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Line 2569 - 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.”

7. Further information: See the Introduction for explanations of other abbreviations. Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.

Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary

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

2569 Vnpeg the basket on the houses top,	3.4.193

1784 Davies

Davies: v1773

2569-72 Davies (1784, pp. 110-11): <p.110> “Mr. Warner’s note, referring to the story of the jackanapes and the partridges, in a letter of Sir John Suckling, is by no means satisfactory. The author seems rather to allude to some well-known story or fable, of an ape, who, being near a basket, in some tower, or high place, was curious to see what was in it; he contrived to open it; and, on seeing the birds which were in it fly away, to make experiment, whether he could not do the like, he crept into the basket; and, by his weight, tumbled it down, and broke his neck.

“But, let the story be as it will, the meaning of the passage seems plainly to be this: ‘Be not, mother, induced, by any means, to betray my simulation of madness to my uncle; if you do, he will not only put an end to my life, but he will, from </p.110><p.111> his guilty suspicions, treat you as an accomplice.’” </p.111>

1819 cald1

cald1

2569-70 Vnpeg . . . fly] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “‘Make a full disclosure, although you draw down ruin upon yourself.’ Of the popular story, to which allusion must here have been made, we find no satisfactory account.”

1857 fieb

fieb

2569 vnpeg] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “To unpeg, to open any thing closed with a peg.”

1872 cln1

cln1

2569-72 Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “The reference must be to some fable in which an ape opened a basket containing live birds, then crept into it himself, and ‘to try conclusions, whether he could fly like them, jumped out and broke his neck. No one has yet found any such fable recorded elsewhere.”

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1

1877 v1877

v1877 = Warner (v1773); ≈ cln1

2570 famous Ape] Furness (ed. 1877): “Warner: Sir John Suckling, in one of his letters, may possibly allude to the same story. ‘It is the story of the jackanapes and the partridges; thou starest after a beauty till it is lost to thee, and then let’st out another, and starest after that till it is gone too.’ Clarendon: No one has yet found the fable here alluded to.”

v1877 ≈ v1778 minus Ant. //

2571 conclusions] (ed. 1877): “Steevens: Experiments.”

1877 neil

1878 rlf1

rlf1 ≈ v1773 (Warner)

2569-71 Rolfe (ed. 1878): “The reference is to some old story that has not come down to us; perhaps, as Warner suggests, also alluded to by Sir John Suckling in one of his letters: ‘It is the story of the jackanapes and the partridges; thou starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee, and then let’st out another, and starest after that till it is gone too.’”

1889 Barnett

Barnett: standard

2569-72 Barnett (1889, p. 53): “The fable is not recorded anywhere.”

1889-90 mBooth

mBooth

2569-72 E. Booth (ms. notes in PB 82, HTC, Shattuck 108): “I was told last night that an ape carried a cage of birds to the roof of a museum here—during the present week—and after letting the birds escape, one at a time, he got into the cage & was precipitated to the ground: his neck was not broken, however. E.B. April ’90.

“Since writing the above I have learned that this Shakespearean co-incidence did not occur here but in some Southern town & several years ago, and that ’twas not a cage but a basket, as in the case to wh[ich] Hamlet refers.”

1899 ard1

ard1: contra Warner

2569-72 Dowden (ed. 1899): “The famous ape is now unknown. Warner suggests that Suckling alludes to the forgotten story in a letter, where he speaks of the Jackanapes and the partridges; but Suckling’s jackanapes, though he lets out the partridges, does not break his neck.”

1903 p&c

p&c ≈ rlf1 (Suckling analogue) without Warner attribut1on

2569 Vnpeg] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “An allusion to some popular fable not now known. Sir John Suckling seems to refer to the same in one of his letters: ‘It is the story of the the Jackenapes and the partridges; thou starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee, and then lets’t out another and starest after that till it is gone too’.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

2569-72 Kittredge (ed. 1939): “The fable cited, though it has not been found elsewhere, is easy to reconstruct. An ape finds a basket full of birds on the housetop and opens it. The birds fly away. The ape gets into the basket and jumps out in an attempt to fly, but fall from the roof and breaks his neck.”

1974 evns1

evns1

2569 Vnpeg the basket] Evans (ed. 1974): “open the door of the cage.”

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ kit2 + magenta underlined

2569 Vnpeg the basket . . . down] Spencer (ed. 1980): “This story is not known from any other source. It can be reconstructed as follows: an ape steals a wickerwork cage (basket) of birds and carries it to the top of a house. Out of curiosity, or by accident, he releases the pegs of the cage, and the birds fly out. The ape is prompted to imitate them; he creeps into the basket and then leaps out, supposing that he will be able to fly like the birds. But, of course, he falls to the ground and breaks his neck

“Hamlet’s application of the fable is as follows: if you reveal my secrets to the King, you will be like this ape. You will gain nothing by it; and if you imagine you can act with the King as cleverly as I can independently of me, you will be like the ape trying to fly, and so will come to grief.”

1982 ard2

ard2

2569-70 Unpeg . . . fly] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Birds let out of baskets, like cats out of bags, are not easily recaptured.”

1988 bev2

bev2 ≈ ard2

2569 Vnpeg the basket] Bevington (ed. 1988): “open the cage, i.e., let out the secret.”

1997 evns2

evns2 = evns1