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Line 73 - Commentary Note (CN) More Information

Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.
73 Of mine owne eies.1.1.58
71 73
1857 fieb
fieb
73 mine] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Shakespeare continually uses mine instead of my, before a vowel, for the sake of euphony, though now it would be judged to be clearly ungrammatical. See thine p. 14.4) [he may mean 249]. Compare the following instance of it, in [Ham. 722, 748, 2331]. In Milton, also; close at mine ear. In Addison too, in the Spectator, No. 195, on prescribing a rule for drinking:—The first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humour, and the fourth for mine enemies.
1929 trav
travfieb without attribution + in magenta underlined
73 mine] Travers (ed. 1929): Sh often uses mine instead of my before a vowel “and then pronounced with “i” short, so that it glided unemphatically . . . on to the next word (often “own,” as here).
1939 kit2
kit2
see n. 71
1990 Kliman
Kliman: OED; Bowers
73 mine] 73 appears to be the 1st instance in Ham. of mine as an adjective followed by a word with a vowel. The rule, according to OED, was that before a following vowel or h, mine was the appropriate form, through the 18thc, though it now sounds archaic. Note: my and mine were both available for use in 1600 as the appropriate word to precede a vowel. Therefore it seems that little can be made about genealogy through using the distinction. Bowers (“Relation [1]”) lists three instances of difference in his appendix A (all in 1.5) but does not list many others. My summary is as follows: Q2 has mine three times where F1 has something else (sometimes because of a change in the following word), F1 has mine sixteen times when Q2 doesn’t have it. And they have it in common 13 times.