Line 1441 - 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.
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Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
| 1441 Ham. Buz, buz. | 2.2.393 |
|---|
john1
1441 Buz, buz] Johnson (ed. 1765):: “Meer idle talk, the buzze of the vulgar.”
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1
1441 Buz, buz] Johnson (ed. 1773):: “Mere idle talk, the buz of the vulgar.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773 + steevens
1441 Buz, buz] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Buz, buz! are, I believe, only interjections employed to interrupt Polonious. B. Jonson uses them often for the same purpose, as well as Middleton in A Mad World my Masters, 1608.”
1780 mals
mals
1441 Buz, buz] Blackstone (1780, p.354): "Buz used to be an interjection at Oxford, when any one began a story that was generally known before. ----E.”
1441 Buz, buz] Malone (1780, p. 354): “Buzzer, in a subsequent scene in this play, is used for a busy talker: ’---And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches.’ It is, therefore, probable from the answer of Polonius, that buz was used, as Dr. Johnson supposes, for an idle rumour without any foundation. In B. Jonson’s Staple of News, the collector of merchantile--- intelligence is called Emissary Buz. Malone."
1784 ays
ays
1441 Buz, buz.] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “Buz, buz! are, probably, only interjections employed to interrupt Polonius.”
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778 + blackstone + malone
1441 Buz, buz] Blackstone (ed. 1785): “Buz used to be an interjection at Oxford, when any one began a story that was generally known before.”
1441 Buz, buz] Malone (ed, 1785): “Buzzer, in a subsequent scene in this play, is used for a busy talker: “--And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent spheeches.” It is, therefore, probable from the answer of Polonius, that buz was used, as Dr. Johnson supposes, for an idle rumour without any foundation. In Ben Jonson’s Staple of News, the collector of mercantile intelligence is called Emissary Buz.”
1785 Mason
Mason
1441 Buz, buz] Mason (1785, p. 382): “Whatever may be the origin of this phrase, or rather of this interjection, it is not unusual even at this day, to cry buz to any person who begins to relate what the company had heard before.”
1791- rann
rann
1441 Buz, buz!] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—Your news is stale—Now am I to be teazed with the chatterpie.”
1793 v1793
v1793 =
1441 Buz, buz] Malone (ed. 1793): “Buzzer, in a subsequent scene in this play, is used for a busy talker: ‘--And wants not buzzers, to infect his ear With pestilent spheeches.’ Again, in King Lear: ‘--on every dream, Each buz, each fancy.’ Again, in Trussel’s History of England, 1635: ‘--who, buzzess [unreadable] of giving redress, suspecting now the truth of the duke of [name unreadable] buzes,’ &c. It is, therefore, probable from the answer of Polonius, that buz was used, as Dr. Johnson supposes, for an idle rumour without any foundation. In Ben Jonson’s Staple of News, the collector of mercantile intelligence is called Emissary Buz.”
1441 Buz, buz] Mason (ed. 1793): “Whatever may be the origin of this phrase, or rather of this interjection, it is not unusual, even at this day, to cry buz to any person who begins to relate what the company has heard before.”
1815 Becket
Becket
1441 Buz, buz] Becket (1815, p. 36): “When Hamlet says ‘buz, buz!’ he cannot mean by it mere idle talk, because he had already been informed by Guildernstern that the players were actually arrived. I understand the expression thus: -The Prince is vexed at the officious intrusion of Polonius into his presence, and exclaims, ‘buz, buz! now shall I be tormented with your chattering.’ Polonius mistaking Hamlet, and thinking that he doubts the truth of his news, replies— ‘upon mine honour,’ &c.” </p. 36>
1819 cald1
cald1
1441 Buz, buz] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “A term of contempt, applied to idle babblers, who droningly hum, heap and huddle stale intelligence. It is an extinguishing interjection; when, as Sir W. Blackstone says, ‘any one begins a story, that was generally known before.’ Duncange, under the article Buzi, says Douce, ‘Interpretatur despectus vel contemptus. Papias. Ab Hebraico Bus vel bouz, sprevit.’ Illustr. II. 231”
1826 sing1
sing1
1441 Buz, buz] Singer (ed. 1826): “Surely the commentators need not have expended their ingenuity on this common interjection.”
1839 douce
douce
1441 Buz, buz]
Douce (1839, p. 456): “Minsheu says, ‘To buzze, or hum as bees, buzze, buzze;’ and again, in his Spanish dictionary, ‘when two standing of kneeling together, holding their hands upon their cheekes and ears, and socry, if he pull not his head away quickly.’ Selden in his Table talk, speaking of witches, says, ‘If any <page 457> should profess that by turning his hat thrice, and crying buz, he could take away a man’s life, (though in truth he could do no such thing) yet this were a just law made by the state, that whosoever should turn his hat thrice, and cry buz, with an intention to take away a man’s life, shall be put to death.’ The expression has already exercised the skill of the critics, and may continue to do so, if they are disposed to pursue the game through the following mazes: ‘Anno DCCCXL Ludovicus imperator ad mortem infirmatur, cujus cibus per XL dies solummodo die dominica dominicum corpus fccit. Cum vidisset dëmonem astare, dixit buez, buez, quod significat foras, foras.’--Alberici monachi trium fontium chronicon, Leips. 1698. Ducange under the article Buzi, says, ‘Interpretatur dospectus vel contemptus. Papias.’ [Ab Hebracio Bus vel bouz,sprevit.]"
1865 hal
hal = v1773 + v1785 (blackstone)
1872 hud2
hud2
1441 Buz, buz] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Hamlet affects to discredit the news: all a mere buzzing or rumour. Polonius then assures him, ‘On my honour’; which starts the poor joke, ‘If they are come on your honour,’ ‘then came each actor on his ass’’; these words being probably a quotation.”
1872 cln1
cln1
1441 Buz, buz ]Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “Blackstone says ’Buz used to be an interjection at Oxford when one began a story that was generally known before.’ Compare Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1.207, and Ben Jonson’s Silent Woman, iv. 2."
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2 +
1441 Buz, buz] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Hamlet affects to discredit the news: all a mere buzzing or rumour. Polonius then assures him, ‘On my honour’; which starts the poor joke, ‘If they are come on your honour,’ ‘then came each actor on his ass’’; these latter words being probably a quotation from some ballad.”
1882 elze
elze
1441 Buz, buz] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Chapman, Eastward Ho!, II, I: she shall buzz pretty devices into her lady’s ear. B. Jonson, The Alchemist, III, 5: Face. Thrice you must answer. Dap[per]. Thrice. Sub[tle]. And as oft buz? Id., The Magnetic Lady, V, 5, init.: ‘Tis such a fly, this gossip with her buz. In B. Jonson’s Staple of News the collector of mercantile intelligence is called Emissary Buz. See Hamlet, 177: buzzers. Malone’s Supplement, I, 355.”
1885 macd
macd
1441 Buz, buz] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Polonius thinks he is refusing to believe him.”
1890 irv
irv
1441 Buz, buz] Symons (in Irving & Marshall ed. 1890): “This was an interjection, much used at Oxford, intended to interrupt a tiresome or twice-told story. It is found in Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 5. 79 (ed. Littledale, p. 55). Elze notes that in Johnson’s Staple of News the collector of mercantile intelligence is called Emissary Buz.”
1899 ard1
ard1
1441 Buz, buz]
Dowden(ed. 1899): “Blackstone says, ‘It was an interjection asued at Oxford when ajyone began a story that was generally known before.’
Schmidt: ‘An interjection to command silence.’”