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Line 512 - 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.

512 {Whiles} <Whilst like> a puft, and reckles libertine	1.3.49

1710 Gildon

Gildon

512 reckles] Gildon (1710, p. lxxii): “reakes Thinks of, cares for, or values,”

1723 pope1

pope1 5:553 Mac.

512 reckles] Pope (ed. 1723, Mac. 3.1.109 [1327]): “careless.”

1723- mtby2

mtby2

512-14 Thirlby (1723-) proposes two ways to correct the problem of agreement. Read either “Whilst like to puft and reckless libertines Themselves — tread, And reck not their own read.” Or “Whilst like to a puft and reckless libertine Yourself . . . tread And reck not your own read.” “sed nb puft.” [but note puft]

1744 han1

han1

512 reckles] Hanmer (ed. 1744, 6: Glossary): “regardless, negligent.”

1747 warb

warb

512 Whiles . . . libertine] Warburton (ed. 1747): “ ‘Whilst, like a puft and careless libertine,]] This reading gives us a sense to this effect. Do not you be like an ungracious preacher, who is like a careless libertine. And there we find, that he who is so like a careless libertine, is the careless libertine himself. This could not come from Shakespear. The old quarto reads, Whiles a puft and reckless libertine, which directs us to the right reading, Whilest [sic, in the text he has Whilst] he a puft and reckless libertine. The first impression of these plays being taken from the play-house copies, and those, for the better direction of the actors, being written as they were pronounced, these circumstances have occasioned innumerable errors. So a for he every where ‘ — ’a was a goodly King.’ ‘A was a man take him for all in all,’ ‘—I warn’t it will’ for I warrant. This should be well attended to in correcting Shakespear.”

“This could not come from Shakespear.”

Ed. note: But could it come from Ophelia? These early editors do not distinguish between Sh. and his characters. Warburton uses a statement of Pope’s about the actors’ copies and their substitution of “a” for “he” (to represent for the players how they should or did pronounce the words) to explain that the “a” above should be “he”—but then he still needs another “a,” it seems.

1747- mtby4

mtby4

512 a] Thirlby (1747-), commenting on Warburton’s idea about inserting he: “That can have no place here.”

1747-60 mBrowne

mBrowne: warb +

512 Browne (1747-) “Warb. Whilst he a puft and reckless Libertine—I would prefer the common reading and do not perceive of absurdity a saying Do not you, as some ungracious pastors do, preach abstinence and mortification and live [. . .] themselves [. . .] like Libertines with not the least regard to their own advice[?].”

1752 Dodd

Dodd

512 reckles] Dodd (1752, pp. 220-1)<p. 220> “is the same as careless, which is read in some editions, and is, I think, the preferable word; as, recks not his own read </p. 220><p.221 >(i.e. regards not his own doctrine) so immediately follows. Spenser, in his Calendar, greatly reprove those ungracious pastors, who are said here to tread the primrose path of dalliance, and pay no regard to the good lessons they teach their flocks; see July: and Milton is not sparing of his satire on this subject: he thus reprehends the proud and ungracious pastors:

How well cou’d I have spar’d for thee, young swain,

Anow of such as for their bellies sake,

Creep and intrude and climb into the fold?

Of other care they little reck’ning make,

Than how to scramble at the shearers feast,

And shove away the worthy bidden guest:

Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold

A sheep-hook, or have learn’d ought else the least,

That to the faithful herdman’s art belongs!

What in them! What need they? They are sped,

And when they list their lean and flashy songs

Grate on their scrannel pipe of wretched straw:

The hungry sheep look up and are not fed,

But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,

Rot inwardly and foul contagion spread. &c.

Lycidas.” </p. 221>

1765 Heath

Heath

512 Whiles . . . libertine] Heath (1765, pp. 525-26): <p. 525> “The true meaning [of the lines and the image] is, Do not you imitate the ungracious teacher, who, while he is preaching up to others self-denial and mortifi- </p. 525> <p. 526> cation, at the same time indulges himself, with all the licentiousnes of a bloated abandoned libertine, in the gratification of every appetite, without paying regard to his own doctrine.” </p. 526>

1765 john1

john1 = warb +

512 Whiles . . . libertine] Johnson (ed. 1765): “The emendation is not amiss, but the reason for it is very inconclusive; we use the same mode of speaking on many occasions. When I say of one, he squanders like a spendthrift, of another, he robbed me like a thief, the phrase produces no ambiguity; it is understood that the one is a spendthrift, and the other a thief. ”

[I don’t see Johnson’s point here: the Pastor and the libertine in O’s image seem to be one and the same person.]

1771 han3

han3= han1

512 reckles]

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

512 Whiles . . . libertine]

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773

512 Whiles . . . libertine]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

512 Whiles . . . libertine]

1791- rann

rann ≈ Heath without attribution

512-4 Whiles . . . reed] Rann (ed. 1791-): “a bloated and abandoned profligate, he regards not his own doctrine.”

1805 Seymour

Seymour

512 Whiles a puft] Seymour (1805, 2:152): “The quarto reads, ‘Whiles a puft,’ &c. Perhaps: ‘While as a puft and reckless libertine’.”

note placed in conjectural emendations never used doc.

1819 cald1

cald1

512 Whiles . . . libertine] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Bloated and swoln, the effect of excess; and heedless and indifferent to consequences. ‘Ignavus, inefficax, rechelesse.’ Ortus Vocab. 4to. 1514.”

1826 sing1

sing1 = hang without attribution + in magenta underlined

512 reckles] Singer (ed. 1826): “Rechless, or negligent; Omissus animus.—Baret.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

512 Whiles . . . libertine]

1863 Clarke

Clarke ≈ Bucknill [ck]

512-14 Clarke (1863, p. 83): these lines show that Ophelia’s purity “is not the result of ignorance.”

1870 rug1

rug1

512 puft] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Inflated. So we have ‘puff’d Boreas,’ ‘puff’d with divine ambition [2743+43],’ &c.”

1872 cln1

cln1: jen without attribution; Seymour without attribution

512 While a] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “Perhaps we should read ‘While as a’.”

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1

512 puft]

1875 Schmidt

Schmidt

512 Whiles] Schmidt (1875): The definitions for while are the same as those for whiles and almost identical to those for whilst.

1877 v1877

v1877 = cald

512 Whiles . . . libertine]

1878 rlf1

rlf1

512 Whiles] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Used by S. interchangeably with while and whilst.”

1880 meik

meik = rlf1 without attribution

512 Whiles] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “used indifferently by S. with while, and whilst,”

meik = Heath without attribution

512 puft] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “bloated.”

1899 ard1

ard1 = Heath without attribution + // Wiv. 5. 5. 160

512 puft

1929 trav

trav: standard + in magenta underlined

512 reckles] Travers (ed. 1929): “rashly (almost defiantly) careless.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

512 Whiles] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "whilst, while."

kit2

512 libertine] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "free-liver."

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

512-14 Rylands (ed. 1947): "i.e. while he himself, like a bloated and careless trifler, treads the primrose path of pleasure and disregards his own counsel."

1980 pen2

pen2

512 puft] Spencer (ed. 1980): “swollen with pride (or excess).”

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ pen2 without attribution

512 Whiles] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “F modernizes, as also at 1.5.96; 3.4.150. But contrast 3892.”

ard2:

512 puft] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “lit. swollen. Falstaff is ’puff’d’ (Wiv. 5.5.146). Here usually glossed ’bloated’. But heedless man on the way to hell may be ’puff’d’ with pride. Cf. ’puff’d’ with ambition, 2743+43.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4

512 puft] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "inflated (with pride). Compare Timon 4.3.179, ‘Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puffed.’ "

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

512 puft] Bevington (ed. 1988): “bloated, or swollen with pride.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2

512 Whiles] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “F’s ’Whilst like’ improves the metre; ’whilst’ has been claimed as a modernization but [Wells and Taylor, 1987] notes that both texts agree on while 17 times but on whilst only three times.”

ard3q2: standard

512 puft Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “swollen or bloated (presumably as the result of a dissipated lifestyle; Falstaff is described as ’a puffed man’ at MW 5.5.151); Jenkins and Hibbard gloss ’inflated with pride’.”

ard3q2: standard; OED

512 libertine] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “a dissolute or licentious man (as OED notes, ’rarely applied to a woman’)”