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Line 596 - Commentary Note (CN)

Commentary notes (CN):

1. SMALL CAPS Indicate editions. Notes for each commentator are divided into three parts:

In the 1st two lines of a record, when the name of the source text (the siglum) is printed in SMALL CAPS, the comment comes from an EDITION; when it is in normal font, it is derived from a book, article, ms. record or other source. We occasionally use small caps for ms. sources and for works related to editions. See bibliographies for complete information (in process).

2. How comments are related to predecessors' comments. In the second line of a record, a label "without attribution" indicates that a prior writer made the same or a similar point; such similarities do not usually indicate plagiarism because many writers do not, as a practice, indicate the sources of their glosses. We provide the designation ("standard") to indicate a gloss in common use. We use ≈ for "equivalent to" and = for "exactly alike."

3. Original comment. When the second line is blank after the writer's siglum, we are signaling that we have not seen that writer's gloss prior to that date. We welcome correction on this point.

4. Words from the play under discussion (lemmata). In the third line or lines of a record, the lemmata after the TLN (Through Line Number] are from Q2. When the difference between Q2 and the authors' lemma(ta) is significant, we include the writer's lemma(ta). When the gloss is for a whole line or lines, only the line number(s) appear. Through Line Numbers are numbers straight through a play and include stage directions. Most modern editions still use the system of starting line numbers afresh for every scene and do not assign line numbers to stage directions.

5. Bibliographic information. In the third line of the record, where we record the gloss, we provide concise bibliographic information, expanded in the bibliographies, several of which are in process.

6. References to other lines or other works. For a writer's reference to a passage elsewhere in Ham. we provide, in brackets, Through Line Numbers (TLN) from the Norton F1 (used by permission); we call these xref, i.e., cross references. We call references to Shakespearean plays other than Ham. “parallels” (//) and indicate Riverside act, scene and line number as well as TLN. We call references to non-Shakespearean works “analogues.”

7. Further information: See the Introduction for explanations of other abbreviations. Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.

Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

596 Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds	1.3.130

-1845 mHunter

mHunter

596 sanctified and pious bonds] Hunter (-1845, fol. 223v): “I suppose some of the money-bonds might contain religious phrases, though I do not at present recollect to have seen any such formula. [??] however in the Bill of Lading. ‘Shipped, by the grace of God’. We cannot [?] observed how much Religion [?] with the consumer affairs of life formerly than now.”

1856 sing2

sing2 ≈ sing1

596 bonds] Singer (ed. 1856): “The old copy has ‘pious bonds,’ which although Mr. Collier retains it, is nonsense. Theobald gave the reading I adopt, which the context shows to be the true one.”

Ed. note: col2 has bawds. sing2 is thus complaining about a Collier choice from 1843 that he himself used in 1826.

1857 dyce1

dyce1: theo, col2, Singer, cald, mal, col1, knt1

596 bonds] Dyce (ed. 1857): “So [bawds] Theobald (and Mr. Collier’s Ms. Corrector).—The old eds. have ‘—pious bonds,’ &c.—Mr. Singer (Shakespeare Vindicated, &c. p. 261) says that ‘Theobald’s correction has never for a moment been doubted:’ but such is not the case; for Malone retained ‘bonds’ (elaborately defending it); so did Caldecott (with a note much shorter than Malone’s, but quite as silly); so does Mr. Collier (though he allows ‘the great plausibility’ of Theobald’s reading; and so does Mr. Knight (with ne verbum quidem).”

1860 stau

stau : col3 without attribution

596 bonds] Staunton (ed. 1860): “So the old editions. At one time we were strenuously in favour of Theobald’s alteration, bawds for ‘bonds;’ we are now persuaded the old text is right.”

1861 wh1

wh1 ≈ White

596 bonds] White (ed. 1861): “The old copies have, ‘pious bonds.’ But the context does not leave a question as to the propriety of Theobald’s emendation,—bawds having probably been spelled bauds.”

1866 dyce2

dyce2 ≈ dyce1 minus everything after 1st sentence

596 bonds] Dyce (ed. 1866): “‘bawds,’ So Theobald (and Mr. Collier’s Ms. Corrector).—The old eds. have ‘bonds.’”

1867 Keightly

Keightly: theo, sing +

596 bonds] Keightley (1867, p. 287): “Theobald, who is usually followed, read bawds for ‘bonds;’ but surely bawds could not with any propriety be called ‘sanctified and pious.’ The truth is, the poet’s word was ‘bonds,’ but the editors have not understood it, Singer, for example, calling it nonsense. The whole passage is merely a poetic periphrasis of seduction under the promise of marriage; and had the word been Sounding, not ‘Breathing,’ there would probably have been no mistake.”

1868 c&cm

c&cm ≈ stau (on old copies); standard on vows; mal in 593 on MV, Mason [see 593] on Tro.

596 bonds] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘pledged vows,’ ‘[Tro. 5.10.33 (3570) plighted assurances of faith and troth.’]”

1870 rug1

rug1: VN +

596 bonds] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Like law papers headed with religious formulae. So policies of insurance begin, even at the present day, with the words, ‘In the name of God, Amen,’ and state that John Williams is ‘master (under God) for the present voyage’ of the ship insured. Shakspere’s bankrupt family had sad experience of such documents. ”

1872 cln1

cln1

596 Breathing] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “whispering. Compare [TGV 3. 1. 241 (1308)]: “If so, I pray thee, breathe it in mine ear.’ And [Jn. 5. 7. 65 (2675)]: ‘You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.’ And Hamlet [923].”

cln1 : theo

596 bonds] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “bawds. Theobald’s conjecture. The old reading is ‘bonds.’

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1 +

596 bonds] Another reading is ‘sanctified and pious bawds.’”

1874 Corson

Corson: F1, cam1 +

596 Breathing . . . bonds] Corson (1874, p. 13): “ makes good sense. The general term ‘bonds,’ suggested, no doubt, by ‘brokers,’ [593] is used for the more special term, ‘vows.’ ‘Breathing’ refers back to ‘they,’ [593] standing for ‘vows;’ ‘bonds,’ involving the idea of ‘vows,’ should not receive the stress, in reading, which should be given to ‘pious.’”

1877 v1887

v1877: theo, mason, mcol1, sing, wh1, warb, heath, mal, Seymour, cald, dyce on cald, stau, clarke, ktlyn, Corson, rug2

596 bonds]

1879 Clarke & Clarke

Clarke & Clarke = c&mc; standard approval of bonds.

596 bonds] Clarke & Clarke (1879, p. 534 n*): “The word ‘bonds’ in this passage has been suspected of error by several commentators; but see how it is used in Shakespeare in other passages we have here cited.”

1880 Tanger

Tanger

596 bonds] Tanger (1880, p. 124): “Here again both the Q2 compositor and the copyist seem to have been led astray by some indistinctions in Sh.’s handwriting, although, on the other hand, it is so easy to read bonds for bauds that the concurrence of Q2 and F1 in this mistake cannot be of much weight in our matter.”

1881 hud3

hud3 see n. 593

596 bonds

1885 mull

mull : standard

596 like . . . bonds] Mull (ed. 1885): “Like that which is ratified by what is holy and sanctified: ‘bonds’ being engagements of love.”

1888 macl

macl: theo; cam1

596 bonds] Maclachlan (ed. 1888) exclaims that Sh. would never have written bawds here, as adopted by Theobald, the Cambridge Editors and many others: “for the lips of a father!—for the ear of his sweet, innocent child!—at the very instant that his soul was racked with concern how to preserve her against the advances of the Prince!” Though uncertain about bonds as being Shn, he thinks it is appropriate to a discussion of lover’s vows.

1899 ard1

ard1 = rug2 on bonds

596 bonds]

1904 ver

ver

596 bonds] Verity (ed. 1904): bonds “seems to me to harmonise perfectly with the general metaphor of a religious rite; cf. ‘unholy,’ ‘sanctified,’ ‘pious.’”

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH: standard +

596 bonds] Wilson (1934, pp. 290-1) <p.290> thinks that though bauds resembles bonds, bonds “gives excellent sense. [. . . ] </p. 290><p. 291> ‘Bonds’ is of course in apposition to ‘suits.’” </p. 291>

1939 kit2

kit2: standard + MV //

596 Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Breathing . . . bawds: Speaking in soft and persuasive accents, like hypocritical tempters. Cf. [AYL 2.3.13 (716); see cald1 in 593]:’sanctified and holy traitors’; [MV 3.4.27 (1753), Portia]: I have toward heaven breath’d a secret vow.’ "

kit2: Theobald

596 bonds] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "bawds: Theobald’s emendation for the Quarto and Folio reading, bonds. Some editors retain bonds, interpreting it as ’vows’ or ’pledges’; but bonds do not ’breathe.’ "

1955 Bowers

Bowers

596 bonds] Bowers (1955, p. 90) says that bawds must be right, but offers no reason for objecting to bonds, merely saying it must be wrong. “ [. . .] the essentially monogenous [McKerrow’s term] descent of the Folio from the Quarto satisfactorily explains the mistake, overlooked by the editor of the Folio printer’s copy.”

1957 pen1b

pen1b

596 bonds] bawds Harrison (ed. 1957): “Folio and Quartos read ’bonds’, an easy misprint for ’bauds’ the Elizabethan spelling for ’bawds’.”

1980 pen2

pen2

596 Breathing] Spencer (ed. 1980): “speaking persuasively.”

pen2

596 bonds] bawds Spencer (ed. 1980): “This is an emendation of ’bonds’ (Q2 and F), which has been defended as meaning ’marriage bonds’.”

1982 ard2

ard2: Theobald, Wilson;

596 bonds] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “It is less easy to reconcile the QF bonds with the sense and demands of the passage than to see it as a misreading of bawds (especially if this were spelt bauds, as in Tim. 2.2.63 and elsewhere). ’Bonds of love’ are common and Shakespearean (cf. Son. 142) and false vows could no doubt be said to simulate sacred love-pledges. But bonds are not easily thought of as breathing, as Theobald and others have remarked; and though vows may certainly ’breathe’ (sound, be uttered), to say that they breathe ’like sanctified and pious bonds’ verges on tautology. If, less plausibly but as Dover Wilson holds (MSH, pp. 290-1), it is the suits that ’breathe’, this gives point to the contrast between unholy fact and sanctified and pious appearance, but, throwing the stress on the epithets, leaves bonds at the end of the line as an anti-climax. Moreover, it confuses the personification of vows as brokers and implorators which bawds would happily continue. This is the word which follows naturally on brokers (see 593 CN) and which implorators of unholy suits defines, while the trickery I associated with bawds leads on to beguile. I cannot agree with Dover Wilson that bawds gives an opposite sense to that intended. Indeed the whole passage, insisting that things are other than they seem, might be thought to call for a climactic paradox, which bawds who under an appearance of sanctity breathe their unholy persuasions will supply. Polonius is contending that the lover’s vows are in reality seducers. The ’sanctified and holy traitors’ of AYL 2.3.13 are not quite analogous, since the virtues that betray are still virtues; but the similar oxymoron is worth noting, and the bawds and traitors thus associated through identical or synonymous epithets (sanctified and pious; sanctified and holy) are actually conjoined in Tro. 5.10.37 (’O traitors and bawds’).”

1985 cam4

cam4; Malone; Theobald

596 bonds] Edwards (ed. 1985): "agreements, contracts. Malone compared Sonnet 142, ’sealed false bonds of love’. Theobald’s ludicrous emendation, ’bawds’, has been widely followed, because of the difficulty of imagining anyone breathing like a bond. But ’Breathing’ here means ’speaking’. The line as a whole means ’using the words of holy contracts of love’."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

596 Breathing] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "speaking, whispering."

oxf4

596 bonds] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "This emendation, first proposed by Theobald in 1726, of the bonds of Q2 and F, is made almost certain by an echo of this passage in Dekker’s The Welsh Ambassador (c. 1623), where Armante says: ‘Away, I’ll be a ghost and haunt this king, │ Till want of sleep bids him run mad and die │ For making oaths bawds to his perjury’ (1.3.94-6). Reminiscences of Hamlet are fairly numerous in this play of Dekker’s. The misreading of bawds as bonds can be accounted for on the assumption that Shakespeare wrote bauds, a spelling common enough at the time and found, for example, at Romeo 2.4.126, where Q1, Q2, and F all read ‘A baud, a baud, a baud.’ " Ed. note: See also CN 593

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: Theobald, xref

596 bonds] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Theobald’s popular emendation to ’bawds’ destroys the vows—suits—bonds triplet (see [593-7 CN), but ’bawds’ does go nicely with brokers (see [593]n.).”