Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2918 <Hey non nony, nony, hey nony:> | 4.5.166 |
|---|
1790 mal
mal
2918 Malone (ed. 1790): “These words, which were the burthen of a song, are found only in the folio. See Vol. VIII. p. 592, n. 6. Malone.”
1793 v1793
v1793 ≈ mal
Steevens adjusts reference: “See Vol. XIV. p. 163, n. 9.”
1803 v1803
v1803 ≈ v1793 +
2918 Steevens (ed.1803): “These words are also found in old John Heywood’s Play of the Wether: ‘Gyve boys wether, quoth a nonny nonny.’
“I am informed, that among the common people in Norfolk, to nonny signifies to trifle or play with. Steevens.”
Adjusts reference: “See Vol. XVII. Lr. [3.4.99 (1881)] Malone.”
1819 cald1
cald1≈ v1813; AYL //
2918 Caldecott (ed. 1791-): “This was the burden of an old song. To nonny, Mr.Steevens tells us, signifies, among the common people of Norfolk, to ‘trifle, or play with;’ and he instances the term in Heywood’s Weather: ‘Gyve boys wether, quoth a nonny nonny.’
“This, too, is the language of Edgar, when acting the madman, Lr. [3.4.99 (1881)]. It occurs too in ayl, &c. [5.3.17-29 (2548-64)] Page’s song.”
1843 col1
col1
2918 Collier (ed. 1843): “This burden (not uncommon in old songs of the time) is not in any of the quarto impressions.”
1854 del2
del2
2918 Delius (ed. 1854): “Diese Zeile ist nur in der Fol. Es ist ein Refrain ohne Bedeutung, der zu verschiedenen Liedern der Zeit vorkommt und den Ophelia hier willkührlich einschiebt.” [This line is only in the Folio edition. It is a meaningless refrain that appears in various songs of the time and that Ophelia arbitrarily inserts here.]
1857 fieb
fieb: Ado, AYL //s
2918 Fiebig (ed. 1857): “These words, which are found only in the folio, form a kind of burden to some old love songs like this. Such unmeaning burdens are common to ballads in most languages. So, in Ado [2.3.69 (906)]: ‘Converting all your sounds of woe,/Into her nonny, nonny.’ An equivalent to this burden, of which it is only a variation, is nonino, in AYL [5.3.17-29 (2548-64)]: ‘With a hey, and a ho, and hey nonino.’”
1858 col3
col3 ≈ col1 + magenta underlined
2918 Collier (ed. 1858): “This burden or ‘wheel,’ (i.e. rota) as Ophelia afterwards calls it [4.5.172 (2924)], is not uncommon in old songs of the time, but it is not in any of the 4to. impressions.”
Collier does not retain comment of Fare . . . Doue (2920).
1865 hal
hal: Ravenscroft analogue
2918 Halliwell (ed. 1865): “Many songs were sung to this burden. The following is taken from Ravenscroft’s Briefe Discourse, 4to. 1614,—‘Love, for such a cherry lip, Would be glad to pawne his arrowes; Venus heere, to take a sip, Would sell her doves and teeme of sparrows—But shee shall not so, Hey no, nony nony no: None but I this lip must owe, Hey nony, nony nony no. Did Jove see this wanton eye, Ganimed should wayte no longer: Phebe heere one night to lye, Would change her face, and looke much yonger, But shee shall not &c.”
1869 tsch
tsch: Ado //s; Nares; xref.
2918 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Dass dieser lustige Refrain nicht in das T r a u e r l i e d gehört, sondern von der Geisteskranken eingefügt wird, beweist eine Stelle in Ado 2.3.69-71. Converting all your sounds of woe Into Hey nonny, nonny. Ich vermuthe, dass der Ausdruck, der nach Nares nicht eine absolut decente Bedeutung gehabt haben soll, ursprünglich gewissen Spottliedern auf Klosterjungfrauen angehört hat, wie solche auch jetzt noch bei uns cursiren. non, nonny, wie bon, bonny, 185, worauf es auch Ado 2.3.69-71 reimt.” [That this merry refrain does not belong in the lament, but is put in by the mentally ill girl, is shown by a passage in Ado [3.3.68 (905)] Converting all your sounds of woe Into Hey, nonny, nonny. I suspect that the expression, that according to Nares might not have a completely decent meaning, belonged originally to certain mocking songs directed to cloistered nuns, just as such songs still circulate among us. non, nonny, like bon, bonny, [4.5.166 (2918)], to which also Ado [2.3.67-69 (904-6)] rhymes.]
1869 Romdahl
Romdahl: contra hal
2918 Romdahl (1869, p. 38): “was a sometimes used burden to a ballad or a love song. Although it principally occurs in wanton songs, it seems, however, to be as insignificant as many other burdens; if nonny-nonny ever had the signification of female pudendum, as Mr. Halliwell3) has supposed, it certainly in the course of time lost it. This burden occurs also in Lr. [3.4.99 (1881)] and Ado [2.3.69 (906)].”
<n><p.38> “3) See Halliw. 2. p. 580.” </p.38></n>
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ Nares, v1803 minus analogues
2918 nonny]
Furness (ed. 1877): “Nares: Such unmeaning burdens are common to ballads in most languages. It appears from Florio’s Dict. that the word had not always a decorous meaning. Steevens: I am informed that among the common people of Norfolk, to
nonny signifies to
trifle or
play with.”
1882 elze2
elze2: Fossa, Forby, Middleton analogues
2918 Elze (ed. 1882): “Florio (1611) s. Fossa says: ‘a graue, a pit, a ditch, a trench, any fosse, digging, or mote about a house. Vsed also for a womans pleasure-pit, nony-nony, or pallace of pleasure’. Quoted in the Transactions of the New Shakespere Society, 1877-9, Part III, 465. Compare Forby, Vocabulary of East Anglia, s. Nonny. Middleton, Blurt, Master-Constable, V, 2 (Works, ed. Dyce, I, 298).”
1887 Mackay
Mackay: contra Nares
2918 Mackay (1887, glossary, Hey, nonny): “‘A kind of burden,’ says Nares, following the lead of all previous writers on the subject, ‘to some old love-songs. Such unmeaning burdens are common to ballads in most languages.’ Nares did not know that although common, they are not unmeaning, and that ‘Hey, nonny!’ ‘Fal-lal-la,’ ‘Tooral-looral,’ and many others, are full of significancy, and very ancient and poetical:—[quotes 4.5.164-166 (2917-8)]] ‘Converting all your sounds of woe Into hey, nonny, nonny!’ Ado [2.3.69 (906)].
“The whole subject of the popular choruses of England and France, of which ‘hey, nonny, nonny!’ is one, and not the most prominent, is fully treated of in the ‘Gaelic Etymology of the Languages of Western Europe,’ and the whole of them prove to be portions of the chants or hymns of the Druids, whose religion was mainly astronomical, and which were sung in honour of sunrise, noon, and sunset. ‘Fal-lal-la’ is ‘failte là là,’ welcome to the day! Falbala is derived from falah, departure, and là, day—the departure of the day, or the chant of sunset. ‘Hey, nonny, nonny!’ was the noon-day chorus, from the aid he (pronounced hey), synonymous with ‘hail!’ or ‘welcome!’, and noine, noon-day, whence ‘hail to the noon!’ These choruses, of which there are at least twenty varieties or more, are the only remnants of the once poetical hymnology of the Druidical priesthood. They have remained on the popular memory, from their constant repetition in the primitive ages, their meaning lost and the once sacred words perverted to base uses.”
1890 irv2
irv2 ≈ cam1
2918-20 Symons (Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “The refrain is not given by Qq. In and rain’d, the reading of Qq are, in the Ff. on and rains. It is very doubtful which text is preferable. The next line, Fare you well, my dove! is printed by Ff. in italics as a part of the song: the Qq. print the whole passage in the same type; Capell, rightly as I think, printed the line as if said, not sung, by Ophelia. On the refrain, see Much Ado, note.”
1891 dtn
dtn = Nares
2918 Deighton (ed. 1891): “‘Such unmeaning burdens are common in ballads of most languages’ (Nares).”
1904 ver
ver = McKay (Ado //); AYL, TN, Tmp. //s; Percy, Chapell analogues
2918 Verity (ed. 1904): “(short for nonino) comes in the refrain of the beautiful song “Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,” in Ado [2.3.69 (906)]. Compare also in AYL [5.3.17-29 (2548-64)], the song: ‘It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino.’
“It is a favourite refrain or burden (with variations) of old ballads.
“The constant mention or introduction of ballads old and new is a marked feature or the Elizabethan drama. A great quantity of these ballads has survived in popular song-books and collections of airs. They support other evidence which shows that in Shakespeare’s time the English were a very musical race, and that a knowledge of music was widespread. Some think that Puritanism had much to do with the decline of music in England as a national taste and recreation. One section of Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry is “Ballads that illustrate Shakespeare.” The standard authority on them is Chapell’s Popular Music of the Olden Time (1894 ed.)
“Of all Shakespeare’s own songs – such as “Come away, come away, death” (TN [2.4.51 (941)]), “Blow, blow, thou winter wind” (AYL [2.7.174 (1156)]), “Full fathom five thy father lies” (Tmp. [1.2.337 (539)]– one great characteristic is this: ‘they are made for their place’; i.e. absolutely appropriate to their dramatic context.”
1929 trav
2918 Travers (ed. 1929): “Not in the quartos.—A song in
Ado (2.3) closes with:
And be you blithe and bonny/Converting all your sounds of woe/ Into Hey nonny, nonny. Nor can the burden of the lovers spring ‘carol’ in
AYL [5.3.17-29 (2548-64)] (‘
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino’) be other than ‘blithe’ also.
Schmidt, in consequence, takes 2918 as a sign of Ophelia’s disordered state of mind. But such combinations of syllables, meaningless in themselves, afford scope for great variety of suggestion; and even a kind of lullaby would seem to be among the possibilities here.”
1947 yal2
yal2
2918 Cross & Brooke (ed. 1947): “Such meaningless refrains are common in old songs. Cf. [4.5.172 (2923)], ‘a-down’.”
1982 ard2
ard2: xrefs.; Chaucer analogue
2918-9 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “ln. Usually taken by the critics, as by Laertes, to refer to the burial of Ophelia’s father. But see ln on [4.5.24 (2769) above. Though no ballad is known in which these lines occur, they are unlikely to have been Shakespeare’s invention. Cf. Chaucer, Knight’s T. (ll. 2877-8), ‘He leyde him, bare the visage, on the beere; Therwith he weep that pitee was to heere’. The Drury Lane tradition supplying no old tune for this lyric snatch, it has usually been sung to a tune adapted from one or other of those for the songs at [4.5.24 (2769 ff.)] (Walsingham) and [4.5.190 (2941ff.)] The Hey non nony, etc., which F injects between the two lines of this song is presumably a stage-addition.”
2918
