Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2821 In hugger mugger to inter him: poore Ophelia | 4.5.84 |
|---|
1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson Dict.
2821 hugger mugger ] Johnson (1755): “Secrecy; bye-place.”
1765 john1/john2
john1
2821 hugger mugger] Johnson (ed. 1765): “All the modern editions that I have consulted give it, ‘In private to interr him; —‘That the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it is sufficient that they are Shakespeare’s: If phraseology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost; we shall no longer have the words of any authour; and, as these alterations will be often unskillfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning.”
This note illuminates Johnson’s theory concerning emendation and its possible consequences.
1765- mDavies
mDavies: see Davies 1784
2821 In hugger mugger] [Davies] (ms. notes in Johnson, ed. 1765, opp. 8: 260): “Dr. Johnson here properly restored the word Huggermugger wch had been thrown out of the text to admit—in private— But surely Mr Steevens did not employ his time very well in producing no less than three authorities for a word in common use at this time among the vulgar.”
Transcribed by BWK, who adds: “This is great! It gives me a better idea of date (if this is the same hand as throughout: it looks it though the ink is darker. I don’t know, though, what he means by “this time”: his time or Sh’s? OED: hugger mugger has definitions from before and after Sh, including 18thc.”
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1 +
2821 hugger mugger] Steevens (ed. 1773): “This expression is used in The Revenger’s Tragedy, 1609. ‘—he died like a politician In hugger-mugger.’
“Shakespeare probably took the expression from the following passage in Sir T. North’s translation of Plutarch.—‘Antonius thinking that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’ Steevens.”
1773 mstv1
mstv1: Harrington analogue
2821 hugger mugger] Steevens (ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1773): “The same word occurs in Harrington’s Ariosto.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773 +
2821 In hugger mugger] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Again, in Harrington’s Ariosto: ‘So that it might be done in hugger-mugger.’ See also, B. 2. St. 13. t is likewise in Spenser’s Mother Hubbard’s Tale. Again, in Decker’s Satiromasix: ‘One word, Sir Quintilian, in hugger-mugger.’ It appears from Greene’s Groundwork of Coneycatching, 1592: that to hugger, was to lurk about. Steevens.”
1784 ays1
ays1
2821 hugger mugger] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “i.e. in private to inter him.”
1784 Davies
Davies ≈ mDavies 1765-
2821 In hugger mugger] Davies (1784, p. 124): “Dr. Johnson deserves commendation for restoring the old text of hugger-mugger, instead of in private; but surely Mr. Steevens need not have enlarged the margin of the volume, by producing four or five authorities, from old authors, for a word that is still in use amongst the common people.”
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778 minus Harrington and Dekker analogues +
2821 hugger mugger] Steevens (ed. 1785): “This expression is used in The Revenger’s tragedy, 1609 ‘—he died like a politician In hugger-mugger.’”
1790 mWesley
mWesley: john
2821 hugger mugger] Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “(J. protests against the change from ‘hugger-mugger’ to ‘private.’ Here, Dr. you write like yourself; the words defy amendment and the sense defies attack.”
1790 mal
mal = v1785 +
2821 hugger mugger] Malone (ed. 1790): “On this just observation I ground the restoration of a gross and unpleasing word in a preceding passage, for which Mr. Pope substituted groan. See p. 290, n.3. The alteration in the present instance was made by the same editor. Malone.”
Comment addresses john1 note concerning modern emendation private for hugger mugger. Although Malone focuses on this emendation, he misquotes john1, substituting enter for inter, which finds its way into the mal text. john1 has inter in comment as well as in the text. Malone has evidently misread the note printed in john1, which appears to be the source of his own erroneous emendation.
mal: Florio
2821 hugger mugger] Malone (ed. 1790): “The meaning of the expression is ascertained by Florio’s Italian Dictionary, 1598: ‘Dinascoso, Secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger.’ Malone.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1778 (Harrington analogue), mal
Harrington parallel from v1778 also in ms.note in ed. 1773. Adjustment to reference on pope emendation parallel: “See p. 161, n. 7.”
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
Adjusted reference: “See p. 172, n. 9.”
1819 anon ann
anon ann (1819, p. 9) = john1
1819 cald1
cald1 = v1778 (Greene analogue), v1773 (Plutarch, Revenger;’s Trag. analogues)
2821 hugger mugger] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “From Greene’s Groundwork of Coneycatching, 1592, Mr. Steevens says, it appears, ‘that hugger was to lurk about;’ and from North’s Plutarch he produces the word in the text used under similar circumstances: ‘Antonious, thinking that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’. . . In the Revenger’s Tragædie, 4to. 1608, signat. H. 4. we have, ‘How quaintly he died like a politician in hugger-mugger.”
cald1: Golding, Ascham, Taverner, Studley, Drant, Lichefield analogues; ≈ john
2821 hugger mugger] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “‘Have brought it so much to knowledge, that it may be a marvell howe it should be kept in hugger-mugger.’ Arth. Golding’s Jul. Solinus, 4th. 1587, Ch. 12. In tantum notitiæ obtulit, ut tacere de eo magis mirum sit. ‘If shoting fault at any tme, it hydes it not, it lurkes not in corners and huddermother.’ Ascham’s Toxophilus, 4to. 1589, fo. 5, b. ‘If we do nothynge besyde the lawe, it shal be done moche better in open court, and in the face of all the worlde, thanne in hugger-mugger.’ Rich. Taverner’s Garden of Wysdom, 12mo. 1539, signat. C 4, b. ‘By subtill means, by craft and divelish guile In hugger-mugger close to keepe.’ Studley’s Seneca’s Hippolytus, 4to. 1581, fo. 58. Astu doloque tegere, A. I. sc. 2. ‘And there in hucker-mucker hyde Thy idalle God, thy goulde.’ Drant’s Hor. 4to. 1506, signat. A. iii. Furtim defossa timidum deponere terra. Sat. I. 1. 42. And see Lichefield’s Castaneda’s Conq. of the East India, 4to, 1582, fo. 86, b.
“From the above it appears, that it was not without reason that Dr. Johnson, in restoring the word, has said, ‘that the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it is sufficient that they are Shakespeare’s: If phraseology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost; we shall no longer have the words of any authour; and, as these alterations will be often unskillfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning.’ This is a doctrine that cannot be too strongly inculcated, and hardly too often repeated.”
Comment on restoring hugger mugger is as introduced in john1.
1811 Whiter
Whiter: v1773 (Plutarch analogue); xref.
2821 hugger mugger] Whiter (1811, 3:434): “I shall exhibit in this place other words, which refer to the idea of Concealment, to the Enclosed, Stopped up, Secret spot, or state of things, as in our combination Hugger-Mugger, which directly brings us to the idea of ‘What is Mudded, or Muddled up.’ In Sh. it is brought to its original spot, when it relates to a person being Mudded up, or Buried in a secret manner, ‘We have done but greenly. In Hugger-Mugger to enter him,’ (Hamlet, Act IV. Scene 4.) and in a passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from North’s Plutarch, the phrase is applied in the same manner, ‘Antonius thinking that his body should be honorably buried, and not in Hugger Mugger.’ The metaphorical purposes, to which Mud may be applied, will be manifest from a passage, directly preceding that, which I have quoted from Hamlet, where a word belonging to Mud is adopted in order to express a disturbed state of the Public Mind; ‘The people Muddy’d, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts’ [2818].”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
Adjusts reference “See p. 326, n. 9.”
1822 Nares
Nares ≈ v1821
2821 hugger mugger] Nares (1822, glossary): “In hugger-mugger. In secrecy, or concealment. For the various derivations, see Todd. But I am inclined to think that they are all erroneous, and that the different spellings are founded on similar mistakes; while the word was really formed from hug, or hugger, by a common mode of burlesque reduplication. Steevens found to hugger, for to lurk about. The phrase in hugger-mugger is now obsolete; the word is used, if at all, as an adjective; as, huggermugger doings, or an adverb, as, it was all carried on hugger-mugger. ‘—And we have . . . inter him.’ Haml. 4.5. ‘And how quaintly he died, like a politician, in hugger-mugger.’ Revenger’s Trag. I. Pl. iv.395. See also O. Pl. viii.48. ‘One word, Sir Quintilian, in hugger-mugger. Satiromastix, Orig. of Dr. iii.133. ‘—for most that most things knew, In hugger-mugger utter’d what they durst.’ Mirror for Mag. p.457. ‘So these perhaps might sometimes have some furtive conversation in hugger mugger.’ Coryat, Crud. ii.p.251. rpr. In old books, I do not find the phrase in any other form; but the commonness of it in that usage strongly proves the rashness of some editors of Shakespeare, who thought proper to change it. Ascham writes it hudder-mother, probably from some assumed notion of its etymology: ‘It lurks not in corners, and hudder-mother.’ Toxophilus, p.19, rpr.”
O. Pl. is Six Old Plays , &c. 2 vols. 12mo.; Orig. of Dr. is Hawkins’s 3 volume work.
1826 sing1
sing1: v1773 (Plutar analogue), mal (Flor analogue)
2821 hugger mugger] Singer (ed. 1826): “i.e. secretly. ‘Clandestinare, to hide or conceal by stealth, or in hugger mugger.’—Florio. Thus in North’s translation of Plutarch:—’Antonius, thinking that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger mugger.’ Pope, offended at this strange phrase, changed it to private, ans was followed by others. Upon which Johnson remarks:— ‘If phraseology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost: we shall no longer have the words of any author: as, as these alterations will be often unskilfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning.’”
1839 knt1 (nd)
knt1 ≈ v1773 (Plutarch analogue)
2821 hugger mugger] Knight [1839] nd): “The etymology of this ancient word is very uncertain. The Scotch have huggrie-muggrie, which Jamieson interprets, ‘in a confused state, disorderly.’ In North’s Plutarch, the word is applied to the burial of Cæsar: ‘Antonius thinking good his testament should be read openly, and also that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’”
1843 col1
col1
2821 hugger mugger] Collier (ed. 1843): “The meaning is, ‘We have done but imprudently or unwisely to inter him secretly:’ the expression ‘in hugger-mugger’ is of most frequent occurrence in writers of the time.”
1847 verp
verp
2821 hugger mugger]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “This word, now used only in a ludicrous sense, was formerly employed to express any hurried or clandestine manner.”
1854 del2
del2
2821 hugger mugger] Delius (ed. 1854): “in hugger-mugger, eine jetzt veraltete Redensart, kommt bei Sh.’s Zeitgenossen, wie es scheint, nur adverbial vor, mit in = heimlich, verstohlen, mit verächtlichem Nebenbegriff.” [in hugger-mugger, now an archaic expression, appears to be used only adverbially with in by Shakespeare’s contemporaries and means in secret, concealed with a contemptuous connotation.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 ≈ sing1 (incl. Plutarch analogue, Florio) without attribution
2821 hugger mugger HUDSON (ed. 1851-6): “Hugger-mugger occurs in the same sense in North’s Plutarch, Life of Brutus: ‘When this was done, they came to talke of Cæsars will and testament, and of his funerals and tombe. Then, Anonius thinking good his testament should be read openly, and that his bodie should be honorably buried, and not in hugger-mugger, lest the people might thereby take occasion to be worse offended; Cassius stoutly spake against it, but Brutus went in with the motion.’ The phrase is thus explained by Florio: ‘Clandestinare, to hide or conceal by stealth, or in hugger-mugger.’ H.”
1857 fieb
fieb: pope, mal, v1773 (Plutarch analogue); Nares
2821 hugger mugger . . . him] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “In hugger-mugger, in secrecy of concealment, hiddenly. There are various erroneous derivations of this word, and the different spellings as hudder-mother, etc. are grounded on similar mistakes; while the word, as Nares asserts, was really formed from hug, or hugger, by a common mode of burlesque reduplication. Steevens found to hugger, for to lurk about. The adverbial phrase in hugger-mugger is now obsolete and has always been a cant expression. Pope therefore has corrected it, and proposed to read,—‘In private to inter him,’ an alteration we cannot approve of. It must be sufficient that the words are Shakespeare’s: if phraseology, says Malone, is to be changed as words grow strange by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost and we shall no longer have the words of any author.—Steevens remarks that Shakespeare probably took the expression from the following passage in Sir Thomas North’s translations of Plutarch: —‘Antonius thinking that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’ Besides Nares quotes the expressions—hugger-mugger doings; and it was all carried on huggermugger.”
1860 stau
stau ≈ verp
2821 hugger mugger] Staunton (ed. 1860): “An old word signifying secretly, by stealth.”
1861 wh1
wh1: Ovid analogue
2821 hugger mugger] White (ed. 1861): “i.e., in confusion, hurry, secrecy, without decorum. This strange word is used in all these senses, and has various spelling. In Golding’s Ovid, fol. 160, Ed. 1587, it occurs in the following couplet:—‘But let Ulysses tell you his [i.e., acts] doone all in hudther mudther And whereunto the onlie right is privie and none other.”
Brackets are WH1’s.
1864a glo
glo ≈ stau
2821 hugger mugger] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: “glossary, Hugger-mugger): sb. secrecy.”
1865 hal
hal ≈ mal (Florio), v1778 (Satiromastix analogue) without attribution + magenta underlined
2821 hugger mugger] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “‘Dinascoso, secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger,’ Florio’s Worlde of Wordes, 1598. ‘As good, seere, as would make any hungy man, and a’were in the vilest prison in the world, eat, and he had any stomach: One word, sir Quintilian, in hugger-mugger; here is a sentleman [sic] of yours, master Peter Flash, is desirous to have his blue coat pull’d over his ears, and—’ Satiromastix. ‘Monstrum alere: to practise mischiefe in hugger-mugger,’ Withals’ Dictionary, ed. 1634, p. 564.
“I do not stay here to talk three or four cold words in hugger-mugger with the Blind Beggar’s daughter, and I’ll ride down into Norfolk with you.—The Blind Beggar of Bednal Green, 1659.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc: fieb (Plutarch analogue)
2821 In hugger mugger]
Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “‘In secret,’ ‘stealthily,’ ‘clandestinely.’ The expression occurs in North’s ‘Plutarch’s Life of Brutus:’—‘Antonius, thinking good his testament should be read openly, and also that his bodie should be honorably buried, and not in hugger-mugger, lest the people,’ &c.”
1869 tsch
tsch: Nares
2821 hugger-mugger] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “ähnlich wie unser holter-polter. Ist Bedeutung im Worte, so wird man sich wohl Nares anzuschliessen haben, der es von hug ableitet. Vielleicht is der 2te Theil, wie Ed. Mueller I. 524 vermuthet, auf schwed. mjugg zurückzuführen. cf. dän. i smug, deutsch schmuggeln.” [similar to our holter-polter. If there is meaning in the words, one will probably follow Nares who derives it from hug. Perhaps the second part goes back to Swedish mjugg, as Ed. Mueller I. 524 suggests. Cf. Danish i smug, German schmuggeln.]
1869 Romdahl
Romdahl ≈ v1785, Nares + magenta underlined
2821 In hugger mugger] Romdahl (1869, p. 38): “secretly. No certain etymology has yet been given t this expression, but supposing that Steevens is right when saying that ‘it appears from Greene’s Groundwork of Coneycatching, 1592, that no hugger was to lurk about’1), we are inclined to think Nares’ conjecture the most probable, viz. that ‘the word was formed from hug or hugger, by a common mode of burlesque reduplcation2). As examples of such insignificative reduplications may be given: hurly-burly, tittle-tattle. Hugger-mugger occurs nowhere else in Sh.”
<n><p.38> “1) Reed p. 266.” </p.38></n>
<n><p.38> “2) Nares I. p. 436.” </p.37></n>
1872 hud2
hud2 ≈ hud1
2821 In hugger mugger] Hudson (ed. 1881): “This phrase was much used, before and in the Poet’s time, for any thing done hurriedly and by stealth. Thus Florio explains clandestinaire, ‘to hide or conceal by stealth, or in hugger-mugger.’ And in Wheeler’s Treatise of Commerce, 1601: ‘The straggler shipping his cloth and other commodity in covert manner, hugger-mugger, and at obscure ports.’And in North’s Plutarch Antony urges that Cæsar’s ‘body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’”
1872 del4
del4 ≈ del2; Coles
2821 In hugger mugger] Delius (ed. 1872): “Coles’ lateinisch-englisches Wörterbuch erklärt es mit clanculum.” [Coles’ Latin-English dictionary explains it with clanculum.]
1872 cln1
cln1: v1773 (North’s Plutarch analogue) + magenta underlined
2821 hugger mugger] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “The origin of this colloquial phrase, which is still in use, is doubtful. The meaning is however, clear, combining the notion of secrecy with that of hurried haste. In the appendix to Cotgrave we have ‘In hugger mugger. En cachette, à calimini, sous terre.’ See also Cotgrave, s.v. leu. The editor of the quarto of 1676 substituted ‘Obscurely,’ and Pope ‘In private,’ for the phrase, which seemed to them below the dignity of tragedy. Steevens quotes appositely North’s translation of Plutarch (Brutus, p. 999. ed. 1631): ‘Antonius thinking good . . . that his bodie should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’”
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ v1773, mal, Wheatley
2821 hugger mugger]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Steevens: Sh. probably took the expression from North’s
Plutarch, p. 999, ed. 1631 [p. 121, ed. Skeat]; ‘Antonius thinking good . . . . that his bodie should be honorably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’
Malone: Its meaning is seen in Florio’s
Dict.: Dinascoso,
secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger. [See
Wheatley’s Dict. of Reduplicated Words.]”
1877 col4
col4 = col3 + magenta underlined
2821 hugger mugger] Collier (ed. 1877): “The meaning is, ‘We have done but imprudently or unwisely to inter him secretly:’ the expression ‘in hugger-mugger’ is of most frequent occurrence in writers of the time, though not used elsewhere by Sh.”
1877 neil
neil ≈ hal (Dekker analogue, Florio analogue, and Nares for Tourneur analogues) without attribution
2821 hugger mugger] Neil (ed. 1877): “secretly, in private. See Sir Vaughan’s desire to have ‘one word with you, Sir Quintillian, in hugger-mugger,’ in Thomas Dekkar’s Satiromastix, 1602. In Florio’s Italian Dictionary, 1598, we find, ‘Dinascoco – secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger.’ In Cyril Tourneur’s Revenger’s Tragedy, 1608, we read, sig. H, 4, ‘How quaintly he died, like a politician in Hugger-mugger.’”
All three refs. are traceable to notes in v1773-v1821.
1878 rlf1
rlf1: v1773 (Plutarch), mal (Florio analogue), Spenser analogue
2821 In hugger mugger] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Secretly and hurriedly. Steevens quotes North’s Plutarch: ‘Antonius thinking good . . . that his bodie should be honorably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’ Malone cites Florio, Ital. Dict.: ‘Dinascoso, secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger.’ Cf. also Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale, 139: ‘Of all the patrimonie, which a few/now hold in hugger mugger in their hand.’”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2 minus “And in Wheeler’s . . . ports.”
1882 elze
elze: Ford analogue
2821 In hugger mugger] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Ford, “Tis Pity she’s a Whore, III, I (Works, ed. Hartley Coleridge, p. 35 a): there is no way but to clap up a marriage in hugger-mugger.”
1883 wh2
wh2 ≈ stau
2821 hugger mugger] White (ed. 1883): “secrecy and haste.”
1885 macd
macd: Steevens, Malone; xref.
2821 hugger mugger] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “The king wished to avoid giving the people any pretext or cause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry—the queen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to the popular indignation. Hugger mugger—secretly: Steevens and Malone. See [2618-9].”
1885 mull
mull
2821 hugger mugger] Mull (ed. 1885): “stealthy way.”
1887 Mackay
Mackay: standard + magenta underlined
2821 hugger mugger] Mackay (1887, glossary, hugger-mugger): “The Dictionaries define hugger-mugger as secret and clandestine, and assert it to be ‘a cant word of uncertain etymology.’ [quotes 2818-21] Hugger-mugger seems an undignified word for the king to have employed in his grief at the sad spectacle of the hapless Ophelia crazed by the death of her father, slain unwittingly by her unhappy lover. Laertes, speaking to the king on the same subject, says:—[quotes 2963-8].
“There can be no doubt that hugger-mugger, in and before Shakspeare’s time, was used colloquially in a vulgar and ludicrous sense, and that it was a very ancient word, which was not of Teutonic derivation. Possibly Shakspeare, who employed so many Gaelic words which were current in his time in the county of Warwick, had the primitive meaning of hugger-mugger in his mind when he introduced it into the speech of the king. However this may be, it is likely that ‘hugger’ is either the Anglicized form of the Gaelic aoge, or aogadh (pronounced hugger), and signifiying death, a dead body, a skeleton, a ghastly object, or of uaigh, lonely, secret, solitary; and mugger may in like manner be the Anglicized form of the Gaelic muigear, gloomy, or perhaps of mogar, clumsy. Whence to bury a dead body in hugger-mugger, would be to bury it surreptitiously and secretly, and consequently in a perfunctory, hap-hazard, and unorderly manner. The derivation from the Danish hugger, like a squatter, or to lie in ambush, is untenable, and scarcely worthy of refutation.”
1889 Barnett
Barnett: Jameson
2821 In hugger mugger] Barnett (1889, p. 56): “in secret hurred haste. In Sc. we have huggrie-muggrie, which Jameson explains as disorderly.”
1890 irv2
irv2 ≈ cln1 (Cotgrave), v1773 (Plutarch analogue), pope, mal (Florio analogue) + magenta underlined
2821 In hugger mugger] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “secretly.”
2821 In hugger mugger] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Florio has: ‘Dinascoso: secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger;’ and the English-French dictionary appended to Cotgrave defines In hugger mugger, ‘En cachette, à calimini, sous tetre.’ Steevens quotes North’s Plutarch (p. 121, ed. Skeat): ‘Antonius thinking good . . . that his bodie should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’ Compare Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, iii. 1: ‘There’s no way but to clap-to a marriage in hugger-mugger;’ and The Merry Devil of Edmonton, i. 3. 59, 60: ‘So neere a wife, and will not tell your friend? But you will to this geere in hugger-mugger. —Ed. Warnke and Prœscholdt, p. 15.” Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 433, uses the expression ‘doo it in hugger-mugger secretlie,’ which shows that the two expressions were not regarded as absolute synonyms. Pope chastened the inelegant phrase into the unexceptionable form In private.”
1891 dtn
dtn: mal (Florio analogue)
2821 In hugger mugger] Deighton (ed. 1891): “in this secret and hasty way; a reduplication like hotch-potch, hocus-pocus, mingle-mangle. Malone quotes Florio’s Dictionary, ‘Dinascoso, secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger.’”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ v1773 (Plutarch analogue)
2821 hugger mugger] Dowden (ed. 1899): “secretly. Steevens quotes North’s Plutarch (Brutus): ‘Antonius thinking good . . . that his bodie should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.’”
1903 p&c
p&c ≈ irv2 (Florio, Plutarch analogues)
2821 hugger mugger] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “‘Secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger’ (Florio). ‘Antonius thinking good . . . his bodie should be honourably buried and not in hugger-mugger’ (North’s ‘Plutarch’).”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 minus Spenser analogue for hugger mugger
1905 rltr
rltr = ard1 minus Steevens (Plutarch analogue)
2821 hugger mugger] Chambers (ed. 1905): “secrecy.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn = rltr
2821 hugger mugger] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “secrecy.”
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ wh2
2821 hugger mugger] Craig (ed. 1931): “secret haste.”
1939 kit2
kit2: xref.
2821 In hugger mugger] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “in haste and secrecy. Polonius had been buried without the ceremonies that befit his rank. See [2964-6].”
1942 n&h
n&h ≈ wh3
2821 In hugger mugger] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “secretly and hastily.”
1947 cln2
cln2 = nlsn
2821 hugger mugger ] Rylands (ed. 1947): “secrecy.”
1957 pel1
pel1 = cln2; ≈ knt1 (both without attribution)
2821 hugger-mugger] Farnham (ed. 1957): “secrecy and disorder.”
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ n&h+ magenta underlined
2821 In hugger mugger] Spencer (ed. 1980): “with haste and in secrecy. The King could not allow an inquiry into the circumstances of Polonius’s death, exposing Hamlet’s guilt; for he knows that Hamlet has the secret of the fratricide. To the Queen he must pretend that his actions are prompted by a desire to protect Hamlet from the consequences of his crime.”
1982 ard2
ard2: xref.; Plutarch, Revenger’s Trag. analogues; JC //
2821 In hugger-mugger] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “with undue secrecy, clandestinely. Cf. l. [210]. The phrase was common but may here echo North’s Plutarch (Life of Brutus), which Shakespeare had recently used for JC: ‘Antonius thinking . . . that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger, lest the people might thereby take occasion to be worse offended’. Cf. Revenger’s Trag., v.i.19, ‘how quaintly he died, like a politician in hugger-mugger, made no man acquainted with it’.”
1984 chal
chal
2821 hugger mugger] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “secretly (with a suggestion of clumsiness).”
1987 oxf4
oxf4: Tilley; Bullough
2821 In hugger mugger] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “secretly, clandestinely. The phrase was common enough (Tilley H805), though Shakespeare does not use it elsewhere; but he could have been reminded of it by its occurrence in North’s Plutarch, where he would have read in the Life of Brutus; ‘Then Antonius be honourably buried, and not in hugger mugger . . . Cassius stoutly spake against it’ (Bullough, v. 104).”
1988 bev2
bev2 = crg1 for hugger mugger
1998 OED
OED
2821 hugger mugger] OED (Sept. 21, 1998): “hugger-mugger (hm(r)), sb., a., and adv. Forms: 6 hukermoker, hoker moker, hocker-mocker, (also 9 dial.) huckermucker, hugger mucker, 6-7 hucker mucker, 6- hugger mugger, hugger-mugger, huggermugger. [This is the commonest of a group of reduplicated words of parallel forms and nearly synonymous meaning, including hudder-mudder, Sc. hudge-mudge, and obs. hody-moke. Nothing definite appears as to their derivation or origin, and it is not unlikely that they came from different sources, and influenced each other. An early form, more usual in 16th c., was hucker-mucker (hoker-moker), the second element of which may have been the ME. vb. mukre, mokere-n to hoard up, conceal, whence mukrere, mokerere hoarder, miser (cf. sense 1 b). Whether hucker had an independent existence (cf. the PREC. words), or was merely a riming variation, cannot at present be determined. The change to hugger-mugger was phonetically easy and natural, but may have been helped by the influence of hudder-mudder, which was app. of different origin.]A. sb.1. Concealment, secrecy; esp. in phr. in hugger-mugger: in secret, secretly, clandestinely. Formerly in ordinary literary use, now archaic or vulgar.
“1529 MORE Dyaloge II. 52 b/2 He wolde haue hys faythe dyuulged and spredde abrode openly, not alwaye whyspered in hukermoker. Ibid. IV. 121 b/1 Suche thyngys..these heretyques teche in hucker mucker. 1539 TAVERNER Gard. Wysed. I. 26 a, It shal be done moche better in open courte, and in the face of al the world, then in hugger mugger. 1553 BECON Reliques of Rome (1563) 129 The wordes of the Lordes Supper..were not spoken in hocker mocker..but playnely, openlye and distinctly. c 1590 in Acc. & Pap. relating to Mary Q. of Scots (Camden) 114 Secreatlie demeasned, or handled in hugger mucker, or rufflid up in hast. 1601 HOLLAND Pliny II. 563 Say that this is done in secret and hucker mucker. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. IV. v. 84. 1633 FORD ’Tis Pity III. i, There is no way but to clap up the marriage in hugger-mugger. 1678 BUTLER Hud. III. iii. 123 In Hugger-mugger hid. a 1734 NORTH Lives III. 314 The good old lady..took him into hugger-mugger in her closet, where she usually had some good pye or plumb cake. 1836 GEN. P. THOMPSON Exerc. (1842) IV. 91 The resolution that the voting in Committee shall take place in `hugger~mugger’. 1874 MOTLEY Barneveld I. iv. 226 The trial was all mystery, hugger-mugger, horror.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Steevens
2821 In hugger-mugger] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “secretly and hastily. Shakespeare’s only use of this phrase which, as Steevens points out, he may have remembered from the account of the funeral of Julius Caesar in North’s Plutarch: ’Antonius thinking good his testament should be red openly, and also that his body should be honorably buried and not in hugger mugger’ (’Like of Brutus’, Bullough, 5.104).”
2821
