1472 chopine] Pope (ed. 1723): “Chioppine, a high-heel’d shoe, or a slipper.”

1472 chopine] Hanmer (ed. 1744: glossary, chioppine): “a thick piece of cork, bound about with Tin or Silver, worn by Women in Spain at the bottom of their shoes to make them appear taller. Span. Chapin.”

1472 chopine] Pope (apud ed. 1747): “A tight-heel’d shoe, or a slipper. Mr. Pope.”

1472 chopine] Hoadly (ms. notes, ed. 1751): “i,e. An high shoe, worn by ye Italians. As in Thos. Heywood’s Challenge for Beauty. A.5. Song, Which being well worth transcribing, I haven given ye Reade in’Th’ Italian, in her high Chispene, &’”

1472 chopine] Grey (1754, pp. 290-1): <p. 290>“In the glossary, it is interpreted a Spanish clog. But choppine, as ’tis in the two folio editions of 1623, and 1632, is the term used to this day in the northern parts of our island, for half of their </p.290><p.291> pint, which contains two English quarts; and these are (like many other Scotch words) nothing more than two French words (chopine and piente) adopted. The sense of this passage seems more heightened by Hamlet’s telling the player, she is nearer heaven by the altitude of a quart measure, than by that of a clog. Dr. T.”

1472 by...chopine] Warner (1766-70): “A Chioppine, is a high heel Shoe or Slipper worn by the Venetians. So Sr. Wm. Davenant, The Man’s the Master pge. 345. ‘Pray tell me, do you wear Chopeens? in truth if you do not, you are of a reasonable good stature.’ vid. Skinner ad voc.”

1473-4 you...ring] Short (St. James’s Chr. no. 1736 [4-7 Apr. 1772]: 4): “It is common to try suspicious Pieces of Gold by throwing them with some Violence against a Table, to ring, by which means they may be cracked. A very trifling Correction would make the Allusion here intended more intelligible. I would read, ‘Pray God your Voice, like a Piece of uncurrent Gold, be not crack’d with ringing’.”

1472 chopine] Steevens (ed. 1773): “A chioppine is a high shoe worn by the Italians, as in Tho. Heywood’s Challenge of Beauty, Act 5. Song. ‘The Italian in her high chopeene, Scotch lass and lovely froe too; The Spanish Donna, French Madame, He doth not feare to go to.’ So in Ben Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels. ‘I do wish myself one of my mistress’s Cioppini. Another demands, why would he be one of his mistress’s Cioppini? third answers, because he would make her higher.’”

1472 chopine] Jennens (ed. 1773): “Chapin; Span. a thick piece of cork bound about with tin, thin iron or silver, worn by the women in Spain at the bottom of their shoes to make them appear taller. The qu’s and C. read chopine; the fo’s and R. choppine; P. and the rest chioppine. Dr. Tathwel, in Grey’s notes on Shakespeare, would have choppine to be the true reading, which, he says, is a term used to this day in the northern parts of our island, for half their pint, which contains two English quarts; and these are (like many other Scots words) nothing more than the two French words (chopine and piente) adopted. The sense of this passage seems more heightened by Hamlet’s telling the player, she is near heaven by the altitude of a quart measure, than by that of a clog. Dr. T. Grey’s notes, vol. ii. p. 291.”

1472 chopine] Gentleman (ed. 1773): “Chopin -- in French, a pint; in Scotch, a quart: so that the prince says she is taller by so much.”

1472 chopine] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Again, in Decker’s Match me in London, 1631: ‘I’m only taking instructions to make her a lower Chopeen; she finds fault that she’s lifted too high.’ Again, in Chapman’s Caesar and Pompey, 1631: ‘---and thou shalt Have Chopines at commandement to any height Of life thou canst wish.’”

1472 chopine] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “A chioppine is a high shoe worn by the Italians.”

1472 chopine] Davies (1784, p. 51): "High-heeled shoes were formerly worn by women of rank. Tom Coriat, in his Crudities, mentions some that were of such a height, that it was scarcely possible to walk with them. He tells a story of a Venetian lady, who exposed herself to laughter by tumbling down, on account of her chioppines being made so very exalted. The old English word, for high-heeled shoes, was moils, which Dr. Skinner thus defines: Calcei altioribus soleis suppacti, olim regibus et magnatibus ufitatie. The word chioppine means also a Scotch measure, for liquor, which answers to our pint."

1472 chopine] Reed (ed. 1785): “Tom Coryat in his Crudities, 1611, p. 262, calls them chapineys, and gives the following account of them: ‘There is one thing used of the Venetian women, and some others dwelling in the cities and townes subject to signiory of Venice, that is not to be observed (I thinke) amongst any other women in Christendome: which is so common in Venice, that no woman whatsoever goeth without it, either in her house or abroad, a thing made of wood and covered with leather of sundry colors, some with white, some redd, some yellow. It is called a chapiney, which they wear under their shoes. Many of them are curiously painted; some also of them I have seene fairly gilt: so uncomely a thing (in my opinion) that is pitty this foolish custom is not cleane banished and exterminated out of the citie. There are many of these chapineys of a great height, even a half a yard high, which maketh many of their women that are very short seeme much taller than the tallest women we have in England. Also I have heard that this is observed among them, that by how much the nobler a woman is, by so much the higher are her chapineys. All their gentlewomen and most of their wives and widowes that are of any wealth, are assisted and supported eyther by men or women, when they walke abroad, to the end that they may not fall. They are borne most commonly by the left arme, otherwise they might quickly take a fall.”

1472 chopine] Malone (ed. 1790): “Again, in Marston’s Dutch Courtezan, 1605: “Dost not weare high corked shoes, chopines?” The word ought rather to be written chapine, from chapin, Span. which is defined by Minsheu in his Spanish Dictionary, “a high cork shoe.” There is no synonymous word in the Italian language, though the Venetian ladies, as we are told by Lassels, “wear high-heel’d shoes, like stilts, which being very inconvenient for walking, they commonly rest their hands or arms upon the shoulders of two grave matrons.”

1472 chopine] Anon (ms. notes, ed. 1790) comments on Malone’s note: “yet see cioppino Veniori.”

1472 chopine] Tooke (ms. notes, ed. 1790): “ p. 273 a long quotation in French, which probably can be better had from the original, if it is available: This begins ‘on peut dire qua son déguisment’ and ends ‘contribuorent’ (I think) and contains the word ‘chappins.’ The note is from Gil Blas. Livre 4, ch. 6. Then the note says ‘IIII Tom.2 page 52.’ but I am not sure whether or not this is the same reference.”

1472 chopine] Steevens (ed. 1793): “See the figure of a Venetian courtezan among the Habiti Antichi &c. di Cesare Vecellio, p. 114, edit. 1598: and (as Mr. Ritson observes) among the Diversarum Nationum Habitus, Padua, 1592.”

1472 chopine] Douce (1807; rpt. 1839, pp. 457-9): <p. 457> “In Raymond’s Voyage through Italy, 1648, 12mo, a work which is said to have been written by Dr. Bargrave, prebendary of Canterbury, the following curious account of the chopine occurs: ‘This place [Venice] is much frequented by the walking may poles, I meane the women. They weare their coats halfe too long for their bodies, being mounted on their chippeens, (which are as high as a man’s leg) they walke between two handmaids, majestickly deliberating of every step they take. This fashion was invented and appropriated to the noble Venetians wives, to bee constant to distinguish then form the courtesans, who goe covered in a vaile of white taffety.’ James Howell, speaking of the Venetian women, says, ‘They are low and of small statures for the most part, which makes them to rayse their bodies upon high shoes called chapins, which gave one occasion to say that the Venetian </p.457><p. 458> ladies were made of three things, one part of them was wood, meaning their chapins, another part was their apparrell, and the third part was a woman; The Senat hath often endeavour’d to take away the wearing of those high shooes, but all women are so passionately delighted with this kind of state that no law can weane them from it.’ Some have supposed that the jealousy of Italian husbands gave rise to the invention of the chopine. Limojon de Saint Didlier, a lively French writer on the republic of Venice, mentions a conversation with some to the doge’s counsellors of state on this subject, in which it was remarked that smaller shoes would certainly be found more convenient; which induced one of the counsellors to say, putting on at the same time a very austere look, pur troppo commodi, pur troppo. The first ladies who rejected the use of the chopine were the daughters of the Doge Dominico Contareno, about the year 1670. It was impossible to set one foot before the other without leaning on the shoulders of two waiting women, and those who used them must have stalked along like boys in stilts. The choppine or some kind of high shoe was occasionally used in England. Bulwer in his Artificial changeling, p. 550, complains of this fashion as a monstrous affection, and says that his countrywomen therein imitated the Venetian and Persian ladies. In Sandys’s travels, 1615, there is a figure of a Turkish lady with chopines; and it is not improbable that the Venetians might have borrowed them from the Greek islands in the Archipelago. We know that something similar was in use among that ancient Greeks. Xenophon in his ëconomics, introduces the wife of Ischomachus, as having high shoes for the purpose of increasing her stature. They are still worn by the women in many parts of Turkey, but more particularly at Aleppo. As the figure of an object is often better than twenty pages of description, one is here given from a real Venetian chopine.”</p.458>

1472 chopine] Gifford (ed. Massinger’s Complete Works, 1813, 2:135): “Chapines (Spanish, and not Italian, as the commentaros on Shakespeare assert) are a kind of clogs with thick cork soles, which the ladies wear on their shoes when they go abroad. They are mentioned by most of our old dramatists.”

1472 chiopine] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Chapin, Span. a high corked shoe. Minshieu. Steevens cites Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels: ‘I do wish myself one of my mistress’s ciopponi.’ Another demands, why would he be one of his mistress’s Cioppini? a third answers, ‘because he would make her higher.’ And Decker’s Match me in London, 1631: ‘I’m only taking instructions to make her a lower chopeene; she finds fault that she’s lifted too high.’ And Chapman’s Caes. and Pompey, 1613:‘---and thou shalt Have chopines at commandement to an height Of life thou canst wish.’”

1472 chopine] Boswell (ed. 1821): “Mr. Malone was mistaken in saying there is no word for this in Italian, I find cioppino in Veneroni’s Dictionary.”

1472-4 pray God . . . within the ring] "Gunthio" (1825, p.344): “ . . . when Hamlet says to the Actress, ’Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring,’ he assuredly might profit by the injunction of Polonius to Laertes: ’Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar’ [526]. In the first edition, the impropriety of this horse- raillery is considerably diminished, if not altogether removed, by the mere insertion of a monosyllable, which shows that it was addressed to one of the men,—’Pray God, sir, your voyce,’ &c.”

Ed. note: Where Gunthio says "actress" he is referring to contemporary (early 19th-century) stage practice, when a woman might act the role of the young boy and player queen; he seems to be recommending, then, that contemporary Hamlets "might profit" by reinforcing the maleness of this "boy’ by adding, as Q1 had, the word sir to counteract the salacious phrase "cracked within the ring." Referring to the ring, he says, would be less objectionable if Hamlet acknowledged and reinforced the actress’s onstage male gender. See also CN 864 where Gunthio also refers to contemporary performances of the play.

1472 chopine] Singer (ed. 1826): “A chopoine, a kind of high shoe, or rather clog, worn by the Spanish and Italian ladies, and adopted at one time as a fashion by the English. Coriate describes those worn by the Venetians as some of them ‘half a yard high.’ Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, complains of this fashion, as a monstrous affectation, ‘wherein our ladies imitate the Venetian and Persian ladies.’ That the fashion was originally of oriental origin seems very probable: there is a figure of a Turkish lady with chopines in Sandy’s Travels; and another of a Venetian courtesan in the Habiti Antichi, &c. di Cesare Vecellio. The annexed cut is reduced from one in Mr. Douce’s Illustrations, copied from a real Venetian chopine. Chapin is the Spanish name; and Cobarruvias countenances honest Tom Coriate’s account of the preposterous height to which some ladies carried them. He tells an old tale of their being invented to prevent women’s gadding, being first made of wood, and very heavy; and that the ingenuity of the women overcame this inconvenience by substituting cork. Though they are mentioned under the name of cioppini by those who saw them in use in Venice, the dictionaries record them under the title of zoccoli. Cobbaravias asserts that they were made of zapino (deal) in Italy, and not of cork; and hence their name. But the Spanish doctors differ about the etymology. Perhaps Hamlet may have some allusion to the boy having grown so as to fill the place of a tragedy heroine, and so assumed the cothurnus; which Puttenham described as ‘high corked shoes, or pantofles, which now they call in Spaine and Italy shoppini.’”

1472 chopine] Anonymous [possibly Thomas Carlyle ](ms. notes, ed. 1832): “As thus: I do wish myself one of my mistress’ cioppini. Another demands Why would he be one of his mistress’ cioppini ? A third answers—Because he would make her higher— Jonsons Cynthia’s Revels & see a passage in The Devil is an Ass 4.1. where the difficulty of walking in these high heeled shoes is alluded to—”

1472-3 chopine] Collier (ed. 1843): “A ‘chopine,’ or more properly cioppino, was a cork or wooden soled shoe, worn by the Italian ladies to add to their height. It is often mentioned in the writers of Shakespeare’s age. Ben Johnson, T. Heywood, Dekker, and other dramatists, speak of it in the same way , and in Marsotn’s ‘Dutch Courtesan,’ 1605, one of the characters asks, ‘Dost thou not wear high corked shoes-- chopines?’”

1472 chopine] Stauton (ed. 1859): “Chopines or chopines were clogs with enormously thick soles, which the ladies of Spain and Italy wore on their shoes when going abroad. Coryat’s account of those he saw in Venice is this: ‘There is one thing used of the Venetian women. and some others dwelling in the cities and townes subject to the signory of Venice, that is not to be observed (I thinke) amongst any other women in Christendome: which is so common in Venice, that no woman whatsoever goeth without it, either in her house or abroad; a thing made of wood and covered with leather of sundry colors, some with white, some redde, sone yellow. It is called a Chapiney, which they weare under their shoes. Many of them ate curiously painted some also of them I have seen fairely gilt: so uncomely a thing (in my opinion) that it is pitty this foolish custom is not cleane banished and exterminated out of the cities. There are many of these Chapineys of a great height, even halfe a yard high, which maketh many of their women that are very short seeme much, taller then the tallest woman is, by so much the higher are her Chapineys. All their gentlewomen, and most of their wives and widowes that are of any wealth, are assisted and supported eyther by men or women, when they walke abroad, to the end they left arme, otherwise they might quickly take a fall.’--Crudities, p. 262.”

1472 chopine] White (ed. 1861): “The cioppine was a strange Italian device, which is thus described in Raymond’s Mercurio Italiano. London, 1647. ‘The Ladies have found out a devise very different from all other European Dresses. They weare their owne, of a counterfeit haire below the shoulders, trim’d with gemmes and Flowers, their coats halfe too long for their bodies, being mounted on their Chippeens, (which are as high as a man’s leg.) They walke between two handmaids, majestically deliberating of every step they take. This fashion was invented, and appropriated to the Noble Venetians wives, to be constant to distinguish them from the Courtesans, who goe covered in a vaile of White Taffety.’ p. 202. See the Introduction to Othello for a figure of an Italian Courtesan mounted on cioppini:--for Raymond is in error as to a distinction having been made by this singular article of dress.”

1472 chopine] Hazlitt (1861, p. 263): [Commenting on Douce] “The earliest authority whom the author cites for this article of dress is Sandys, whose Travels were published in 1615. My present object is to point out that what is said by Sandys of these shoes, and after him by Howell, Saint Didier, and others, had been said more than a century before by Pietro Casola, who visited Venice on his way to Jerusalem in 1498, and a few copies of whose Travels were printed so recently as 1855 for the first time. In Casola’s time, the chopines, or chippeens as Howel calls them, were known as zilue; and the old traveller informs us that the ladies at that period wore them so very high, that they were unable to walk abroad without leaning on the shoulders of their pages or handwomen. Douce may be readily excused for his ignorance of Casola and his Journey to Jerusalem, A.D. 1498. It was only in the course of my investigations on Venetian archaeology, that I first heard of him.”

1472 chopine] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “A chopine was a high clog or clog patten, or light framework covered with leather, and worn under the shoe. Chopines were not used in this country excepting on fancy occasions, but they were common in Venice, Spain, and other places. ‘These matters of great princes were played upon lofty stages, and the actors thereof are upon their legges buskins of leather called Cothurni, and other solemn habits, and for a speciall preheminence did walke upon those high corked shoes of pantofles, which now they call in Spaine and Italy Shoppini,’ Art of English Poesy, 1589. The annexed engraving of a lady wearing a chopine is copied form a woodcut in Bulwer’s English Gallant, 1653. The following account occurs in Coryat’s Crudities, 1611, p. 261:-- [Quote from Hëc Vir, of the Womanish Man, 1620. Quote from Heywood’s Challenge for Beautie, 1636. Quote from Gerardo, the Unfortunate Spaniard, 1653. ]”

1472 chopine] Romdahl (1869, p. 27): “Chopine (also written chioppine, chopeene, cioppino, chapiney, and chapin), Sp. chapin, was a sort of wooden clog or patten, covered with leather, worn by ladies under their shoes. They are spoken of by authors of the 16:th and 17:th centuries as worn by Spanish and Italian, especially Venetian, ladies, but seem never to have been generally worn in England.”

1472 chopine] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Chopine was an enormously thick-soled shoe which Spanish and Italian ladies were in a habit of wearing, in order, as would seem, to make themselves as tall as the men, perhaps taller; or it may have been, to keep their long skirts from mopping the sidewalks too much. Old Coriate has it that some of those worn by Venetian ladies were ‘half a yard high.’ The fashion is said to have been used at one time by the

English.”

1472 chopine] Neil (ed. 1877): S. W. Singer’s explanation of this phrase is perhaps the best. It alludes to ‘the boy having grown up so as to fill the place of a tragedy heroine, and so assumed the cothurnus,’ which Puttenham described as ‘those high-corked shoes or pantofles, which now they call in Spain and Italey shopini,’ i.e., ciopini — Art of Poesie, p. 49.”

1472 chopine] Anon. (New Shakespeare Society’sTransactions 1877-9, pp.472): “Sappin: m. A Chiappin, or Spanish Pantofle; monstrous high-soled, and most vsed by women.’ 1611. Cotgrave. See Coruate’s account of the Venetian ones, in his Crudities (1611). Women had to be held-up under one arm , to be able to walk in the absurd things safely. Coryate saw one woman, walking alone, have avery bad tunble.”

1472 chopine] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Ram-Alley, A. V (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, X, 367): — ‘O, ‘tis fine, To see a bride trip it to church so lightly, As if her new chopines would scorn to bruise A silly flower.’ Davenant, The Man’s the Master, A. II ( Works,1673, p. 345): Sweet syrop of my soul, pray tell me, do you wear chopeens? in truth, if you do not, you are of a reasonable good stature, and worthy of me. Id., Le Prince d’Amour (Madagascar and Other Poems, London, 1662, p. 399): He hangs in the right ear his Mistress Muffe, in the left her shoe with a Chapeen. — It is well known that the Italian, especially the Venetian ladies were famous for their chopines and that this custom which, no doubt, was of Oriental origin, was transferred from Venice to London. Evelyn says in his Journal (I, 190) that at Venice courtesans or citizens may not weare choppines; the illustration, however, given by R. Grant White (Shakespeare’s Works, XI, 367) represents a Cortegiana fuori di casa. From Cesare Vecellio, Habiti Antichi e Moderni (1590; ed. Firmin Didot, Paris, 1859) it would even appear that the custom of wearing chopines had devolved in his day from the ladies to the courtesans; he gives only one illustration (I, 119) of a Venetian matron wearing chopines, whereas the rest are Meretrici de’ Luoghi Publici (I, 120). There can be little doubt, I think, that the custom was originally intended to prevent honest women from walking abroad without an attendant and thus to insure their faithfulness to their husbands. The Chinese custom of deforming the feet of the women seems likely to have been introduced for the same purpose. Under these circumstances we cannot greatly wonder that the courtesans who from the beginning were not allowed to wear chopines, in course of time likewise adopted the fashion, as they were naturally anxious to equal honest women in their outward appearance.”

1472-3 chopine] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “a Venetian boot, stilted, sometimes very high.”

1472 chopine] Symons (in Irving & Marshall ed. 1890): “Chopine, chapine, or chapiney, was the name given to a high shoe, worn chiefly in Italy. Douce and Fairholt give illustrations. The best account we have of them is in Coryat’s Crudities, 1611, p. 262: ‘There is one thing used of the Venetian women, and some others dwelling in the cities and townes subject to the signiory of Venice, that is not to be observed (I thinke) amongst any other women in Christendome: which is common in Venice, that no woman whatsoever goeth without it, either in her house or abroad, a thing made of wood and covered with leather of sundry colors, some with white, some redde, some yellow. It is called a chapiney, which they wear under their shoes. Many of them are curiously painted; some also of them I have seen fairely gilt: so uncomely a thing (in my opinion) that it is pitty this foolish custom is not cleane banished and exterminated out of the cittie. There are many of these chapineys of a great height, even half a yard high, which maketh many of their women that are very short, seeme much taller than the tallest women we have seen in England. Also I have heard it observed among them, that by how much the nobler a woman is, by so much the higher are her chapineys. All their gentlewomen and most of their wives and widowes that are of any wealth, are assisted and supported eyther by men or women, when they walke abroad, to the end they may not fall. They are borne up most commonly by the left arme, otherwise they might quickly take a rall.’ Elze observes that though Evelyn, in his journal (i. 190), says that at Venice courtesans or citizens might not wear chopines, it is evident form the cuts in Cesare Vecelli’s Habiti Antichi e Moderni, 1590, that by this time the custom of wearing them had passed from the ladies to the courtesans. The custom seems to have been introduced from the East. Compare Ram Alley, v. 1: ‘O, ‘t is fine To see a bride trip it to church so lightly,As if her new chopines would scorn to bruise A silly flower. –Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vol. x. p. 367.”

1472 chopine] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Italian ciopinno. Minsheu defines Spanish chapin ‘a high cork shoe. Coryat in Crudities, 1611, describes the Venetian ‘chapineys’ as worn by ladies under the shoes, sometimes half a yard high. The boy who plays the lady has grown since Hamlet saw him last.”

1472 chopine] Jenkins (ed. 1982): "The chopine originated in Spain and was very fashionable in Italy, esp. in Venice, where Coryate saw ’many of these chapineys of a great height, even half a yard high’ (Crudities, 1905 edn, i. 400). Cotgrave defines choppines (Fr. chappins) as ’a kind of high shippers for low women’. For illustrations see Linthicum, p. 250."