Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2442 A station like the herald Mercury, | 3.4.58 |
|---|
1733 theo1
theo1: Ant. //; Fresnoy
2442 station] Theobald (ed. 1733): “The Poet employs this Word in a Sense different from what it is generally us’d to signify: for it means here an Attitude, a silent Posture, fixt Demeanour of Person, in Opposition to an active Behaviour. So, our Poet, before, describing Octavia; ‘Cleo. What Majesty is in her Gate? Remember, If e’er thou look’d’st on Majesty? Mess. She creeps: Her Motion and her Station are as one.’ Ant. [3.3.17-19 (1644-46)].
“And I ought to observe (which seems no bad Proof of our Author’s Learning and Knowledge;) that amongst the Latines, the word Statio, in its first and natural Signification, imply’d Stantis Actio; i.e. a Posture, or Attitude. This Mons. FRESNOY in his Art of Painting has chose to express by Positura: ‘Quærendasq; inter Posituras, luminis, umbræ, Atq; futurorum jàm præsentire Colorum Par erit Harmoniam—’ Which our DRYDEN has thus translated; ‘Tis the Business of a Painter, in his Choice of Attitudes, to foresee the Effect and Harmony of the Lights and Shadows, with the Colours which are to enter into the Whole.’ And again, afterwards; ‘Mutorumq; silens Positura imitatibur Actus.’ Which I think may be thus render’d; ‘Still let the silent Attitude betray What the mute Figure should in Gesture say.’”
1744 han1
han1
2442 station] Hanmer (ed. 1744: glossary, station): “Attitude, Presence, Person.”
1752 Dodd
Dodd: theo1 Milton analogue
2442 station] Dodd (1752, p. 247): “The poet employs this word in a sense different from what it is generally used to signify: for it means here, an attitude, a silent posture, fixt demeanor of person, in opposition to an active behaviour. Theobald. ‘Tis very probable, Milton took the first hint of the following lines from the present passage: ‘Like Maia’s son he stood, And shook his plumes that heavenly fragrance fill’d The circuit wide.’ Par. Lost, B.5. 285.”
1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson Dict.
2442 station ] Johnson (1755): 1. “the act of standing.”
2. “a state of rest.”
3. “a place where anyone is placed.”
4. “post assigned; office.”
5. “situation; position.”
6. “employment; office.”
7. “character; state.”
8. “rank; condition of life.”
1773 mstv1
mstv1 ≈ han
2442 station] Steevens (ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1773): “a place, where he is fixed; an attitude.”
1774 capn
capn ≈ han1 + etymology magenta underlined
2442 station] Capell (1774, 1:1: glossary, station): “a Posture or Attitude, a Standing; the primary Signification of the Latin Word—Statio, from which ours is derived.”
1778 v1778
v1778 ≈ theo (incl. Ant. //) abbreviated
2442 station] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Station in this instance does not mean the spot where any one is placed, but the act of standing. So, in Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)]: ‘Her motion and her station are as one.’ On turning to Theobald’s first edition, I find that he had made the same remark, and supported it by the same instance. The observation is necessary, or otherwise the compliment designed to the attitude of the king, would be bestowed on the place where Mercury is represented as standing. Steevens.”
1783 malsii
malsii: Virgil analogue
2442-43 Malone (1783, p. 58): “I think it not improbable that Sh. caught this image from Phaer’s translation of Virgil (Fourth Æneid), a book without doubt he had read: ’And now approaching neere, the top he seeth and mighty lines ’Of Atlas, mountain tough, and heaven on boyst’rous shoulders beares;—‘There first on ground with wings of might doth Mercury arrive, Then down from thence right over seas himselfe doth headlong drive.’
“In the margin are these words: ’The description of Mercury’s journey from heaven, along the mountain ‘Atlas in Africke, highest on earth.’”
The latter note is in the margin.
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778, malsii
1790 mWesley
mWesley ≈ malsii
2442-43 Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “(M. thinks this image is taken from Phaer’s translation of Aeneid IV.). I think it wholly improbable.”
1790 mal
mal = v1785 + Tim. //
2442 station] Malone (ed. 1790): “In the first scene of Tim. [44-45] the poet, admiring a picture, introduces the same image: ‘—How this grace Speaks his own standing!’ Malone.”
Tim // is added after Steevens’s 1778 comment on “station,” which is relocated to the end of the commentary.
1791- rann
rann ≈ capn
2442 station] Rann (ed. 1791-): “attitude, posture in standing.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour = Chedworth (see 2439 for note)
1819 cald1
cald1 ≈ mal (Tim. //); ≈ v1778 (Ant. //) + LLL magenta underlined
2442 station] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Station is manner of standing, i.e. attitude. ‘A gait, a state.’ LLL [4.3.182 (1522)]. Biron. ‘How this grace Speaks his own standing,’ Tim. [1.1.30-31 (44-45)]. Poet. ‘Her motion and her station are as one.’ Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)]. Mess.”
1822 Nares
Nares
2442 station] Nares (1822, glossary, station): “Used for the act or mode of standing. [Hamlet line cited] This would not be a consistent sense, if it were not understood of the natural grace of the man in standing.”
1826 sing1
sing1 ≈ mal (Ant. //)
2442 station] Singer (ed. 1826): “It is evident from this passage that whole length pictures of the two kings were formerly introduced. Station does not mean the spot where any one is placed, but the act of standing, the attitude. So in Ant. 3.3 [1646]:—‘Her motion and her station are as one.’ Without this explanation it might be conceived that the compliment designed for the attitude of the King was bestowed on the place where Mercury is represented as standing.”
Ref. is to pictures in 2437-38.
1841 knt1 (nd)
knt1 ≈ rann
2442 station] Knight (ed. [1841] nd): “manner of standing, attitude.”
1844 verp
verp: dodd (theo1 def., Milton analogue)
2442 station]
Verplanck (ed. 1844): “
Station is here used, as elsewhere, for attitude, act, or manner of standing. The image has been transplanted by Milton into his Paradise Lost—‘like Maia’s son he stood.’”
See 2482, 2517-8.
1853 Dyce (Notes)
Dyce (Notes): theo, v1778 (Ant. //) + Fletcher analogue magenta underlined
2442 station] Dyce (1853, p. 142): “To shew that ‘station’ means here that the act of standing [or manner of standing, attitude], Theobald and Steevens quote our author’s Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)]—Other writers have employed the word in the same sense: so Fletcher; ‘What a strange scene of sorrow is express’d In different postures, in their looks and station! A common painter, eyeing these, to help His dull invention, might draw to the life,’ &c. Lovers’ Progress, 4.3.”
1854 del2
del2
2442 station] Delius (ed. 1854): “station bezeichnet die Haltung, Stellung, so stolz, wie die des Merkur, der eben auf einen himmelhohen Berg sich niederliess.” [station refers to the pose or position, as proud as Mercury’s, as he alighted on a very high mountain.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 ≈ v1778 (Ant. //)
2442 station] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Station does not mean the spot where any one is placed, but the act of standing, the attitude. So in Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)]: ‘Her motion and her station are as one.’”
1857 fieb
fieb = mal for station
1861 wh1
wh1 ≈ knt1
2442 A station] White (ed. 1861): “i.e., a standing.”
1864a glo
glo ≈ hud1 (incl. Ant. //)
2442 station] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: glossary, Station): “sb. attitude. Ham. [3.4.58 (2442)] Act of standing. Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)].”
1865 hal
hal ≈ Dyce (Notes) minus Fletcher play title)
2442 station] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “To show that ‘station’ means here that the act of standing (or manner of standing, attitude), Theobald and Steevens quote our author’s Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)]—Other writers have employed the word in the same sense: so Fletcher; ‘What a strange scene of sorrow is express’d In different postures, in their looks and station! A common painter, eyeing these, to help His dull invention, might draw to the life,’ &c.—A. Dyce.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc
2442 station]
Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “Here used to express ‘attitude’; ‘position assumed when standing.’ The construction of this line is elliptical (according to Sh’s frequent practice in this particular, when passages of comparison are in question); ‘that of’ being understood between ‘like’ and the ‘herald Mercury.’ The allusion to the position or attitude of the king, as if standing, shows that the full-length pictures of the royal brothers are here intended by the author.”
1869 tsch
tsch ≈ knt1
2442 station] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “station ist the act or mode of standing.” [station is the act or mode of standing.]
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ glo (Ant. //)
2442 station] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “attitude of standing. So in Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)]: ‘Her motion and her station are as one.’”
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ theo (incl. Ant. //)
2442 station]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Theobald: An attitude [in standing]. See
Ant. 3.3.22 [1646].”
1877 neil
neil ≈ malsi (Virgil analogue)
1878 rlf1
rlf1 ≈ v1877 (incl. Ant. //) + Mac. // magenta underlined
2442 station] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Attitude in standing (Theo.). Cf. Mac. 5. 8. 42 [2487] and Ant. 3.3.22 [1646].”
1889 Barnett
Barnett
2442 A station] Barnett (1889, p. 51): “a pose.”
1890 irv2
irv2 ≈ cln1; ≈ rlf1 (Mac. //)
2442 station] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “attitude in standing.”
2442 station]
Symons (
in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “
Station is used for an attitude in standing in
Ant. 3.3.22 [1646]: ‘Her motion and her
station are as one;’
and perhaps in Mac. 5. 8. 42: ‘the unshrinking station where he fought;’ but, though given by Schmidt in his Lexicon under the same heading as those previously mention, I think it more properaly means ‘post.’”
1891 dtn
dtn ≈ rann
2442 station] Deighton (ed. 1891): “posture.”
dtn
2442 herald] Deighton (ed. 1891): “Mercury being the messenger of the gods.”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ cln1 (incl. Ant. //)
2442 station] Dowden (ed. 1899): “attitude in standing, as in Ant. [3.3.19 (1646)].”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 minus theo attribution for station
1904 ver
ver: Virgil, Milton, Jonson, Carew analogues
2442 Mercury] Verity (ed. 1904): “the winged messenger of the gods in classical mythology; Gk. Hermes. Some think that the simile was suggested by Æneid, 4. 246, which Sh. may have known in Phaer’s translation. (F.)
“Milton has the same comparison, probably in allusion to the same passage in Vergil, in Paradise Lost, 5. 285-287, “like Maia’s son he stood’ (the “he” being the archangel Raphael just lighted on a hill in the garden of Eden). The point of the simile is that Mercury typified grace and beauty; cf. his classical epithet, ‘giver of grace.’
“He seems to have been a favourite character in Jacobean Masques (cf. Jonson’s Penates and Masque of Lethe), and Milton’s lines (Paradise Lost, 5, 285-287) would exactly describe a characteristic Masque-scene such as the opening of Carew’s famous Caelum Brittannicum or of Comus in its original stage-version (Bridgewater MS.).”
1905 rltr
rltr = Barnett without attribution
2442 station] Chambers (ed. 1905): “pose.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn ≈ rltr
2442 station] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “attitude, pose.”
1931 crg1
crg1≈ wh1
2442 station] Craig (ed. 1931): “manner of standing.”
1935 ev2
ev2
2442 station] Hereford (ed. 1935): “bearing.
ev2 ≈ dtn + magenta underlined
2442 Mercury] Hereford (ed. 1935): “Mercury, the messenger of the gods, was famous for his graceful bearing.”
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ dtn
2442 station] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “posture in standing. No paraphrase does justice to the alert activity expressed by the original word.”
1942 n&h
n&h ≈ ev2 for station
1947 cln2
cln2 ≈ nlsn
2442 station] Rylands (ed. 1947): “attitude.”
cln2 ≈ ev2
2442 Mercury] Rylands (ed. 1947): “The winged messenger of Olympus, symbol of grace and (in some contexts) of wit and cunning.”
1957 pel1
pel1 ≈ crg1
2442 station] Farnham (ed. 1957): “attitude in standing.”
1974 evns1
evns1 = n&h for station
1980 pen2
pen2
2442 station] Spencer (ed. 1980): “stance.”
pen2 ≈ dtn
2442 Mercury] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(the winged messenger of the gods, and so an image of graceful movement and poise).”
1982 ard2
ard2 ≈ crg1
2442 station] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “stance, manner of standing.”
ard2 ≈ cln2
2442 Mercury] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “the envoy of the gods, whose bearing typified grace and beauty.”
1984 chal
chal = pen2 for station
chal = dtn for Mercury
1988 bev2
bev2 ≈ dtn
2442 Mercury] Bevington (ed. 1988): “winged messenger of the gods.”
1998 OED
OED
2442 station] OED (Sept. 14, 1998): “station (sten), sb. Forms: 4-6 stacio(u)n, 5 stacon, stacyoun, stasyon, 5-6 stacyon, 6 statyon, 6- station. [a. F.station (12th c.) ad. L. station-em, noun of action f. sta-, stare to stand. Cf. Sp. estacion, Pg. estação, It. stazione, and the popular form It. stagione season.]I. Action or condition of standing.1. The action or posture of standing on the feet; manner of standing. Now only in scientific and technical uses: see quots. 1891 and 1913.
“1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 65 These cerimonyes that this doctour calleth but small thynges, I suppose they be as stacyons, inclynacyons, gestures..& suche other. 1599 B. JONSON Cynthia’s Rev. II. v, If [she be] reguardant, then maintaine your station,..shew the supple motion of your pliant bodie. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. III. iv. 58 A Station, like the Herald Mercurie New lighted on a heauen kissing hill. 1650 BULWER Anthropomet. xxi. 234 Nature..allowes us two feet for the firmer station. 1861 HULME tr. Moquin-Tandon I. iii. 20 The quadrupedal station. 1891 Century Dict., Station,..the manner of standing or the attitude of live stock, particularly of exhibition game fowls: as, a duck~wing game-cock of standard high station. 1913 DORLAND Med. Dict. (ed. 7) 901 Station, the manner of standing; in ataxic conditions it is sometimes pathognomonic.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Nashe analogue
2442 station. . . Mercury] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The messenger god would have an athletic, upright station or stance. This reference, may indicate that Hamlet is describing (or imagining) a full-length portrait, not a head or bust as would have been more usual for a miniature. Given his use of Marlow and Nashe’s Dido elsewhere in Hamlet, Shakespeare may be recalling the appeareance of ’Jove’s winged messenger’ to Aeneas as 4.1.25: like Ghost later in 3.4, the purpose of the visitation is to remind the hero of his mission (and Hermes/Mercury arrives accompanied by Aeneas’ son Ascanius).”
2442
