Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2451 And batten on this Moore; ha, haue you eyes? | 3.4.67 |
|---|
1745 han2
han2
2451 batten] Hanmer (ed. 1745, glossary): “To batten, to feed, to pasture.”
1774 capn
capn
2451 batten] Capell (1774, 1:1: glossary, batten): “feed fat, fatten.”
1778 v1778
v1778: Claud. Tib. Nero, Marlowe, Drayton analogues
2451 batten] Steevens (ed. 1778): “i.e. to grow fat. So, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: ‘—and for milk I batten’d was with blood.’ Again, in Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, 1633 [sic]: ‘—make her round and plump, And batten more than you are aware.’ Bat is an ancient word for increase. Hence the adjective batful, so often used by Drayton in Polyolbion.”
1790 mal
mal = v1785 minus Marlowe analogue
1791- rann
rann
2451 batten] Rann (ed. 1791-): “grow coarsely fat.”
1819 cald1
cald1 ≈ v1778 + Milton, Dethick, Baret, Whittintom, Todd (Cotgrave, Spenser) analogues magenta underlined
2451 batten on this Moore] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Feed rankly. From bat, increase, we have batten, battle, battill, to feed and to grow fat. Batten occurs in Lycidas, v. 39, and Mr. Steevens cites Claud. Tiberius Nero, 1607. ‘And for milk I battened was with blood’ &c. In the F.Q. VI. VIII. 38. Spenser writes, ‘For sleep, they sayd, would make her battil better. But if the earth, thus ordered, swelleth or retcheth out, then it is a sure note, that the same is a battell, and fat ground.’ Dethick’s Gardener’s Labyrinth, 4to. 1586. p. 6.
“In Baret’s Alvearle, Fo. 1580, we have, ‘battle and fertile.’ lætum et ferax. Battleness, abundance, fruitfulness. Ubertas, fertilitas.
“We have the adjective ‘batful pastures’ in Thomas’s Historye of Italye, 1549, p. 1. and it occurs throughout Drayton; and in Whittintoni Lucubrationes, 4to. 1527, ‘Batwell, or fatte. Pinguis.’
“Mr. Todd says, that Cotgrave, in his old French Dictionary, writes, ‘to battle, or get flesh;’ and adds, ‘to battle, as scholers doe in Oxford. Estre debteur au college pour ses vivres.’ Spens. VII. 52.”
1826 sing1
sing1 ≈ v1778 (Marlowe analogue)
2451 batten] Singer (ed 1826): “i.e. to feed rankly or grossly: it is usually applied to the fattening of animals. Marlowe has it for ‘to grow fat.’ Bat is the old word for increase; whence we have battle, batten, and batful.”
1843 col1
col1
2451 batten] Collier (ed. 1843): “To ‘batten’ is to feed or fatten, probably from the Saxon batan, to bait.”
1854 del2
del2
2451 Delius (ed. 1854): “Wie mountain dem moor, wird das edlere to feed = sich nähren, dem unedleren to batten = sich mästen, gegenübergestellt.” [As mountain is contrasted to moor, so the nobler to feed = to nourish oneself is contrasted to the coarser to batten = to stuff oneself.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 = sing1 without attribution
1865 hal
hal ≈ col1 minus Saxon etymology + Armin analogue magenta underlined
2451 batten] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “Batten, to feed or fatten. ‘Thus they batten here, but the divell will gnaw their bones for it,’ Armin’s Nest of Ninnies, 1608.”
1866 ktlyn
ktlyn ≈ rann
2451 batten] Keightley (ed. 1866, glossary): “to grow fat.”
1872 Wedgwood
Wedgwood
2451 batten] Wedgwood (1872): “To thrive, to feed, to become fat.” From Goth., on., Du.
1872 hud2
hud2 ≈ hud1 minus Marlowe analogue
2451 batten] Hudson (ed. 1872): “To batten is to feed rankly or grossly; it is usually applied to the fattening of animals.”
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ cald1 (Marlowe analogue, Todd , and Cotgrave); ≈ cald1 (Milton analogue) + magenta underlined
2451 batten] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “feed, grossly, grow fat. Cotgrave gives ‘to battle’ as equivalent to ‘Prendre chair,’ s.v. ‘Chair.’ The word ‘battels’ is no doubt derived from the same root. Wedgwood connects it with Old English ‘bet,’ our ‘better.’ It occurs transitively in Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, Act 3: ‘Why, master, will you poison her with a mess of rice porridge? that will preserve life, make her round and plump, and batten more than you are aware’ (p. 163, ed. Dyce, 1862). So Milton, Lycidas, 29: ‘Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night.’ And intransitively in Ben Jonson’s Fox, 1.1: With these thoughts so battens.’”
1873 rug2
rug2 ≈ cln1 (Milton analogue)
2451 batten on this Moore] Moberley (ed. 1873): “The quiet orderly feeding of the preceding line is finely contrasted with the ‘battening’ of run-away sheep. The word is used in Lycidas: “Battening our flocks with the fresh dew of night.””
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ Wedgwood, v1778, cald1, cln1 (incl. all named refs.)
2451 batten]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Wedgwood: To thrive, to feed, to beome fat. Dutch
bat, bet, better, more.
Steevens: Thus, Marlowe’s
Jew of Malta [p. 297, ed Dyce, 1850]: ‘—a mess of porridge? that will preserve life, make her round and plump, and batten more than you are aware.’ Also,
Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: ‘—and for milk I battened was with blood.’
Caldecott: Thus, Milton’s
Lycidas, l. 29: ‘Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night.’
Dyce (
Gloss.): ‘To batten (grow fat),
pinguesco.’—Coles’s
Lat. and Eng. Dict.
Clarendon: Cotgrave gives ‘to battle’ as equivalent to ‘Prendre chair.’
s.v. ‘Chair.’ The word ‘battels’ is no doubt derived from the same root. It occurs transitively in the above quotation from Marlowe and Milton, and intransitively in Jonson’s
Fox, I, I” ‘With these thoughts so battens.’”
1877 neil
neil ≈ Wedgewood+ magenta underlined
2451 batten] Neil (ed. 1877): “indulge yourself. Batten, to feed, become fat, thrive.”
1877 col4
col4 = col3 + Cor. //
2451 batten] Collier (ed. 1877): “We have had the word in Cor. [4.5.32 (2686)], precisely in the same sense.”
1878 rlf1
rlf1 ≈ rug2 (Milton analogue); ≈ col4 (Cor. //)
2451 batten] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Fatten. Cf. Cor. [4.5.32 (2686)]: ““batten on cold-bits”; Milton, Lycidas, 29: “battening our flocks,” etc.”
1882 elze2
elze2: rlf1 (Milton analogue only)
2451 batten] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Milton, Lycidas, 1. 29: Batt’ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night.”
elze2: Bullen, Nicholson, Ebsworth
2451 this Moore] Elze (ed. 1882): “Mr. George Bullen endeavors to show that this is a double-entendre in so far as, in his opinion, the poet characterizes the king as being of a dark complexion in contradistinction to his fair-haired brother; Mr Bullen designates the king as The Moor of Denmark. See The Athenaeum, Jan. 4, 1879, p. 19; Jan. 11, 1879, p. 51 seq. (reply by Dr. B Nicholson); Feb. 8, 1879, p. 184 (by Mr J.W. Ebsworth, in favour of Mr. Bullen); Mar. I, 1879, p. 279 seq. (second articles by Mr Bullen and Dr B. Nicholson).”
1883 wh2
wh2 ≈ rann
2451 batten] White (ed. 1883): “feed grossly fat.”
1885 macd
macd
2451 Moore] Mac Donald (ed. 1885): “perhaps an allusion as well to the complexion of Claudius both moral and physical.”
1888 Savage
mPudsey
2452-54 for . . . iudgement] Pudsey (apud Savage, 1888, p. 75): “At yor age the heydaye in ye blood ys tame, & humble, waites vpo ye iudgmt.”
Savage’s transcription is said to be from a notebook attributed to Edward Pudsey, which was supposedly compiled by 1616 (the dates on the last two page are 1615 and 1616, respectively).
1889 Barnett
Barnett: cald1 (Milton analogue)
2451 batten] Barnett (1889, p. 51): “grow fat. Milton has ‘battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night.’ Icel. Batna, to grow better. the same root exists in better and best.”
1890 irv2
irv2
2451 batten] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “grow fat.”
irv2 ≈ cln1
2451 batten] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “i.e. feed oneself fat. The word is used both transitively and intransitively; in Sh. only transitively. It is found in one other passage, Cor. [4.5.32 (2686)]: ‘go and batten on cold bits.’ Compare Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, iii. iv: ‘Why, master, willyou poison her with a mess of rice porridge? that will preserve life, make her round and plump, and batten more than you are aware’ (ed. Dyce, 1862, p. 163). The Clarendon Press edd. quote Cotgrave, who gives ‘to battle’ as equivalent to ‘Prendre chair.’ They add: ‘The word ‘battels’ is no doubt derived from the same root.’”
1891 dtn
dtn ≈ cald1 (Milton analogue
2451 batten] Deighton (ed. 1891): “grow fat; properly intransitive, as here, but used transitively by Milton, Lycidas, 29, ‘Battening our flocks.’”
dtn
2452 You . . . loue] Deighton (ed. 1891): “you cannot say that you were led astray by ardent love.”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ col (Cor. //)
2451 batten] Dowden (ed. 1899): “feed gluttonously. Cor. [4.5.32 (2686)]: ‘batten on cold bits.’”
1903 p&c
p&c ≈ irv2 (Marlowe analogue)
2451 batten] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “‘A mess of porridge . . . will . . . make her round and plump and batten more’ (Marlowe, ‘Jew of Malta,’ 1596). ‘Thus they batten here, but the Divell will gnaw their bones for it’ (Armin, ‘Nest of Ninnies,’ 1608).”
1904 ver
ver ≈ irv2 + magenta underlined
2451 batten] Verity (ed. 1904): “grow fat; see G. The word is commonly used of animals, so that here it is contemptuous and implies gross feeding.”
1905 rltr
rltr = irv2
2451 batten] Chambers (ed. 1905): “grow fat.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn ≈ han2
2451 batten] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “to feed.”
1929 trav
trav
2451 Moore]
Travers (ed. 1929): “was used, then (and later), of low marshy ground. A quibble, on the presumably
dark complexion of the ‘villain’ of the play (‘
with a face like Vulcan’ Q1; cp. p. 121 n. 11), so unlike his ‘
fair’ brother with ‘Hyperion’s curls,’ seems quite possible.”
1931 crg1
crg1 = rltr for batten
crg1
2451 Moore] Craig (ed. 1931): “barren upland.”
1934 cam3
cam3
2451 Moore] Wilson (ed. 1934): moor] “Q2 ‘Moor.’ Prob. a quibble upon ‘blackamoor’ which to Elizabethans typified the physically repulsive.”
1936 cam3b
cam3b
2451 Moore] Wilson (ed. 1936): “Cf. ‘with a face like Vulcan,’ which Q1 reads at the corresponding passage.”
1939 kit2
kit2
2451 batten] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “gorge ourself.”
kit2
2452 at your age] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “To Hamlet, a very young man, his mother seems too old to feel passionate love. We should not be misled into exaggerating the Queen’s age. She is in what we should call the prime of life.”
1942 n&h
n&h ≈ kit2
2451 batten] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “gorge.”
1957 pel1
pel1
2451 batten] Farnham (ed. 1957): “feed greedily.”
1980 pen2
pen2
2451 batten] Spencer (ed. 1980): “fatten (like sheep).”
1982 ard2
ard2
2451 Moore] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The contrast with a fair mountain suggests a play on blackamoor. This may be what prompts Q1 ‘With a face like Vulcan’.”
1984 chal
chal: OED
2451 batten] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “‘feed gluttonously on’ OED.”
chal ≈ crg1
2451 Moore] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “waste ground, heath.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4: contra OED
2451 Moore] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “fen, marshy ground (producing an abundance of rank grass)—OED moor sb. 2. The context shows that OED is wrong in citing this passage as an illustration of its first sense of moor: ‘A tract of unenclosed waste ground.”
1988 bev2
bev2 = crg1 + magenta underlined
2451 Moore] Bevington (ed. 1988): “barren upland (suggesting also ‘dark-skinned’).”
1993 dent
dent
2451 batten on this Moore] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Gorge on this wasteland (with a pun on Blackamoor). Hamlet is usually assumed to be referring to wet marshland but moor could also mean ‘heath,’ a barren tract of land covered primarily by heather.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Hibbard
2451 batten on] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “feed on. Hibbard argues that the moor provides ’an abundance of rank grass’, making it preferable to the fair mountain, but surely Hamlet’s point is that his mother’s choice is an irrational one.”
ard3q2 ≈ ard2
2451 moor] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The suggestion of a pun on ’blackamoor’ is supported by Hamlet’s claim that the present King has ’a face like Vulcan’ in Q1 at this point (11.34), Vulcan being the blacksmith of the gods whose face was darkened by the smoke of his occupation.”
2451
