Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2469 In the ranck sweat of an inseemed bed | 3.4.92 |
|---|
1726 theon
theon: Tro. //s
2469 inseemed] T
heobald (1726, p. 104-105): <p.104> “Here again, as I conceive, we have a
sophisticated Reading palmed upon us, probably, from the Players first, who did not understand the Poet’s
Epithet, and therefore conscientiously substituted a
new one. If we go back, however, to the second
folio Edition (which is one of those collated by the
Editor) we have there a
various Reading, of which he is not pleased to take the least Notice, tho’, as I verily believe, it restores us the Poet’s own Word. ‘Nay, but to liue
In the rank Sweat of an ENSEAMED
Bed, Stew’d in Corruption, honying and makng Love Over the nasty Sty
.’ i.e. gross, fulsome, swinish Bed. For, not to dwell too long upon an
unsavoury Image, the Sweat of any
other Bed of Pleasure will be as rank as that of an
incestuous Bed. But besides, when we come to the
Etymology, and
abstracted Meaning of
enseam’d, we shall have a Consonancy in the
Metaphors, and a Reason for the Poet’s calling the Bed a nasty
Sty. In short, the Glossaries tell </p.104><p.105) us, that Seam † <n.><p.105> † Seam
is derived from a Contraction of Sebum,
or Sevum,
among the Latins; which Words ISIDORE
brings à Sue, quasi Suebum, vel Suevum; quià Animal hoc pingue.
So Arvina
is a Ram’s Fat, from the old Word Arvix (
i.e. Aries)
a Ram. Vid. VOSSII Etymolog. Latinum. </n.><p.105> is properly the
Fat, or
Grease, of a
Hog: And tho’ I do not remember the
compound Adjective from it used in any other Place of the Poet than this before us; yet he has elsewhere employ’d the Substantive; and making
Ulysses speak contemptuously of
Achilles, who had sequester’d himself from the
Græcian Captains and the War, he compares him tacitly to a Hog in his Sty, feeding on his own Pride, and self-sufficiency.
“
Tro. [2.3.184-189 (1392-7), 2.3.195 (1402)]. ‘
Shall the proud Lord, That basts his Arrogance with his own SEAM
, And never suffers Matters of the World Enter his Thoughts, save such as do revolve And ruminate himself; Shall He be worshipp’d Of That we hold an Idol more than Him? — That were t’enlard h is Pride, already fat, &c.” <p.105>
1744 han1
han1
2469 inseemed] Hanmer (ed. 1744: 6: glossary, seam): “Tallow, Fat.”
1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson Dict.
2469 inseemed ] Johnson (1755): “To enseam-- To sow up; to inclose by a seam or juncture of needlework.”
1765 Heath
Heath: theon
2469 inseemed] H
eath (1765, p.543): <p.543> “Mr. Theobald, in his Shakespear. restored, p.104. hath restored, from the second folio, an expression, which, according to all the rules of just criticism, must be admitted to be the genuine reading, ‘
In the rank sweat of an enseamed
bed.’ That is, as Mr. Theobald rightly interprets it, a gross fulsom swinish bed. This epithet is too uncommon to have been the interpolation of a transcriber or player, people however who may be very naturally supposed not to have understood it, and for that reason to have altered it to the more vulgarly intelligible one,
incestuous.” </p.543>
1765 john1
john1
2469 inseemed] Johnson (ed. 1765) “The folio has enseamed, that is, greasy bed.”
1773 jen
jen
2469 inseemed] Jennens (ed. 1773): “The 1st q. [Q2] reads inseemed; the fo’s enseamed; i.e. gross, fulsome, swinish. Seam is properly the fat or grease of a hog; derived from sebum, or sevum;which words Isidore brings à sue.”
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1 +
2469 inseemed] Steevens (ed. 1773): “Incestuous is the reading of the quarto, 1611.”
1774 capn
capn = theon (Tro. //s)
2469 inseemed] Capell (1774 1:1: glossary, seam): “(Tro. [2.3.184-5 (1392-93), 2.3.195 (1402)], Fat or Grease.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773 + B&F analogue, Book of Hawking magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Beaumont and Fletcher use the word inseamed in the same sense, in the third of their Four Plays in one: ‘His leachery inseam’d upon him.’ In the Book of Haukyng, &c. bl.l. no date, we are told that ‘Ensayme of a hauke is the greece.’ In most places it means the grease or oil with which clothiers besmear their wool to make it draw out in spinning.”
1787 anon
anon ≈ capn (Tro. //)
2469 inseemed] Henley (apud Editor, 1787, 6:129): “In the West of England, the inside fat of a goose, when dissolved by heat, is called its seam; and Sh. has used the word in the same sense in his Tro. [2.3.184-5 (1392-93)]: ‘—Shall the proud lord, That bastes his arrogance with his own seam.’ Henley ”
1790 mal
mal ≈ v1778 (incl. john1, Book of Hawking)
2469 inseemed] Malone (ed. 1790): “Thus the quarto, 1604, and the folio. A later quarto of no authority reads—incestuous bed. Enseamed bed, as Dr. Johnson has observed, is greasy bed. Seam signifies hogslard.”
2469 inseemed] Steevens(apud Malone ed. 1790): “In the Book of Haukyng, &c. bl.l. no date, we are told that ‘Ensayme of a hauke is the greece.’”
1791- rann
rann
2469 inseemed] Rann (ed. 1791-): “enseamed—swinish, gross, fulsome.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1778; ≈ mal; ≈ anon
2469 inseemed] Johnson (apud ed. 1793): “Thus the folio: i.e. greasy bed.”
2469 inseemed] Steevens(ed. 1793): “Thus also the quarto, 1604. Beaumont and Fletcher use the word inseamed in the same sense, in the third of their Four Plays in One: ‘His leachery inseam’d upon him.’
“In The Book of Hawkyng, &c. bl. l. no date, we are told that ‘Ensayme of a hauke is the greece.”
“In some places it means hogs’ lard, in others, the grease or oil with which clothiers besmear their wool to make it draw out in spinning. Incestuous is the reading of the quarto, 1611. steevens.”
2469 inseemed] Henley (apud Editor, ed. 1793): “In the West of England, the inside fat of a goose, when dissolved by heat, iks called its seam; and Sh. has used the word in the same sense in his Tro.; ‘—shall the proud lord, That bastes his arrogance with his own seam.’ henley.”
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793 + Holme analogue
2469 inseemed] Steevens (ed. 1803): “In Randle Holme’s Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. II. ch. ii. p. 238, we are told that ‘Enseame is the purging of a hawk from her glut and grease.’ From the next page in the same work, we learn that the glut is ‘a slimy substance in the belly of the hawk.’ Steevens.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour
2469 inseemed bed] Seymour (1805, p. 187): “Whatever sense may be attached to this word, ‘enseamed,’ I cannot help preferring that which the quarto (1611) exhibits, ‘incestuous.’ It is an anticlimax to go from so strong an expression as ‘rank sweat,’ to the less forcible one, greasy.”
1805 Chedworth
Chedworth: v1785
2469 inseemed] C
hedworth (1805, p. 356): <p.356> “I prefer the reading of the quarto 1611,
incestuous, as Mr. Steevens has done in his edition of 1785.” </p.356>
1807 Pye
Pye ≈ v1793 (Henley)
2469 inseemed] Pye (1807, p. 321): “Surely, as this is the only reading that gives an obvious meaning, it might on such authority have been admitted into the text, but then indeed the sport of the commentator would have been spoiled, and Mr. Henley would have lost the opportunity of telling us, ‘that in the West of England . . . its seam’”
1819 Jackson
Jackson
2469 inseemed] Jackson (1819, p. 355): “Great exertions have been used to establish the present reading; hog’s lard, and the inside fat of a goose have been presented to strengthen the figure. It is with great reluctance I introduce a word that may offend chastity; but the speech throughout necessarily awakening the grossest ideas, the eye of delicacy can scarcely be more shocked by reading, as I am certain the Author wrote: ‘Nay, but to live/In the rank sweat of an ensemen’d bed;’ Meaning: A bed stained with lust, and where, stew’d in corruption, as Hamlet says, she makes love over the nasty sty.”
1819 cald1
cald1 = v1793 (incl. analogues in Four Plays, The Book of Hawking; ≈ v1793 (Henley) analogue in Tro., +
2469 inseemed] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “In the filthy stew of grossly fed indulgence. The reading of the quarto, 1611 [Q3], is incestuous, though in another we have inseemed. Neither is the word in the text, or seam, to be found in any such sense as that of the text in our early lexicographers, or Minshieu; though Mr.Todd, in commenting upon ‘And bounteous Trent, that in himself enseems/Both thirty sorts of fish and thirty sundry streams.’ F. Q. IV. XI. 35, thinks it probably derived from ensemencer, old Fr. to furnish with seed. Dr. Johnson has her interpreted the word greasy: but neither is it to be found in his dictionary in this, or the word seam in any sense. Mrs. Page, however, speaking of the knight, uses greasily in this sense. Wiv. [2.1.107-8 (649-50)] and see ‘greasily,’ LLL [4.1.138 (1133)] Maria.”
1826 sing1
sing1 ≈ v1778 + B&F analogue magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] Singer (ed. 1826): “i.e. greasy, rank, gross. It is a term borrowed from falconry. It is well known that the seam of any animal was the fat or tallow; and a hawk was said to be enseamed when she was too fat or gross for flight. By some confusion of terms, however, ‘to enseam a hawk’ was used for ‘to purge her of glut and grease;’ by analogy it should have been unseam. Beaumont and Fletcher, in The False One, use inseamed in the same manner:—‘His lechery inseamed upon him.’”
Allusion to B&F title varies from Steevens’s Four Plays in one (ed. 1778).
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 + Ritson magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] Ritson (apud Caldecott ed. 1832): “and Ritson, that in the north swine seam is ‘hog’s lard.’ See Tro. [here passage is quoted verbatim as in ed. 1819).”
1843 col1
col1
2469 inseemed] Collier (ed. 1843): “The word ‘enseamed’ was not uncommon, from ‘seam,’ grease. See Vol. vi. p. 58.”
1847 verp
verp
2469 inseemed]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “A strong expression of disgust, from
seam, grease—greasy, gross, filthy. Some of the quartos read ‘incestuous,’ which, for popular use, is preferable, though the other cannot but be the true reading.”
1854 del2
del2
2469 inseemed] Delius (ed. 1854): “to enseam von seam = Speck, Thierfett, also eigentlich = fettmachen, muss hier in Verbindung mit rank, sweat "schmutzig (d.h. von widerlichem Schweisse fett) machen" bedeuten.” [to enseam from seam meaning bacon or animal fat, thus really meaning to make fat, must here in connection with rank, sweat mean to make dirty ( i. e. fat from offensive sweat).]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1≈ sing1 minus synonyms, ref. to confusion, and B&F analogue
2469 inseemed] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Enseamed is a term borrowed from falconry. It is well known that the seam of any animal was the fat or tallow; and a hawk was said to be enseamed when she was too fat or gross for flight,—The undated quarto and that of 1611 read incestuous.”
hud1 does not make reference to Q1’s “incestuous pleasure of his bed” as a match for “enseamed bed,” but does cite the undated quarto, which sing1 does not.
1861 WH1
wh1
2469 inseemed] White (ed. 1861): “‘Seam’ is grease. The phrase is so gross that, were it not for Hamlet’s mood, we might willingly believe that the 4to. of 1611 and one without date, in reading ‘’an incestous bed,’ gave the true text.”
1864a glo
glo
2469 inseemed] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864 [1865] 9: glossary): “p.p. fat, rank.”
1865 hal
hal = sing1 + magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “Enseamed, greasy, rank, gross. It is a term borrowed from falconry. It is well known that the seam of any animal was the fat or tallow; and a hawk was said to be enseamed when she was too fat or gross for flight. By some confusion of terms, however, ‘to enseam a hawk’ was used for ‘to purge her of glut and grease;’ by analogy it should have been unseam. Beaumont and Fletcher, in The False One, use inseamed in the same manner:—‘His lechery inseamed upon him.’ It should be remarked, that the quarto of 1603 reads incestuous; as does that of 1611.—Singer.”
1866 ktlyn
ktlyn
2469 inseemed] Keightley (ed. 1866, glossary): “greasy.”
1869 tsch
tsch: Mueller
2469 inseemed] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “enseamed von seam, deutsch seim, sagina, azungia porei. S. Ed. Mueller II. 307.” [enseamed from seam, German seim, sagina, azungia porei. See Ed. Mueller II. 307.]
1869 Romdahl
Romdahl: v1793 (Tro. //) + Oth. // magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] Romdahl (1869, p. 35-6): “greasy; from the noun seam (grease) which is still used in some parts of England; A.S. seim. This </p35><p.36> is in Sh. the only instance of the word, but seamy occurs in Oth. [4.2.146 (2859)], and seam (in the sense of grease) in Tro. [2.3.185 (1393)].”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1 minus VN note
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ theon, v1778, Henley (Anon. 1787), wh1 + magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] D
owden Furness (ed. 1877): “
Theobald:
Seam is properly the fat or grease of a hog. It is used in
Tro. [2.3.185 (1393).
Steevens: Beau. & Fl. use
inseamed in the same sense. See [
Triumph of Death, p. 535, vol. ii, ed. Dyce]: ‘His lechery inseamed upon him.’ In
The Book of Hawkyng, bl. 1. n.d., we are told that ensayme of a hauke is the grece.’ In Randle Holme’s
Academy of Armoury and Blazon, B. II, ch. ii, p. 238, we are told that ‘
Enseame is the purging of a hawk from her glut and grease.’ From the next page in the same work we learn that the glut is ‘a slimy substance in the belly of the hawk.’
Henley: In the West of England the inside fat of a goose, when dissolved by heat, is called its seam.
White: The phrasse is so grtoss that, were it not for Hamlet’s mood, we might willingly believe that
incestuous of Q3, Q4 is the true text. [
Cotgrave gives: ‘Gramouse, a dish made of slices of cold meat fryed with Hogs seame.’ There is also a note on this passage in the valuable essay: New Shakespearian Interpretaitons, Edin. Rev. Oct. 1872, p. 355, but the foregoing explanations are ample for so unsavory a subject. Ed.]”
1877 col4
col4 = col3; v1793 (Tro. //)
2469 inseemed] Collier (ed. 1877): “The word enseamed was not uncommon, from ‘seam’, grease: see Tro. [2.3.185 (1393)].”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud1 minus “It is well known . . . read incestuous.” +
2469 inseemed] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Seam is fat or grease. Hawks, when kept in mew, became, through inaction and high-feeding, enseamed, as it was called, that is, too fat or gross for flight; and, in order to fit them for use, their grossness had ot be purged of by a course of scouring diet and medicine. The place where the hawks were kept during this process was apt to get very foul. It is in allusion to this that Hamlet applies the term to the moral pollution of his mother’s incestuous marriage, and to the bridal couch itself as being defiled by such a union.”
1882 elze2
elze2
2469 inseemed bed] Elze (ed. 1882): “incestuous bed, a manifest correction in order to remove the ‘nasty’ reading of the original authoritative copies.”
1883 wh2
wh2 ≈ wh1 + magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] White (ed. 1883): “‘seam’ means grease. This most revolting passage represents not S.’s thought but Hamlet’s feeling.”
1887 Mackay
Mackay: xref.
2469 inseemed bed] Mackay (1887, glossary, enseamed bed): “In Hamlet’s expostulation with his mother on her marriage with her first husband’s murderer, he speaks of [quotes 2469]. What is an enseamed bed? The dictionaries say that enseamed means either greasy or enclosed within a seam, which can scarcely be the epithet intended by Hamlet; especially as he had been more than sufficiently coarse in the use of the phrase ‘rank sweat;’ and as any synonymous word for greasy would not have added to the sense, to say nothing of the dignity, of his reproach. In Gaelic, seam means to prohibit, and ann is an intensive prefix; whence ann-seam, Englished into enseam, would signify greatly prohibited, that is, incestuous; an idea that ran in Hamlet’s mind, as is evident from a previous passage in the same speech, in which he says:—[quotes 3.4.28-29 (2409-10)]].”
1890 irv2
irv2 ≈ v1803 (Holme)≈ v1778 (B&F analogue); ≈ v1793 (Tro. //)
2469 inseemed] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Steevens quotes Randle Holme’s Academy of Armory and Blazon, bk.ii. ch.ii. p. 238: ‘Enseame is the purging of a hawk from her glut and grease.’ Enseame is used by Beaumont and Fletcher, The Triumph of Death (Works, ed. Dyce, vol.ii. p. 535), in the same sense as Sh’s. Compare [2.3.185 (1393)] for a parallel use of seam (literally hog’s fat).”
irv2
2469 inseemed] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “defiled.”
1891 oxf1
oxf1: xref.
2469 inseemed] Craig (ed. 1891, glossary): “part. adj. filthy.”
1899 ard1
ard1: OED; xref.
2469 inseemed] Dowden (ed. 1899): “loaded with grease. French, enseimer (now ensimer). New English Dictionary [OED]: ‘The French word is now used only in sense ‘to grease cloth,’ whence perhaps the fig. use in Sh.’ See note on [3.3.89-95 (2364-70)].”
1903 p&c
p&c ≈ v1877 (Cotgrave)
2469 inseemed] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “The ‘ensayme of a hauke is the grece’ (‘Book of Haukyng’). That Hamlet has the fat of the hog in mind appears from the next line. ‘Gramouse, a dish made of slices of cold meat fryed with Hogs seame’ (Cotgrave).”
1905 rltr
rltr
2469 inseemed] Chambers (ed. 1905): “stained.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn = oxf1 for inseemed
1931 crg1
crg1
2469 inseemed] Craig (ed. 1931): “enseamed] loaded with grease, greased.”
1934 rid1
rid1 ≈ crg1
2469 inseemed] Ridley (ed. 1934): “loaded with grease.”
1934 cam3
cam3
2469 inseemed] Wilson (ed. 1934): enseamed] “v. G. and Introd. p. xxxviii.”
1934 cam3 Glossary
cam3: OED
2469 inseemed] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “loaded with grease. ‘Seam’ = (a) fat used in cloth manufacture, (b) hog’s-lard for frying (cf. N.E.D. [OED] ‘seam,’ sb.3 1, 2).”
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ rid1
2469 inseemed] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “soaked in grease.”
1957 pel1
pel1 ≈ rid1
2469 inseemed] Farnham (ed. 1957): “grease-laden.”
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ pel1
2469 inseemed] Spencer (ed. 1980): “greasy.”
1982 ard2
ard2: v1793
(Tro. //) without attribution;
Schmidt, Dover Wilson
2469 inseemed]
Jenkins (ed. 1982): “saturated with
seam (cf.
Tro. [2.3.185 (1393)]), i.e. animal fat, grease. The word combines with others in the context to suggest the grossness of sexual behaviour through physical metaphors of disgusting exudations. Explanations making it out to be a technical term from falconry (
Schmidt, etc.) or the woolen industry (Dover Wilson) are quite beside the point.”
1984 chal
chal = evns1 + magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “enseamed greasy (seam = fat, grease).”
1988 bev2
bev2 ≈ kit2 + magenta underlined
2469 inseemed] Bevington (ed. 1988): “saturated in the grease and filth of passionate lovemaking.”
1993 dent
dent: xrefs.; ≈ Jackson (semen suggestion)
2469 inseemed] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Enseamed (the Folio spelling); seamy, greasy. Compare [1.5.42 (729)]. The Quarto spelling recalls [1.2.75-86 (256-267)], where Hamlet says, ‘I know not Seems’, and [3.2.87 (1938)], where he recruits Horatio to ‘join’ him ‘In Censure of Claudius’ ‘Seeming’. It also suggests ‘in-semened’ (reeking with sexual discharge).”
1998 OED
OED
2469 inseemed] OED (Sept. 14, 1998): enseamed] “enseam, v.2 Obs. [ad. Fr. enseimer (now ensimer); Ofr. ensaimer, f. en- (see EN-1) + OF. *saim, saïn: see ENSEAM v.1] trans. To load with grease. Hence enseamed ppl.
“a. fig. The Fr. word is now used only in sense `to grease (cloth)’, whence perh. the fig. use in Shaks. 1562 LEIGH Armorie (1597) 57 Hee is not enseamed with much fatnesse, but is all of muscles and senues. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. 3.4.92 In the ranke sweat of an enseamed bed.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: 320, 911, 2312, 2531, 2535, 2743+15 xrefs
2469 ranck] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “offensive, excessive; see 146, 150 and other uses of rank and ranker at 1.2.136, 2.1.20, 3.2.250, 3.3.36, 4.4.21.”
ard3q2: Wilson, Rubinstein
2469 inseemed] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “enseamed. Editors gloss ’saturated with grease or animal fat’ (Dover Wilson suggests that Shakespeare drew unwittingly on early memories of hog’s lard used in his father’s wool-dyeing trade); ’stained with semen’ seems another possibility (see Rubinstein, Supplement, 345). (Olivier’s Hamlet in the 1948 film replaced enseamed with ’lascivious’.).”
2469
