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Line 153 - 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.
153 Th’extrauagant and erring spirit hies1.1.154
148 149 150 151 152 153 154 156 743
1747 warb
warb
153 Th’extrauagant] Warburton (ed. 1747): “i.e. got out its bounds.”
1754 Grey
Grey: theo1 Tmp., n. 154 +
153 Th’extrauagant] Grey (1754, 2:283): “Q. Extra-vagate? Virgil represents the ghost of Anchises thus concluding is instructions to AEneas, AEn. lib. v. ‘Jamque vale; torquet medios nox humida cursus, Et me fævus equis oriens afflavit anhelis, Dixerat, et tenues fugit ceu fumas in auras.’ ‘The dewynight rolls on her middle course, And with his panting steeds the rising sun, Severe hath breath’d upon me. Thus he said, And flew like fleeting smoke into the fleeting air.’ Dr. Trap. See note upon Hudibras, part iii. canto i, 1553.”
1765 john1
john1 = warb
153 Th’extrauagant]
1778 v1778
v1778 = warb +
153 Th’extrauagant] Steevens (ed. 1778): “So in Nobody and Somebody, 1598: ‘—they took me up for a ’stravagant.’”
1784 ays1
ays1 = warb
153 Th’extrauagant]
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
153 Th’extrauagant]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
153 Th’extrauagant]
1790 mal
mal = v1785
153 Th’extrauagant]
1791- rann
rann
153 Th’extrauagant] Rann(ed. 1791-): “wandering out of it’s proper element.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal; ≈ mtby2 n. 154, // MND
153 Th’extrauagant] Steevens (ed. 1793) “Shakspeare imputes the same effect to Aurora’s harbinger in the last scene of the third act of [MND. 3.2.380 (1421)] See Vol. V, p. 112.”
1793- mSteevens
mSteevens ≈ warb + in magenta underlined
153 erring spirit] Steevens (ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1793): “Erring is here used in the sense of wandering . Thus, in Chapman’s version of the fourth book of Homer’s Odyssey Telemachus calls Ulysses–‘My erring father—’:
“and in the ninth book, Ulysses, describing hiself and his companions to the Cyclop, says ‘—Erring Grecians we, From Troy were turning homewards—’ Erring ,in short, is erraticus.”
Check v1793, v1803, etc. to make sure about confine. They should have that note.
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
153 Th’extrauagant]
v1803 = mSteevens
153 erring spirit]
1807 Douce
Douce: Farmer
153 Th’extrauagant and erring] Douce (1807, 2:200): “Besides the hymn of Prudentius referred to in Dr. Farmer’s note, there is another said to have been composed by Saint Ambrose, and formerly used in the Salisbury service. It contains the following lines, which so much resemble Horatio’s speech, that one might almost suppose Shakspeare had seen them: ‘Preco diei jam sonat, Noctis profundae pervigil; Nocturna lux viantibus, A nocte noctem segregans. Hoc excitatus Lucifer, Solvit polum caligine; Hoc omnis errorum chorus Viam nocendi deserit. Gallo canente spes redit, &c.’
“See Expositio hymnorum secundum usum Sarum, pr. by R. Pynson, n.d. 4to, fo. vii.b. The epithets extravagent and erring are highly poetical and appropriate, and seem to prove that Shakspeare was not altogether ignorant of the Latin language.”
Douce
153-4 hies . . . confine] Douce (1807, 2: 195): “It was the popular belief that ghosts retired at the approach of day. Thus the spirit of Hamlet’s father exclaims [quotes 743].
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
153 Th’extrauagant]
1818 oxb
oxb = v1813 + in magenta underlined
153 Th’extrauagant] Oxberry (ed. 1818): “Extravagant is here used in the appropriate sense of ‘wandering beyond a given limit.’ though modern custom has confined it to excess in the use of money.”
1819 cald1
cald1: Steevens on Homer in v1813; Douce; contra Douce ≈ Farmer without attribution + in magenta underlined
153-4 Th’extrauagant . . . confine] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “From St. Ambrose’s hymn in the Salisbury service.
Praeco diei jam sonat:
‘Hôc excitatus Lucifer—
‘Hôc omnis Errorum chorus
‘Viam nocendi deserit,
‘Gallo canente.
“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 records of popular superstitions, in whatever language they are found, become accessible, that the adoption of either their words, or images, or both, will afford a very slender argument in favour of Mr. Douce’s conclusion.
“Mr. Steevens points out two instances in Chapman’s Odyssey, in which Telemachus calls Ulysses ‘My erring father’ Odys. IV, p. 55.
“‘Erring Grecians we from Troy were turning homewards’ [quotes Greek]. Odys. IX.v.259.
We find the verb also in the sense of rove or range, in his Batrachom, p. 4.
“‘The cat and night-hawke, who much scathe confer
“‘On all the outraies (foramen, [Greek]) where for food I ere.’
“Mr. Steevens has produced an instance of the word extravagant in the sense in which vagrant is used in our criminal law. ‘They took me up for a ‘stravagant.’ Nobody and Somebody, 1598. “And in [Oth. 1.1.136. (149)] we have the same ideas coupled in nearly the same expression: “In an extravagant and wheeling stranger.’ Roder[igo].
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
153 Th’extrauagant]
1826 sing1
sing1: cald1 on Oth. without attribution; Douce; v1813 Steevens on vagrant; Steevens on MND without attribution + in magenta underlined
153-4 Singer (ed. 1826): “ ‘The extravagant and erring spirit.’ ‘Extra-vagans, wandering about, going beyond bounds.’ Thus in [Oth. 1.1.136 (149)]:—‘To an extravagant and wheeling stranger’ [cald1]. It is remarkable that stravagant is the reading of the first quarto, which Steevens points out as used in the sense of vagrant. ‘They took me for for a stravagant.’ This is the ‘stravagare of the Italians; ‘to wander, to gad, or stray beyond or out of the way.’ Thus in [MND 3.2.380. (1421)] ‘And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger, At whose approach, ghost wandering here and there Troop home.’ ”
Erring is erraticus, straying or roving up and down. Mr. Douce has justly observed that ‘the epithets ‘the epithets extravagant and erring are highly poetical and appropriate, and seem to prove that Shakspeare was not altogether ignornant of the Latin language.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 +
153 erring] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “So ‘erring barbarian.’ [Oth. 1.3.356 (707)] Iago: and the title page of John Boys’s translation of a part of Virgil runs ‘AEneas his errours, or his voyage from Troy into Italy.’ 8vo.”
1833 valpy
valpy ≈ v1821 without attribution
153 erring] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Wandering.”
1844 verp
verpsing1 without attribution; Douce; Knight [where?]
153 Th’extrauagant and erring] Verplanck (ed. 1844): “here used in its original and Latin sense, extra-vagans, straying beyond its bounds; so, too, erring, as errans, wandering.
“[continues on Latin, Prudentius, Hymn from Douce; says his note thus far comes from Knight and Douce and then continues:]
“The above note, from Douce and Knight, is curious, and I think correct. Some future Dr. Farmer may, perhaps, show how Shakespeare became acquainted with this passage [the St. Ambrose hymn], without being able to read the original; for the resemblance is too close to be accidental. But this, with many other passages, and especially his original Latinisms of phrase, give evidence enough of a certain degree of acquaintance with Latin; doubtless, not familiar nor scholar-like, but sufficient to give a colouring to his style, and to open to him many treasures of poetical thought and diction not accessible to the merely English reader. Such a degree of acquaintance might well appear low to an accomplished Latinist, like Ben Jonson, and authorize him to say of his friend—‘Though thou hadst small Latin and Less Greek,’— Yet the very mention of his ‘small Latin’ indicates that Ben knew that he had some.”
1854 del2
del2: standard
153-4 Th’extrauagant . . . confine] Delius (ed. 1854): “Die Anwendung, welche Sh. hier von extravagant, erring und confine in einem anderer als dem gewöhnlichen Sinne dieser Werte macht, giebt der Stelle ein eigenthümliches Colorit. Confine ist der jedem Geiste, in einem der genannte vier Elemente zum Wohnsitz angewissen Bezirk, zu dem er von seinem nächtlichen Umherschweisen beim erste Hahnenruf zurückkehren muss.” [The twist to an unusual sense that Sh gives to the words extravagant, erring and confine gives the lines an idiosyncratic color. Confine refers to the assigned element of the four [earth, air, fire, water] to which all spirits must return after their nightly wanderings.]
1856 hud1
hud1 sing1 without attribution, including ref. to Douce minus (Q1 ref, Italian*).
153 Th’extrauagant . . . erring] Hudson (ed. 1856): “Extravagant is extra-vagans, wandering about, going beyond bounds.”
He continues with a direct quote from sing1: “Erring is erraticus, straying or roving up and down. Mr. Douce has justly observed that ‘the epithets ‘the epithets extravagant and erring are highly poetical and appropriate, and seem to prove that Shakspeare was not altogether ignorant of the Latin language.”
* hud1 in 156 refers to the Prudentius, Ambrose
1856 sing2
sing2sing1 with variation in last sentence
153-4 Singer (ed. 1856): “ . . . prove that Shakespeare was well acquainted with the Latin language.”
1860 stau
stau: Farmer; Douce; Steevens
153-4 see 156
stau: standard
153 Th’extrauagant and erring] Staunton (ed. 1860): “Wandering and erratic.”
1862 cham
cham: Douce + in magenta underlined
153-4 Th’extrauagant . . . confine] Carruthers & Chambers (ed. 1862): “That is, the spirit wandering out of its element in eccentric flight. Douce notices the poetical beauty and appropriateness of the epithets ‘extravagant’ and ‘erring,’ here used with fine classic taste.”
1865 hal
hal = sing1 minus 1st sentences, which are from cald1; cald2 directly, because he has a ref. to Boys not in cald1 without attribution
153-4
check to make sure of with or without attribution.
1866 cam1
cam1: Grey
153 Th’extravagant]
1868 c&mc
c&mc: standard
153 Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “Shakespeare uses both these epithets in their classically derived senses: ‘extravagant’ from the Latin extravagans, ‘wandering out of;’ and ‘erring’ from the Latin errando, ‘straying,’ ‘roving.’”
1870 Abbott
Abbott
153 Th’extrauagant and erring] Abbott (pp. 12-13): <p. 12>“Words then used literally are now used metaphorically, and vice versâ. . . . </p. 12><p. 13> So extravagant [quotes 153] has been restricted to ‘wandering beyond the bounds of economy.’ [. . . ] The fact is that, in the influx of Greek and Latin words into the English language, many were introduced to express ideas that either could be, or were already, expressed in the existing vocabulary. [. . . ] ‘extravagant’ (though it has a special force in [153] is not in most cases so obvious as ‘wandering’ . . . . Such words, once introduced into the language, finding the broader room which they had been intended to full already occupied, were forced to take narrower meanings.” </p. 13>
1872 cln1
cln1≈ sing2 def. roving and Oth. //
153 Th’extrauagant] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “roving. See [Oth. I. 1. 136 (149)]: “In an extravagant and wheeling stranger’.”
cln1 : standard + biblical ref.
153 erring] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “wandering. In Wiclif’s version of Jude 13 the planets are called ‘erringe sterris.’ Compare also the phrase in the General Confession, ‘We have erred and strayed from the ways like lost sheep’.”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1 (minus Douce)
153 Th’extrauagant]
1873 rug2
rug2
153 Th’extrauagant and erring]
Ed. note: See rug2 note to cadent tears in Lr. 1.4.307
1877 v1877
v1877 = Steevens, cln1 Oth. //
153 Th’extrauagant]
v1877 = Steevens, cln1 on Wiclif
153 erring]
1878 rlf1
rlf1: standard gloss; // Oth. + in magenta underlined
153 Th’extrauagant] Rolfe (ed. 1903): After citing //s in LLL 4.2.66 (1231) and Oth. 1.1.136 (149), “S. uses the word only in these passgaes, and extravangancy (= vagrancy) only in [TN 2.1.12 (621)].”
rlf1: cald Oth. 1.3.356 // without attribution + // AYL 3.2.138
153 erring] Rolfe (ed. 1903): “So erring is used in its literal sense; as in [AYL 3.2.138 (1328] and [Oth. 1.3.356 (707) ()].”
1880 meik
meik: standard gloss; Upton on Sh’s using Latin words in primary sense; see 124+16); // Oth. 1.1.136 (149)
153 Th’extrauagant]
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
153 Th’extrauagant]
1883 macd
macd: standard
153 Th’extrauagant] MacDonald (ed. 1883): “straying beyond bounds”
macd: standard
153 erring] MacDonald (ed. 1883): “wandering”
1885 mull
mull = stau without attribution
153 Th’extrauagant and erring]
1890 irv2
irv2: standard
153 Th’ extrauagant] Marshall (ed. 1890): “wandering.”
irv2: standard // Oth.; Douce on Salisbury hymn; Steevens on Chapman +
153-4 Marshall (ed. 1890): “and the General Confession in the Prayer-book: ‘We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep.’”
1899 ard1
ard1: standard gloss; standard // Oth.
153 Th’extrauagant and erring]
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1
153 Th’extrauagant]
rlf3 = rlf1
153 erring]
1905 rltr
rltr: standard
153 Th’extrauagant]
1912 dtn3
dtn3: standard
153 Th’extrauagant] Deighton (ed. 1912): “stalking abroad; used again in its literal sense, [Oth. 1.1.136 (149)], [quotes].”
dtn3: standard gloss; Steevens
153 erring] Deighton (ed. 1912): “wandering; Steevens quotes from Chapman’s Odyssee, bk. iv, ‘My erring father,’ said of the wandering Ulysses, and bk. ix, ‘Erring Grecians we, From Troy returning homewards.’ For both words, see Abb. Intro. p. xiii.”
1913 tut2
tut2: standard; xref mtby without attribution (of course) + in magenta underlined
153 Th’ . . . confine] Goggin (ed. 1913): “Confine here means ‘place of confinement,’ ‘limits,’ as in [1291].”
1931 crg1
crg1: standard
153 Th’extravagant and erring] Craig (ed. 1931): “wandering. Both words mean the same thing.”
1939 kit2
kit2: standard gloss; Oth. //
153 Th’extravagant and erring]
1947 cln2
cln2rlf
153 Th’extrauagant and erring] Rylands (ed. 1947): “wandering and roaming (in literal sense).
1957 pel1
pel1: standard
153 extrauagant] Farnham (ed. 1957): “wandering beyond bounds.”

pel1: standard
153 erring] Farnham (ed. 1957): “wandering.”
1970 pel2
pel2: standard
153 extrauagant] Farnham (ed. 1970): “wandering beyond bounds”

pel2: standard
153 erring] Farnham (ed. 1970): “wandering”
1982 ard2
ard2: standard
153 Th’extrauagant]
ard2
153 erring spirit] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “There is no suggestion (as Prosser, p. 122) that an ‘erring spirit’ is an evil one.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4
153 extrauagant] Hibbard (ed. 1987) says that the use of the word meaning “wandering out of bounds” “appears to be peculiar to Shakespeare.”
1992 fol2
fol2: standard
153 extrauagant] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “out of bounds“

fol2: standard
153 erring] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “wandering“
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard; OED
153 extrauagant and erring] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “wandering beyond its proper bounds. OED lists this as the first use of extravagant in this sense.”

ard3q2: standard
153 hies] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “hurries, hastens”