in [3H6 5.7.7 (3178)] ‘Two Cliffords, as the father & the son,And two Northumberlands;’—

“Again, in [Err. 1.2.97 (263)] : ‘They say, this town is full of cozenage;As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye &’”

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

124+11 moist starre]

v1803 = v1793; = mSteevens

124+11 Disasters in the sunne]

1805 Seymour

Seymour

124+11 moist starre] Seymour (1805, 2:140): “As here the moon is called a star, so, perhaps by ‘Day Star,’ in Lycidas, Milton means, not Hesperus, but the sun.”

This is not really a note on Sh but on Milton. OED agrees with him about Milton, assigning the 1st use of the term for the sun to Sylvester, Du Bartas, 2.2. Babylon 577, in 1598.

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

124+11 moist starre]

v1813 = v1803

124+11 Disasters in the sunne]

1819 cald1

cald1: mal +

124+11 moist starre] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “The moon or watery star. ‘Quo ululatibus meis via patefieret ad cœlum usque, et inde possem deducere pallidam illam humidorum reginam ad miscendas mecum lachrymas.’ Jac. Howel, Anglia flens. 18mo. 1646, p. 2.

“Mr. Malone cites Marlowe’s Hero and Leander [and he quotes].”

-1821 mAnon.

mAnon: probably Boswell the younger.

124+11 Diasters in the sunne] Anon. (ms. notes in Malone, ed. 1790) : “Disasters dimm’d the sun]] The emendation was suggested by Mr. Capell.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813 minus Steevens accidentally without attribution; magenta underlined added by Boswell to Malone’s note to give proper credit

124+11 Disasters in the sunne] Boswell (ed. 1821): “‘Disasters dimm’d the sun;’ The quarto 1604 reads: ‘Disasters in the sun—.’

“The emendation was suggested by Mr. Capell. It is strongly supported [continues as in v1813]

“Mr. Jennens also, in his edition of Hamlet, 1773, conjectured, that a line had been lost, and suggested the following: ‘Tremendous prodigies in heav’n appear’d.’ Boswell.”

v1821 = v1813 + Malone’s addition in magenta

124+11 moist starre] Malone (ed. 1790): “i.e. the moon. So, in the [WT 1.2.1 (50)]: ‘Nine changes of the watry star have been The shepherd’s note.’ —So, also, in Marlowe’s Hero and Leander, 1598: ‘Not that night-wand’ring, pale, and watery star,’ &c. Malone.”

1826 sing1

sing1 = v1821 without attribution

124+11 moist starre] Singer (ed. 1826): “i.e. the moon. ‘Not that night-wand’ring, pale, and watry star.’ Marlowe’s Hero and Leander.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 + in magenta underlined

124+11 moist starre] Caldecott (ed. 1820): “The moon or watery star. ‘The watry moon.’ [R3 2.2.69 (1343)] Q. Eliz. ‘Quo ululatibus meis via patefieret ad cœlum usque, et inde possem deducere pallidam illam humidorum reginam ad miscendas mecum lachrymas.’ Jac. Howel, Anglia flens. 18mo. 1646, p. 2.

“Mr. Malone cites Marlowe’s Hero and Leander [and he quotes].”

1833 valpy

valpy = v1821 without attribution minus analogue

124+11 moist starre] Valpy (ed. 1833): “i.e. the moon.”

1839 knt1

knt1 = cald2 without attribution

124+11 moist starre] Knight (ed. 1839): “The moist star is the moon. So, in the Winter’s Tale: —‘Nine changes of the watery star have been The shepherd’s note.’ ” [WT 1.2.1 (50)]

1843 knt2

knt2 = knt1

124+11 moist starre]

-1845 mHunter (BL 24,497)

mHunter: knt11 without attribution + analogue in magenta underlined

124+11 moist starre] Hunter (-1845, fol. 35v): “To call the moon a star which occurs also in [WT 1.2.1 (50)] is rather remarkable.” Cervantes speaks of the “humid moon.”

1853- mEliot

mEliot

124+11 moist starre] Eliot (1853-): “the watery star | [Marlowe T ?].”

1854 del2

del2 = knt1 without attribution

124+11-124+12 moist starre . . . influence] Delius (ed. 1854): “der Mond, den Sh. wie hier moist star, in [WT] als watery star bezeichnet, weil er gleichsam das Wasser anzieht.” [Sh. calls the moon here the moist star, in [WT 1.2.427 (542)] the watery star, because it attracts water.]

1856 hud1

hud1: standard

124+11 - 124+12 moist starre] Hudson (ed. 1856): “ ‘The moist star’ is the moon. So in Marlowe’s Hero and Leander: ‘Not that night wand’ring pale and watery star.’ H.”

1856 mWilliams

mWilliams to Collier

124+11 Disasters in the sunne] Williams (to Collier, 27 Aug. 1856): “Some time since I consulted Norths Plutarch (in vid. Jul.Caes.) to see whether it would help me to a solution of this passage. I forget what I found there, but I therefore altered the lines as follows—‘Astres, with trains of fire and dews of blood, Did overcast the sun’ etc. and hoped I might one day meet with some passage in S[hakespeare] confirmatory of my conjecture that these were probably his words. This morning I find in [Jn. 3.2.326 (1259) in col1 4:50] ‘The sun’s o’ercast with blood.’ I think the above the best mending yet proposed (as far as I know) of this obviously corrupt passage.”

1856- mCollier

mCollier = Williams (named in col3)

124 + 11 Disasters in the sun; and the moist star] Collier (ms. notes in Collier, ed. 1843): “Some time since I consulted North’s Plutarch (in vit. Jul. Caes.) to see whether it would help me to a solution of this passage. I forget what I found there, but I thereupon altered the lines as follows;––‘Astres, with trains of fire and dews of blood, Did overcast the sun’; etc.––

“and hoped I might one day meet with some passage in S confirmatory of my conjecture that these were probably his words. This morning I find in [Jn. 3.2.326 (1259)] Colliers S; Vol. 4. p. 50. ‘The sun’s o’ercast with blood.’

“I think the above the best mending yet proposed (as far as I know) of this obviously corrupt passage.”

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1

124+11 moist starre

1857 Gent. Mag.

Duane

124+11 Disasters in the sun] Duane n.s.3 (Aug. 1857), 183: “This last branch of this sentence is unmeaning as it stands, containing no verb. Is it not probable that Shakespeare wrote did usher, instead of disasters? This would correspond with the preceding clause, where it is stated that the sheeted dead did squeak and gibber.

“The printer’s eye was probably caught by the word stars in the preceding line, after he had commenced setting up the phrase did usher; or it may have been so carelessly written as to be mistaken for disasters. William Duane. Philadelphia.”

1865 hal

hal = Malone as in v1821, i.e. with Malone’s additions

124+11 moist starre]

1866 cam1

cam1

124+11 Disasters in] Disaster dimm’d /and dews.

1867 Keightley

Keightley

124+11 Keightley (1867, p. 286): “Perhaps for ‘disasters’ we might read distempers: ‘distemperatures of the sun’ [1H4 5.1.1 (2635)].

1868 c&mc

c&mc: standard w ref to WT

124+11 moist starre]

1869 tsch

tsch ≈ mal on tides

124+11 moist starre] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869, apud Furness, ed. 1877) “discusses the claims of various philosophers to the discovery of the dependence of the tides upon the moon.”

1870 rug1

rug1 = Moltke [early ed.] on MND // without attribution +

124+11 moist starre] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Modern astronomy admits alluvial strata, but not cognizable water there.”

1871 molt

molt

124+11 moist starre] Moltke (ed. 1871, apud Furness, ed. 1877) cites parallels in MND 2.1.162 (539; WT 1.2.427 (542, R3 2.2.69 (1342), Lr. 5.3.19 (2959), Rom. 1.4.62 (517).

1872 cln1

cln1 ≈ warb on astrology without attribution; ≈ cald on Milton without attribution; ≈ Malone on Plutarch without attribution

124+11 Disasters] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “a term derived from the ancient astrology, and denoting the malevolent influences of the heavenly bodies. Here the reference is to the extraordinary paleness of the sun mentioned by Plutarch which was followed by the failure of the products of the earth. Milton had this astrological sense of the word in his mind when he wrote (Paradise Lost, i. 597), ‘In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds.’”

cln1: standard [knt1, and others] + in magenta underlined

124+11 moist starre] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “the moon, which governs the tides. See [WT 1.2.1 (50)]: [quotes]. And again in the same play, [WT 1.2.427 (542)]: ‘You may as well Forbid the sea for to obey the moon!’”

1872 hud2

hud2 : standard + in magenta underlined

124+11 moist starre] Hudson (ed. 1872): “The ‘moist star’ is the Moon; probably so called from the dews that attend her shining, or from her influence over the waters of the sea.”

1877 v1877

v1877= mal; moltke, tsch

124+11 moist starre] moltke (ed. 1871, apud Furness, ed. 1877) cites parallelsin MND 2.1.162 (539); WT 1.2.427 (542), R3 2.2.69, Lr. 5.3.19, Rom. 1.4.62 (517).

v1877

124+11 moist starre] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869, apud Furness, ed. 1877) “discusses the claims of various philosophers to the discovery of the dependence of the tides upon the moon.”

1878 rlf1

rlf1: standard

124+11 Disasters]

1878 rlf1

rlf1: standard; cln1 WT, rug (corrects misquot. of Coleridge)

124+11 moist starre]

1880 meik

meik ≈ Brae on Grk derivation + in magenta underlined

124+11 Disasters] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “From Gr. dys, ill, and astron, a star. One of the terms that have come down to us from astrology. Others are influence, aspect, retrograde, ascendant, etc.”

1881 hud3

hud3 : standard

124+11 Disasters] Hudson (ed. 1881): “‘Disasters in the Sun,’ is astrological, referring to the calamities supposed to be portended by certain aspects or conditions of that luminary.”

hud3 ≈ hud2

124+11 moist starre]

1883 wh2

wh2 standard

124+11 moist starre]

1885 mull

mull

124+11 Disasters] Mull (ed. 1885): “There may . . . be the omission here of but one word, and that which I suggest seems to fulfill what is wanted. The phenomena stated seemed to threaten disaster to the sun, indicated by its lurid and gloomy appearance. The same poetical turn of though we have in immediate connection: “and the moon was sick with eclipse.”

1890 irv2

irv2: standard

124+11 moist starre] Marshall (ed. 1890): “i.e. the moon.”

1899 ard1

ard1: standard

124+11 moist starre]

1903 rlf3

rlf3 = rlf1

124+11 Disasters]

rlf3 ≈ rlf1 (minus quot. and attributions)

124+11 moist starre]

1912 dtn3

dtn3: general survey of solutions, including mal, Brae, w/ standard glosses of individual words

124+10-124+11

1913 tut2

tut2: standard

124+11 Disasters]

tut2: standard +

124+11 the moist starre] Goggin (ed. 1913): “There was a belief that it sucked up water from the earth.”

1931 crg1

crg1: standard

124+11 Disasters] Craig (ed. 1931): “unfavorable aspects.”

crg1: standard

124+11 moist starre] Craig (ed. 1931): “the moon, governing tides.”

1934 cam3

cam3: standard

124+11 moist starre]

1937 pen1

pen1: standard

124+11 moist starre] Harrison (ed. 1937): “the moon, which governs the tides.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

124+11 Disasters] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "threatening signs. Disasters in its astrological sense includes any threatening phenomena in the heavenly bodies."

kit2: standard //s +

124+11 moist starre] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “According to the old science, which divided all things according to the four categories—moist, dry, hot, cold—the moon was moist by nature. Hence it was not only ‘the governess of floods’ [MND 2.1.103 (478)] but had much to do with dew , mist, and fog,”

1947 cln2

cln2: standard gloss

124+11 moist starre]

1957 pel1

pel1

124+11 Disasters] Farnham (ed. 1957): “ominous signs.”

pel1

124+11 moist starre] Farnham (ed. 1957): “moon.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

124+11 Disasters] Farnham (ed. 1970): “ominous signs”

pel2: standard

124+11 moist starre] Farnham (ed. 1970): “moon”

1992 fol2

fol2

124+11 Disasters] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “threatening signs”

fol2: standard

124+11 moist starre] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “the moon, which governs the tides”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

124+11 Disasters] Farnham (ed. 1970): “ominous signs”

pel2: standard

124+11 moist starre] Farnham (ed. 1970): “moon”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard

124+11 Disasters] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “in a literal sense: unfavourable aspects of a star or planet”

ard3q2: standard

124+11-124+12 the moist . . . stands] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. the moon, controller of the tides, called ’governess of floods’ at MND 2.1.103 ”

2008 Crystal

Crystal

124+11 Disasters] Crystal (2008, p. 168): This neologism “means an ’inauspicious sight.’ In the more general sense of ’calamity,’ it was coming into the language in Shakespeare’s day . . . . ”