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Line 54 - Commentary Note (CN) More Information

Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.
54 Mar. Thou art a scholler, speake to it Horatio.1.1.42
54 356
1752 Anon.
Anon.: Upton
54 Horatio] Anon. (1752, p. 11): “ The Rev. Mr. Upton in his Observations on this Author, has made a slight Mistake in calling Horatio a Soldier, who was in Fact a Student at Wittenberg, where an University at that Time flourished, along with young Hamlet, and came to Elsinoor to be a Spectator of the Funeral of his Friend’s Father. This is evident from the Prince’s first Salutation.” [Quotes 356-64]
1785 v1785
v1785
54 scholler] Reed (ed. 1785) says, “It has always been a vulgar notion that spirits and supernatural beings can only be spoken to with propriety or effect by persons of learning. Thus, Toby in The Night-walker, by Beaumont and Fletcher, says: ‘—It grows still longer, ’Tis steeple-high now; and it sails away, Nurse. Let’s call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil.’
“In like manner the honest Butler in Mr. Addison’s Drummer, recommends the steward to speak Latin to the ghost in that play. Editor
1787 ann
ann = v1785 minus 1st sentence
54 scholler]
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785
54 scholler]
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
54 scholler]
1807 Douce
Douce ≈ v1803 without attribution
54 scholler] Douce (1807, 2:200): “The reason why common people believed that ghosts were only to be addressed by scholars seems to have been, that the exorcisms of troublesome spirits were usually performed in Latin.”
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
54 scholler]
1819 cald1
cald1 = v1813, Douce
54 scholler]
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813; ≈ Douce without attribution
54 scholler] Boswell (ed. 1821): “Because the church service was in Latin. Boswell.”
1826 sing1
sing1: Reed, minus what is in brackets, without attribution; bold shows what Boswell had, without attribution
54 scholler] Singer (ed. 1826): “It [has always been] was a vulgar notion that spirits and a supernatural beings can could only be spoken to with propriety or effect by persons of learning: exorcisms being usually practiced by the clergy in Latin. Thus, Toby in The Night-walker by of Beaumont and Fletcher, says: ‘—It grows still longer, ’Tis steeple-high now; and it sails away, Nurse. Let’s call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil.’”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1
54 scholler]
1839 knt1
knt1cald2, Boswell without attribution
54 scholler] Knight (ed. 1839): “Exorcisms were usually performed in Latin, the language of the church service.”
-1845 mHunter
mHunter: standard ≈ cald, knt
54 scholler] Hunter (-1845, fol. 221v): “The Exorcistical forms which must have been in the public remembrance were in Latin, & therefore required a scholar to respeak [?] them. But I do not think that this is the only point to the present passage [[Observe that Horatio was not to speak to it in the language of Exorcism]]: for I seem to remember to have heard [illeg.]
1849 Blackwood’s Mag.
Wilson ≈ Douce and others without attribution +
54 scholler] Wilson (1849, p. 253): North: “Horatio, the Scholar, speaks to the two Danish Soldiers. They have brought him to be of their watch because he is a Scholar—and they are none. This relation of distinction is indeed the ground and life of the Scene. [quotes 35-8] [. . . .] Horatio comes, then, with especial Power; he knows how to deal with Ghosts—he could lay one, if need were. He is not merely a man of superior and cultivated intellect, whom intellectual inferiors engage to assist them in an emergency above their grasp—but he is the very man for the work. [. . . .] Therefore, the scholarship of Horatio and the non-scholarship of Bernardo and Marcellus, strikes into the life, soul, essence, ground, foundation, fabric, and organisation of this First Ghost Scene—sustain and build the whole Play. [. . .]
1854 del2
del2 : standard
54 scholler] Delius (ed. 1854): “weil Geisterbeschwörungen, nach dem Vorgang der Kirche, nur in lateinischer Sprache also nur von ‘Gelehrten’ vergenommen werden konnten.” [Because conjurations of ghosts, according to church procedure, could only be undertaken in Latin and therefore only by learned scholars.]
1856 hud1
hud1sing1 without attribution
54 scholler]
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1 minus struck out in magenta
54 scholler] Singer (ed. 1856): “It was a vulgar notion that spirits and a supernatural being could only be spoken to with effect by persons of learning; exorcisms being usually practiced by the clergy in Latin. Toby in The Night-walker of Beaumont and Fletcher, says: ‘—Let’s call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil.’”
1860 stau
stausing2 without attribution
54 scholler] Staunton (ed. 1860): “As exorcisms were usually pronounced by the clergy in Latin, the notion became current, that supernatural being regarded only the addresses of the learned. In proof of this belief, Reed quotes the following from ‘The Night Walker’ of Beaumont and Fletcher [2.2] where Toby is scared by a supposed ghost, and exclaims,— ‘Let’s call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil.’”
1861 wh1
wh1: standard
54 scholler] White (ed. 1861): “ . . . It was a lingering reminiscence of the exorcismal formula of the Romish church.”
1862 cham
cham: standard
54 scholler]
1865 hal
hal = Douce
54 scholler]
1868 c&mc
c&mc: standard
54 scholler]
1869 tsch
tsch
54 scholler] Tschischwitz (apud ed. 1877): “Evil spirits were not exorcised by the sign of the cross alone, but cried out to the exorciser the Latin hexameter Signa te signa, temere me tangis et angis, a verse which being a palindrome reveals its diabolic origin.”
1869 molt
molt: standard
54 scholler] Moltke (ed. 1869, apud ed. 1877): “See [Ado 2.1.264 (658)]: ‘I would to God some scholar would conjure her.’”
1870 rug1
rug1: standard
54 scholler] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Ghosts have a natural and traditional fear of Latin (‘Conjuro te,’ and the like), and therefore a scholar has the best chance with them.”
1872 cln1
cln1: standard; = Reed + in magenta underlined
54 scholler] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “i.e. able to speak Latin, in which language the formulæ of exorcism prescribed by the Church were of course written. See [Ado 2.1.264 (658)], ‘I would to God some scholar would conjure her.’ In Guy Mannering, ch. xlvi, Dominie Sampson endeavours to exorcise Med Merrilies by his Latin.”
1872 hud2
hud2 hud1
54 scholler]
1877 v1877
v1877: Douce, Reed , tsch, molt
54 scholler]
1881 hud3
hud3 =hud2
54 scholler]
1883 wh2
wh2 standard
54 scholler]
1885 macd
macd: standard
54 scholler] See his note in 38.
1899 ard1
ard1: standard
54 scholler]
1903 rlf3
rlf3: Reed w attribution, including B&F and Addison, but probably via cln1 without attribution because rlf3 adds Ado as in cln1
54 scholler]
1913 tut2
tut2: standard +
54 Goggin (ed. 1913) points out that Horatio does not speak in Latin.
1931 crg1
crg1 : standard
54 scholler]
1934 cam3
cam3: standard ; B&F analogue
54 scholler] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Hor. had been brought as a precaution; spirits could only be exorcised in Latin formulae, and therefore it was safe for scholars alone to hold converse with ghosts. Cf. . . . Beaumont and Fletcher, Night Watcher, 2.1. [quotes].”
1937 Schücking
Schücking
54 Schücking (1937, p. 70): maintains that once Horatio has seen the ghost that “Doubt is no longer possible: it is the late King who, in full armour, solemnly stalks past.”
1937 pen1a
pen1a: standard
54 scholler]
1939 kit2
kit2 contra Douce; ≈ cam3 without attribution
54 Kittredge (ed. 1939), seemingly misunderstanding Douce, says: “To accost the spirit was hazardous, for it might be a demon. Horatio, as a scholar, knows how to address the apparition in the right way, so as neither to offend it nor to subject himself to any evil influence. His language is formal and solemn, but he uses no Latin and utters no exorcism. See also [126-36].”
1947 cln2
cln2: standard gloss w/ B&F analogue
54 scholler]
1980 pen2
pen2: standard +
54 scholler] Spencer (ed. 1980): Though “theatrical convention permitted English, ghosts were meant to be addressed in Latin, the scholars’ language. Hamlet uses a Latin phrase [853].
1982 ard2
ard2: scholar; Grose, Provincial Glossary
54 scholler] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Though Latin, as editors remark, was necessary for the exorcism of spirits, that is not the point here. The purpose of questioning a ghost is to discover ‘who it is, and what is ites business’ (Grose, Provincial Glossary).
1984 Klein
Klein: Douce
54 Thou art a scholler] Klein (ed. 1984): “ever since Douce argued that in popular belief ghosts could only be conjured and exorcised in Latin, this association has bedevilled commentaries, and parallels have been adduced. Yet Horatio does neither here, nor does he use Latin . . . . One might only argue that speaking with ghosts was generally held to be dangerous and that scholars were thought apter at it than others.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
54 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006):