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Line 803 - 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.

803 Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy come, {and} <bird,> come.	1.5.116

1743 han1

han1

803 come, and come] Hanmer (ed. 1743) “This [F1] is the Call which Falconers use to their Hawk in the air, when they would have him come down to them.”

1745 han2

han2 = han1

803 come, and come]

1747 warb

warb = han1 and credits the Oxford Editor w/o additional comment

803 come, and come]

1751- Hoadly

Hoadly = han1 without attribution

803 come, and come] Hoadly (ms. notes, ed. 1751): “bird. Falconer’s call.”

1753 blair

blair = warb

803 come, and come]

1765 john1

john1 = han2

803 come, and come]

1771 han3

han3 = han2

803 come, and come]

1773 v1773

v1773 = han2 +

803 come, and come] Steevens (ed. 1773): “This expression is used in Marston’s Dutch Courtesan, and by many others among the old dramatic writers. Steevens.”

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773 +

803 come, and come] Steevens (ed. 1778): “It appears from these passages, that it was the falconer’s call, as Hanmer has observed.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

803 come, and come]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

803 come, and come]

1790 mal

mal = v1785

803 come, and come]

1791- rann

rann = han without attribution

803 come, and come] Rann (ed. 1791): “The falconer’s call to his hawk.”

1793 v.1793

v1793 = mal +

803 come, and come] Steevens (ed. 1793) “Again, in Tyro’s Roaring Megge, planted against the Walls of Melancholy, &c. 4to. 1598: ‘Yet, ere I iournie, Ile go see the kyte: come, come bird, come: pox on you, can you mute?’ Steevens”

I must check the ref. to Tyro. placed note in check editions doc.

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

803 come, and come]

1805 Seymour

Seymour

803-15 Seymour (1805, 2:162): “Hamlet, I conceive, begins these words in the ardour of confidence and sincerity; but, suddenly alarmed at the magnitude of the disclosure, he was going to make, and considering that, not his friend Horatio only, but another person was present; he breaks off suddenly:—There’s ne’er a villain in all Denmark that can match (perhaps he would have said) my uncle in villany; but recollecting the danger of such a declaration, he pauses for a moment, and then abruptly concludes: —but he’s an errant knave.”

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

803 come, and come]

1813 Coleridge

Coleridge

803 Coleridge (Lectures on Shakespeare and Education, Lecture 3, 1813, Coleridge’s notes, transcribed by Ernest Hartley Coleridge, VCL ms BT 8; rpt. Coleridge, 1987, 5.1:541): Hamlet’s Wildness is but half-false—O that subtle trick to pretend to be acting only when we are very near being what we act—”

1819 cald1

cald1 = v1813 (minus addition from v1778)

803 come, and come]

start here

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

803 come, and come]

1825 European Magazine

"Gunthio" pseudonym: Q1 better choice

803 Ham.] "Gunthio" (1825, p. 344): “Many persons probably, as well as myself have fancied it unpleasant and incongruous when Hamlet breaks off from his all-absorbing meditation upon the appearance of his father’s spirit, to return the ’Hillo, ho, ho, boy!’ of Horatio, like ’Squire Groom hallooing on a pack of hounds. This, moreover, was the falconer’s call to lure back a stray bird, and therefore proceeds with peculiar impropriety from the object sought for. In the first quarto the words are doubtless appropriated to the true speaker:—[to Marcellus after Horatio].”

1826 sing1

sing1 = cald1

803 come, and come]

1843 col1

col1 standard

803 come, and come] Collier (ed. 1843): “—‘come, bird, come.]] An exclamation used by falconers.”

1852 Brae

Brae

803 come, and come]

1854 del2

del2

803 Delius (ed. 1854): See n. 802

1856 hud1

hud1: standard

803 come, and come] Hudson (ed. 1856): “This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air when they would have him come down to them—The quartos assign some of these speeches differently, and have boy instead of bird. We follow the folio here. H.”

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1

803 come, and come]

1858 col3

col3 = col1

803 come, and come]

1860 stau

stau: standard

803 Staunton (ed. 1860): “These were expressions of encouragement which the falconer of old was wont to address to his hawks.”

1865 hal

hal = han, Steevens

803 come, and come]

1868 c&mc

c&mc: standard han without attribution +

803 Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “Hamlet, hearing Horatio shout to him, replies thus, in the spirit of wild levity which suddenly possesses him, and which is so affectingly the contrary to real hilarity.”

1870 rug1

rug1

803 Hillo] Moberly (ed. 1873): “A term of falconry, like holloa (halte là).”

1872 cln1

cln1 ≈ c&mc without attribution

803-60 Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “The levity displayed by Hamlet is at once the natural expression of a mind oppressed with horror (like the jests of dying men and hysterical laughter), and is also a cunning device to deceive his friends as to the purport of his communication with the Ghost.”

1872 hud2

hud2 = hud1 1st sentence only

803 come, and come]

1872 hud2

hud2

803-60 Hudson (ed. 1872): “Dr. Isaac Ray, late of Providence, a man of large science and ripe experience in the treatment of insanity, says of Hamlet’s behaviour in this scene, that ‘it betrays the excitement of delirium,—the wandering of a mind reeling under the first stroke of disease.’”

1873 rug2

rug2 ≈ rug1 + in magenta underlined

803 Hillo] Moberly (ed. 1873): “A falconer’s cry to recall his hawk (like ‘holloa,’ ‘halte là,’ to a horse), in [AYL 3.2.244 (1438)].”

1875 Marshall

Marshall: Coleridge 1813

803-60 Coleridge (apud Marshall, 1875, p. 22): “For you may perhaps observe that Hamlet’s wildness is but half false; he plays that subtle trick of pretending to act only when he is very near really being what he acts.”

1877 v1877

v1877= han

803 come, and come] Furness (ed. 1877): “Hanmer: “This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air, when they would have him ccome down to them.”

1877 col4

col4: standard

803 come, and come]

1879 Halliwell-Phillipps

Halliwell-Phillipps

803-60 Halliwell-Phillips (1879, pp. 14-15): “His rapidity of decision is strikingly exhibited after his first interview with the Ghost. Perceiving at once how important it was that Marcellus, at all events, should not suspect the grave nature of the revelations that had been made, although they had been sufficient to have paralyzed one of less courage and resolution than himself, he outwit his companions by banter, treating the apparition with intentional and grotesque disrespect and jocularity at a moment when an irresolute mind would have been terrified and prostrated.”

1880 Tanger

Tanger

803 boy come, and come] Tanger (1880, p. 126):Q2 variant “probably owing to the negligence, inattention, or criticism of the compositor.”

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

803-60 come, and come]

1883 Gervinus

Gervinus

803 Gervinus (1883, p, 568): “Immediately after the departure of the ghost, still agitated by the apparition, he receives his friends with a falcon-call as if in the most joyful mood, and knows how to conceal his emotion at first as well as his secret at last.”

1885 macd

macd ≈ han without attribution

803 come, and come]

1885 mull

mull han without attribution

803 come, and come] Mull (ed. 1885): “expressions in falconry.”

1885 mull

mull = cln1

803-60

1888 macl

macl

803 Maclachlan (ed. 1888): Hamlet, excited, answers playfully.

1913 Trench

Trench: standard

803-60 Trench (1913, p. 79} explains Hamlet’s “wild and whirling words” as a necessary reaction to the nervous strain of what he has just experienced.

1935 Wilson

Wilson WHH

803-15 Wilson (1935, p. 91) believes that Horatio and Marcellus take Hamlet to be in the highest spirits, but again this mood quickly changes.

1939 kit2

kit2 as director

803 Kittredge (ed. 1939): "The halloo of Marcellus [802] reminds Hamlet of the falconer’s call in summoning a hawk. In what follows [806-60] he speaks flippantly of the Ghost and its errand. This does not mean that he wishes to conceal the seriousness of the whole matter from his friends; for that would be idle, and the end of the scene [862ff] shows that he has no such intentions. Nor is this light tone a symptom of madness. It is merely revulsion of feeling after an emotional crisis. The fearful strain to which Hamlet has been subjected demands relief, and in such cases the relief may come either in tears or in laughter and reckless jesting. When he recovers his self-possession, he speaks soberly and coherently."

1957 pen1b

pen1b: standard

803 Hillo, ho, ho] Harrison (ed. 1957): “the falconer’s cry.”

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

803 come . . . come] Spencer (ed. 1980): “In his excited mood, Hamlet mocks his friends’ cries as if they were bird-calls.”

1982 ard2

ard2: analogs; standard gloss;

803 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Hamlet answers Marcellus’s haloo in familiar fashion (cf. Birth of Merlin, 2.1.61-3, ’So ho, boy, so ho . . . —So ho, boy, so ho, illo ho, illo ho’). Come, bird,come was properly the cry of a falconer recalling his hawk but easily extended to any call or enticement. Steevens cites Tyro’s Roaring Megge, 1598, ’I’ll go see the kite: come, come bird, come’. Cf. also Cutwode, Caltha Poetarum, st. 136; Marston, Dutch Courtesan, 1.2.131.”

1985 cam4

cam4

803 come, and] Come bird, Edwards (ed. 1985): "Hamlet mocks the hallooing by pretending they are out hawking."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

803 Hibbard (ed. 1987): "Hamlet converts the halloo of Marcellus into a falconer’s call to his hawk, bidding it return to his fist. He thus begins a train of imagery associated with hawks that has its place in the play."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

803 Bevington (ed. 1988): “(A falconer’s call to a hawk in air. Hamlet mocks the hallooing as though it were a part of hawking.)”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

803 Hillo, ho . . . and come] Hillo, ho . . . bird, come Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “Hamlet mocks Marcellus’s call, as if it were the call of a falconer.”