Rosanne said:
What would 'he is the card or calendar of Gentry' mean? ~Rosanne
ACCORDING TO JOHNSON (1765) :
the card or kalendar of gentry “The general preceptor of elegance; the card by which a gentleman is to direct his course; the calendar by which he is to chuse his time, that what he does may be both excellent and seasonable.”
for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see: “You shall find him containing and comprising every quality which a gentleman would desire to contemplate for imitation. I know not but it should be read, You shall find him the continent.”
According to Ritson (1783 )
To do any thing by the card, says dr. Johnson, is
to do it with nice observation; the card, being, according to him, the paper on which the different points of the compass were described: that is, the compass-paper itself. But it is not. The card is a sea-chart, still so termed by mariners: and the word is afterwards used by Osrick in the same sense. Hamlets meaning will therefor be, we must speak directly foreward, in a straight line, plainly to the point.”
(In reference to the ‘quick sale’ spoken of by Hamlet just afterwards: ‘sale’ has usually been spelt sail, perhaps punning between sale, sail and card as sea-chart – Kwaw]
According to CALDECOTT (1819)
for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see : “Literally the contents or sum of whatever, &c.: but a quibble is also intended, ‘a specimen or exhibition of such part of the continent or whole world of man, as a gentleman need see.’ And in the same way Boyet calls Rosaline, ‘my continent of beauty,’ i.e. universe of beauty, the whole , that it contains . Johnson in his Dict. says, the use of this word in this sense (it is very frequent in Shakespeare) is confined to our author.”
According to BOSWELL (1821, 21): “a sea-chart.”
for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see = “that which contains.”
According to DELIUS (1854) : “An ihm lässt adliges Wesen (gentry) wie auf einer Karte oder in einem Kalender also nach Ort und Zeit studiren.” [In him the noble gentry allow him to be as a card or in a calendar, also to study according to space and time.]
ACCORDING TO CLARKE & CLARKE (1864-68, rpt. 1874-78): “You shall find him to be the container and compriser of whatsoever meritorious accomplishment one gentleman would wish to behold in another.’ By ‘the card or calendar of gentry’ Osric probably means one of those ‘books of good manners’ mentioned by Touchstone in the passage referred to in Note 37 Act v., [AYL].”
ACCORDING TO BARNETT (1889): that which completely contains; as a card or chart of a continent contains a complete representation of the continent.”
According to E. Cobham Brewer's 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable' 1898.
"The card is a card of a compass, containing all its points. Laertës is the card of gentry, in whom may be seen all its points." [all the points/qualities by which a man of gentry is distinguished - a man to be imitated as the exemplar of gentry - Kwaw]
Probably you can find many more: do google search on:
card calendar gentry
Kwaw
and..
