Page 287 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

x8o N O T E S 2.2.

but the word, occurring in both Q2 and Fi,is textually
very strong, and must be accepted asitstands. Moreover,
'hawk' like 'handsaw' is the name of a workman's tool,
while the expression was doubtless proverbial and is
actually included (in slightly different form) in Ray's
Proverbs (1768, p. 196), without any reference to Sh.
Mr J. A. Barlow, then of the Ministry of Labour, first
suggested this to me privately in March, 1924, and
interpreted 'hawk' as a plasterer's mortar-board, still in
everyday use under that name. Dowden, I find, anticipates
this suggestion,and offers as alternative 'hawk' or 'hack,'
an Eliz. word meaning a heavy cutting tool of the
mattock or pick-axe type (v. N.E.D. 'hawk,' 'hack,'
sb. 1), which both in weight and manner of operation
would form a more appropriate contrast to the light
neat-cutting 'handsaw.' Anyhow, we need not hesitate to
'
take Ham.'s words as meaning on the surface, I am only
mad on one point; in other respects I have wit enough to
tell chalk from cheese.' But as usual he has a second
purport, which Ros. and Guild, are not intended to
catch. ' Handsaw' is not a corruption of' hernshaw,' but
it is certainly a quibble upon it, since the whole passage
(as all have noted) can be readily understood in terms
of falconry. Hawking at herons was a favourite sport;
and a north wind driving the two birds towards the
south, i.e. into the sun, would make it difficult to dis-
tinguish between them at a distance despite their
difference in size (v. Clar. note, and Madden, pp. 206—
7). Thus Ham. also implies that he has 'an eye of'
his seeming friends and knows them to be birds of prey.
Finally, cf. Bright, p. 257 'the ayre meet for
melancholicke folke, ought to be thinne, pure and
subtile, open, and patent to all winds: in respect
of their temper, especially to the South and South-
east.'
386-87. baby.. *stoadd!ing-clouts Perhaps a jest at
something comical in the costume or figure of Pol.