HW Home	Previous CN	View CN	View TNM	View TNI	Next CN

Line 149 - 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. Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.

Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

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

149 The Cock that is the trumpet to the {morne} <day>,	1.1.150

1773 gent1

gent1

149-54 The Cock . . . confine] Gentleman (ed. 1773): “The former part of this speech, though founded on a superstitious opinion, we must be pleased with; the latter is beautifully poetical.”

1773 gent1

gent1

149-54 The Cock . . . confine]

1778 Warton

Warton, n. 151

149 Cock]

1793- mMalone

mMalone

149 The Cock . . . morn] Malone (1793-) : “Thus also Spenser, in his Faery Queen, [F. Q. 1.2.1]: ‘And cheerful Chanticleer with his note shrill .’”

1793- mSteevens

mSteevens as in v1803, contra mMalone, above

149 The Cock . . . morn] Steevens (1793-): “Our Cambridge Poet [Gray] was more immediately indebted to Philips Cider, B.I.753 ‘When Chanticlear, with clarion shrill, recalls The tardy day,—’”

Ed. note: for Douce (1807), contradicted below, see CN 150.

1819 cald1

cald1 = john, n. 151, without attribution; T. Warton, n. 151; Farmer, n. 151; Douce, n. 150

149-54 The Cock . . . confine] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “From St. Ambrose’s hymn in the Salisbury service [quotes Greek]. Mr. Douce not only supposes that Shakespeare had seen these lines, but is disposed to infer from some parts of them, that he was a Latin scholar: and it must be allowed, that extravagant, erring, and confine, are terms not vernacular: derivatives from a learned language, they have here, though used in close succession, a dignified propriety and nothing tumid or pedantic, but are, on the contrary, delivered with all the ease and perspicuity, with which an accomplished scholar might be supposed to adapt and transfuse the spirit of one language, that he had a mastery in, to the occasion and into the character in which he chose to use it in another.

“But it is also to be considered, that these short Latin hymns (such as Flaminius’s, ‘Jam noctis umbras Lucifer Almae diei nuntius.’ &c. printed in Preces privatae regia authoritate, 12mo, 1598,) were so popular, that their language even might have been familiar, as well as the images open, to our author through translation. There are so many channels through which the wording of religious formularies, and the record of popular superstitions, in whatever language, are found, become accessible, that the adoption of either their words, or images, or both, will afford very slender argument in favour of Mr. Douce’s conclusion.”

1832 c ald2

cald2 ≈ cald1

149-54 The Cock . . . confine] Caldecott (ed. 1832): [same 1st ¶

“But it is also to be considered, that these short Latin hymns (such as Flaminius’s, ‘Jam noctis umbras Lucifer Almæ diei nuntius.’ &c. printed in Preces privatæ regia authoritate, 8vo 1568,) were so popular, that their language even might have been familiar, as well as the images open, to our author through translation. [continues as in cald1]

1839 knt1

knt1

149 morne] Knight (ed. 1839): “Morn, in quarto (B); in folio, day. The reading of the quarto avoids the repetition of day in the next line but one.”

knt1 = Douce (subst.) minus attribution to Farmer for Prudentius

149-54 The Cock . . . confine] Knight (ed. 1839): “There can be little doubt, we think, that this fine description is founded upon some similar description in the Latin language. The peculiar sense of the words extravagent, erring, confine, points to such a source. The first hymn of Prudentius has some similarity; but Douce has also found in the Salisbury collection of Hymns, printed by Pynson, a passage from a hymn attributed to St. Ambrose, in which the images may be more distinctly traced: [quotes the hymn as in douceN]

1843 col1

col1 ≈ knt1 without attribution +

149 morne] Collier (ed. 1843): “The folio has day for ‘morn;’ but the cock is the trumpet to the ‘morn,’ and not to the day; and we have not only ‘day’ just afterward, but it seems to be used in such a manner as to show that ‘morn’ (found in all the quartos but that of 1603, which has morning) is the true reading.”

1853 Collier

Collier

149 morne] Collier (1853, p. 419): “The cock (p. 201) is called there in manuscript ‘the trumpet of the morn,’ and not of the day, ‘morn’ being the reading of the quartos, and day of the folios.”

1854 del2

del2

149 morne] Delius (ed. 1854): “So die Fol. Q A. hat dafür morning, die Qs. morn. Die Lesart der Fol. ist gewiss eine Verbesserung des Dichters selbst.” [So the folio. Q1 has morning, the 4tos morn. The folio’s reading is certainly an improvement by the poet himself.]

1856 sing2

sing2 n. 115

149 morne]

1858 col3

col3 = col1; mal on Drayton

149 morne] Collier (ed. 1858): “Drayton, as Malone observes, calls the cock ‘the morning’s trumpeter.’”

1858 Lloyd

Lloyd

149-55 Lloyd (1858, p. [13]): “This tradition, with it god of day opening wide eyes at the summons of the officious cock, is a Pagan form, and Horatio is as interested in noting the natural truth that it expresses as my friends and colleagues of the Archæological Institute of Rome in their ingenious reductions of the mythic decoration of a Greek vase.”

1861 wh1

wh1 ≈ knt1 without attribution

149 morne]

1877 v1877

v1877: Farmer, n. 154; Douce; Steevens; Coleridge, n. 156

149 Cock] Coleridge (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “No Addison could be more careful to be poetical in diction than Sh. in providing grounds and sources of its propriety. But how to elevate a thing almost mean by its familiarity, young poets may learn in this treatment of the cock-crow.”

1878 rlf1

rlf1≈ mal gloss, analogue; Coleridge (probably via v1877 without attribution)

149 trumpet]

1880 Tanger

Tanger

149 morne] Tanger (1880, p. 121) ascribes the variant in F1 as “probably due to the critical revision which the text received at the hands of H.C. [Heminge & Condell], when it was being woven together from the parts of the actors.” He further notes that the Q1 variant, morning, “confirms, or at least countenances, [the Q2] reading.”

1880 meik

meik ≈ mal gloss + //s in Ado 5.2.85 (2502); 3H6 5.1.16 (2692)

149 trumpet] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “trumpeter.”

1899 ard1

ard1: mal + H5 // 4.2.61 (2205)

149 trumpet]

1903 rlf3

rlf3 = rlf1 minus Coleridge

149 trumpet]

1912 dtn

dtn

149 trumpet to the morne] Deighton (ed. 1912): “which summons the morning to awake as the trumpeter summons sleeping soldiers; trumpet, for ‘trumpeter,’ as in [Jn. 1.1.27 (32)], and standard for ‘standard-bearer,’ [Tmp. 3.2.18 (1366)].”

1913 tut2

tut2 ≈ Coleridge

149 Cock]

He paraphrases Coleridge with atribution

tut2 ≈ most editors +

149 trumpet] Goggin (ed. 1913): “this word is used by Shakespeare in the sense of ‘trumpeter,’ e.g. [H5 4.2.61 (2205)]; and most editors would give it that meaning here: there is not, however, any reason for rejecting the ordinary sense.”

1929 trav

trav

149 to] Travers (ed. 1929): “more official than ‘of’; by appointment, so to say.”

1934 cam3

cam3: standard

149 trumpet] Wilson (ed. 1934): “trumpeter.”

1947 cln2

cln2 = meik gloss

149 trumpet]

1963 Devlin

Devlin: Douce CN 150 without attribution

149-54 The Cock . . . confine] Devlin (1963, p. 31 and p. 31n) says that these lines paraphrase “those in the Liturgy for Sunday Lauds, from the cock-crow hymn of St. Ambrose . . . ”, and he quotes a version somewhat different from the others quoted in CN 149 and CN 150:

Praeco diei iam sonat,

Jubarque solis evocat,

Hos excitatus lucifer

Solvit polum caligine:

Hoc omnis erronum cohors

Viam noscendi deserit.

Devlin translates this: “The herald of the morning sounds, and calls out the sun-ray. Wakened by him the day-star frees the sky from darkness: at his note the troops of prowling outlaws forsake their baleful course. ’Extravagent and erring’ looks like an etymological rendering of the Latin words erro, erronis, meaning ’a lawless vagabond.’ ”

1982 ard2

ard2: Coleridge; Bourne; Lr.; Prudentius; Le Loyer from Psellus; Philological Quarterly 45 (1966): 442-7; Richard Jeffries (Wild Life if a Southern County, ch. 17); W. S. Walsh (Curiosities of Popular Customs, 1897, p. 232) + in magenta underlined

149-55 Cock] Jenkins (ed. 1982, LN): “The account may be unexpected, but is the more effective coming from the sceptical Horatio [. . . ].

“For the legend of the cock’s crowing all night for Christmas no other authority is known. But [. . . ] as the announcer of light the cock is emblematically the herald of Christ.”

ard2: standard gloss; Drayton ref. without attribution

149 trumpet]

1987 Mercer

Mercer

149-63 I haue heard . . . that time] Mercer (1987, p. 133): “There seems to be a stale air to [Horatio’s] lyricism, it trades in phrases so conventional . . . that they seem not far short of poetic cliché. Or perhaps they seem that only because they are so amazingly outshone by the exquisitely fresh lyricism with which Marcellus takes up the theme [quotes 156-63].”

Mercer, p. 136, argues that the discursive nature of the conversation in the first scene undercuts the single-mindedness that a revenger must achieve.

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard

149 trumpet] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “trumpeter, herald”