Line 742 - 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
| 742 Will {sort} <sate> it selfe in a celestiall bed | 1.5.57 |
|---|
| 742 And pray on garbage. | 1.5.57 |
|---|
1655 Cotgrave
Cotgrave: 739-42
742 Cotgrave (1655, p. 145) has 2 lines = 4to; and lust, sate, prey = folio:
739 As Virtue never will be mov’d,
740 Though lewdnesse court it in a shape of heaven;
741 So lust, though to a radiant Angel link’d, = F1
742 Will sate it selfe in a celestiall Bed, = F1
742 And prey on Garbidge. = F1
Ed. note: The smoothing of 739 serves the purposes of the quotation and is not a true variant reading.
1791- rann
rann
742 sort it selfe in] Rann (ed. 1791-): “sate itself in ]] grow sick of.”
1793 v1793
v1793
742 garbage] Steevens (ed. 1793): “The same image occurs again in [Cym. 1.6.49 (647)]: ‘—ravening first The lamb, longs after for the garbage.’ Steevens.”
I am missing this page in v1793 and need to check it. Ask Hardin for page.
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793 +
742 garbage] Todd (apud ed. 1803): “The same sentiment is expressed in a fragment of Euripides, Antiope, v. 86. edit. Barnes: ‘[Greek].’ Todd.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour
742 sort] Seymour (1805, 2:160): “The quarto reads ‘sort itself,’ which, perhaps is right—suit, match, or accommodate itself.”
Seymour
742 And pray on garbage.] Seymour (1805, 2:160): “Here again something has been lost: perhaps, ‘Then sink to misery, and prey on garbage’.”
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
742 garbage]
1819 cald1
cald1 = Todd +
742 sort it selfe in] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Will, after appetite fully satisfied in the best way, and with every requisite of true enjoyment, prey on garbage.”
ECN 99, p. 35
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
742 garbage]
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 +
742
sort . . .
in]
Caldecott (ed. 1832): “If we had any warrant for so doing, we should as willingly read
seat as
sate. Neither reading presents any just coherence of thought, nor can we elsewhere find any thing at all satisfactory.”
Ed. note: He does, however, have a reasonable explanation for the image. See above in cald1.
1843 col1
col1
742 sort] Collier (ed. 1843): “Even the errors of the quarto, 1603, are sometimes of importance. The quarto, 1604, and others, read, ‘Will sort itself,’ and the folio, 1623, ‘Will sate itself,’ while the quarto, 1603, has fate for ‘sate;’ the error, as usual, having arisen from a printer mistaking a long s for an f.”
1854 del2
del2
742 sort] Delius (ed. 1854): “to sate itself ist bis zum Euberdruss sich sättigen.” [to sate itself is to satisfy oneself to the point of weariness.]
1869 strat
strat ≈ col1 without attribution
742 sort] Stratmann (ed. 1869): “That ‘sate’ is the true reading is proved by ‘fate’ in [Q1]m which cannot be but a mistake for ‘sate.’”
1869 tsch
tsch
742
Tschischwitz (ed. 1869,
apud Furness, ed. 1877): “The reading of Qq makes excellent sense, even without changing ‘in’ to
from. ‘Even in a celestial bed lust will separate, detach itself, &c.’ Not only ‘link’d,’ but also ‘prey,’ shows
sort to be the emphatic word. It is small wonder if German commentators prefer ‘sate’ to
sort, but Englishmen, before whose vision the enormous breadth of their own almost square beds must have instantly arisen, ought to have conceived the right idea of
separation in bed. Moreover, ‘sate itself’ cannot be connected with ‘prey on garbage’ on physiological grounds.”
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ col1 without attribution
742 sort] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “sate. So the folios. The quartos have ‘sort,’ a misprint, for the quarto of 1603 has ‘fate.’”
1877 v1877
v1877 = tsch
742
1880 Tanger
Tanger
742 sort] Tanger (1880, p. 125): the Q2 variant is “probably owing to the negligence, inattention, or criticism of the compositor.” The Q1 reading, fate, “confirms, or at least countenances, [the F1] reading.”
1888 macl
macl
742 sort] Maclachlan (ed. 1888) objects to sort as being too coarse and to sate as being tautological. He thinks Q1 has what was heard on stage. So he decides on mate.
His logic is obscure to me. Q1 has “Would fate it selfe from a celestiall bedde, macl seems to mean that -ate is the sound in question and justifies his innovation. ”
1947 cln2
cln2: standard
742 sate itself . . . bed] Rylands (ed. 1947): “weary of a heavenly union.”
1962 N&Q
Weiner
742 sate] Weiner (1962, p. 144 n.) prefers the Q1 reading for this line. He does not say why.
1980 pen2
pen2: Q1, F1, Q2
742 sort . . . bed] Spencer (ed. 1980): “grow weary of sexual union with a lawful and virtuous partner. The F and Q1 reading sate seems to be required, against Q2’s ’sort’ (’separate’), which gives only a strained meaning.”
pen2
742 garbage] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(originally) the offal and entrails of animals.”
1982 ard2
ard2 ≈ rann without attribution
742 sort itself] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “gratify its appetite to the point of being wearied or disgusted.”
1985 cam4
cam4: standard
742 sort it selfe] sate itself Edwards (ed. 1985): "become satiated; cease to find satisfaction."
1987 oxf4
oxf4: OED
742 sort] sate Hibbard (ed. 1987): "a Shakespearian coinage, explained by OED as a ‘pseudo-etymological alteration of sade, meaning "to become satiated.’ "
oxf4: v1793 // Cym. without attribution + in magenta undelined
742 garbage] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "filth (literally ‘entrails’). Compare [Cym. 1.6.47-50 (646-9)], ‘The cloyed will –That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub Both filled and running–ravening first the lamb, Longs after for the garbage.’ "
1988 bev2
bev2: standard
742 sort . . . bed] Bevington (ed. 1988): “i.e., cease to find sexual pleasure in a virtuously unlawful marriage.”
1992 fol2
fol2: standard
743 soft] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “ ’enough,’ or ’wait a minute’ ”
1999 Rosenbaum
Rosenbaum
742 pray] Rosenbaum (1999, privately): The word pray is suggestive, correlating with Celestial, and similarly combining the exalted with the debased—praying on garbage.
2005 ShSt
Zimmerman
742 Zimmerman (2005, p. 106): “Significantly, the ghost itself, in language echoing Hamlet’s own, repeatedly references corrupt and corrupting bodies--the ’garbage’ of Claudius’s body preyed upon by Gertrude’s lust, the ’leprous distilment’ [749] of the poison that renders the living body of the King ’lazar-like,’ barked about ’with vile and loathsome crust’ [756]. This image of leprosy would have a special horror for Hamlet: it is Hyperion the sun god horribly metamorphosed, his once idealized body seized by a kind of anticipatory putrefaction. ’O horrible! O horrible! Most horrible!’ [765]: certainly the disfiguring death of the sun king, but also the idea of this ’dead corse’ [637] resurrected ’in complete steel.’”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Q1; dent; xref
742 sort] sate Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “satiate. This F reading is supported by Q1’s ’fate’, a possible misreading of long s, and by the use of ’satiate’ in the Cym. example quoted above; Q2’s ’sort’ is difficult to justify (though Andrews retains, glossing it as ’situate, place’) and is an easy misreading of ’a’ as ’or’ (see [278]).”
ard3q2
742 garbage] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “entrails, foul remains (a stronger meaning than the modern ’rubbish’)”
739 740 741 742