George Washington University
Othello's "Unbonneted": A Nautical Metaphor
Author(s): T. Sipahigil
Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 318-319
Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University
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318
SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY
publicpositionlaterin the 1570s. Havingat- Bonnetmeansa man'scap or hatof anykind.The
meant"uncovered,"hence
tainedthehighestelectiveofficethatStratford adjectiveunbonneted
had to offer,JohnShakespearewithdrew
from "on equal terms"(Oth. 1.2.23).2
boroughlife after1576; he ceased attending
meetingsof thecounciland was ultimately
re- We may preferKennethMuir's moreelegant
movedfromhis positionas alderman.At the gloss ("withoutmyhat on, withall due modsametime,he gotintodebtandsoldland.25His esty"),3butI suggestthatanothersenseof the
declinewas dramatic
butis as yetunexplained. wordis also at workhereand mayevenbe, in
Unfortunately,
further
discoveriesabout John Stephen Booth's terms, "ideationally priShakespeare's
careerarelesslikelytoresultfrom mary."4
The OED defines"bonnet"(2. Naut.) as "an
carefulresearchthanfromserendipity.
additionalpiece of canvaslaced to thefootof
25 Ibid., pp. 36-38.
a sail to catchmorewind." Shakespearedoes
notuse thewordelsewherein thissense,butit
was apparently
a commonword,forJohnWithals includedit in his much-reprinted
grammar
schooltext,A ShorteDictionariefor YongeBeginners(1596). Othello'sparenthetical
"unbonneted,"then,can be readas "without
a bonnet;
i.e., without
theadditionalwindprovidedby a
bonnet,"the submergedmetaphorcomparing
speakingwithsailing.5
Skeltonemploysitin his "AgainstVenomous
Tongues":
Othello's
"Unbonneted":
A Nautical Metaphor
T. SIPAHIGIL
Let himdo his spite.
My serviceswhichI havedonethesigniory
Shall out-tongue
his complaints.
'Tis yetto
knowWhich,whenI knowthatboasting
is an honor,
I shallpromulgate-Ifetchmylifeandbeing
Frommenof royalsiege;and mydemerits
May speakunbonneted
to as prouda fortune
As thisthatI havereached.Forknow,lago,
But thatI love thegentleDesdemona,
I wouldnotmyunhousedfreecondition
Put intocircumscription
and confine
For thesea's worth.
Laxentergoantennam
elationis
suaeinflatem
vento
vanitatis.
For thoughsomebe lither,and listforto rail,
Yet to lie uponme theycannotprevail.
Thenlet themvale a bonnetof theirproudsail,
And of theirtaunting
restwithill-hail.6
The association(in the Latinepigraph)of inflatedsails withvainspeakingand (in thepoem
itself)withrailing,andfinally
thefigurative
use
of "bonnet"(thoughhereoftheadversary)
suggesta contextsimilarto theone in whichOthello speakshis lines.
To return
to Othello'sspeech,in his assured
(I. ii. 17-28)1
andreassuring
replytolago, Othelloclaimsthat
HE LONG-STANDING UNCERTAINTYover the his serviceswill out-tongueBrabantio'scomuse of "unbonneted" in Othello, as asso- plaints;he thenrevealshis royalancestry
priciated with headgear, and the consequent un- vately(to promulgate
itwouldbe boasting), and
T
satisfactoriness of most modern glosses are
demonstratedin the following,the firstfromthe
Riverside edition and the second froma recent
spearequotations
are fromthisedition.
work on Shakespeare's language:
2
Explainedeitheras "without
takingmyhatoff,i.e.
on equal terms"(the oppositeof the word'sexpectedmeaning,butin Coriolanus,II.ii.27, bonneted= tookofftheircaps) or as a parenthetical
"I
say it in all due modesty."
l WilliamShakespeare:The Complete
Works,ed. Alfred
Harbage,et al. (New York:VikingPress,1969). All Shake-
T. SIPAHIGIL is AssociateProfessor
of Englishat
theUniversity
of Idaho,Moscow.
TheRiverside
Shakespeare,
ed. G. B. Evans,etal. (Boston:HoughtonMifflin,
1974); G. L. Brook,TheLanguage
ofShakespeare(London:AndreDeutsch,1976), p. 53.
3 Othello(New York:PenguinBooks, 1968).
4 Shakespeare'sSonnets:EditedwithAnalytic
Commentary(New Haven:Yale Univ. Press,1977).
5 Thecomparison
hasa precedent
inthatnauticalmetaphor
widespreadin medievalLatinpoetryand prose,which,as
E. R. Curtiuswrites,"long survivesintolatertimes."The
speakeror poetis likenedto a shipor sailor,and thediscourseorthecomposition
ofthepoemto sailing.ErnstRobertCurtius,EuropeanLiterature
and theLatinMiddleAges
(NewYork:HarperandRow, 1963),pp. 128-30.Cf. Shakespeare'sSonnet80 and theopeninglinesof Sonnet86.
6 Philip Henderson,
ed., The CompletePoems of John
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319
NOTES
(lines86-7). It is in connection
says his "demerits"-thatis, his meritsmay yourPresse-money'
morewind,with- withthismoneythathe refersto 'coyning'.ScribeE
(without
speak"unbonneted"
andmisforcefully
enough mayhavemisreadtheplayhousemanuscript
outadditionor amplification)
261,
footXVIII,
Greg
(Neophilologus,
corrected
Q.
be
of
as
a
fortune
to worthy proud
ofthemselves
that'crying'for'coyning'is 'an unlikely
note1) thinks
I have misreading
(prize)as Desdemona.Thatthemetaphor
in any but the veryworsthandsof the
supported
by period': 'moreprobably',he says, 'the compositor
is at workhereis further
identified
Othello'suse of "reached"and his finalpoint: accidentallyset up "coying" and the proof-reader
Desdemonabecausehe lovesher. guessed"crying". 2
thathe married
at all, not
he wouldnothavemarried
Otherwise
even for "the sea's worth"-especiallyif the Duthie's discussion indicates that it is the atbooty,orprizethat tractionof the chain of associations thatdeterphrasesuggeststhetreasure,
mines for him the relative "correctness" of the
voyagers.7
thesea holdsforadventuring
'
two readings. However, wishing like othered-
itors to establish the single text of King Lear,
SkeltonLaureate(London:J. M. Dent, 1966), p. 246.
7 Cf. lago's "Faith,he to-night
hathboardeda landcar- Duthie is merelyreproducingthe Quarto form
ack. /If it provelawfulprize,he's madeforever" (I.ii.50- of the sequence of Lear's madness, while ig51) in thiscontext.
King Lear, IV.vi.83:
The Case for "Crying"
MICHAEL WARREN
No, theycannottouchme forcrying.
I am theKing himselfe.
(TLN 2530-31; IV.vi.83-84)1
MODERN
NGO
EDITOR OF KING LEAR
retainsthe
Folio reading"crying" in thisspeech,even
when using, as most do, the Folio as copy-text.
Withinthe traditionof eclectic editingof substantives,the Quarto reading "coyning" is generally preferred and adopted. While editors
frequentlyprovide helpful commentaryon the
connectionof ideas thatleads Lear from"coyning" to "Presse-money" and so throughthesucceeding speech, few botherto justifythe actual
choice of "coyning" over "crying." G. I. Duthie is an exception:
and equally interestingpatnoringthe different
ternthatappearswhentheFolio readingis studied
in isolation fromthe Quarto.
I wish to propose thattheFolio readingmakes
sense in its own terms;that,
good but different
especially in the contextof recentstudiesof revision between Quarto and Folio King Lear,3
attentionto its separate integrityis justifiedby
the fact that it provides connectionswith patterns established earlier and continuedlater in
theplay; and thatretainingtheFolio readinggives
a new dimension to Lear's role by attractinga
of an entrance.
different
interpretation
I
The idea of weeping is prominentin the play.
As early as I.iv.296-304, Lear reveals his embarrassmentat weeping:
2 Shakespeare's
"KingLear":A Critical
ed. George
Edition,
Ian Duthie(Oxford:ClarendonPress,1949), p. 183. KennethMuirpresents
an interpretation
oftheconnection
ofideas
in hisnewArdenedition(London:Methuen,
rev.ed. 1972),
p. 163: "Lear's madspeecheshaveanundertone
ofmeaning,
and although
he leaps fromone subjectto another
itis often
possibleto see thatthereis a subconsciousconnection
betweenthem.Coining,whichwas a royalprerogative,
leads
to thethought
of press-money.
This suggestswatching
recruitsat target-practice
andwar.Warsuggests
peace, which
in turnsuggests
piece, andalso a challengeandbrownbills.
here.ThemadLearenters Bills
correct
Q is unquestionably
suggestsbird,birdsuggestsan arrowin flight,
and its
inhishand-cf. 'Ther'9
withmoney,realorimaginary,
I
Quotationsthroughout
are fromTheNortonFacsimile:
TheFirstFolio ofShakespeare,ed. Charlton
Hinman(New
York:W. W. Norton,1968); theline references
are to the
Through
LineNumbering
system
(hereafter
referred
toas TLN)
in the Folio, and to The RiversideShakespeare,ed. G.
BlakemoreEvans,et al. (Boston:Houghton
Mifflin,
1973).
MICHAEL WARREN,Professor
of Englishat University
ofCalifornia,
SantaCruz,is co-editor
(with
Gary Taylor) of The Division of the Kingdoms:
Shakespeare's Two Versions of "King Lear."
target. . . . It may be mentioned that coining often had a
sexualsignificance."
See also theeditionofGeorgeIan Duthieand JohnDoverWilson(Cambridge:
Cambridge
Univ.
Press,1960), p. 246.
3 See my "Quartoand Folio KingLear and theInterpretationofAlbanyandEdgar," inShakespeare,
PatternofExcellingNature,ed. DavidBevington
andJayL. Halio(Newark:
Univ. of DelawarePress, 1978), pp. 95-107; StevenUrkowitz,Shakespeare'sRevisionof "KingLear" (Princeton:
PrincetonUniv. Press, 1980); GaryTaylor,"The War in
KingLear," ShakespeareSurvey,33 (1980), 27-34; Peter
W. M. Blayney,The Textsof "KingLear" and theirOrigins,VolumeI, NicholasOkesand theFirstQuarto(Cambridge:Cambridge
Univ. Press,1982), and TheDivisionof
theKingdoms:
Shakespeare'sTwoVersions
of "KingLear,"
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