Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2425 Cals vertue hippocrit, takes {of}<off> the Rose 2425 | 3.4.42 |
|---|
1747 warb
warb: KJ //
2425 takes . . . rose] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Alluding to the custom of wearing roses on the side of the face. See a note on a passage in KJ [1.1.142 (150)].”
1765 john1
john1, john2 = warb
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773 +
2425 takes . . . rose] Steevens (ed. 1778): “I believe Dr. Warburton is mistaken for it must be allowed that there is a material difference between an ornament worn on the forehead, and one exhibited on the side of the face. Some have understood these words to be only a metaphorical enlargement of the sentiment contained in the preceding line: ‘—blurs the grace and blush of modesty’: but as the forehead is no proper situation for a blush to be displayed in, we may have recourse to another explanation.
“It was once the custom for those who were betrothed, to wear some flower as an external and conspicuous mark of their mutual engagement. So, in Spenser’s Shepherds’ Calendar for April: ‘Bring coronations and sops in wine Worn of paramours.’
“Lyte, in his Herbal, 1578, enumerates sops in wine among the smaller kind of single gilliflowers or pinks. Figure 4, in the Morrice-dance (a plate of which is annexed to 1H4 has a flower fixed on his forehead, and seems to be meant for the paramour of the female character. The flower might be designed for a rose, as the colour of it is red in the painted glass, though its form is expressed with as little adherence to nature as that of the marigold in the hand of the lady. It may, however, conduct us to affix a new meaning to the lines in question. This flower, as I have since discovered, is exactly shaped like the sops in wine, now called the Deptford Pink. Steevens.”
1784 ays1
ays1 = v1778 (only “It was . . . engagement.”)
1784 Davies
Davies: contra v1778
2425-6 takes . . . fair forhead] Davies (1784, p. 104): “I cannot think this passage requires the long and learned note of Mr. Steevens, without which it may very easily be explained.
“‘This infamous act,’ says Hamlet, ‘deprives the countenance of that modest hue, or rosy blush, which becomes the chaste and virtuous matron; and it places or fixes there a brand of infamy.’ The forehead, in this place, stands, as frons does in Latin, for the countenance. Fronti lulla fides.”
1790 mWesley
mWesley: contra v1785)
2425-6 takes . . . forhead] Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “I know not what to make of ‘takes off the rose from the fair forehead.’ Steevens’s conjecture is desperation in quintessence. I am inclined to think that it is only the same thought in other words; that the ‘rose of innocent love’ is the ‘blush of modesty,’ and that the forehead is used only for the countenance in general; as the Romans used ‘os’ for the mouth, or visage.”
1790 mal
mal = v1785 minus warb and first sentence from v1778 (“I believe Dr. Warburton . . . face.”) +
2425 takes . . . rose] Malone (ed. 1790): “I believe, by the rose was only meant the roseate hue. The forehead certainly appears to us an odd place for the hue of innocence to dwell on, but Shakspeare might place it there with as much propriety as a smile. In Tro. [2.2.204 (1194-95)] we find these lines: ‘So rich advantage of a promis’d glory, As smiles upon the forehead of this action.’
“That part of the forehead which is situated between the eyebrows, seems to have been considered by our poet as the seat of innocence and modesty. So, in a subsequent scene: ‘—brands the harlot, Even here, between the chaste and unsmirch’d brow Of my true mother’ [4.5.120 (2863-4)]. Malone.”
1791- rann
rann
2425 takes . . . rose] Rann (1791-): “the rosy blush from the modest countenance—renders love, which is naturally beautiful, ugly and deformed.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785, mal +
2425 takes . . . rose] Steevens (ed. 1793): “An address ‘To all Judiciall censurers,’ prefixed to The Whipper of the Satyre his Pennance in a white Sheete, or the Beadle’s Confutation, 1601, begins likewise thus: ‘Brave spirited gentles, on whose comely front The rose of favour sits majesticall,—’ ”
This parallel is interpolated after ref. to Deptford Pink, introduced in v1778.
v1793 = v1785, mal +
2425 takes . . . rose] Steevens (ed. 1793): “In the foregoing quotation from Troilus and Cressida, I understand that the forehead is smiled upon by advantage, and not that the forehead is itself the smiler. Thus, says Laertes in the play before us: ‘Occasion smiles upon a second leave.’ But it is not the leave that smiles, but occasion that smiles upon it.
“In the subsequent passage, our author had no choice; for having alluded to that part of the face which was anciently branded with a mark of shame, he was compelled to place his token of innocence in a corresponding situation. Steevens.”
This supplement follows mal comment.
1805 Chedworth
Chedworth: mal
2425 takes . . . rose] Chedworth (1805, p. 355): “I incline to think that Mr. Malone’s explanation is the true one.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour: contra v1778
2425-6 takes . . . loue] Seymour (1805, pp. 183-4): “To establish Mr. Steevens’s explanation of this passage, we must suppose that it was customary for the woman contracted in marriage to wear upon her forehead a rose, of which the hand of Hymen was to despoil her: but if conjecture be allowed to fabricate such potent machinery for the nonce, there will be no phenomena in Shakespeare, or any other poet, too abstruse for critical solution. By forehead, I conceive no more is meant than the fore part of the head, the front, the face.”
Seymour: Strutt (contra v1793)
2425 takes . . . forhead] Strutt (apud Seymour 1805, pp. 184): “I take this to be a metaphorical enlargement of the sentiment contained in the preceding line, notwithstanding Mr. Steevens’s opinion to the contrary. Modesty, or its sign, blushing, cannot be understood to be the rose, but rather, the blossom of conscious innocence; neither do I think the word ‘love’ is to be taken as meaning an object, but the passion; to which, as applied to Gertrude, the adjective innocent adds propriety. ‘Fair forehead’ is certainly, in this place no more than fair presence. ‘Unstain’d front,’ the sense, to me, consequently is, you have done an act that takes off the blossom of purity from the unstain’d front, which a guiltless affection wears; and, in its stead, set there the corrupt blister of impure desire and wickedness: see [4.5.120 (2863-4)], the same idea: ‘—Brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste and unsmirch’d brows Of my true mother.’ B Strutt.”
1815 Becket
Becket
2425-7 takes . . . there] Becket (1815, 1: 59): “It is not a little extraordinary that the commentators should be for considering literally, expressions that are purely metaphorical. Rose is beauty, and blister is deformity. The meaning plainly is, renders love, which is naturally beautiful, ugly and deformed.”
1819 cald1
cald1: mal, v1793; xref.; London Prodigal analogue
2425 takes . . . rose] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Takes the clear tint from the brow of unspotted, untainted innocence. Whether ‘the rose’ here means only the ‘roseate hue,’ as Mr. Malone conceives, or has any distant allusion, as Mr. Steevens would intimate, to the fashion recorded in Spenser’s calendar of crowns of flowers ‘worn of paramours,’ Mr. Malone properly insists; that that part of the forehead, which is situated between the eyebrows, was considered by our poet as the seat of innocence and modesty. ‘brands the harlot Ev’n here, between the chaste and unsmirched brow Of my true mother.’ [4.5.120-1 (2863-4)] Laert. And most certainly ‘true or honest as the skin between one’s brows’ was, and is a proverbial expression; is frequent in our author, and is found in the London Prodigal, 1605. ‘As true as the skin between any man’s brows.’
“Mr. Steevens has shewn a similar figurative use of the rose. ‘Brave spirited gentles, on whose comely front The rose of favour sits majesticall.’ Prefixed to the Whipper of the Satyre his Pennance in a White Sheet, 1601.”
1821 v1821
v1821
2425 takes . . . rose] Boswell (ed. 1821): “Rose is put generally for the ornament, the grace, of an innocent love. Boswell.”
1826 sing1
sing1: contra v1778, mal; v1821 (Boswell note)
2425 takes . . . rose] Singer (ed. 1826): “One would think by the ludicrous gravity with which Steevens and Malone take this figurative expression in a literal sense, that they were unused to the language of poetry, especially the adventurous metaphors of Shakspeare. Mr. Boswell’s note is short and to the purpose. ‘Rose is put generally for the ornament, the grace, of an innocent love.’ Ophelia describes Hamlet as—‘The expectancy and rose of the fair state.’”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 +
2425 takes . . .
rose]
Caldecott (ed. 1832): “It is used metaphorically for bloom; and probably not without an allusion to its literal sense.”
1854 del2
del2
2425 Cals vertue hippocrit] Delius (ed. 1854): “Eine That, wie die der Königin, verkehrt Alles, was bisher für heilig, treu und rein galt, in sein Gegentheil, and macht die Tugend, die noch für Tugend angesehen sein will, zur Heuchlerin.” [A deed like that of the queen turns everything that was formerly considered holy, true and pure into its opposite, and makes virtue that still wants to be regarded as virtue into a hypocrite.]
del2
2425 takes . . . rose] Delius (ed. 1854): “rose, im Gegensatz to blister, kann nur das frische Roth sein, das die unschuldige Liebe auf ihrer Stirn trägt.” [rose, in contrast to blister, can be only the fresh blush that innocent love wears on her brow.]
1870 rug1
rug1: xref.
2425 Cals vertue hippocrit] Moberly (ed. 1870): “See the note on [3.1.101 (1758)].”
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ warb, v1778, mal, v1821, cald1, sing1 + magenta underlined
2425 Rose]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
It is only by keeping steadfastly in mind the many benefits which we have received at the hands of the early commentators that we can listen with any patience to their dispute about the meaning of this phrase.
Warburton thinks it refers to an actual flower worn on the side of the face.
Steevens accepts the flower but denies the ‘side of the face,’ because the text reads ‘forehead;’ it cannot mean a
blush, ‘because the forehead is no proper place for a
blush to be displayed in.’ It must be a rose on the forehead, and in proof a figure, in a painted glass window representing a
Morrice-Dance, is cited that bears a
flower on the forehead! (I hope here be truths!) It makes very little matter that this flower turnes out to be a Deptford Pink; the flower is there, and the
rose in
Hamlet follows as of course.
Malone is rather overpowered by this display of learning, but ventures to suggest that
rose might ‘only mean the
roseate hue.’ And then, as if frightened at his own boldness, hastens to add that ‘the forehead certainly appears to us an odd place for the hue of innocence to dwell on;’ and yet Sh.
has represented a
smile there, as in
Tro. [2.2.204 (1194-95)], and moreover, ‘that part of the forehead which is situated between the eyebrows seems to have been considered by our poet as the seat of innocence and modesty,’ as in [4.5.120 (2863-4)].
Boswell closes the discussion forever by saying that ‘“rose” is put generally for the
ornament, the
grace, of an innocent love.’
Caldecott refers to the proverb frequent in Sh., and found in
The London Prodigal,
1605: ‘As true as the skin between any man’s brows.’ And, lastly,
Singer refers to Ophelia’s description of Ham. as ‘the rose of the fair state’ [3.2.32 (1808)].”
1878 rlf1
rlf1 = v1821 + magenta underlined
2425 the Rose] Rolfe (ed. 1878): ““The ornament, the grace, of an innocent love” (Boswell). Cf. [3.1.152 (1808)] above.”
1881 hud3
hud3: xref.
2425 Cals vertue hippocrit] Hudson (ed. 1881): “A thing is often said to do that which it any way causes to be done. See vol. xi. page 231 [0000], note 21.”
1885 macd
macd
2425-6 takes . . . loue] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘makes Innocence ashamed of the love it cherishes.”
1891 dtn
dtn: Cym., H5 //s
2425 Calls vertue hippocrit] Deighton (ed. 1891): “makes all real virtue seem mere hypocrisy; cp. Cym. [3.4.152-54 (1841-44)], H5 [2.2.137 (766)].”
dtn
2425-7 takes . . . blister there] Deighton (ed. 1891): “and in place of the tenderness that graces an innocent love, sets upon its brow a shameless flush.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 minus v1821 attribution
1936 cam3b
cam3b: What Happens in Hamlet
2425-7 takes of . . . blister there] Wilson (ed. 1936): “i.e. her act has destroyed his innocent love for Oph., v. What happens in Hamlet, p. 101.”
1939 kit2
kit2: Milton //
2425 the Rose] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, viii, 610: ‘rosy red, love’s proper hue.’”
1980 pen2
pen2: xrefs.
2425-6 takes . . . loue] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Presumably he is thinking of his love for Ophelia, and is summarizing his interview with her at [3.1.89-148 (1745-1805)]. Compare Laertes’s interview with her at [4.5.119-21 (2862-64)]: brands the harlot / . . . between the chaste unsmirched brows / Of my true mother.”
1982 ard2
ard2: xrefs.; Dover Wilson (WHH)
2425 takes . . . words] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “This passage is impossible to reconcile with the contention that the play does not present the Queen as having been unfaithful during King Hamlet’s life. Cf. [3.4.66 (2450)] below, ‘leave to feed’ and [3.4.75 (2455+4)], choice; [5.2.64 (3568)]; [4.1.43 ff. (2628+2 ff.) and ln; WHH, pp. 293-4.”
ard2
2425 rose] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “emblem of ideal love.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4: Warning for Fair Women analogue; xref.
2425 Rose] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “The white rose symbolizes purity and innocence. In A Warning for Fair Women Anne Sanders wears a white rose at her trial, ‘In token,’ she says, ‘of my spotless innocence: / As free from guilt as is this flower from stain’ [3.3.37-8 (2313-14)]. As the evidence against her mounts, however, the rose changes colour [4.1.1-2 (2374-5)], convicting her of complicity in the murder of her husband.”
1993 dent
dent: xref.
2425 Cals vertue hippocrit] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Turns Virtue into a hypocrite (by pretending to be virtuous). See [3.2.397 (2268)].”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2 ≈ dtn
2425 Calls virtue hypocrite] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. makes any claim to virtue subject to accusations of hypocrisy.”
ard3q2: 2278, 2860-3
xrefs; Edwards,
Furness, Henning, Var
2425-7 takes. . . there]
Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “As at 3.3.7 [2278], the brows or forehead reveal the inner self; the
rose represents idealized love, while the
blister refers to the practice of branding prostitutes, which as Edwards points out did not literally happen in Elizabethan England, though it had been threatened by Henry VIII in 1531 (see also Henning, who notes that editors after Edwards continue to assert that it did happen). Leartes evokes the idea again at 4.5.117-20 [2860-3]. This passage used to attract such fanciful explanations that
Furness felt obliged to remark, "It is only by keeping steadfastly in mind the many benefits which we have received at the hands of the early commentators that we can listen with any patience to their dispute about the meaning of this phrase’ (see Var for examples).”
ard3q2
2425 off] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Q2’s ’of’ was a common spekking for off.”
2425
