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Line 2636 - 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.

2636 Ham. {Compound} <Compounded> it with dust whereto tis kin.	4.2.6

1773 jen

jen

2636 Compound] Jennens (ed. 1773): “According to this edition, Hamlet, instead of answering the question of Rosencraus about the dead body, bids them compound it with dust, &c. So also he gives no direct answer to Rosencraus when he repeats the enquiry. If Shakespeare did not design Hamlet to speak an untruth here, this must be the right reading; for he had not compounded it with dust, i.e. buried it, but laid it upon the stairs to the lobby, as we read afterwards.”

1790 mal

mal: 2H4, Son. 71 //

2636 Compound] Malone (ed. 1790): “So in 2H4 [4.5.115 (2648)]: ‘Only compound me with forgotten dust.’ Again, in our poet’s 71st Sonnet; ‘When I perhaps compounded am with clay.’ Malone.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

1819 cald1

cald1 = v1813

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 +

2636 Compound] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “i.e. dust to dust’—mixed, made one, with mother earth; interred: in its more literal sense in decent and due form and order set out, or, more technically, laid out.

“The Latin word, compono, seems to have answered each of these senses. ‘Componens (i.e. committens, commingling) manibus manus.’ Æn. VIII. 486. ‘Omnes composui.’ I have buried them all. Hor. I. Sat. IX. 28. So, composuere, Taciti Histor. I. 47. and ‘paucioribus tamen lachrymis compositus es.’ Vita Agricolæ. 45. See Persium Delph. Sat. III. 104.”

1857 fieb

fieb

2636 Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Compare Genesis, II, 7: ‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,’ etc.; and ch. III, 19: ‘—for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’—So, in 2H4 [4.5.115 (2648)].

“‘Only compound me wiht forgotten dust.’ Again, in our poet’s 71st Sonnet: ‘When perhaps compounded am with clay.’”

1869 tsch

tsch: Mueller

2636 Compound] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Compound (compondre?), v. lat. componere, wie redound v. redonder, abound v. abonder. Afr. o, u, ou tritt im Engl. als ou (mit dem ui’ - Laute) besonders vor ursprünglichem oder aus in entstandenem Nasal - u auf. S. M. I. 116. Hier hat das Wort die Bedeutung wie sie etwa im it. composto, Mischung, liegt, während die Form compose die Bedeutung des planmässigen Zusammensetzens behält. - Es klingt fast, als habe H. die Unterredung zwischen dem König und den beiden Cumpanen Sc. 3. behorcht, da er von ihrem Plane K e n n t n i s s hat.” [Compound (compondre?), “from Latin componere, like redound from redonder,” abound from abonder. Old French o, u, ou appear in English as ou (with the ui sound), especially before the original u or the nasal u after in. See M. I. 116. Here the word has a meaning something like the Italian composto (mixture), while the form compose has the meaning of planned putting together.—It sounds almost as if Hamlet has heard the plotting between the king and the two rascals in Scene 3, since he has knowledge of their plan.]

1870 Miles

Miles

2636-60 Miles (1870, pp. 64-5): “Hamlet’s unmitigated, open contempt of the inevitable pair, so different from his former constrained courtesy, reassures us that he overheard their pitiful willingness to superintend his exile. Guildenstern was peacefully silenced; but the more inquisitive and less manly Rosencrantz is spurned ad abolished, as Geraint’s sword would have abolished the angry dwarf.”

1872 cln1

cln1: mal (2H4 //)

2636 Compound . . . dust] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “Compounded it with dust] So 2H4 [4.5.115 (2648)]: ‘Only compound me with forgotten dust.”

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ jen

2636 Compound] Furness (ed. 1877): “Jennens retains the reading of Q2 and interprets it as an imperative, otherwise Ham. tells an untruth, for he had not buried the body.”

1877 neil

neil ≈ mal (2H4 and Son. 71 //s) without attribution

1878 rlf1

rlf1 ≈ neil (Son.71, 2H4 //s) without attribution

2636 Compound . . . dust] Rolfe (ed. 1878): Compounded it, etc.] “Cf. Son. 71.10: ‘When I perhaps compounded am with clay.’ See also 2H4 [4.5.115 (2648)].”

1885 macd

macd

2636 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “He has put it in a place which, little visited, is very dusty.”

1889 Barnett

Barnett ≈ rlf1 (Son. //)

2636 Compound] Barnett (1889, p. 54): “Compounded] mixed. ‘Or if, I say . . . I compounded am perhaps of clay.’—Son. 71.”

1890 irv2

irv2 ≈ cln1

2636 Compound . . . dust] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Compare 2H4. [4.5.115 (2648)]: ‘Only compound me with the forgotten dust.’”

1891 dtn

dtn: 2H4 //

2636 Deighton (ed. 1891): “mixed with the earth of which it was originally formed; cp. the Burial Service, ‘earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.’ Cp. 2H4 [4.5.115 (2648)], ‘Only compound me with forgotten dust.’”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ cln1

2636 Compound] Dowden (ed. 1899): “The Q compound may be right, as an imperative. So 2H4 [4.5.115 (2648)].”

1903 rlf3

rlf3 = rlf1

1929 trav

trav: standard + magenta underlined

2636 dust . . . kin] Travers (ed. 1929): “for man, and that sort of man especially, is but the “quintessence” of dust,” [2.2.308 (1355)]. The answer is intentionally ambiguous, the dust in this case being that, not of the grave, as usual for a ‘dead body,’ but of some out of the way, “upstairs,” corner of the castle.”

1939 kit2

kit2: Genesis analogue

2636 whereto this kin] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “See Genesis, iii, 19.”

1980 pen2

pen2: xref.

2636 Compounded it with dust] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(hardly true; Hamlet has only stowed it in a cupboard on the stairs: [4.3.35-7 (2697-8)].”

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ ard1 (2H4 //)

2636 Compounded it with dust] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Cf. 2H4 [4.5.115 (2648)].”

ard2 ≈ kit2 (Genesis analogue)

2636 witherto ‘tis kin] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “’Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’ (Genesis iii.19).”

1984 chal

chal: xref.

2636 Wilkes (ed. 1984): “[2.2.308 (1355)] n.”

1993 dent

dent

2636 Compound] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Mix (or mixed) it. Modern editions normally follow the Folio here and print Compounded. But since Hamlet hasn’t buried the corpse, it is quite possible that he answers Rosencraus’ question with a command for Rosencraus to take care of the burial. Hamlet remains ‘antic’ in his behaviour, and we should not expect any of his replies to adhere to conventional logic. An alternative possibility here is that Compound means ‘compounded’. The metre is awkward in the Second Quarto version, and it may be that the Folio’s Compounded was an editorial emendation to repair it. If a syllable was inadvertently omitted from the First Quarto version of the line, however, it may have been a the before Dust rather than an -ed after Compound.”

dent ≈ kit2 (Genesis analogue); xrefs.

2636 dust whereto tis kin] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Hamlet alludes to Genesis 3:19, ’dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’. Dust echoes [1.2.70-7 (250-56), 1.4.19 (621+2), 2.2.308-9 (1354-55)]. Kin recalls ’Kyth’, [3.4.97 (2476)].”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: Jennens, OED

2636 Compound. . . dust] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Combined, mixed it, with dust. Hamlet gives the impression here that he has buried the body rather than just moved it. Q2’s ’Compound’ and F’s ’Compounded’ were both acceptable as past forms of the verb c. 1600, according to OED. Jennens, however, suggests that Compound must be an imperative ’if Shakespeare did not design Hamlet to tell an untruth here. . . he. . . bids them compound it with dust.”

ard3q2: Genesis

2636 whereto ’tis kin] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “’Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return’ (Genesis, 3.19).”