Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 110 Had he bin vanquisher; as by the same {comart,} <Cou’nant> | 1.1.93 |
|---|
1747 warb
warb
110-11 comart] Warburton (ed. 1747): “The old quarto reads,—as by the same comart; and this is right. Comart signifies a bargain, and Carriage of the articles, the covenants entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading makes a tautology.”
1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson
110 comart] Johnson (1755) has a reference to this line in Ham. without a definition.
-1760 mBrowne
mBrowne: warb
110 comart] Browne (Trinity College, Cambridge Ms 0.12.5755, -1760): “. . . the word [comart] he [Warburton] says signifies a Bargain—But I do not see the Tautology he complains of in the common reading, for by Covenant I understand, the agreement or Compact before spoken of, and by Carriage of the articles, and support or sense of the articles of that agreement.”
Browne may be slightly misquoted here. Check. Also need folio nos. , TCC Ms 0.12.575
1765 Heath
Heath
110 comart] Heath (1765, p. 521): “The common reading was, ‘As by that cov’nant.’ But Mr. Warburton hath it seems given us that of the old quarto, which he assures us ‘is right; for ‘that comart signifies a bargain.’ This is point which well deserves some proof, or at least the attestation of some better authority. For I must frankly own, a long acquaintance with Mr. Warburton, during the course of my examination of these his notes, hath taught me to be very cautious how far I trust to his assertions in matters of this nature. I know no such word in any language as comart, and therefore, till I have better evidence, must suppose it is a mistake of the printer, and that the poet wrote, ‘As by the same compact;’ which makes no more tautology than comart, if this last signifies, as Mr. Warburton assures us it doth, a bargain.”
1771 han3
han3 6: Glossary = warb without attribution
110 comart]
1773 v1773
v1773 = warb; john1 +
110 comart] Steevens (ed. 1773): “I can find no such word as comart in any dictionary.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773
110 comart]
1784 ays1
ays1 = john1
110 comart]
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
110 comart]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
110 comart]
1790 mal
mal: standard +
110 comart] Malone
(ed. 1790): “Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads—as by the same covenant: for which the late editions have given us—as by that covenant.
“Co-mart is, I suppose, a joint bargain, a word perhaps of our poet’s coinage. A mart signifying a great fair or market, he would not have scrupled to have written to mart, in the sense of to make a bargain. In the preceding speech we find mart used for bargain or purchase. Malone.”
1791- rann
rann ≈ warb
110-11 comart . . . desseigne] Rann (ed. 1791-) paraphrases the lines: “bargain, and tenour of the articles drawn between them—as by that covenant.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = warb, mal +
110 comart] Steevens (ed. 1793): “He has not scrupled so to write in [Cym. 1.6.151 (769)] ‘— to mart, As in a Romish stew,’ &c. See [13:58]. Steevens.”
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
110 comart]
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
110 comart]
1819 cald1
cald1 standard +
110 comart] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Instead of covenant, the quarto 1604, gives co-mart, i.e. compact, joint treaty; and formed, as another word of our author’s, that does not often occur, co-mates. [AYL 2.1.1 (607)] Duke S.”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
110 comart]
1822 Nares
Nares: Warburton +
110 comart] Nares (1822): “A word hitherto found only in the old 4to. ed. of Hamlet, but restored by Warburton, as better suiting the sense than covenant, which had been substituted. It may, very analogically, mean bargain or covenant between two. Shakespeare also uses mart, for to traffic. [quotes 110].
“It might even mean single combat, for mart is also war, or battle. See Mart.”
1826 sing1
sing1 ≈ mal without attribution
110 comart] Singer (ed. 1826): “Co-mart, it is presumed, means a joint bargain. No other instance of the word is known.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 +
110 comart]
Caldecott (ed. 1832): “
Comart was doubtless the original reading, first changed probably on the stage for its more familiar substitute,
covenant; and this word was continued by the player editors in 1623 and the other folios.”
1833 valpy
valpy ≈ mal without attribution
110 comart] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Joint bargain.”
1843 col1
col1
110 comart] Collier (ed. 1843): “The folio, 1623, has cov’nant and design, for ‘co-mart’ and ‘design’d.’ The latter improvement was not made till the folio, 1632. The quartos have ‘co-mart.’
col1
110 comart] Collier (ed. 1843, Glossary, 1:ccxciii): “treaty.”
-1845 mHunter
mHunter
110 comart] Hunter (-1845) finds Commart in the reign of Commerce in Wircutin [?] Elegy & Eulogy by J. Toy M.A. Lord 1632 4to—Wligic [?] Sig. B4.
BL ms. 24, 499. I am not sure my note is correct and I am not sure it’s worth keeping. It’s more analogues.
1847 verp
verp: standard VN + in magenta underlined
110 comart]
Verplanck (ed. 1844): “a word not found in any other author, but supposed, from its derivation, to mean, a mutual bargain or compact.
It is, probably, an error of the press. The previous employment of a common-law phrase [106] would suggest the word ‘covenant,’ as the folios read.”
1854 del2
del2
110 comart] Delius (ed. 1854): “So liest die Fol. des Verses wegan für covenant, was sich auch sonst bei Sh. findet, = Vertrag, Uebereinkunft. Die Herausgeber adoptiren dafür die Lesart der Qs. co-mart, ein nirgendwo sonst verkommendes Wort, das Sh, aus mart ‘Markt‘ und ‘co- ‘mit’ seltsam zusammengesetzt haben müsste, das sich aber einfacher als Druckfehler aus covnan’t erklärt. Gemäss demselben Vertragen und dem Sinn des festgesetzten Artikels, nach welchem in dem einem Falle Hamlet’s Land dem Fortinbras anheimfiele, sollte im ander Falle sein (d.h. Fortinbras) Besitzthum dem Hamlet anfallen.” [So reads the Fol. covenant for this verse as one often finds in Sh.: agreement, treaty after war. The editors adopt therefore the Qs’s reading co-mart, a word found nowhere else, that Sh. formed from its two elements, so seldom that it is simpler to say it was a mistake of the compositor. According to the same treaty and the sense of the ratified articles, in the case of Hamlet’s death, his land goes to Fortinbras, and in the other case Fortinbras’s possession falls to Hamlet.” [covenant is the reading in the Fol.; for this verse as one often finds in Sh, it means agreement, treaty after war. The 4tos reading co-mart is a word found nowhere else which the editors who use it say is formed of two elements, co and mart, a formation found so seldom that it is simpler to say that co-mart is a misprint. According to the same treaty and the sense of the ratified articles, in the case of Hamlet’s death, his land goes to Fortinbras, and in the other case Fortinbras’s possession falls to Hamlet.]
1856 hud1
hud1 standard or sing1 without attribution
110 comart] Hudson(ed. 1856): “Co-mart is the reading of the quartos; the folio reads, cov’nant. Co-mart, it is presumed, means a joint bargain. No other instance of the word is known.
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1
110 comart]
1858 col3
col3 ≈ col1
110 comart] Collier (ed. 1858): “a treaty, a bargain”
1861 wh1
wh1
110 comart] White (ed. 1861): co-mart is “a singular phrase, which implies a trading purpose not well suited to a royal combat for a province.”
1865 hal
hal = Malone in mal; Steevens in 1793
110 comart]
1866 Bailey
Bailey : Heath without attribution; Hunter
110 comart]
Bailey (1866, 2: 2): <p. 2> “The attempts to explain the word
co-mart, have failed; and the reading of the folio
covenant, does not fall in with the rhythm of the line. I have little doubt that Shakespeare wrote
compáct, which he had employed a few lines above in speaking of the same agreement. There could be no reason why he should resort to an unprecedented phrase when he had so excellent a term before him, which he might repeat, not only without any violation of good taste, but with increase of effect. I am glad to find that Mr. Hunter supports the same emendation, in his ‘New Illustrations of Shakespeare.’ * </p. 2>
<n2> <p. 2> “ * Vol. ii. p. 234.” </p. 2></ n2>
1866 dyce2
dyce2 = mal, Steevens
110 comart]
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ dyce2 without attribution + in magenta underlined
110 comart]
Clarke &
Clarke (ed. 1868): “A word formed by Shakespeare to express ‘joint bargain,’ ‘mutual compact.’
We have the words ‘co-heiress, ‘co-partner,’ &c.”
1869 strat
strat
110 comart] Stratmann (ed. 1869): “That ‘comart’ is a misprint I make no doubt; perhaps the quarto of 1676 has hit right in reading ‘compact.’”
1870 Abbott
Abbott
110 comart] Abbott (§ 494): “Apparent Alexandrines. The following are Alexandrines only in appearance. The last foot contains, instead of one extra syllable, two extra syllables, one of which is slurred . . . : ‘Had hé | been vánq | u(i)sher, ás, | b´y the | same cóvinant’ . . . .”
1872 cln1
cln1
110 comart] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “ . . . which perhaps Shakespeare wrote, coining the word, and afterward corrected.”
1872 hud2
hud2: standard
110 comart] Hudson (ed. 1872): “The folio has cov’nant; the quartos, co-mart, which may mean the same thing, but no other such use of the word is known.
1877 v1877
v1877: mal, dyce, Steevens on Cym., wh1, heath, hunter, bailey, Abbott § 494 +
110 comart]
Furness (ed. 1877): “One of these syllables [of covenant] is slurred; see ‘funeral,’ [364].”
1877 dyce3
dyce3 = dyce2
110 comart]
1878 rlf1
rlf1
110 comart] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “The folio has ‘cov’nant,’ the quartos ‘comart.’ [dyce2] and [cln1] think S. may have coined the latter word (= joint bargain), and afterwards changed it to covenant.”
1881 hud3
hud3
110 comart] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Co-mart is a joint-bargain or mutual agreement; the same as compact [103] a little before. So, in the preceding speech mart [90] for trade, or bargain.”
hud3 : standard
110 comart] Hudson (ed. 1881, p. 319): “In [110], the folio has cov’nant instead of co-mart, which is the reading of the quartos. Shakespeare elsewhere uses to mart for to trade or to bargain.”
1885 Furnivall
Furnivall: //s; analogue
110 comart] Furnivall (6 N&Q 11 [7 Mar. 1885 ]: 182): “That this good word for ‘agreement, bargain, stipulation, ought to be retained in the text of the play of Hamlet I have never doubted. The folio cou’nant, with the stress on the wrong, the first syllable, is a bad substitute for it. That comart is not used in his other works by Shakspere, or elsewhere in any printed book which has come down to us, is no argument or presumption against the words being a genuine coinage by our great poet; he has so many meanings, and some words, special to himself. Moreover, the word mart is used by him in the sense required for its compound, bargain, in [Shr. 2.1.327 (1208)] (‘venture on a desperate mart’), but also by Florio, 1598: ‘Baratto, a barter, a marte, an exchange, a trucking, a chopping, a chaffring.’ ‘Barattare, to barter, to trucke, to chop and change one thing for another, to chaffre, to marte.’ ‘Barattiere, a barterer, a trucker, a marter, an exchanger.’ ‘Mariantare, to cheapen, to bargaine, to marchandize, to mart.’ —Cf. [Cym. 1.6.151 (769), WT 4.4.352 (2174); JC 4.3.1 (1980)] The ‘seald compact’ [103] between the fathers Fortinbras and Hamlet was a mutual bargain or co-mart. This genuine word expresses well Shakspere’s meaning in the passage wherein it occurs.
“That in his day the word mart had also the signification of market or fair, I willingly admit . . . but this nowise weakens the fact that mart means ‘bargain’; and co-mart is as legitimate a formation from it as Shakspere’s co-join and co-mate are from their primitives. F. J. Furnivall.”
1888 macl
macl ≈ wh1
110 comart] Maclachlan (ed. 1888) takes to mean the carrying out of the agreement and thus finds F1’s covenant tautology.
1890 irv2
irv2: mal; Steevens’ // Cym. without attribution; +
110 comart] Marshall (ed. 1890) prefers comart for its vividness and its effect on the line’s rhythm.
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ Furnivall without attribution on coinage and gloss
110 comart]
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 minus attributions
110 comart]
1912 dtn3
dtn3
110-12 as . . . Hamlet] Deighton (ed. 1912): “in the same way that, by the agreement of which I have spoken, and the tenour of the stipulation formally drawn up between them, his possessions passed to Hamlet.”
1912 dtn3
dtn3: standard gloss
110 comart] Deighton (ed. 1912): “bargain.”
1929 trav
trav
110 he]
Travers (ed. 1929): “stressed.”
trav
110 comart]
Travers (ed. 1929): “
Covenant (printed
cov’nant in F1, and apparently to be stressed, like its Old French original, “
covenant,’ on the last), convention, especially one of legal validity.”
1931 crg1
crg1: standard
110 comart] Craig (ed. 1931): “The Q2 reading, comart, has been interpreted by some editors as meaning ‘joint bargain.’”
1934 Wilson
Wilson MSH
110 comart] Wilson (1934, p.278) considers Q2’s diction more poetic than F1’s. He also lists in this category 81, 975, 1171, 1175, 1741, 1920, 2357, 3063, 3150, 3158, 3164, 3169, 3264, 3421. “A study of these variants is a lesson at once in Shakespeare’s diction and in the kind of degradation his verse suffered at the hands of those responsible for the F1 text, for what the context loses in every instance is poetic value rather than meaning.” He goes on to list F1 variants that are aesthetically superior to Q2’s. See 135.
1934 cam3
cam3: mal, warb; contra “most mod. edd.” in their F1 reading.
110 comart] Wilson (ed. 1934, p. xxix) lists comart as one of his most important Q2 restorations.
1938 parc
parc: standard +
110 comart] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “N. E. D. gives no other instance of comart in the language.” They agree with others that Sh. coined the word based on mart and assume a scribe changed it to F1’s more familiar word.
1939 kit2
kit2: standard
110 comart] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "mutual bargain." [adds F1 variant]
1947 cln2
cln2 = mal gloss only, without attribution
110 comart] Rylands (ed. 1947): “co-mart: joint bargain.”
1956 Sisson
Sisson contra “recent eds.”
110-11 Sisson (1956, p. 207): The argument that covenant is pleonastic, as identical with article in [111], is erroneous. There are articles of agreement, to which covenants are attached. The compositor of Q2 seemed to be in rough water here, as evidenced by desseigne in the next line. comart is a plausible misreading of counant, which I believe to have been in the copy.
“read: covenant”
1957 pel1
pel1: standard
110 comart] Farnham (ed. 1957): “joint bargain.”
1970 pel2
pel2 = pel1: standard
110 comart] Farnham (ed. 1970): “joint bargain”
1971 r&k
r&k
110-11 Ribner (ed. 1971) says the language emphasizes the legality of the Danish claim to the lands in question.
1980 pen2
pen2
110 comart] Spencer (ed. 1980), weighing the two variants, finds comart only a possible word, for which there is no evidence, and covenant (F1’s Cou’nant) “metrically clumsy.”
1982 ard2
ard2 contra mal; contra Nares; Sisson, New Readings
110 comart] Jenkins (ed. 1982) associates cov’nant, the word he uses, with compact in 103. In his LN, he rejects both Malone and Nares, agrees with Sisson, and concludes, as does Sisson, that the “legal context also suggests that F may preserve the true reading.”
1985 cam4
cam4
110-11 as . . . desseigne] Edwards (ed. 1985), finding the whole phrase to be obscure and corrupt, declines to emend.
1992 fol2
fol2: standard
110 comart] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “bargain“
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: mal, cald, cam3, cam4, etc.AYL
110 comart] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “This Q2 reading (a unique word according to OED) is defended by Malone and by Caldecott, who offers the analogy of ’co-mates’ at AYL 2.1.1 . It is accepted by Dover Wilson and by Edwards, who usually favours F; the latter calls it ’a nonce-word having something to do with "bargain"’; White dismisses it as having ’a trading purpose not well suited to a royal combat for a province’; some editors (including Jenkins) prefer F’s ’Cou’nant’ (covenant); Q6 quite sensibly emends by repeating compact from [103].”
110
