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Line 1661 - Commentary Note (CN) More Information

Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.
1661 Ros. Niggard of question, but of our demaunds3.1.13
1747 warb
warb
1661 Warburton (ed. 1747): “This is given as the description of the conversation of a man whom the speaker found not forward to be sounded ; and who kept aloof when they would bring him to confession: But such a description can never pass but at cross-purposes. Shakespear certainly wrote it just the other way, ‘Most free of question, but of our demands Niggard in his reply.’
“That this is the true reading we need but turn back to the preceding scene, for Hamlet’s conduct, to be satisfied.”
1747-60 mbrowne
mbrowne
1661 Browne (c.1747-60): “This is a difficult passage—Mr. W. [Warburton] understands it, sparing in asking us questions but free in his answers to our questions, which plainly contradicts with the description before given of his behaviour, as standing aloof, the fact indeed itself too, and therefore he reads it by transport of words
“Most free of question etc. i.e. free in asking us questions but sparing in assisting ours. but if we consider upon what act these Gents[?] were placed about Hamlet that may lead us [. . .] sense of these obscure lines. They were employed for two purposes to sift out of him the real ground [. . .] of his madness, and to lead [. . .] Invention [. . .] Entertainment.—by your companys To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather So much as etc.—
“When they are here asked how they have succeeded, they say he kept aloof and would not be sounded, and as to his behaviour to them, they say, he was niggard of question,i.e. as I understand it close or sparing of being questioned by us but of our etc—i.e. but most free in complying with what we desired of him[. . .] .”
1773 v1773
v1773 = warb
1773 jen
jen
1661-62 Niggard...reply.] Jennens (ed. 1773): “The text is here copied from H.’s alteration, followed by W. who gives the reason for thus altering, and which will sufficiently appear to the reader by his turning back to the scene between Hamlet and Rosincraus. All other editions read, ‘Niggard of question, but of our demands / Most free in his reply.’”
1774-79? capn
capn
Niggard of question] CAPELL (1774-79?, p.135): “If “question” be restrain’d, as it should be, to– questions of moment, such as might give the speaker a handle to “bring on a confession,” there will be no occasion for the transposition that has been made in these lines by the two latter moderns: the import of "free" is not– open, but ready, prodigal of words, and is set against "niggard:" The speech, thus interpreted, conveys a very excellent precept, fit for the observation of persons in Hamlet’s circumstances, and we accordingly find it observ’d by him. The second "of" in this line is put loosly for–to, but should not be displac’d by it.”
1785 mason
mason
1661 Mason (1785, p. 383): “Warburton forgets that by question, Shakespeare does not usually mean interrogatory, but discourse; but in which ever sense the word be taken, this account given by Rosincrantz agrees but ill with the sense between him and Hamlet, as actually represented. “
1790 mal
mal
1661-62 Malone (ed. 1790): “Slow to begin conversation, but free enough in his answers to our demands. Guildenstern has just said that Hamlet kept aloof when they wished to bring him to confess the cause of his distraction: Rosencrantz therefore here must mean, that up to that point, till they touch’d on that, he was free enough in his answers.”
1791- rann
rann
1661 Niggard of question;] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—Though he cautiously declined entering upon any serious topic, yet was he ready enough to take a share in common conversation.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = Mason, MAL (w/minor variants in magenta)
Malone (apud. ed. 1793): “Thus to begin conversation, but free enough in his answers to their demands. Guildenstern has just said that Hamlet kept aloof when they wished to bring him to confess the cause of his distress. Rosencrantz therefore here must mean, that up to that point, till they touch’d on that, he was free enough in his answers.
1815 becket
beckett
1661-62 Niggard...reply.] Becket (1815, p. 40): “This evidently should be— ‘free of question.’ The change must therefore be made as proposed by Warburton.” </p. 40>
1826 sing1
sing1
1661-2 Singer (ed. 1826): “‘Slow to begin conversation, but free enough in answering our demands.’”
-1845 mhun1
mhun1
1661-62 Niggard...reply.] Hunter (-1845, f. 244r): “Warburton has very happily conjectured that Shakespeare wrote the very opposite in qu[margins] to this passage as it now stands: ‘Most free of question; but of our demands Niggard in his reply’ and this reading is supported by the scene in which the interview between him & the [margins] courtiers is presented.
This sense is found in the newly discovered quarto: ‘My lord we have done all the best we could To wring from him the cause of all his grief But still he put us off, and by no means Would make an answer to thee in expand.’”
1845 hunter
hunter
1661-62 Niggard...reply.] Hunter (1845, p. 236): <p. 236>“Warburton had very happily conjectured that we ought rather to read ‘Most free of question; but of our demands Niggard in his reply.’ which is in fact the account which the two lords must have rendered in their interview with Hamlet, if they meant to report it truly. Warburton’s conjecture has not had justice done to it by other commentators, but we find it confirmed by the newly-discovered quarto.”</p. 236>
1856b sing2
sing2=warb+
Singer (ed. 1856): “Warburton shought we should read:—’Most free of question; but of our demands Niggard in his reply’. And the conjecture is strongly confirmed by the 4to 1603:— ‘But still he put us off, and by no means Would make an answer to that we exposde’.”
1858 col3
col3
1661 Collier (ed. 1858): “In the corr. fo. 1632 ‘of’ is altered to to, but needlessly, because ‘of’ has here the force of on. No doubt in the time of the old annotator it was recited ‘but to our demands.’”
1867 ktlyn
ktlyn
1661 Keightly (1867, p. 291): “Warburton transposes ‘niggard’ and ‘most free;’ and certainly, unless the poet forgot himself, he was by no means ‘niggard of question;’ and ‘niggard’ would also aaccord better than ‘free’ with ‘of demands.’ It might be better to read to for ‘of,’ as these words were often confounded.”
1870 abbott
1661 Abbott (§173): “Of is hence applied not merely to the agent and the instrument, but to any influencing circumstances, in the sense of ‘as regards,’ ’what comes from.’ Under this head perhaps come[s]: ‘Niggard of question ; but of our demands Most free in his reply.’—Hamlet. [1661].”
1872 cln1
cln1
1661-2 Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "Warburton inverted the position of ’niggard’ and ’most free.’ ’That this is the true reading,’ syas he, ’we need but turn back to the preceding scene, for Hamlet’s conduct, to be satisfied.’ Malone, retaining the old reading, explains: ’Slow to begin conversation, but free enough in his answers to our demands.’ In truth, however, neither describes the scene accurately. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were completely baffled and Hamlet had the talk almost to himself. Perhaps they did not intend to give a correct account of the interview."
cln1
1661 of our demands] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872):" ’Of ’ may be either written by attraction from the previous ’of,’ or it may be used for ’on,’ as in Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, iv. 4: ’Of that condition I will drink it up.’ "
1877 clns
clns : warb
1661-2 Niggard . . . . reply] Neil (ed. 1877): Warburton, to bring these words nearer the truth of fact, conjectured that most free and niggard should change places. But Shakespeare probably intended to make these diplomatists lie to their employers and of their friend the prince, through courtierly policy.”
1881 hud2
hud2
1661 Hudson (ed. 1881): “Here, of is equivalent to in respect of. Also in ‘of our demands.’ Question may mean inquiry, or conversation; and either of these senses accords with the occasion referred to. See critical notes.”
1882 elze
elze
1661-2 Niggard...reply.] Elze (ed. 1882): “If there be any one among Warburton’s numerous conjectures which deserves to be inserted in the text, it is the transposition of Niggard and Most free. The reading of the old copies is the very contrary of what Rosencrans and Guyldensterne wish to state; even now they confessed that Hamlet ‘will by no meanes speake from what cause he feeles himselfe distracted’. QA reads still more plainly: — ‘My lord, we haue done all the best we could, To wring from him the cause of all his griefe, But still he puts vs off, and by no meanes Would make an answere to that we exposde.’
“Hamlet discourses indeed very freely with his old schoolfellows on a variety of topics, but always ‘starts from the affair’, when they attempt to bring him to a confession. It need hardly be added that question here as elsewhere is equivalent to discourse, conference, dialogue. Confusion or faulty transposition in the beginnings of two consecutive lines is no unusual occurrence; compare my Notes &c. No. XXXIX.”
1885 macd
macd
1662 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Compare the seemingly opposite statements of the two: Hamlet had bewildered them.”
c1890 mWRIGHT
mwright
mWRIGHT (c. 1890) TCC MS b.58.195 “Most words which involved and are significant of position “by” another can have, are, and are practically made to have two leading variations of meaning according to the context and intent of the speaker, one of nearness and close proximity, and thence of relationship and causality, the other of distance and difference as being separate and not identical in position or oneness. Sometimes too to mark this the word is intensified. Off is the real intensitive of of intensified to express more clearly the idea of distance. [. . .] But in the English of Shakespeare’s day the original of was sometimes used where we would use off. It is so in the second clause of the above quotation.
“Hamlet, says Rosencrantz, is niggard of speech in relation to the subject matter brought before him, i.e. to our questionings, but, off our demand, most free in his replies that is most free in talk on other and casual subjects. This exactly agrees with Shakespeare’s portraiture of him witness his digressions on plays and acting etc. Nowhere else, except more markedly is there marked instances of madness does Shakespeare allow his characters to wander off on each freshly started subject, and it is good evidence of Hamlet’s unsettled and really unsound state of mind. To return to our phrase, the apposition of “but”, often a stronger disjunctive then than now, helps to indicate the sense in which of is to be taken.”
1892 cam2
cam2 addendum
1661-2 Orson (apud Wright, ed. 1893, 9, 771): “Niggard of question, and, of our demands, Not free.”
1899 ard1
1661-2 Niggard . . . reply] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Warburton transposed ‘Niggard’ and ‘Most free.’ Malone explains ‘Niggard of question,’ slow to begin conversation. Clarke -over-ingeniously: ‘Sparing of speech when questioned, but of demands respecting ourselves he was very free in return.’ Clar. Press: ‘Perhaps they did not intend to give a correct account of the interview.’ The courtiers between them try to piece out an account, which willll not discredit them, of an unsuccessful interview; Rosencrantz would suggest that they have not wholly failed; Guildenstern that this was in spite of much difficulty. They wish to turn off any inquiry as to Hamlet’s sharp examination of them and his discovery that they were sent for.”
1661