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Line 530 - 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.

530 Of each {new hatcht} <vnhatch’t,> vnfledgd {courage,} <Comrade.> beware	1.3.65

1853 Clarke

Clarke

530 courage] Clarke (1853) lists three instances of comrade.

1856 Badham

Badham

530 courage] Badham (1856, p. 282): “Comráde is the trashy correction made by later quartos for the original reading courage. Perhaps Shakespeare’s word was court-ape.”

1856 N&Q

Ingleby

530 vnfledgd courage] Ingleby (1856, p. 206): “All the early quartos read ‘unfledged courage.’ A courage, in euphuistic talk, means a gallant. It is so used by Sir Walter Scott in The Monastery, and is put into the mouth of the prince of euphuists Sir Piercie Shafton. . . . C. Mansfield Ingleby.”

1866 dyce2

dyce2 : Badham

530 courage] Dyce (ed. 1866): “Dr. Badham (Cambridge Essays for 1856, p. 282) unaccountably objects to this word [comrade], and, as unaccountably, proposes to read ‘court-ape.’”

1866 cam1

cam1

530 courage] Clark & Wright (ed. 1866, 1: ix):“ . . . both Quartos give ‘courage’ for ‘comrade.’ a mistake due undoubtedly to the eye and not to the ear.”

1869 strat

strat

530 courage] Stratmann (ed. 1869): “I confess ‘courage’ is unintelligible to me; still, as [Q2 - Q5] agree with [Q1]. I cannot prevail upon myself to displace it for ‘comrade’ of [F1, F2], which seems to be a mere conjectural reading.”

1872 cln1

cln1 on comrade ≈ Seymour without attribution, including // 1H4 + // Lr.

530 courage] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “In [Lr. 2. 4. 210 (1504), the accent is on the first: ‘To be a comrade with the wolf and owl’.”

1877 v1887

v1877: Badham (p. 282), cln1, ref. to Ingleby 539n

530 courage]

1877 dyce3

dyce3 = dyce2

530 courage]

1880 Tanger

Tanger

530 each . . . courage] Tanger (1880, p. 124): 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.” The Q1 reading “confirms, or at least countenances, [the Q2] reading.”

1880 meik

meik on accent comráde [thus contra cln1 without attribution] + Ger.

530 courage] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “ . . . as in the Ger. Kamarade. S. accents the word both ways.”

1899 ard1

ard1: standard on accent; ≈ Ingleby on gloss without attribution + NED

530 courage] Dowden (ed. 1899): The NED [OED] has examples of courage in the sense of a gallant from Hoby (1561) and W. Browne (1647). He says that comrade is fine also, and needs to be stressed on the second syllable.

1902 Reed

Reed: claims Bacon is Shakespeare, supported by Promus notebooks begun Dec. 1594.

530-1 beware . . . quarrel] Reed (1902, § 843): quotes Bacon Essay of Travel 1625: “For quarrels are with care and discretion to be avoided.”

1929 trav

trav

530 vnfledgd] Travers (ed. 1929): without feathers and so “not tried in the flight of friendship yet.”

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH

530 courage] Wilson (1934, pp. 295-6) believes that “the reading of the quartos contained the secret of Sh.’s intention. Comrade he was sure was a guess. In 1918 (TLS 14 Nov.) he had published his emendation “cocknay” [orig. = cock’s egg] which he says graphically resembled what Sh. must have scribbled. It fit the context of eggs. But now he knows, from the NED, that the word could denote persons.

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH

530 courage] Wilson (ed. 1934, p. xxix) lists courage among his most important restorations of Q2.

1934 rid1

rid1: standard

530 Ridley (ed. 1934), pointing out that both Q1 and Q2 have courage, does not like the F1 emendation though he uses it because, while an m could be mistaken for a u, g for d is unlikely.

1938 parc

parc

530 courage] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “gallant youth.”

1939 kit2

kit2 contra Wilson

530 courage] Kittredge (ed. 1939), who chooses F1, says ". . . Wilson [explains courage] as ’spark,’ ’brave,’ ’blood’; but the passage that he quotes from the [NED] does not confirm this reading. Furthermore, the metre requires the word to be accented on the second syllable, and this is a known accent for comrade ([1H4 4.1.96 (2326)]), but unlikely for courage. Finally, courage is an obvious misprint for comrague, i.e., ’fellow-rogue.’ Cf. Sir Edward Hoby, A Curry-combe for a Coxe-combe, 1615, p. 69: his poore Comragues of Doway.’ "

kit2: Castiglione

530-2 beware . . . thee] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Cf. Castigliione, Il Cortegiano (in Sir Thomas Hoby’s version, The Courtier, ed. 1577, sig. Dv r): ’Neither let him runne rashly to these combates, but when hee must needes to saue his estimation withall . . . But when a man perceyueth that he is entred so farre that hee cannot draw back withoute burthen, hee must, both in such thinges he hath to do before the combate, and also in the combat be utterly resolued with hymselfe, and always shew a readinesse and a stomacke.’ "

1950 Tilley

Tilley

530-2 beware . . . thee] Nothing in Tilley, but it seems proverbial in style.

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

530 courage] Farnham (ed. 1957): “man of spirit, young blood.”

1957 pen1b

pen1b

530 courage] Comrade Harrison (ed. 1957): “the Quarto reads ’courage’ (= hothead), which may be right.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

530 courage] Farnham (ed. 1970): “man of spirit, young blood”

1980 pen2

pen2

530 Spencer (ed. 1980): “young man of bravado.”

1982 ard2

ard2: Dover Wilson; ard1; analogs etc.

530 courage] Jenkins (ed. 1982) a noun: “gallant, swashbuckler. Editors, led by Dover Wilson and I think justifiably, have reverted to this Q2 (and Q1) reading. That courage could refer to a person is shown by OED sb. 1 C. One of its two examples retains the word from the French it is translating; the other shows Sir T. Hoby using it to render the Italian animi when, referring to the ancient Romans, he speaks of ’the prowess of those divine courages’ (The Courtier, Tudor Trans., p. 327). It is hardly such that Polonius has in mind, but the manifestations of ’courage’ may range from spiritual elevation through military valour to fashionable effrontery; Dover Wilson takes a courage here to be a spark, brave, or blood. Ingleby once asserted, but did not show, that courage ’in euphuistic talk, meant a gallant’ (N&Q, 2nd ser. 2: 206), and Dowden compares the use of bravery in that sense. Some support comes from The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Induction), where ’a couraging part’ is a noisy, swaggering role. It is true that Q2 might have taken courage from Q1, but equally they may concur because the word is right. It can scarcely be a memorial corruption of F comrade. Indeed comrade looks like a makeshift for a puzzle in the copy (cf. Greg, Principles of Emendation, p. 63), substituting a more for a less familiar word with some detriment to the sense. The conjecture (N&Q, 10th ser. 1: 425-6) that courage is a misprint for comrague (= comrade) was endorsed by Kittredge and favoured by Maxwell (Wilson’s MSH, rpt. 1963, p. 428). This word, in spite of some scholarly demur, is well attested in contemporary literature. (Instances remarked include Dekker, The Welsh Ambassador, 3.2.110, 4.2.76, 5.2.73; Webster, Appius and Virginia, 4.2.8; Heywood and Brome, The Late Lancashire Witches, Heywood’s Works, 1874, 4: 244; Sir Ed. Hoby, A Currycomb for a Coxcomb, 1615, p. 69; H. Parrot, Laquei ridiculosi, 1613, epigram 27. And it can be used without the jocular connotations inseparable from its variant comrogue ( = comrade in roguery, fellow-rascal). Like comrade, it has the advantage that it could be accented on the second syllable; but also like it, when not vocative it usually has a possessive pronoun (all but one of the instances noted) and it is out of keeping with ’new-hatch’d’. It therefore asks us to suppose independent corruptions in different texts without satisfactorily fulfilling the requirements of sense.”

1985 cam4

cam4; Kittredge

530 courage] Edwards (ed. 1985): "So Q2 and Q2. F reads ’comrade’, a much easier reading. Kittredge suggested ’comrague’, or fellow-rogue, and this, or ’comrogue’ has won some support. OED (1b), giving the main meaning of ’courage’ as heart, spirit, disposition, says it can be used of a person (as we use both ’heart’ and ’spirit’) and cites Hoby’s translation of Castiglione’s The Courtier, Book 4. Certain buildings erected by various great men are ’a great witness of the prowess of those divine courages’. If we consult the trilingual edition of 1588, we find (sig. L13 recto) that the last three words are the equivalent of the Italian quegli animi divini and the French ces esprits divins. So the word means a man of spirit, and no doubt could be used in a derogatory way: a dashing fellow. The accent must fall on the second syllable."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

530 courage] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "The accent falls on the second syllable, as it does in [1H4 4.1.96 (2326)]. The assumption behind this reading is that comrade is Shakespeare’s revision in F of the unusual courage, meaning ‘spirit’ (OED 1c), found in Q2 and Q1. A plausible conjecture, first put forward in N&Q, 10th series, 1 (1904), 425-6, is comrag(u)e, meaning ‘comrade.’ "

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

530 courage] Bevington (ed. 1988): “young man of spirit.”

1992 Kliman

Kliman

530 courage] Kliman (1992): Q2’s word more likely to be accented on the 2nd syllable (in the French style) than is comrade.

1992 fol2

fol2

530 vnfledgd courage] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “spirited youngster”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard

530 new hatcht] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “newly born (as a bird just hatched from an egg) #x201D;

ard3q2: standard

530 vnfledgd] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “untried (unable to fly)”

ard3q2: OED; RP

530 courage] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “gallant or dashing fellow (OED 1b). Thus Q2 and Q1; F’s ’Comrade’ is easier, but m/u is a possible minim misreading. Richard Proudfoot points out that the word intended may have been ’comrague’ or ’comrogue’, a term meaning ’fellow rogue’ (’often jocularly confused with comrade’ —OED ) which occurs in John Webster’s Appius and Virginia (1624; 4.2.8), Ben Jonson’s Masque of Augurs (1622; 49) and in Thomas Dekker and John Ford’s The Welsh Ambassador (1623; 3.2.110, 4.2.76 and 5.2.73).”

2008 Crystal

Crystal

530 vnfledgd] Crystal (2008, p. 164): Sh’s is the first use of this word in the sense of “ ’immature’ or ’inexperienced,’ ” and he uses it for the first time in Hamlet.