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Line 502 - 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.

502 “The canker gaules the infants of the spring	1.3.39

1752 Dodd

Dodd

502 infants of the spring] Dodd (1752, 1: 220): “‘Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring, Nipt with the lagging rear of winter’s frost.’ Milton’s Sampson Agonistes.”

1755- mmal4

mmal4

502 canker] Malone (ms. notes in Johnson Dict., 1755): “cankered: adj. Sordid, corebras. Scotch—‘My daddy was a canker’d carle—’ From canere. old French un vilain avare.”

1771 han3

han3

502 canker] Hawkins (ed. 1771): “is the canker-rose, the dog-rose, cynosbatus or hip.”

1780 mals1

mals1 ≈ Hawkins without attribution

502 canker] Malone (1780, p. 624, n. 4), re Son. 54.5: “The canker is the canker rose or dog rose.”

Hawkins’ note, in square brackets, re 2:448 [which may be Ado.; malsi has a ref. to Ado]. In Ham. the word does not mean the rose but the disease in the rose. The rose by this name probably was susceptible to the disease.

1791- rann

rann

502 infants of the spring] Rann (ed. 1791-) notes the parallel phrase in [LLL 1.1.101 (110)]; King: “an envious sneaping frost, That bites the first-born infants of the spring.”

1819 cald1

cald1 ≈ rann LLL // without attribution +

502 infants of the spring] Caldecott (ed. 1820): “Herrick, in The Primrose, writes, ‘Aske me why I send you here This sweet infanta of the yeere?’ 8vo. 1648, p. 243.

“The last line of this elegant little song, claimed also by Carew in his poems, 8vo. 1670, p. 155, is given thus: ‘This firstling of the infant year.’

“In Pericles we have, ‘And leave her The infant of your care.’”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

502 infants of the spring]

1839 knt1

knt1 = cald2 minus all but LLL, without attribution + in magenta underlined

502 infants of the spring] Knight (ed. [1839]): “Shakspere has the same beautiful expression in [LLL 1.1.101. (110)]:—‘An envious sneaping frost, That bites the first-born infants of the spring.’ ”

1843 Dyce’s Beaumont & Fletcher

Dyce ≈ han3 without attribution

502 canker] Dyce (ed. 1843, The Maid’s Tragedy 4.1, p. 386n): “canker] i.e., a wild rose, or dog-rose.”

1856 Mitford

Mitford: contra Dyce

502 canker] Mitford (1856, pp. 11-12). <p. 11> criticizes Dyce’s note for canker in The Maid’s Tragedy by Beaumont and Fletcher (1:386): “The editor explains ‘canker’ as ‘a wild dog-rose;’ but surely a garden rose does not become a wild dog-rose. Its true meaning is explained at p. 408 as a wormy disease:—. [quotes lines not quite as Dyce has them on p. 408, see below] </p. 11> <p. 12> The text of Shakespeare will afford authorities, as —[quote among others Ham. 502]. Dr. Richardson indeed says that ‘In Devonshire the dog-rose is called the canker-rose;’ but if so, doubtless it took that provincial name from its being, as it is, very subject to a disease from an insect that infects it, and destroys the bud.” </p. 12>

1860 Bucknill

Bucknill

502-5 Bucknill (1860, p. 259): “The opinion of Laertes is so far true that contagious fevers are certainly contracted with greater facility in youth, than either in infancy or in age.”

1867 dyce

dyce: Patterson

502 canker] Dyce, ed. 1867, 9: Glossary): “a caterpillar (‘The larva I allude to Lozotænia Rosana) lives among the blossoms [[of the rose]], and prevents the possibility of their further development,’ &c. Patterson’s Letters on the Nat. Hist. of the Insects mentioned in Shakspeare’s Plays, p. 34).”

1872 hud2

hud2 : standard + in magenta underlined

502 canker] Hudson (ed. 1872): “In Shakepeare’s time, canker was often used of the worm that kills the early buds before they open out into flowers. Perhaps it here means a disease that sometimes infects plants, and eats out the life.”

1877 v1877

v1877: Patterson

502 canker] Patterson (Nat. Hist. of Insects, &c., p, 34): “The canker Lozotænia rosana) chooses for its domicile ‘the fresh lap of the common rose,’ and lives among the blossoms, preventing the possibility of their further development.”

v1877: cald (minus all but // LLL)

502 infants]

1878 rlf1

rlf1: standard gloss + MND ref. for fuller note

502 canker]

1880 meik

meik: standard gloss, MND 2.2.3 (653) // from rlf1 without attribution

502 canker]

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

502 canker]

1887 Mackay

Mackay: standard +

502 canker] Mackay (1887): “Canker, as applied to the disease produced in the flower by a worm or parasite, is derived from the Keltic cean, the head, and cear, red or blood-red; thus cean-cear, or the blood-red excrescence.”

1899 ard1

ard1: standard

502 canker]

ard1: standard + // TNK 3.1.6

502 buttons]

1903 p&c

p&c

502 infants of the spring] Porter & Clarke (ed. 1903, rpt. 1905, p. xxvii) say that Polonius “desolates Ophelia’s opening heart with his impure slurs, and the frightened child, tutored to distrust her love, her lover, and herself, is blighted in the bud.” Ironically the blighting that Laertes feared from Hamlet comes to her from him and his father.

1938 parc

parc

502 canker] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “canker-worm”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard + //s; analogue

502 canker] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "the rose caterpillar; called ’a worm i’ th’ bud’ in [TN 2.4.111 (1000)]. This galls (gnaws) the heart of the young roses ’before the buds (French boutons) are unclosed.’ Early flowers are called ’the first -born infants of the spring in [LLL 1.1.101 (110)]. Cf [TGV 1.1.42 (46)]: ’The most forward bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow’; Day, Law Tricks, 1608, ii.1 (ed. Bullen, II, 31): ’Do not let despaire Like the ranke cancker bred by sultrie aire, Eate this young Rose of beauty in the bud.’ "

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

502 canker] Rylands (ed. 1947): "canker-worm."

1950 Tilley

Tilley no Ham. ref.

502 Tilley (1950, C56): “The Canker soonest eats the fairest flower. 1576 Pettie Pet. Pal. I. 28. [. . . ] .”

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

502 canker] Farnham (ed. 1957): “rose worm.”

pel1: standard

502 gaules] Farnham (ed. 1957): “injures.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

502 canker] Farnham (ed. 1970): “rose worm”

pel2: standard

502 gaules] Farnham (ed. 1970): “injures”

1977 Lyons

Lyons

502-5 Lyons (1977, pp. 65, 70), of flower imagery for Ophelia, especially in 4.5 (2927-36), points out that “Shakespeare’s complex use of the Flora figure in connection with Ophelia can be associated with well-known literary amd visual traditions, and on the use that both of these traditions made of the ambiguous language linking sexuality with flowers (picking flowers, young girls as flowers, ‘deflowering,’ and so forth). . . . </p. 65> <p. 70> Laertes too enforces the notion that it is easy to be contaminated and that ‘chariness’ is prudent: [quotes 499-500]. Laertes’ advice is based on the assumption that natural as well as human life is radically infected: [quotes 502-5].” </p. 70>

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

502 canker] Spencer (ed. 1980): “canker-worm or caterpillar.”

pen2: standard

502 gaules] Spencer (ed. 1980): “injures.”

pen2: standard

502 infants . . . spring] Spencer (ed. 1980): “young spring-time plants.”

1982 ard2

ard2:

502-3 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The sentiment is commonplace and the language, conventional-poetic, appropriate. That ’the most forward bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow’ is cited as a common saying in TGV 1.1.45-6. See also Day, Law Tricks, 1608, Malone Society Reprint, 704-6, ’Do not let despair Like the rank canker . . . Eat the young rose of beauty in the bud’. Infants of the spring echoes LLL 1.i.101. Button (Fr. bouton) is, since the Roman de la Rose, poetic for ’bud’ (cf. TNK 3.1.6). To disclose, lit. to open, was a normal verb to describe the process of buds unfolding (cf. Son. 54.8)—as also of eggs hatching (see 1823, 3485).”

1985 cam4

cam4

502 canker] Edwards (ed. 1985): "insect pest feeding on plants. (For the more general, figurative use, see [3573])."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

502-3 Hibbard (ed. 1987): "a variant on the saying ‘The canker soonest eats the fairest rose’ (Tilley C56). Compare [TGV 1.1.46-7 (46-7)] ‘And writers say, as the most forward bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow. . . .’ "

Hibbard

502 infants . . . spring] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "i.e. young plants or shoots. Shakespeare uses the identical phrase at [LLL 1.1.101 (110)]."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

502 canker gaules] Bevington (ed. 1988): “cankerworm destroys.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

502 The canker . . . spring] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “the cankerworm destroys the early spring blossoms”

1994 Fabricius

Fabricius:

502 canker] Fabricius (1994): According to a review by Charney (SNL (Spring 1996), pp. 5, 24). <p. 5> Fabricius “conclusively” identifies the canker in the bud as venereal disease (185-6). Charney, who does not accept Fabricius’s argument, says that the most fascinating part of his study is on prostitution in London in Sh’s time. Henslowe and Alleyn owned, </p.5> <p. 24> among others connected with the theater, brothels in the Bankside area.

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: F1; xref

502 canker] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “caterpillar or other insect pest. The word is also used by Shakespeare to mean a disease that consumes people —’cancer’ in modern spelling. In F, but not in Q2, Hamlet later refers to the King as ’this canker’ (see [3573 and CN]).”

ard3q2: standard

502 gaules] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “damages”

ard3q2: //

502 infants] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. young flowers, as at LLL 1.1.101, ’the first-born infants of the spring’”