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Line 189 - 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.

189 With {an} <one> auspitious, and {a} <one> dropping eye,	1.2.11

1520 Walter

Walter: apud Tilley: See below:

189 Walter (Spectacle Lovers c1520 in Collier Biblio. Acct. IV 212): “Full harde it is to find a woman stedfast, For yf one eye wepe the other doth contrary.” c1526 Dicta Sap. , s. C4: The weeping of an heire is dissembled laughing, yes he reioyceth though he wepe.”

1562 Heywood

Heywood

189 Heywood (1562, 1:11:40): “He winketh with the tone eye and looketh with the tother; I will not trust him though he were my brother.”

1612 Bacon

Bacon

189 Bacon (1612, L7), in “Of seeming wise” (17. L6-L7v), paraphrases Cicero on Piso: “when he answered him, hee fetched one of his brows vp to his forehead, & bent the other downe to his chin: . . . .”

-1778 mmal1

Malone’s notes for Steevens’ edition: [See // doc. ] dropping]

189 an. . . a] Malone (ms. notes, -1778, ff. 50r -50v): <fol. 50r> “(Instead of my former note) I once thought that we ought to read drooping as </fol. 50r> <fol. 50v> more expressive of grief—but dropping is certainly right — So in [WT 5.2.75 (3083)] [and he quotes] </fol. 50v>

1778 v1778

v1778 = mmal1 without attribution

189 an. . . a] Steevens (ed. 1778): “The quarto, with somewhat less of quaintness: ‘With an auspicious, and a dropping eye.’ The same thought, however, occurs in [WT 5.2.75 (3083)]: She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled.’ Steevens.”

1783 mals2

mals2

189 dropping] Malone (1783, p. 55): “I once thought that dropping in this line meant only depressed, or cast downwards; an idea probably suggested by the passage in the [WT], quoted by Mr. Steevens [v1778, 10. 182]. But it means, I believe, weeping. ‘Dropping of the eyes’ was a technical expression in our author’s time.—‘If the spring be wet with much southwind, —the next summer will happen agues and blearness, dropping of the eyes, and pains of the bowels.’ Hopton’s Concordancie of yeares, 8vo. 1616.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778 , mals2

189 dropping]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

189 dropping]

1790 mal

mal = v1785 + in magenta underlined

189 dropping] Malone (ed. 1790) adds: “in Montaigne’s Essaies, 1603— ‘they never saw any man there—with eyes dropping, or crooked and stooping through age.’ Malone.”

1791- rann

rann= Steevens (minus all but partial quotation as shown) + in magenta underlined

189 Rann (ed. 1791): “‘She had one eye, &c.’ [WT 5.2. 75 (3083)]. 3 Gent.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal +

189 an . . . a] Steevens (ed. 1793) suggests that perhaps the proverbial expression “ ‘To cry with one eye and laugh with the other’” was “buck-ram’d by our author for the service of tragedy. See Ray’s Collection, edit. 1768, p. 188. Steevens.”

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

189 an . . . a]

1805 Seymour

Seymour: Steevens without attribution

189 an . . . a] “This last line, from the folio, appears to me inferior to that which the quarto exhibits [quotes].”

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

189 an . . . a]

1819 cald1

cald1: standard

189 an. . . a] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “With joy baffled, and with one well-omen’d and smiling, and one clouded and weeping eye. [then quotes Steevens on WT]”

1819 mcald

mcald = mals2, mal

189 an. . . a] Caldecott (1819, BL 11766.k.20) “. . . and one dropping eye”] “beyond its obvious sense of weeping, drooping & cast down, or dripping, Mr. Malone shows, pointing out an epidermical malady of those times. If the blearnelys, drooping of the eyes, and pains of the bourds. Concordance of years. 1616. ‘They never saw any man there--with eyes drooping, or crooled and loosing their age!’ Montaigne’s Essays 1603.”

Ed. note: mcald copies Malone (1783) and mal, providing evidence that cald saw Malone’s work.

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

189 an . . . a]

1826 sing1

sing1 = Steevens v1793 without attribution

189 an . . . a] Singer (ed. 1826): “The same thought occurs in [WT 5.2.75 (3083): ‘She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled.’ There is an old proverbial phrase, ‘To cry with one eye and laugh with the other.’”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

189 an . . . a]

1854 del2

del2

189 an . . . a] Delius (ed. 1854): “Das thräuenvergiessende Auge wird hier dem Freude verkündenden gegenüber gestellt, um, wie in den übrigen Antithesen, den angeblichen Widerstreit der Gefühle in der Brust des Königs darzuthun.” [The tearful eye is here placed in contrast to the announced joy, as in the other antitheses . . . .”

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1

189 an . . . a]

1856 hud1

hud1 standard on WT and proverb without attribution

189 an . . . a] Hudson (ed. 1856): “The same thought occurs in The Winter’s Tale: ‘She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled.’ There is an old proverbial phrase, ‘To laugh with one eye, and cry with the other.’”

1862 wh1

wh1 ≈ mmal

189 dropping] White (ed. 1862): “The old copies, ‘dropping eye.’ But, considering the sense required, the distinction made between ‘drop’ and ‘droop’ in Shakespeare’s day as in our own, and remembering how common an error is the duplication of the wrong letter in both type-setting and chirography, I do not hesitate to read, ‘drooping eye.’”

1862 wh1

wh1

189 one] White (ed. 1862, 12: 426-8, in Guide to Pronunciation): <p. 426> “‘One’ is a word the modern pronunciation of which is at variance with analogy, to which the best usage of Shakespeare’s day seems to have conformed. Its modern pronunciation is a unique violation of a rule which is in force as to this very word in its compounds ‘only,’ ‘alone,’ and ‘atonement,’ the unaccountable dropping of the e in the first of which has not even yet substituted its analogical pronunciation, on-ly, for its elementary one-ly. (See the Notes on “only,’ Vol. II. p. 184, and ‘atone,’ Vol. IV. p. 384.) That the presumption justified by analogy, and by these facts, is sustained by the evidence of rhymes and of spelling, no observant reader of our ancient authors need be told. Such rhymes as the following are numberless: ‘one’ with ‘grone,’ Seneca’s Ten Tragedies, 1581, fol. 184 b;—‘once’ with ‘stones,’ Ib. fol. 5, and fol. 21 b; with ‘bones,’ Ib. fol. 33, fol. 43 b and fol. 209; —‘ones’ with ‘bones,’ Ib. fol. 62 b, and with ‘zones,’ Ib. fol. 5, and fol. 21 b . . . Arcadia, 1605; p. 228; with ‘owne,’ Ib. p. 344; —‘one’ with ‘knowne’ and ‘mone,’ Albion’s England, 1605, p. 36 . . .; with ‘loane,’ Brown’s Pastorals, Vol. 1, p. 11; with ‘mone,’ Romeus and Juliet, ed. Collier, p. 74; with ‘grone,’ Honour’s Academy, 1610, P. III. p.94; —‘once’ with ‘groanes,’ Ib. p. 123; —‘one’ with ‘alone,’ Drayton’s Heroic Epic., 1619, </p. 426><p. 427> . . . . [several other examples from various works]

“To this evidence must be added that of Butler’s Grammar, 1633, passim. Butler devoted one third of his work to orthography and spelling, and he was a rigid phonographist in practice as well as theory, writing tung, dubble, nou, reddi, &c. with invariable uniformity. He invented characters to express the compound and inflected sounds of vowels, and also the consonants in combination with the aspirants . . . [gives examples]. If the pronunciation of his day had been wun, or on, he would have so written. . . . [He also cites Poole’s English Parnassus, which I have a xerox of I believe] which makes one rhyme with “‘bone,’ ‘cone,’ ‘drone,’ ‘flown,’ ‘moan,’ ‘shone,’ ‘throne,’ &c., while it is omitted from the tables under on and un.” . . . .

[White cites counter pronunciations with the w, but they are all from ballads.]

“I think that the origin of the universal modern pronunciation </p. 427 ><p. 428> of this word may be traced to the tendency in some of the provincial dialects of England, that of Dorsetshire in particular, to introduce a w before o. . . . Its prevalence was probably owing to the greater ease with which we can say ‘a wone,’ or ‘a wun,’ than ‘a own;’ and in the very common use of ‘an’ instead of ‘a’ before ‘one” we have yet further evidence that this word was not generally pronounced with the w sound.” </p. 428>

1865 hal

hal = cald1, Malone quoting Steevens, &c.

189 an . . . a]

1872 cln1

cln1 = Steevens re WT on line as a whole

189 an . . . a]

cln1

189 auspitious] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “cheerful, betokening happiness.”

cln1: Malone

189 dropping] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “shedding tears, not ‘cast down” as Malone says.”

1872 hud2

hud2 = hud1

189 an . . . a]

1874 Corson

Corson: F1, cam1

189 an . . . a] Corson (1874, p. 9) prefers F1.

1877 v1877

v1877: Steeens, mal, wh1 +

189 an . . . a] Furness (ed. 1877): “ . . . there could be little hesitation in rejecting [Malone’s] interpretation had not White, so far adopted it as to substitute in the text drooping in place of ‘dropping’ . . . . ”

v1877: Francke

189 an . . . a] Francke (apud Furness, ed. 1877) refers to the Homeric phrase, dakruoen gelasasa “smiling with tears,” or “laughing tearfully” Iliad, vi, 484, and to Odyssey, xix, 471, and Sophocles, Electra, 1920.”

1878 rlf1

rlf1: Steevens

189 An . . . a]

1878 rlf1

rlf1: mal, Wh1

189 dropping]

1880 Tanger

Tanger

189 an . . . a] Tanger (1880, p. 122) 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.”

1880 meik

meik: Steevens +

189 an . . . a] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “(probably here pronounced ane) = one. S. frequently uses a for one. Thus in [3725], Hamlet says: ‘These foils have all a length:’ and [Rom. 2.4.206 (1300)]: ‘Rosemary and Romeo begin with a letter.’ [Steevens ref.] And the folio editions have in this very passage one; one —Auspicious, cheerful.”

meik ≈ cln1 without attribution

189 dropping] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “tears.”

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

189 an . . . a]

1883 wh2

wh2

189 dropping] White (ed. 1883): “I believe that S, intended ‘dropping eye,’ for which the old text seems to me a mere irregular spelling and a much inferior reading.”

1885 mull

mull = cln1 without attribution

189 auspitious] Mull (ed. 1885): “cheerful.”

mull = cln1

189 dropping]

1888 macl

macl

189 an . . . a] Maclachlan (ed. 1888) maintains that F1’s “burlesque” reading is not something the king would say, given his “simulated exhibition of himself. He is not a fool. This burlesque is post-Shakespearean.”

1899 ard1

ard1: Steevens WT //, wh1 on drooping

189

Ed. note: wh2 had returned to dropping

1929 trav

trav

189 an auspitious . . . eye] Travers (ed. 1929): “‘One’ (F.) eye radiant with good fortune and ‘one’ (F,) dropping tears.

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH

189 Wilson (1934, pp. 47-8) <p. 47> lists one for an among the F1 paraphrases, </p.47> <p.48>“which is the kind of flashy embellishment too often found in this text.” </p.48>

1939 kit2

kit2: Steevens on WT +

189 auspitious] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "of happy aspect or expression . . . . Cf. Alanus de Insulis, Anticlaudianus, viii, i: ’Alter lascivit oculis dum profluit alter’; Massinger, The Old Law, ii, 1 (ed. Gifford, 1813, IV, 491):

"I have known a widow laugh closely, my lord,

"Under her handkerchief, when t’other part

"Of her old face wept like rain in sunshine."

1947 cln2

cln2 ≈ trav

189 Rylands (ed. 1947): "at once rejoicing and sorrowing."

1950 Tilley

Tilley

189 Tilley (1950, E 248): “To cry (look up) with one Eye and laugh (down) with the other c1520 Walter Spectacle Lovers in Collier Biblio. Acct. IV 212: “Full harde it is to find a woman stedfast, For yf one eye wepe the other doth contrary.” c1526 Dicta Sap. , s. C4: The weeping of an heire is dissembled laughing, yes he reioyceth though he wepe.”

1958 fol1

fol1

189 Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958):“that is, half-joyfully, half-tearfully.”

1980 pen2

pen2

189 Spencer (ed. 1980): “The comic or repulsive image (one eye smiling, the other weeping) is stronger in the F reading: ’With one Auspicious, and one Dropping eye’.”

1982 ard2

ard2: : Fergusson; WT; Tilley; Chaucer; B. White; Elyot

189 one . . . one] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “It was proverbially said of the false man that he looks up with one eye and down with the other (e.g. Fergusson’s Scottish Proverbs, ed. Beveridge, Scot. Text Soc., p. 56). This was a variant of the ancient proverb, To laugh with one eye and weep with the other (Tilley E 248), which was traditionally applied to Fortune (as in Chaucer, Book of the Duchess, lines 633-4) in indication of her fickleness. See B. White, ’Claudius and Fortune’, Anglia, LXXVII, 204-7. But though this may give the phrase, from Claudius’s lips, an ironic undertone, it is a mistake to suppose that in itself it proclaims him hypocrite. In Elyot’s Governour (II. ch. 12) a woman yields her maidenhead ’with an eye half laughing half mourning’ while affirming constancy; and Paulina ’had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled’ [WT 5.2.75 (3083)]. The idea of Fortune has suggested ’auspicious’ for the happy eye and the ’scale’ of line [191]; for the king as Fortune’s surrogate, cf. esp. [3.3.17-22 (2290-5)]. For dropping, downcast, cf. Fergusson and WT above.”

1985 cam4

cam4: Steevens; Beatrice White

189 With an auspitious, and a dropping eye] With one auspicious and one dropping eye Edwards (ed. 1985): "’auspicious’: looking happily to the future; ’dropping’: cast down with grief, or possibly dropping tears. Steevens noted the similar sentence, in a semi-jocular context, in [WT 5.2.74-6 (0000)], ’She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled.’ Beatrice White found the genesis of this ’contradictory facial expression’ in descriptions of the false and fickle goddess Fortune, and argued that the saying ’to cry with one eye and laugh with the other’ became a standard phrase for hypocrisy and inconstancy. ’To an Elizabethan . . . an indication of duplicity would have been at once apparent’ (Anglia 77 (1959) 204-7). The reading of F, adopted here, is less likely to be a sophistication than Q’s is to be a misreading."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

189 Bevington (ed. 1988): “ with one eye smiling and the other weeping.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4: Tllley E248 standard

189 an . . . eye]

1991 ShB

Ward

189 Ward (1991, pp. 31-3) says that the king’s rhetorical figure is synoeciosis. Her definition comes from Henry Peacham, The Garden of Eloquence (Gainsville: Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints), 1954: 170: “synoeciosis ‘teacheth to conjoine diverse things or contraries, and to repugne common opinion with reason.’” Ward says that Peacham says that two contrary evils are joined together to show the evil of both and that Claudius “misuses this device by coupling contraries for the purpose of approving rather than condemning them, thus employing rhetorical arts to conceal his lack of decorum in marrying Gertrude.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

189 With . . . eye] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “as if smiling with one eye and crying with the other“

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: Tilley; WT

189 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “proverbial: ’To cry with one eye and laugh with the other’ (Tilley, E248). See the description of Paulina at the end of WT having ’one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the Oracle was fulfilled’ (5.2.75-7).”

2008 Crystal

Crystal: OED

189 auspitious] Crystal (2008, p. 174) believes that this use of the word “probably antedates the OED” citation from AWW.

2008 Bate

Bate

189-279 Bate (2008, p. 85) cites the many examples of adjectives or nouns joined by and, relating the practice to the way Latin grammar was studied in school: “Such doublings and amplifications were drilled into Shakespeare in the classroom so thoroughly that they became second nature in his writing, sometimes obsessively so, as in Hamlet, where one epithet will never do when two are possible [quotes 189, 198, 208, 279, all by the king, and only 267 by Hamlet]—all these and more are to be found in the first hundred lines of the first court scene of the play.”