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Line 3403 - 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 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand

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

3403 Should patch a wall t’expell the {waters} <winters> flaw. 3403	5.1.216

1744 han1

han1

3403 waters flaw] Hanmer (ed. 1744, 6: Glossary): “sudden gusts of wind. See Vol. 3.440.”

1753 blair

blair = han1 w/o attribution

3403 waters flaw] Blair (ed. 1753, Glossary)

1755 John

John

3403 waters flaw] Johnson (1755, flaw, 3): “.n.s. [Greek: phlaw, to break; floh Saxon, a fragment; flauw, Dutch, broken in mind.]3. A sudden gust; a violent blast [from flo, Latin]

“‘Being incens’d, he’s flint; As humourous as Winter, and as sudden As flaws congealedin the spring of day.’ [2H4 4.4.35 (2407-09)]. [cites Hamlet]; ‘As a huge fish, laid Near to the cold weed-gathering shore, is with a north flaw fraid, Shoots back; so, sent against the ground, Was foil’d Eurialus.’ Chapman’s Iliads.”

“‘Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm’d with ice, And snow, and hail, and stormy gust, and flaw, Boreas, and Cœcias, and Argestes loud, And Thrascias rend the woods, and seas upturn.’ Milton. ‘I heard the rack, As earth and sky would mingle; but myself Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them, As dangerous to the pillar’d frame of heav’n, Or to the earth’s dark basis underneath, Are to the main inconsiderable.’ Milton’s PL.”

1765 john1

john1

3403 waters flaw] Johnson (ed. 1765) : “winters flaw]] Winter’s blast. “

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

3403 waters flaw]

1773 gent

gent:

3403 Should . . . flaw] Gentleman (apud Bell, ed. 1773) : “Read this speech, titled Pomp, with due attention, and shrink into thy original nothingness.”

1774-79? capn

capn

3403 flaw] CAPELL (1779-83 [1774]1:1:Glossary) : “[Cym. [?] (0000) & 2H4 4.4.35 (2409)] Gusts of Wind: also, thin Crystalizations upon the Ground or on Water in winter Time. “

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773 +

3403 waters flaw] Steevens (ed. 1778) : “winters flaw]] So, in Marius and Sylla, 1594: ‘— no doubt this tormy flaw, that neptune sent to cast us on this shore.’ The quartos read—to expel the water’s flaw.”

1780 mals

mals

3403 flaw] Malone (1780, 2:77) : defines flaw as blast in Per. and offers Ham as a //.

1784 ays1

ays1 ≈ v1778 (only john1’s note)

3403 waters flaw]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

3403 waters flaw]

1787 ann

ann=v1785

3403 waters flaw]

1790 mal

mal

3403 waters flaw] Malone (ed. 1790) : “winters flaw]] See Vol. VI. p. 177, n. 8. A flaw meant a sudden gust of wind. So, in Florio’s Italian Dictionary, 1598: ‘Groppo, a flaw, or berrie of wind.’ See also Cotgrave’s Dictionary, 1611: ‘ Lis de uent, a gust or flaw of wind. ‘ MALONE”

1791- rann

rann

3403 flaw] Rann (ed. 1791-) : “blast.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = v1785 ; mal (modifying vol and page numbers: “See Vol. X. p. 90, n. 9”)

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

3403 waters flaw]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

1818 Todd

Todd ≈ John +

3403 flaw] Todd (1818, flaw, 3): “”n.s. [Greek: phlaw, to break; floh Saxon, a fragment; flauw, Dutch, broken in mind. So far Dr. Johnson. Mr. Horne Tooke observes, that flaw is the past participel of the Sax. [flean], to flay. But I may carry this etymology to a higher source. The Iceland. flagan is to divide, or break up as it were by the plow; and flag, is a part so separated or broeken up. The Swedish flaga is a breach or flaw. And this may be deduced from flaa, to strip off the rind or skin. See To FLAY. The example from Shakespeare, under Dr. Johnson’s first definition of this word, certainly signifies a small broken particle. Our word was formerly written also sometimes flaugh.]

"3. A sudden gust; a violent blast [from flo, Latin]Obsolete ‘Being incens’d, he’s flint; As humourous as Winter, and as sudden As flaws congealedin the spring of day.’ H4” [cites Hamlet]; ‘As a huge fish, laid Near to the cold weed-gathering shore, is with a north flaw fraid, Shoots back; so, sent against the ground, Was foil’d Eurialus.’ Chapman’s Iliads. ‘Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm’d with ice, And snow, and hail, and stormy gust, and flaw, Boreas, and Cœcias, and Argestes loud, And Thrascias rend the woods, and seas upturn.’ Milton. ‘I heard the rack, As earth and sky would mingle; but myself Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them, As dangerous to the pillar’d frame of heav’n, Or to the earth’s dark basis underneath, Are to the main inconsiderable.’ Milton’s PL. [adds B&F The Pilgrim; Carew’s Surv of Cornwall; and Brown Chr. Mor. i.i.].”

1819 cald1

cald1

3403 waters flaw] Caldecott (ed. 1819) : “winters flaw]] and Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, 1602, tells us, ‘one kind of these storms they call a flaw , or flaugh, which is a mightie gale of wind, passingly suddainely to theshore, and working strong effects upon whatsoever it incountreth in his way.’ fo. 5,b. See pirry , Todd’s Dict. And here we will add from Roberte Whytinton, poet laureat’s Tullyes offyces, ‘That rageous pyrey of civle and intestyne discensyon amonge them selfe. Illius civilis et Intestini dissidii tumultus .’ To the Reader, 8vo. 1534. For winter’s , the quartos read ‘water’s flaw.’”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813 +

3403 waters flaw] Boswell (ed. 1821) : “It is used as late as by Dryden, who seems to mean by it a storm: ‘And deluges of armies from the town Came pouring in; I heard the mighty flaw When first it broke.’ BOSWELL”

v1821

3403 flaw] Boswell (ed. 1821, 21:Glossary): “a blast.”

1822 Nares

Nares : standard

3403 flaw] Nares (1822; 1906): “A sudden gust of violent wind. ‘It was the opinion,’ says Warburton, ‘ of some philosophers, that the vapours being congeal’d in the air by cold (which is the most intense in the morning), and being afterwards rarefied and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous gusts of wind, which were called flaws.’ Thus he comments on the following passage: ‘As humourous as winter, and as sudden As flaws congealed in the spring of day.’ [2H4 4.4.35(2409)]’And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage Until the golden circuit on my head, Like to the glorious sun’s transparent beams, Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw.’ [2H6 3.1.354(1660)] ‘What flaws, and whirles of weather, Or rather storms, have been aloft these three days.’ [B&F. Pilgrim, 3.6.] “Like a red morn, that ever yet betoken’d Wreck to the seamen, temepst to the field, Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gust, and foul flaws to herdsmen and to herds. [Sh. Venus & Adonis, Suppl. 1,425]It appears that, in the Cornish dialect, a flaw signifies primitively a cut. Polwhele’s Cornish Vocab. But it is also there used in a secondary sense, for those sudden or cutting gusts of wind: ‘P. Are they not frequently exposed,however [in Cornwall] to what they call flaws of wind? T. Yes, and they sometimes prove not only very boisterous, but very fatal int heir consequences. P. From whence are those casual winds called flaws? T. In the Cornish vocabulary that term signifies to cut.’ [Theoph. Botanista, on Cornwall, p.5] He proceeds to derive the word from the Greek; but [φλαω in Greek means not to cut, but to crush or break. It is is ususally derved from flo. Milton uses it in this sense more than once. See Todd.

“In the following passage flawes is unintelligible: ‘A gentlewoman of mine, Who, falling in the flawes of her own youth, Hath blister’d her report. [MM 2.3.11 (964)]’ Warburton proposed flames, which has since been adopted, being found to be confirmed by sir W. Davenant, and suiting the sense so exactly, blister’d especially. The inversion of the letter m seems to have produced the error. Dr. Johnson rather petulantly rejected the emendation; probably because it came from Warburton.”

1826 sing1

sing1

3403 flaw] Singer (ed. 1826) : “A flaw is a violent gust of wind. See [Cor. 5.3.74 (3427)] p. 254, note 8.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 + magenta underlined

3403 waters flaw] Caldecott (ed. 1832) : “ winters flaw]] From the violence of the storms, usually thus denominated, and the circumstance of the word being written flowes in the quartos, (and see flaws , [ Lr 2.4.285 (1586) L[ear]] it should seem that floh Sax. fragmen, must have been the root of this word.”

Ed: Caldecott’s reading of “flowes” does not appear in any of the quartos.

1833 valpy

valpy ≈ standard

3403 flaw] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Blast.”

1843 col1

col1 ≈ sing1

3403 waters flaw] Collier (ed. 1843) : “‘The water’s flaw,’ in the quartos, 1604, &c.: the quarto, 1603, has not the couplet. A flaw is a gust of wind. See Vol. v. p. 162. In the next line, the quartos read awhile for ‘aside.’”

1854 del2

del2

3403 flaw]] Delius (ed. 1854) : “flaw ist ein plötlicher und heftiger Orkan” [“a sudden and violent storm [Orkan].”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1 = sing1 without attribution

3403 flaw]

1856b sing2

sing2 = sing1

3403 flaw]

1858 col3

col3 : standard

3403 flaw] Collier (2nd ed. 1858, 6: Glossary): “a gust of wind.”

col3 = col1

3403 waters flaw]

1864b ktly

ktly : standard

3403 flaw] Keightley (ed. 1864 [1866]: Glossary): “a sudden gust of wind.”

1864 Bickers

Bickers : standard

3403 flaw] Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary)

1868 c&mc

c&mc ≈ standard

3403 flaw] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘Gust of wind.’ See Note 39, Act v., [Cor.].”

1867 Ktly

Ktly

3403 flaw] Keightley (1867, p. 399): <p. 399>“ ([2H4 4.4.35(2409); 2H6 3.1.354 (1660)]), a sudden blast of wind. Warburton, who appears to be right, says it was the idea of some philosophers that it was vapour condensed by the cold of night, which, being liberatd by the heat of the sun in the morning, causes the flaw or sudden burst of wind.” </p. 399>

1872 del4

del4 = del2 + VN

3403 flaw]

1872 cln1

cln1 : standard

3403 flaw] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “blast of wind. Cotgrave (French Dict.) gives: ‘Tourbillon de vent. A whirlewind; also, a gust, flaw, berrie, sudden blast, or boisterous tempest, of wind.’ Compare [Cor. 5.3.74 (3427)]: ‘Like a grat sea-mark, standing every flaw.’”

1872 hud2

hud2 ≈ hud1 (minus Cor. //)

3403 flaw]

1877 v1877

v1877 : ≈ cald2 (see n. 3400-02; minus ‘In the sonny countries . . . many raddles)

3403 Should . . . flaw]

v1877 : ≈ mal; Dyce (Glossary)

3403 flaw]

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

3403 flaw]

1885 macd

macd ≈ standard +

3403 flaw] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right undestanding of the whole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet is philosophizing—following things out, curiously or otherwise—on the brink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired—’what woman then’—but received no answer.”

1885 mull

mull ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1889 Barnett

Barnett

3403 flaw] Barnett (1889, p. 60): <p. 60> “gust of wind. As in [Cor. 5.3.74 (3427)]—’Like a great sea mark, standing every flaw.’ Our flaw, a crack, is of Scand. origin. If this word is the same, it means that which enters by the flaw or crack.”</p. 60>

1890 irv2

irv2 : standard

3403 flaw] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “blast of wind.”

irv2 : v1821 (Cotgrave //?)

3403 flaw] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Cograve as ‘Tour billion de vent. A whirlwind; also, a gust, flaw, berry, sudden blast, or boisterous tempest of wind.’ Compare Venus and Adonis, 456: ‘Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.’ The word is still used occasionally.”

1891 oxf1

oxf1: standard

3403 flaw] Craig (ed. 1891: Glossary): “sub. sudden gusts of wind, [Cor. 5.3.74 (3427)].”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ v1877 (Dyce) ; cln1

3403 flaw]

1905 rltr

rltr : standard

3403 flaw]

1906 nlsn

nlsn: standard

3403 flaw] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)

1931 crg1

crg1 ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1934a cam3

cam3 : standard

3403 flaw] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary)

1934b rid1

rid1 : standard

3403 flaw] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):

1938 parc

parc ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1939 kit2

kit2 ≈ standard

3403 flaw] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):

1942 n&h

n&h ≈ nlsn

3403 flaw]

1947 cln2

cln2 ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1951 alex

alex ≈ standard

3403 flaw] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary)

1951 crg2

crg2=crg1

3403 flaw]

crg2=crg1

3403 flaw] Craig (ed. 1954, Glossary)

1954 sis

sis ≈ standard

3403 flaw] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary):

1957 pel1

pel1 : standard

3403 flaw]

1970 pel2

pel2=pel1

3403 flaw]

1974 evns1

evns1 ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1984 chal

chal : standard

3403 flaw]

1985 cam4

cam4 ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1987 oxf4

oxf4

3403 expell] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “keep out, exclude ((OED v. 4)). Compare [TGV 4.4.19 (153)], ‘her sun-expelling mask’.”

oxf4 ≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1992 fol2

fol2≈ standard

3403 flaw]

1993 dent

dent ≈

3403 Andrews (ed. 1989): “to keep out the rain. Here Flaw is probably either a variant of flow ((so spelled to rhyme with Awe)) or a word referring to a shaft of ice. Most editors adopt the Folio’s Winter’s flaw, referring either to a shaft of ice or to a squall of gusty wind.”

1998 OED

OED

3403 flaw] OED flaw (fl), sb. 2 [Not found until 16th c.; possibly: II. A breach, broken or faulty place. 4. A crack, breach, fissure, rent, rift. 1626 BACON [sec.]Sylva 79 Though the Vessell were whole, without any Flaw.[etc.]