Line 2570 - 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.
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Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2570 Let the birds fly, and like the famous Ape, 2570 | 3.4.194 |
|---|
1726 theon
theon
2570-1 and like . . .
creepe]
Theobald (1726, pp. 105-6): <p.105> “The Ape crept into the Basket, to try Conclusions; that is the Meaning of the Poet: But by the
Semicolon, wrong-placed, the Sense is interrupted, and the
Substantive divided from its
Verb. It ought to be pointed, as some of the Editions rightly have it; </p.105><p.106> ‘
and like famous Ape, To try Conclusions, in the Basket creep,
And break your own Neck down.—”
1747-53 mtby4
mtby4
2570 famous] Thirlby (1747-53): “fsql fabulous mihi np.”
Transcribed by BWK, who adds: “This is quite a negative comment [‘mihi np’ = to me, not pleasing].”
1773 v1773
v1773: Suckling analogue
2570 Warner (apud Steevens, ed. 1773): “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.’ Warner.”
1784 ays1
ays1 = v1778 minus Suckling analogue (from v1773) and Ant. //
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
Adjustment to reference: “See vol. iii. p.167.”
1790 mal
mal = v1785
Adjustment to reference: “Vol. VIII. p. 334, n. 3. MALONE.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785
Adjustment to reference: “Vol. V. p. [illegible], n. [illegible]. STEEVENS."
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
Adjustment to reference: “Vol. VIII. p. 334, n. 3. STEEVENS."
1861 wh1
wh1
2570 the famous Ape] White (ed. 1861): “I do not know the fable here alluded to; nor have I been able to learn anything in regard to it.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ hud (Suckling analogue)
2570 Let the birds fly]
Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “It has been supposed that Sir John Suckling, in one of his letters, alludes to the same story that is here referred to:—“It is the story of a
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.””
1870 rug1
rug1
2570 the famous Ape] Moberly (ed. 1870): “The story is unknown, but its tenour is not hard to guess from the terms of Hamlet’s allusion to it.”
1877 v1877
v1877 = Warner (v1773); ≈ cln1
2570 the 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.”
1883 wh2
wh2 ≈ cln1
2570 the famous Ape] White (ed. 1883): “there is reference here to a manifestly well-known story in which an ape let birds out of a wicker cage on a housetop, got in himself, and being too heavy broke the basket and fell. But no such story has been discovered.”
First ref. to such a tale is attrib. to Warner in v1773.
1885 macd
macd
2070-2 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “I fancy the story, which so far as I know has not been traced, goes on to say that the basket was emptied from the house-top to send the pigeons flying, and so the ape got his neck broken. The phrase ‘breake your owne necke downe’ seems strange: it could hardly have been written neck-bone!”
1890 irv2
irv2 ≈ v1773 (Warner), cln1
2570 the famous Ape] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “This ape has not yet been identified. Warner (Var. Sh. vol. vii. p. 405) thinks that Sir John Suckling, in one of his letters, may possibly allude to the same story: ‘It is the story of the jacanapes 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 none too.’ The Clarendon Press edd. say: ‘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.’”
1904 ver
ver
2570 the famous Ape] Verity (ed. 1904): “the story alluded to is not known. The reference sounds oriental.”
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ hud (Suckling analogue)
2570 the famous Ape] Craig (ed. 1931): “A letter from Sir John Suckling seems to supply other details of the story, otherwise not identified: ‘It is the story of the jackanapes and the partridges; thou starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee, then let’st out another, and starest after that till it is gone too.’”
1934 rid
rid ≈ wh2
2570 the famous Ape] Ridley (ed. 1934): “The ape presumably, having seen the birds fly out of the basket, tried to imitate them, got into the basket, jumped out of it, fell from the house-top, and broke his neck; but the story is lost.”
1934 cam3
cam3
2570 the famous Ape] Wilson (ed. 1934): “The story is lost, but Ham. makes the outline clear; the ape carries a cage of birds to the top of a house, releases them by accident, and, surprised by their flight, imagines he can also fly by first creeping into the cage and then leaping out. The point for the Queen is the publicity of the proceeding (‘on the house’s top’ = in full view of everyone), and then letting the cat out of the bag will involve her own destruction.”
1937 pen1
pen1 ≈ rid
2570 the famous Ape] Harrison (ed. 1937): “The story evidently was about an ape that thought to fly by jumping out of a birdcage. It is not known.”
1942 n&h
n&h ≈ cln1
2570 the famous Ape] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “A reference to a lost story of an ape which tried to imitate the birds he had set free.”
1947 cln2
cln2 ≈ ver minus “The . . . oriental.”
2570 the famous Ape] Rylands (ed. 1947): “The story is unknown.”
1947 yal2
yal2
2570 the famous Ape] Cross & Brooke (ed. 1947): “The moral of this unidentified parable is that the Queen will destroy herself, if she allows Hamlet’s secrets (the birds) to get abroad or attempts to introduce herself into his business.”
1957 pel1
pel1 ≈ cln1
2570 the famous ape] Farnham (ed. 1957): “one in a story now unknown.”
1974 evns1
evns1≈ cln1
2570 the famous Ape] Evans (ed. 1974): “the actual story has been lost.”
1982 ard2
ard2: St. Hildegard (in Janson)
2570 the famous ape] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Its fame has not survived, but St Hildegard says that when an ape sees birds fly, he is enraged at being unable to do likewise (Janson, Apes and Ape Lore, pp. 176-7). Evidently the fable was of an ape which, having seen birds fly when released from a basket, attempted to copy them, with disastrous results. Hamlet warns his mother that the disclosure of his secret (opening the basket) will bring disaster to her.”
1984 chal
chal ≈ rid minus “but the story is lost.”
2570 the famous Ape] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “the famous ape which imitated the birds by creeping into the basket on the housetop and trying to fly out of it, so breaking his neck.”
1984 klein
klein: M.L. Wilson
2570 the famous Ape] Klein (ed. 1984): “M.L. Wilson, The Tragedy of Hamlet, table 50, p.599 reproduces from the Poitiers Missal (2nd half of the 15th century) an illustration of this. No text is extant, but the story is easy to reconstruct: the ape sees birds fly and thinks it can do the same.”
1988 bev2
bev2 ≈ evns1
2570 the famous Ape famous Ape] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(in a story now lost).”
2570