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Line 2037 - 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 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

2037 {Eyther none,} in neither ought, or in extremitie,	3.2.1

1773+ mstv1

mstv1: warb

2037 Steevens (ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1773): “Dr. Warburton’s edition has it, ‘tis either none or in extremity.’”

1774 capn

capn

2037 Capell (1774, 1:1:137): “they either feel none of these passions, or feel them both in extremity.”

1783 malsii

malsii

2037 Malone (1783, 2:58): “There is, I believe, no instance of a triplet being used in our author’s time. Some trace of the lost line is found in the quartos, which read: ‘Either none in neither aught, &c.’ Perhaps the words omitted might have been of this import: ‘Either none they feel, or an excess approve; In neither aught, or in extremity.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = malsii (see 2035+1)

1790 mal

mal = malsii minus “There is . . . author’s time” + magenta underlined

2037 Malone (ed. 1790): “Some trace of the lost line is found in the quarto, which reads: ‘Either none in neither aught, &c.’ Perhaps the words omitted might have been of this import: ‘Either none they feel, or an excess approve; In neither aught, or in extremity.’ In two preceding passages in the quarto, half a line was inadvertently omitted by the compositor. See p. 276, ‘then senseless Ilium, seeming, ‘ &c. and p. 291, ‘thus conscience does make cowards of us all:—the words in Italick characters are not found in the quarto. MALONE.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal +

2037 Steevens (ed. 1793): “Every critick, before he controverts the assertions of his predecessor, ought to adopt the resolution of Othello [1806]: ‘I’ll see, before I doubt, what I doubt, prove.’ In Phaer and Twine’s Virgil, 1584, the triplets are so frequent, that in two opposite pages of the tenth Book, not less than seven are to be met with. They are likewise as unsparingly employed in Golding’s Ovid, 1587. Mr. Malone, in a note on The Tempest, Vol. IV. p. 150, has quoted a passage from this very work, containing one instance of them. In Chapman’s Homer they are also used, &c. &c. &c. In The Tmp. 4.1 [0000]. Many other examples of them occur in LLL 3.1 [0000]. as well as in Err. Acts 2 and 3. &c. &c.—and, yet more unlucky for my opponent, the Prologue to the Mock Tragedy, now under consideration, consists of a triplet, which in our last edition stood at the top of the same page in which he supposed ‘no instance of a triplet being used in our author’s time.’ STEEVENS. “

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

1812 Lofft

Lofft

2037 Lofft (1812, p. 8): “In either nought, would be clearer.”

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

1843 col1

col1

2037 Collier (ed. 1843): “We print this and the two previous lines as in the folio: in the quartos, 1604, &c. (there is no trace of them in that of 1603) they run thus:—‘For women fear too much, even as they love, And women’s fear and love hold quantity, Either none, in neither aught, or in extremity.’ As the whole of this play within a play is in rhyme, and as there is no corresponding line to that ending in ‘love,’ the probability is, that a portion of the old text has been lost, and that the editors of the folio of 1623, finding it impossible to restore it, omitted a line not absolutely necessary to the sense. Why the concluding couplet of the speech was also omitted in the folio, we cannot at all understood, but it has nothing after the words ‘my fear is so.’ Perhaps the last two lines were thought not very intelligible.”

1845 Hunter

Hunter

2037 Hunter (1845, 2:251): “I believe the passage should be printed thus: ‘. . . In neither:—aught or in extremity.’ that is, nothing, or in excess. An aught is the common name of the cypher in Warwickshire and elsewhere.”

1850-79 Fish

Fish ≈ Hunter

2037 Fish (ms. notebook, Folger S.a. 194, p. 201): “i.e. Either is not or is a violent extreme.”

1854 del2

del2

2037 Delius (ed. 1854): “So die Fol.; in den Qs geht diesem Reimpaar ein reimloser und schon dadurch verdächtiger Vers vorher; For women fear too much, even as they love, und dann folgt And women’s fear etc.” [Agrees with the Folio; in the Quartos this couplet is preceded by an unrhymed, and hence questionable, verse: For women fear too much, even as they love, and then follows And women’s fear etc.]

1858 col3

col3 = col1 +

2037 Collier (ed. 1858): “We find nothing here in the corr. fo. 1632, to supply the deficiency of the earlier impressions.”

1870 rug1

rug1 ≈ Hunter (1845)

1873 rug2

rug2=rug1

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ capn, Hunter, Ingleby

2037 Furness (ed. 1877): “Capell (i, 137): They either feel none of these passions or feel them both in extremity. Hunter (ii, 251): Punctuate ‘—hold quantity In neither:—aught or in extremity.’ That is, nothing, or in excess. Ingleby (Birmingham Gazette, 25 July, 1867) proposed as a possible emendation: ‘In either naught, or in extremity,’ i.e. there is no mean in the fear or the love of a woman.”

1878 rlf1

rlf1: Abbott

2037 Eyther . . . extremitie] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “"They either contain nothing, or what they contain is in extremes" (Abbott 388a).”

1882 elze2

elze2: Abbott

2037 Eyther . . . ought] Elze (ed. 1882): “Eyther none is clearly a marginal gloss, intended as a substitution for in neither ought ; or it may have been the reading of an inferior prompt book which was afterwards corrected. In either case the two clauses cannot possibly stand side by side. See note on § 101 (‘Swounds) and Dr. Abbott, Sh. Gr., § 388a.”

1885 macd

macd

2037 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “This line, whose form in the Quarto is very careless, seems but a careless correction, leaving the sense as well as the construction obscure: ‘Women’s fear and love keep the scales level; in neither is there ought, or in both there is fulness’; or: ‘there is no moderation in their fear and their love; either they have none of either, or they have excess of both.’ Perhaps he tried to express both ideas at once. But compression is always in danger of confusion.”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ v1877 (Ingleby, Hunter, cap analogues)

2037 Dowden (ed. 1899): “In neither aught] Ingleby proposed ‘In either naught.’ Hunter would punctuate ‘hold quantity In neither:—aught.’ Capell explains: ‘They either feel none of these passions, or feel them both in extremity.’”

1903 rlf3

rlf3 ≈ rlf1

1904 ver

ver: contra Abbott

2037 in neither ought] Verity (ed. 1904): “Abbott takes this as an ellipse: “In neither (is) aught, or (it is) in extremity” = they (“women’s fear and love”) either contains nothing, or what they contain is in extremes. But may it not be an absolute construction? Either way, the strained manner of expression is due to the exigency of rhymed verse, as often.”

1913 tut2

tut2

2037 in neither . . . extremitie] Goggin (ed. 1913): “i.e. they (viz. love and fear) either do not exist or exist in extremes. This is obviously the meaning, but it is difficult to explain the construction.”

1934 cam3

cam3: MSH, cap

2037 In neither ought] Wilson (ed. 1934): “(F 1) Q2 ‘Eyther none, in neither ought.’ The first two words in Q2 prob. represent a false start by Sh. MSH. p. 27. Capell explains”: ‘They either feel none of these passions, or feel them in both extremity.’”

1935 ev2

ev2 ≈ cap

2037 Boas (ed. 1935): “There is none of either, or else a great deal of both.”

1938 parc

parc

2037 extremitie] Parrott and Craig (ed. 1938): “the intensest feeling.”

1947 cln2

cln2 ≈ Hunter

2037 Eyther none . . . extremitie ] Rylands (ed. 1947): “i.e. either absent or excessive.”

1980 pen2

pen2

2037 Spencer (ed. 1980): “either there is nothing of either of them (fear and love) or both are present to the utmost limit.”

1982 ard2

ard2: standard (def. only for In neither . . . extremitie) without attribution

1984 chal

chal = ard2

1988 bev2

bev2

2037 Bevington (ed. 1988): “i.e., women fear and love either too little or too much, but the two, fear and love, are equal in either case.”

1993 dent

dent: xrefs.

2037 Andrews (ed. 1993): “Either holding no quantity (neither weighing anything) or both holding maximum quantity (weighing as much as possible). The Player Queen’s image depicts Fear and Love as two quantities being weighed on a set of scales. Her point is that, whether light or heavy, they are equal of weight. See the note to 2.2.243 [1277], and compare Hamlet’s remarks on the need to avoid ’Extremity’ in lines 1-52 [1849-93].”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2

2037 Eyther . . . ought] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Q2’s Either none is extra-metrical, and it seems to mean the same as in neither aught: ’either there is no fear or love at all’.”

ard3q2=ard2

2037 or in extremity] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “or there is an excess (of both).”