Line 3153 - 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.
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Notes for lines 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand
| 3153 Our purpose may hold there; {but stay, what noyse?} <how sweet Queene.> | 4.7.162 |
|---|
1743 mF3
mF3 :
3153 but stay, what noyse?] Anon. (ms. notes in F3, 1734) : “how now sweet Queen?”
1773 jen
jen
3153 but stay, what noyse?]
Jennens (ed. 1773): “All but the qu’s (Qs) and
C[apell] omit these words,
but stay what noise? which are very significant, as they express the king’s guilt, and fear of being overheard, while he was plotting so damnable a contrivance.”
1790 mal
mal
3153 how sweet queen? Malone (ed. 1790): “How now sweet queen?]] These words are not in the quarto. The word now , which appears to have been omitted by the carelessness of the transcriber or compositor, was supplied by the editor of the second folio MALONE”
1790 MAL (1790 ed., p. 382; v1793, p. 294; v1803, p. 315; v1813, p. 315; v1821, p. 458; SING1, p. 313; SING2, p. 293) writes a new note here: “
1793 v1793
v1793=mal
3153 how sweet queen?
1803 v1803
v1803=v1793
3153 how sweet queen?
1805 Seymour
Seymour
3153 but stay, what noyse]
Seymour (1805, 2:197) : <p. 197> “This hemistic is not in the quarto, and I take it to be interpolated.” </p. 197>
1813 v1813
v1813=v1803
3153 but stay, what noyse]
1821 v1821
v1821=v1813
3153 how sweet queen?
1854 del2
del2
3153 how sweet queen?] Delius (ed. 1854): “But stay? what noise? fehlt in der Fol., welche dafür allein How, sweet queen? hat.—Das zufällig ausgefallene now ergänzte die Fol. von 1632.” [[These words] are absent in the folio, which for them has How, sweet queen/. The accidentally missing now was inserted in the folio of 1632 [F2].”]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 : Coleridge
3153 how sweet queen?] Hudson (ed. 1856): “These words occur only in the folio.—’That Laertes,’ says Coleridge, ‘might be excused in some degree for not cooling, the Act concludes with the affecting death of Ophelia; who in the beginning lay like a little projection of land into a lake or stream, covered with spray-flowers, quietly reflected in the quiet wters; but at length is undermined or loosened, and becomes a faery isle, and after a brief vagrancy sinks almost without an eddy.’ H.”
1857 dyce1
dyce1≈del2
3153 but stay, what noyse?] Dyce (ed. 1857): “How now, sweet queen!]] Here the nowwhich had been accidentally omitted in the first folio, was inserted by the editor of the second folio.——These words are not in the quartos, 1604, &c.: but the corresponding passage of the quarto, 1603 [Q1] is, ‘How now Gertred, why looke you heauily?’”
1857 elze1
elze1
3153 but stay, what noyse?] Elze (ed. 1857): "Diese Worte stehen nur in QB folgg., während die unmittelbar folgenden: How now, sweet queen? Sich nur in den Fs finden" ["These words stand only in Q2ff, while the following direct ’How now sweet queen’ is found in only in the Fs."]
Elze is wrong here. The F reading is also found in POPE, HAN.
1866 dyce2
dyce2 = dyce1
3153 but stay, what noyse?]
1867 Ktly
Ktly: F2
3153 but stay, what noyse]
Keightley (1867, p. 296) : <p. 296> “
How now, sweet queen]] This, the reading of 2nd folio, makes the line more euphonious.” </p. 296>
1872 del4
del4 = del2
3153 how sweet queen?]
1872 cln1
cln1
3153 but stay, what noyse] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “Omitted in the folios.”
3153 but stay, what noyse] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “How now, sweet queen]] These words [from F2ff] are omitted in the quartos.”
1872 hud2
Hud2 = hud1
3153 but stay, what noyse]
1877 v1877
v1877 : ≈ jen
3153 noyse]
1881 hud3
Hud3 = hud2
3153 how sweet queen?]
hud3
3153 how sweet queen?] Hudson (ed. 1881): “How now, sweet Queen!]] So the second folio. The first omits now; accidentally, no doubt. The quartos, after 1603, have ‘but stay, what noyse.’”
1882 elze2
elze2
3153 but stay, what noyse? Elze (ed. 1882): “how sweet queen?]] The Qq. omit these words, instead of which they read: But stay, what noyse? These readings cannot be upheld the one by the side of the other, as the line is filled up by either of them.For two reasons the reading of the Ff seems to be the genuine one. First there is no noise, as the Queen comes unattended, or with a single attendant at most. Moreover the phrase: but stay, what noyse has occurred similarly before (§162: but soft, whay noyse? §177: Alacke; what noyse is this? §181:How now, what noyse is that?) and occurs similarly again (§238: What warlike noise is this?), so that it seems likely enough to have come either into the player’s mouth, or from the transcriber’s pen, even when uncalled for.”
1885 macd
macd
3153 may] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘may’ does not here express doubt, but intention.”
1934 Wilson
Wilson
3153 but stay, what noyse] Wilson (1934, 2: 245) observes that F1 omits the “now” while Q1 reads ‘How now Gertred’
3153 but stay, what noyse]
Wilson(1934, 2:246-47): <p. 246> “While the
Globe [
Glo] follows F1 in traditional fashion [
how now sweet Queen], the
Cambridge [CAM1] texts effects a conflation[
But stay! what noise? followed on next line by SD Enter Queen and on next line by How now, sweet queen!
], and such conflation can only be justified on the assumption that Q2 and F1 have omitted a different half-line. In view of the apparent </p. 246> <p. 247>coincidence of omission at 4.1.40 [2628 in which
so haply slander is omitted in both Q1 and F1], this is a conceivable contingency.1 It is, however, equally possible that there is no omission in Q2 at all—there is certainly no necessity to posit any—and that the F1 ‘how now, sweet Queene’ is merely a substitution by Scribe P or Scribe C for ‘but stay, whay noyse?’ It is indeed exactly at such points as this that we may expect Scribe P to be interfering with the text. He was officially interested in entries, and is quite likely to have considered ‘but stay, what noyse?’ too vague an introductory form and so to have rewritten it in more pointed language, just as at 5.1.240 [3404] he altered ‘but soft awhile’ to ‘but soft, aside’ in order to get Horatio and Hamlet moving off as the funeral procession enters. And the fact that Q1 reads ‘How now Gertred’ lends strong support to this explanation. This being so, and because moreover ‘how now, sweet Quene’ is extra-metrical, I am myself inclined to omit it altogether, though no editor has so far, I believe, ever done so.”
<n> “1 Cf. the discussion of 3.2.191 on p. 302.” </n>
1934 cam3
cam3
3153 but stay, what noyse] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Q1 supports F1 by reading ‘How now Gertred.’ MSH [Manuscript of Sh’s Hamlet] pp. 246-7.”
1947 cln2
cln2 ≈ Granville-Barker
3153 but stay, what noyse] Granville-Barker (apud Rylands, ed. 1947, Notes): “She comes with the tale of Ophelia’s death, its candid beauty in sharp contrast to the secret wickedness brewing. The ‘fantastic garlands’ themselves seem an innocent reproach to the unction which ‘no cataplasm so rare collected from all simples’ can counteract. The speech fulfils divers ends. It gives actuality to Ophelia’s unseen death. . . . And the beauty and pity of it incidentally help to rescue Gertrude in our eyes from the degradation of Hamlet’s painting of her in the closet scene. We shal remember her as well as Ophelia by this’ (Granville-Barker).”
1980 pen2
pen2
3153 may hold there] Spencer (ed. 1980): “will be achieved by that.”
3153 but stay, what noyse] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Q2 has only the first sentence [but stay, what noyse], F only the second [how sweet Queene]. One or other may be an accidental omission. It seems best to include both in the text; a director can choose either or both.”
1985 cam4
cam4 ≈ pen2 w/o attribution
3153 but stay, what noyse]
1987 oxf4
oxf4 : F1 ; Q1
3153 but stay, what noyse] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “Although these words [how now, sweet queen], in the incomplete form how sweet Queene, appear in F only, Q1’s How now Gertred shows that they were spoken on the stage.”
3153