Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2645-6 Ham. I sir, that sokes vp the Kings countenaunce, his | rewards, his | |
|---|
| 2646-7 authorities, but such Officers doe the King | best seruice in the end, he | |
|---|
| 2647-8 keepes them like an {apple} <Ape> in | the corner of his iaw, first mouth’d to be | |
|---|
| 2648-9 last swallowed, | when hee needs what you haue gleand, it is but squee- | |
|---|
| 2650 sing you, and spunge you shall be dry againe. | 4.2.21 |
|---|
1723- mtby2
mtby2
2647 like an apple] Thirlby (1747-53): “fsql like as an ape does an apple.”
1747-53 mtby4
mtby4 = mtby3 + magenta underlined
2647 like an apple] Thirlby (1747-53): “fsql like an ape an apple. fq as an ape an apple . . . . fsql like as an ape does an apple.”
2648 his] Thirlby (1747-53): “fsql an ape’s”
The conj. an ape’s for his is new as well.
1744 han1
han1
2647 apple] Hanmer (ed. 1744): “It is the way of Monkeys in eating to throw that part of their food which they take up first into a pouch they are provided with on the side of their jaw, and there they keep it ‘till they have done with the rest.”
1765 Heath
Heath: pope
2647 apple] H
eath (1765, p.543): <p.543> “Who ever heard of an apple kept in the corner of a jaw to be last swallowed? A various reading which Mr. Pope hath given at the bottom of his page, removes all this nonsense, and authorizes us to restore the genuine text, which is undoubtedly this; ’He keeps them, like
an ape, in the corner of his jaw.’ It is well known that the ape hath large bags by the side of his jaws, which are called his
alforches, from the Spanish word,
alforja, a wallet, in which, whenever he meets with any food, he constantly deposits a part of it, to be chewed and swallowed at pleasure, after his meal is ended.” </p.543>
1765 john1
john1: han1
2647 apple] Johnson (ed. 1765): “The quarto has apple, which is generally followed. The folio has ape, which Hanmer has received, and illustrated with the following note. ‘It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the side of their jaw, and then they keep it, till they have done with the rest.’”
john1 = Heath
2647 apple] [Heath] Revisal (apud ed. 1765, Appendix, Ll3: 2647: “Ape is certainly the right reading. The ape hath large bags, by the side of his jaws, called his alforches, from alforja, the word used in Spain for a wallet, in which, whenever he meets with any food, he constantly deposits part of it to be chewed and swallowed at pleasure, after his meal.”
1773- mstv1
mstv1
2647 like an apple] Steevens ( ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1773): “surely this sh’d be, ‘like an ape an apple.’ Farmer.”
1773 gent1
gent1
2649-50 squeezing you] Gentleman (ed. 1744) “The sculking sychophants of royalty are here touched off with strict truth, and uncommon keenness.”
1774 capn
capn
2647 apple] C
apell (1774 1:1:141-2): <p141> “It seems almost indifferent whether ‘
apple’ or ‘
ape,’ be the reading: the former has the quarto authority, and construction favours it; but the allusion is not direct as in —
ape, nor presently obvious, which might occasion the change of it, and seems to give the latter the preference: let the reader determine: If the former is chosen, the sense will be—
’He keeps them as an ape does
an apple,’ &c. that is the manner of the ape, and </p.141><p.142> that he has a wallet or bag for that purpose, is known to every one.” </p.142>
This conflated version of the phrase is as JOHNSON (ed. 1710) emends it.
1778 v1778
v1778 = john1 + magenta underlined
2647 like an apple] Farmer (apud Steevens, ed. 1778): “Surely this should be ‘like an ape an apple.’”
Farmer gloss matches mstv1.
1790 Wesley
Wesley: john, v1785
2656-7 Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “(J. reads ‘The body is not with the King.’ S. explains ‘The guilt of the murder is with the King, but the King is not where the body lies’) This is the better idea. Johnson’s alteration is nothing worth.”
1790 mal
mal = v1778 +
2647 like an apple] Malone (ed. 1790): “The reading of the folio, like an ape, I believe to be the true one, because Shakspeare has the same phraseology in many other places. The word ape refers to the king, not to his courtiers. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw, &c. means, he keeps them, as an ape keeps food, in the corner of his jaw, &c. So, in [1H4 2.01.21 (656)] ‘—your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach;’ i.e. as fast as a loach breeds loaches. Again, in Lr. [4.06.97 (2544)]: ‘They flatter’d me like a dog;’ i.e. as a dog fawns upon and flatters his master.
“That the particular food in Shakspeare’s contemplation was an apple, may be inferred from the following passage in The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher: ‘And lie, and kiss my hand unto my mistress,/As often as an ape does for an apple.’
“I cannot approve of Dr. Farmer’s reading. Had our poet meant to introduce both the ape and the apple, he would, I think, have written not like, but ‘as an ape an apple.’
“The two instances above quoted shew that any emendation is unnecessary. The reading of the quarto is, however, defensible.”
1791- rann
rann ≈ han1
2647 like an apple] RANN (ed. 1791-): “as an ape does an apple, in a pouch placed for that purpose on the side of his jaw.”
Ranncompresses Hanmer gloss.
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal +
2647 apple] Ritson (apud ed. 1793): “Apple in the quarto is a mere typographical error. So, in Peele’s Araygnement of Paris, 1584: ‘—you wot it very well/All that be Dian’s maides are vowed to halter apples in hell.’’ The meaning, however, is clearly ‘as an ape does an apple.’”
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793 +
2650 spunge] Steevens (ed. 1803): “So, in the 7th Satire of Marston, 1598: ‘He’s but a spunge, and shortly needs must leese His wrong-got juice, when greatnes’ fist shall squeese His liquor out.’ Steevens.”
See earlier 2642, 2644 and notes.
1805 Seymour
Seymour
2649-50 when . . . againe] Seymour (1805, p. 193): “An equivoke is designed here between ‘to need,’ require; and to knead, or mix the paste or dough for bread: when he has taken advantage of our gleanings and made the utmost of them, it is but, &c. Thomson has made use of this idea of the spungy favourite, in his poem on Liberty, Part V. 198: ‘Rich as unsqueez’d favourite.’”
1819 cald1
cald1 = han1, v1813 +
2647 like an apple] Malone (apud ed. 1819): “i.e. as an ape keeps food. So ‘your chamber-lie breeds fleas, like a loach;’ i.e. as fast as a loach breeds, 1h4 [2.1.21 (656)]. ‘They flatter me, like a dog;’ i.e. as a dog fawns upon his master. Lr. [4.6.97 (44)].”
cald1 = han1, v1813 +
2647 apple] Ritson(apud ed. 1819) “observes, that apple, the reading of the quartos instead of ape, is a mere typographical error; though the meaning is clearly, ‘as an ape does an apple.’”
cald1: R.C., Rich, Suetonius analogues
2650 spunge] Caldecott(ed. 1819) “‘When princes (as the toy takes them in the head) have used courtiers as sponges to drinke what juice they can from the poore people, they take pleasure afterwards to wring them out into their owne cisternes.’ R.C.’s Henr. Steph. Apology for Herodotus, Fo. 1608. p. 81.
“Vespasian, when reproached for bestowing high offices upon persons most rapacious, answered, ‘that he served his turne with such officers as with spunges, which, when they had drunke their fill, were then fittest to be pressed.’ Barnabe Rich’s Faultes, faults and nothing else but faults, 4to. 1606, p. 44, b. See Suetonius, Vespas. c. 16.”
See earlier 2642, 2644 and notes.
1819 ANON. ANN
ANON ANN = han1
Anonymous (1819, p. 8)
1826 sing1
sing1
2646 authorities] Singer (ed. 1826): “Here the quarto inserts ‘that makes his liberality your storehouse, but,’ &c.”
sing1
2647 an apple] Singer (ed. 1826): “The omission of the words ‘doth nuts,’ in the old copies, had obscured this passage. Dr. Farmer proposed to read ‘like an ape an apple.’ The words are now supplied from the newly discovered quarto of 1603.”
sing1: Marston analogue
2650 spunge] Singer (ed. 1826): “‘He’s but a spunge, and shortly needs must leese, His wrong got juice, when greatnes’ fist shall squeese His liquor out.’ Marston, Sat. vii.”
The commentary here is a good example of the way the editor deploys Q1 text and reviews prior commentaries, sometimes with attribution (Farmer on emendation) and sometimes without (Steevens on spunge). See earlier 2642, 2644 and notes.
1843 col1
col1
2647 like an apple] Collier (ed. 1843): “So the folio; and that it is the true reading (and not apple, as in the quartos, 1604, &c.) we have evidence of the quarto, 1603, which has ‘he doth keep you as an ape doth nuts.’ Farmer and Ritson conjectured that we ought to read, ‘like an ape an apple.’”
While Collier most often demeans Q1, he occasionally uses it, as he does here, to validate an editorial choice. In a subsequent edition (1858), in fact, he adopts Q1 phrasing “doth nuts.”
1854 del2
del2
2645 countenance] Delius (ed. 1854): “countenance ist hier der Rückhalt, den er am König hat.” [countenance is here the support that he has in the king.]
del2
2647 like an apple] Delius (ed. 1854): “d. h. wie der Affe in seiner Fressgier das, was er zuerst in den Mund steckt, nicht gleich hinunterschluckt, sondern in einer Backentasche bewahrt, um noch mehr zu schlingen.” [i. e., as the monkey in his greediness does not swallow what he puts into his mouth first, but keeps it in his cheek so that he can devour more.]
1857 fieb
fieb
2645 countenaunce] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “The king’s countenance, his patronage or support.”
fieb
2646 authorities] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “His authorities, i.e. his influence and all the advantage to be derived from it.”
fieb: han
2647 apple] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “The quarto instead of ape has apple, which formerly was generally followed. The folio has ape, which Sir T. Hanmer has received, and illustrated with the following note: ‘It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on each side of their jaw, and there they keep it, till they have done with the rest.’ Apple in the quarto may be a mere typographical error, though the meaning is clearly ‘as an ape does and apple. Besides, had our poet meant to introduce both, the ape and the apple, he would, I think, have written not like, but ‘as and ape an apple.’”
fieb
2649 gleand] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “To glean properly signifies to gather what the reapers of the harvest leave behind.”
fieb
2649-50 but squeesing you] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “I.e. it requires nothing but compressing you.”
1864a glo
glo: MM//
2645 countenaunce] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: glossary, Countenance): “sb. fair shew. MM [5.1.18 (2487)].”
1865 hal
hal = v1813, cald2 for spunge
Slightly altered order of Steevens note: citation for Marston follows rather than introduces quot. from Satire 7. See earlier 2642, 2644 and notes.
1866a dyce2
dyce2: john1
2647-8 he keepes . . . swallowed] Dyce (ed. 1866): “So the folio; ‘which Sir Thomas Hanmer has illustrated with the following note: “It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the [each] side of their jaw, and there they keep it, till they have done with the rest.”’ Johnson.”
1866 Bailey
Bailey
2645-50 Bailey (1866, 2: 342-343): <2: 342> “‘Ay, sir: that soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezingt you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. But such officers do the king best service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed to be last swallowed.’ </2: 342>
<2:343> “By this re-arrangement the faulty and puzzling intermixture of two metaphor becomes a simple sequence of one metaphor after another, without the change of a word.
“Thus disappears the second imaginary fault [mixed metaphor].” </2: 343>
Bailey: Milton analogue
2649 gleand] Bailey (1866, 2: 343-4): <2: 343> “The corrupt phrase is gleaned, applied to a sponge, which can scarcely have proceeded from a writer so exact as Shakespeare is in fitting his language to the operations he has to describe, particularly after having just spoken of the same process as one of sucking up [4.2.15 (2645)]. A sponge may suck up, imbibe, or even swallow; but surely cannot in any sense be said to glean.
“I have to suggest that gleaned be replaced by glutted.
“The primary sense of glut is to swallow—a sense quite appropriate here. Shakespeare so uses the </2:343><2:344> word in the ‘Tempest,’ and he has englut, with the same meaning, in three places.
“It is somewhat singular, although it may not corroborate the two preceding emendations, that Milton uses the two words together: ‘till cramm’d and gorg’d nigh burst With suck’d and glutt’d offal.’ Paradise Lost, Book x.” </2:344>
1869 tsch
tsch: xref.
2645 sokes vp] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “to soak up erinnert an das später gebrauchte to drink up eisell. 5.1.299. Aehnl. draw up, eat up, gobble up, put up, fill up, pick up, lock up etc.” [to soak up recalls the later used to drink up eisell.” [5.1.276 (3473)]. Similarly draw up, eat up, gobble up, put up, fill up, pick up, lock up etc.]
tsch: contra dyce
2647 like an apple] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Die Lesart like an ape vertheidigt auch Dyce VII. p. 233, doch ist die Abweichung der Q2 f. nicht ungereimt, wenn man Q. l. vergleicht: for he doth keep you as an ape doth nuts, In the corner of his jaw. Der Sinn is dann: Der König, der die Majestät nachäfft, hält euch wie Obst in seinen Backentaschen: Vielleicht hat gestanden: like as an ape doth apples.” [The version like an ape is defended also by Dyce VII. p. 233, but the variation of Q2 f. is not without sense, if one compares Q1 for he doth keep you as an ape doth nuts, In the corner of his jaw. The meaning is then: The king, who is pretending to be king, holds you like fruit in his cheek. Perhaps the earlier version was: like as an ape doth apples.]
tsch
2649 when . . . gleand] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Wenn er braucht, was ihr gestoppelt habt.” [When he uses what you have corked.]
1872 del4
del4 = del2 for like an apple (2647)
1872 cln1
cln1: xrefs.; Cor. //
2645 countenaunce] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “favour. So in . [1.3.113 (579)], and [5.1.27 (3216)], and Cor. [5.6.39 (3693)]: ‘He waged me with his countenance.’”
cln1
2546 authorities] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “offices of authority.”
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ Bailey
2645-9 sokes . . .
gleand]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Bailey (ii, 343), in this speech of Hamlet’s would transpose the sentences, so that lines 19, 20, containing the simile of a sponge, would follow immediately ‘authorities’ in line 16 (2646)]; and for ‘soaks up’ he would read
sucks up, and for ‘gleaned’ he suggests
glutted.’”
v1877 ≈ cln1
2645-6 countenaunce . . .
authorities]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Clarendon: The first means favour, as in [1.3.113 (579)]
. [5.1.27 (3216)]. The latter,
offices of authority.”
v1877 ≈ Farmer, Walker
2647 apple]
Furness (ed. 1877): “ape doth nuts]
Farmer conjectured, ‘like an ape, an apple.’ To this
Malone objected, on the ground that Sh. then would have written ‘as an ape,’ &c., not ‘like an ape.’ but
Walker (
Crit. ii, 116) suspected Farmer to be right, having found in Hugh Holland a construction precisely similar: ‘Where, like in Jove’s [braines], Minerva keeps a coile.’”
v1877 ≈ Seymour
2649 needs]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Seymour (ii, 193) finds an equivoque here between to
need and to
knead.”
v1877 ≈ cald1
2650 spunge . . .
againe]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Caldecott: ‘When princes . . . have used courtiers as sponges to drinke what juice thay can from the poore people, they take pleasure afterwards to wring them out into their owne cisternes.’—R.C.’s Henr. Steph.
Apology for Herodotus, 1608. Vespasian, when reproached for bestowing high offices upon persons most rapacious, answered, ‘that he served his turne with such officers as with
spunges, which, when they had drunke their fill, were the fittest to be
pressed.’—Barnabe Rich’s
Faultes, faults and nothing else but faults,1606; also Suetonius, Vespas. c. 16.”
1877 neil
neil ≈ cald1 (Suetonius analogue) for spunge (2650) without attribution
1878 rlf1
rlf1: 2H4 //
2645 countenaunce] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Patronage, favour. Cf. 2H4 4.2.13 (2113)]: ‘The man that sits within a monarch’s heart,/And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,/Would he abuse the countenance of the king,’ etc.”
rlf1: MM, Lr. //s
2646 authorities] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Attributes or offices of authority. Cf. [4.4.6 (2277)], Lr. [1.4.30 (561)], etc.”
rlf1: v1803, cald
2649-50 squeesing you . . . againe] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Steevens quotes Marston, Sat. 8: ‘He’s but a sponge, and shortly needs must leese/His wrong-got juice, when greatnes’ fist shall sqeese/His liquor out.’ Caldecott adds from Apology for Herodotus, 1608: ‘When princes (as the toy takes them in the head) have used courtiers as sponges to drinke what juice they can from the poore people, they take pleasure afterwards to wring them out into their owne cisternes.’”
1881 hud3
hud3 ≈ han
2648 first mouth’d . . . swallowed] Hidson (ed. 1881): “Apes have a pouch on each side of the jaw, in which they stow away the food first taken, and there keep it till they have eaten the rest.”
hud3
2650 shall] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Shall for will; the two being often used indiscriminately.”
1882 elze2
elze2
2647 like an apple] Elze (ed. 1882): “Although the reading of F1 is intelligible, it may yet be surmised that Q1 exhibits the authentic words of the poet; at all events it presents an excellent and most noteworthy reading.”
Ref. is to Q1 as an Ape doth nuttes.
1884 Gould
Gould: standard VN
2647 like an apple] Gould (1884, p. 62): “‘like an ape [does nuttes]’.—First quarto.”
1885 mull
mull
2646 authorities] Mull (ed. 1885): “power.”
1889 Barnett
Barnett
2645 countenaunce] Barnett (1889, p. 54): “favour. To countenance is to favor.”
Barnett
2646 authorities] Barnett (1889, p. 54): “places of trust.”
1890 irv2
irv2 = Barnett
2645 countenance] Irving (ed. 1890): “favour.”
irv2: sing1 and Ritson
2647 like an apple] Irving (ed. 1890): “like an ape doth nuts] Ff. have like an Ape, Qq. like an apple; the reading in the text is introduced from Q.1 (first adopted by Singer), which reads: ‘As an Ape doth nuttes.’ The reading of the Ff. is, of course, quite admissible as it stands, but the phrase seems to me much more expressive, much more like Shakespeare, as we find it in Q.1. The apple of Qq., though that too makes sense of its own, is pretty obviously a misprint for ape. Ritson gives an example of the same in Peele’s Arraignment of Paris, where the familiar phrase about old maids is rendered ‘to halter apples in hell.’”
1891 dtn
dtn ≈ Barnett
2645 countenaunce] Deighton (ed. 1891): “favour.”
dtn: Lr. //
2646 authorities] Deighton (ed. 1891): “the several attributes of power; cp. Lr. [1.4.30 (561)].”
dtn: Farmer, stau, v1877
2647 like an apple]
Deighton (ed. 1891): “[like an . . .nuts] as an ape does nuts; the later quartos read ‘like an apple,’ for which Farmer conjectured ‘like an ape, an apple’; the reading in the text is that of the first quarto, and is adopted by Staunton and
Furness.”
dtn
2648 mouth’d] Deighton (ed. 1891): “taken into his mouth.”
dtn
2649 gleand] Deighton (ed. 1891): “picked up in the way of information.”
dtn
2649-50 it is . . . you] Deighton (ed. 1891): “all he needs to do is to squeeze you like a sponge.”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ rlf without attribution
2645 countenance] Dowden (ed. 1899): “patronage, favour, as in 2H4. [2.1.48 (656)].”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 for countenaunce
rlf3 = rlf1 for authorities
1931 crg1
crg1 = ard1 minus 2H4 //
2645 countenaunce] Craig (ed. 1931): “patronage, favor.”
crg1
2646 authorities] Craig (ed. 1931): “authoritative backing.”
1934 Wilson
Wilson: H8 //
2647 like an apple] Wilson (1934, rpt. 1963, 1:72): <1:72> “[The substitution “ape”] may perhaps be a case of mistranscription rather than an emendation. In any event the alteration evidently passed into the prompt-book and on to the stage, as is shown by the Q1 reading. Hamlet, speaking of the spongy officers of the King, remarks according to the three texts [quotes Q2, F1, and Q1 for [4.2.17-20 (2647-9)]]. Once again, though, all the editors follow F1, the Q2 offers an excellent reading, and one that the ‘Youths that thunder at a playhouse, and fight for bitten apples’2 would have fully appreciated. For some reason, however, Scribe P altered ‘apple’ to ‘ape,’ and the reading of the bad quarto gives us perhaps the kind of sense that Burbadge put upon it, though there is little enough that is sponge-like in nuts!” </1:72>
<n><1:72> “2H8 [5.3.61 (3319)].” </1:72></n>
1934 rid
rid
2646 Officers] Ridley (ed. 1934): “servants.”
rid
2647 like an apple] Ridley (ed. 1934): “like an ape; so F, Q2 reads like an apple, and the reading of Q1, as an ape doth nuttes, suggests that what the ape keeps was indicated, and gives some probability to Farmer’s conjecture like an ape an apple.”
1934 cam3
cam3: v1877 (Suetonius); Webster analogue.
2645+6-2650 that sokes vp . . .
dry againe]
Wilson (ed. 1934): “The notion that sycophants and extortioners as a monarch’s sponges, which derives from Suetonius (
Vespasian, c. 16), is a commonplace of the time; v. Marston,
Scourge of Villainy (1599), vii. 58-60; Webster,
Duch. of Malfi, 3.2.249-51, etc. (v.
Furness). Vespasian deliberately bestowed high office upon rapacious persons ‘so that the common talk was he used them as sponges, letting them soak when they were dry and squeezing them out again when they were wet.’”
cam3
2646 his authorities] Wilson (ed. 1934): “A hint that they were taking too much upon them.”
cam3: H8 //; MSH
2647 like an apple] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Q2 gives perfectly good sense. Sh. is thinking, not of apes, but of the groundlings gnawing or sucking little pippins in the theatre; cf H8 [5.3.60-1 (3318-9)]. MSH. p. 72.”
H8 // to which Wilson seems to refer is at H8 [5.3.60-1 (3318-9)].
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ ard1
2645 countenaunce] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “favour.”
kit2: contra Cam3
2647 like an apple] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “like an ape] as an ape keepes things which he intends to devour. The text follows the Folio. The First Quarto has ‘as an Ape doth nuttes.’ The Second Quarto reads ‘like an apple,’ which Wilson retains, regarding it as an allusion to the apple-eating groundlings in the theatre. But the peculiar style of eating suggests apes rather than theatregoers.”
1947 yal2
yal2
2646 authorities] Cross & Brooke (ed. 1947): “offices of authority.”
1974 evns1
evns1 = kit for countenaunce (2645)
1980 pen2
pen2
2645 countenaunce] Spencer (ed. 1980): “favour.”
1980 pen2
pen2
2646 his authorities] Spencer (ed. 1980): “the exercise of his powers. Doubtless Hamlet is speaking scornfully of their position of new authority over him.”
pen2
2647 like an apple] Spencer (ed. 1980): “like an ape an apple] “F’s reading is ‘like an Ape’; Q2 has ‘like an apple’. Each gives only a very strained meaning. Q1 transfers this conversation to follow III.2.379 and reads ‘hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes, / In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you, / Then swallowes you.’ It is tempting to adopt the clear reading of Q1 (‘as an ape doth nuts’). But it seems most likely that the Q2 and F readings are each a confusion of like an ape an apple.”
pen2
2648 first] Spencer (ed. 1980): “at first.”
pen2
2648 mouth’d] Spencer (ed. 1980): “taken into the mouth.”
pen2
2648 last] Spencer (ed. 1980): “at last.”
1982 ard2
ard2 = evns1 + magenta underlined
2645-6 countenance] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “favour, manifestation of goodwill.”
ard2: contra Dover Wilson; Fleming analogues
2646-7 authorities] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “influence, powers inherent in (his) position. The sycophant sponge profits from the king’s powers rather than, as Dover Wilson’s note suggests, appropriates them. Cf. ‘Your authority and countenance giveth me . . . great encouragement’, A. Fleming, A Panoply of Epistles, 1576, p.27.”
ard2: contra Dover Wilson, contraFarmer (incl. Alexander, Evans, and Spencer); Peele analogues
2647-8 like an ape] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Q2 apple is evidently a misreading and Dover Wilson’s defence of it special pleading induced by his respect for Q2 in general. It is he, the King, that the comparison describes, not the thing he swallows, as the Q2 printer apparently supposed. This habit of apes is well known, and Q1 shows how well the actors understood. It does not follow, as some eds. have supposed, that there is an omission in the better texts. The conjecture of Farmer and others, like an ape an apple, though accepted by Alexander, Evans, and Spencer, is both unnecessary and improbable since it would imply that the two good texts each made a separate error. The same mistake of apple(s) for ape(s) is found in Peele’s Arraignment of Paris (1584, Dij; MSR, l.873).”
ard2: xref.
2648-9 When he needs . . . gleaned] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Behind this lies a traditional gibe about the monarch’s treatment of corrupt agents (see 2642-3 ln), through which Hamlet threatens the pair that they are playing a dangerous game.”
1984 chal
chal = pel1
chal
2648 mouth’d] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “taken into the mouth.”
1985 cam4
cam4
2647-8 like an Ape] Edwards (ed. 1985): “as an ape does. Q1 reads ‘as an Ape doth nuttes’. Q2’s ‘apple’ is a misreading based on a misunderstanding.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4
2647 like an apple] Hibbard (ed. 1987): like an ape an apple ] “The likelihood that both F and Q2 are in error here is endorsed by Q1’s as an Ape doth nuttes.”
1993 dent
dent: xref.
2645 I] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Both ’I’ [do], and ’Ay’. Compare 3.2.348 [2213].”
dent: xref.
2645 countenaunce] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Both (a) favour, face, and (b) indulgence (as in [4.1.32 (2619)]).”
dent: xrefs.
2647 in the end] Andrews (ed. 1993): “In the final reckoning (with play on a sense that relates end to ‘posterior’ and ‘in the end’ to defecation). Compare [3.4.216 (2583)] . . . . Hamlet is saying that Rosencraus’ ’Return shall be the end of [his] Business’ (3.2.318 (2188)].”
dent: xref.
2649 gleand] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Picked up, as with leftovers from a harvested field. The King has used this verb in [2.2.16 (1036)].”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
2645 countenance] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “benevolent countenance, i.e. patronage.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Hudson, Singer, Staunton, Rolfe, Hibbard, Oxf, Folg, Farmer, Elze
2647 like an ape] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “as an ape does. Most editions (apart from Dover Wilson) regard Q2’s ’like and apple’ as a misreading Elze comments that ’it may be surmised that [Q1: ’as an Ape doth nuttes’] exhibits the authentic words of the poet; at all events it presents an excellent and most noteworthy reading’, and Jenkins remarks that the Q1 version ’shows how well the actors understood’. Singer, Staunton, Hudson and Rolfe actually adopt the Q1 reading; some editors (Oxf, Hibbard, Folg) adopt Farmer’s conjecture ’like an ape an apple’.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
2649-50 When. . . again] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The implication is that the King will take back the benefits he has given at his convenience.”
ard3q2: 1035 xref
2649 gleamed] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “gathered, collected. This word literally refers to the practice of gathering ears of corn left after reaping as at 2.2.16 [1035]; it is not normally used of the liquids implied by the sponge metaphor.”
2645 2646 2647 2648 2649 2650
