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Line 2164 - 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 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary

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

2164 Ham. {Ah ha,} <Oh, ha?> come some musique, come the Recorders, {H3v}	3.2.292

1736 Stubbs

Stubbs

2164-7 Ah ha . . . musique] Stubbs (1736 p. 32): “Hamlet’s Pleasantry upon his being certified that his Uncle is Guilty, is not a-propos in my Opinion. We are to take Notice that the Poet has mix’d a Vein of Humour in the Prince’s Character, which is to be seen in many Places of this Play. What was his Reason for so doing, I cannot say, unless it was to follow his Favourite Foible, viz. that of raising a Laugh.”

1773- mstv1

mstv1

2164 Recorders] Steevens (ms. notes in steevens, ed. 1773): “recorders, a sort of flutes, or wind-instruments.”

1791- rann

rann

2164 Recorders] Rann (ed. 1791-): “a kind of flute, or hautboy.”

1826 sing1

sing1: Hawkins, Bacon; See 2215

2164 Recorders] Singer (ed. 1821): “See note on mnd 5.1.124 (1921)]. It is difficult to settle exactly the form of this instrument: old writers in general make no distinction between a flute, a pipe, and a recorder; but Hawkins has shown clearly, from a passage in Lord Bacon’s Natural History, that the flute and the recorder were distinct instruments.”

1843- mLewes

mLewes

2164-7 Ah . . . perdy] Lewes (ms. notes in Knight, ed. 1843): “This bit of extravagance with his bosom friend if it be not real madness is at least expressive of such uncontrollable excitement as to border closely on it.”

1854 del2

del2

2164 Recorders] Delius (ed. 1854): “In seiner Aufregung und triumphirenden Stimmung verlangt Hamlet nach Musik. Recorder ist eigentlich ein Flageolett, wird jedoch auch in weiterem Sinne gebraucht. [In his excitement and exulting mood, Hamlet calls for music. Recorder is actually a flageolet, but is also used in a wider sense.]

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1 ≈ sing1 without attribution +

2164 Recorders] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “See mnd [5.1.124 (1921)] note 11. It is difficult to settle exactly the form of this instrument: old writers in general make no distinction between a flute, a pipe, and a recorder; but Hawkins has shown clearly, from a passage in Lord Bacon’s Natural History, that the flute and the recorder were distinct instruments.”

1857 fieb

fieb

2164 Recorders] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Recorders are a kind of large flutes. To record anciently signified to sing or modulate.”

1862 cham

cham: Chappell analogue

2164 Recorders] Carruthers & Chambers (ed. 1862): “The ‘recorder’ was a musical instrument like the flute. Chappell, in his Popular Music, says, ‘the number of holes for the fingers is the same as the flute, and the scale, the compass, and the manner of playing the same.’”

1866 ktlyn

ktlyn: standard

2164 Recorders] Keightley (ed. 1866, glossary): “recorder] a kind of flute.”

1868 c&mc

c&mc: mnd //

2164 come some . . . Recorders] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “Hamlet’s wild state of excitement upon the verification of the spirit’s revealments, his putting his utterances into rhymed form and scraps of doggerel, his hysterical levity and false spirits, are most characteristic; whilst calling for music at this juncture, as a means of calming his perturbation, is true to a natural instinct. ‘Recorders’ are small flutes, or flageolets. See Note 22, [5.1.123 (1921)].”

1869 Romdahl

Romdahl ≈ sing1 (Bacon analogue)

2164 Recorders] Romdahl (1869, p. 34): “a musical instrument formerly used in England, a kind of flute. It occurs still as a plaything for children.

“‘The figures of recorders, and flutes, and pipes are straight, but the recorder hath a less bore and a greater, above and below.’ Bacon.”

1872 hud2

hud2=hud1 +

2164 Recorders] Hudson (ed. 1872): “The recorder was a soft-toned instrument, something like the flute. See vol. 3. page 81, note 12. So in Paradise Lost, i.: ‘They move in perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders.’ To record was also used for to warble or sing. Thus, In Drayton’s Eclogues: ‘Fair Philomel, night-muisic of the Spring, sweetly records her tuneful harmony.’”

hud2=hud1 for perdy (2166)

1872 cln1

cln1 ≈ sing1 without attribution + magenta underlined

2164 Recorders] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “The recorder was a kind of flageolet, or flute with a mouthpiece. Milton (Paradise Lost, i. 551) distinguishes ‘flutes and soft recorders,’ and from Bacon’s description of the instrument it had evidently a mouthpiece (Natural History, cent. ii § 161). Shakespeare uses the word again in MND [5.1.123 (1921)]: ‘He hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder.’”

cln1 ≈ glo without attribution

2166 perdy] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “corrupted from par Dieu, as in Err. [4.4.71 (1356)].”

1875 Marshall

Marshall

2164-7 Ah ha . . . . Come, some musique] Marshall (1875, p. 158): “This seeking the distraction of music is very remarkable, and tends to support the theory of those who hold that at this point Hamlet is virtually mad. I do not myself go so far as that, but it is certain that he feels the strain upon his mind greater than he can bear, and that no one is more acutely sensible, than he himself is, how near he is to that boundary which separates excitement from insanity.”

1877 v1877

v1877: xref.

2164 Recorders] Furness (ed. 1877): “See note on line [3.2.346 (2216)].”

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2 minus “So . . . harmony.”

2164 Recorders] Hudson (ed. 1881): “The recorder was a soft-toned instrument, something like the flute. See vol. 3. page 81, note 12.”

hud3: standard

2166 perdy] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Perdy is an old corruption of the French par Dieu.”

1885 macd

macd

2164 Ah ha . . . musique] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “He hears Rosincrance and Guildenstern coming, and changes his behaviour—calling for music to end the play with. Either he wants, under its cover, to finish his talk with Horatio in what is for the moment the safest place, or he would mask himself before his two false friends. Since the departure of the king—he has borne himself with evident apprehension, every now and then glancing about him, as fearful of what may follow his uncle’s recognition of the intent of the play. Three times he has burst out singing.

“Or might not his whole carriage, with the call for music, be the outcome of a grimly merry satisfaction at the success of his scheme?”

1889 Barnett

Barnett: standard

2164 Recorders] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “flageolets.”

1890 irv2

irv2: standard

2164 Recorders] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “musical instruments”

irv2: v1877, MND //; xref.

2164 Recorders] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “The recorder was an instrument like a flageolet, or flute with a mouthpiece. It was held in great esteem on account of its ‘approaching nearest to the sweet delightfulness of the human voice.’ See Chappell’s Popular music of the Olden Time, p. 246 (quoted in Furness, p. 268), and compare MND [5.1.123, 124 (1921, 1922)] (“he hath play’d on his prologue like a child on a recorder’), and note 264 to that play. At line 359 below, the stage-direction is ‘Re-enter Players with Recorders’ [3.2.344 (2215)]; and Hamlet says: ‘O, the recorders! let me see one’ [3.2.346 (2216)].”

1891 dtn

dtn ≈ v1877 (Chappell)

2164 Recorders] Deighton (ed. 1891): “Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, says, ‘Recorders and (English) Flutes are to outward appearance the same . . . The number of holes for the fingers is the same, and the scale, the compass, and the manner of playing, the same,’ etc.”

1899 ard1

ard1: standard

2164 Recorders] Dowden (ed. 1899): “a kind of flageolet.”

1905 rltr

rltr: standard

2164 Recorders] Chambers (ed. 1905): “small flutes.”

1929 trav

trav ≈ cln1 (Milton analogue) without attribution; Cowling

2164 Recorders] Travers (ed. 1929): “were a variety of flutes that Milton distinguishes (Paradise Lost, I, 551) by the epithet ‘soft’ but whose tone, for all its sweetness, was solemn (cp. Cowling).”

1931 crg1

crg1: standard

2164 Recorders] Craig (ed. 1931): “wind-instruments of the flute kind.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

2164 Recorders] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “a sort of flageolet.”

1947 cln2

cln2

2164 Ah ha . . . musique] Rylands (ed. 1947): “Hamlet sees his schoolfellow spies enter and breaks off his confidence with Horatio. The couplet which follows is directed at them.”

1960 Knights

Knights

2164 come the Recorders] Knights (1960, rpt. 1979, p. 55, quoted by Griffiths, 2005, p. 102): “I do not remember seeing the question asked, but why on the success of the Gonzago play, does Hamlet call for the recorders? True, Shakespeare knew that recorders would be needed for the scene with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but this can hardly affect the reason imputed to Hamlet. The answer surely can only be that Hamlet intends the players to finish off the evening with a concert which Claudius will hear, thus keeping him in suspense and leaving the initiative of action to him; it will be one more arranged scene, and thus in line what Hamlet’s habitual tendency to make everything, even what he deeply feels, into a matter of play-acting.”

1984 chal

chal

2164 Recorders] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “i.e. players of the recorder.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: ≈ crg1; 2164 xref

2164 recorders] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “wind instruments, flutes. Hamlet calls for music again at 287 [2164]; the players eventually appear with recorders at 336.1. (If casting allows, an attendant should presumable leave the stage to convey Hamlet’s request, but it has not been customary to add a [stage direction]).”