Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 331 A little month or ere those shooes were old | 1.2.147 |
|---|
124+7 311 331 338 363 371 1709 Tatler
Anon.
331 A little month] Anon. (Tatler 13 Dec. 1709, 2:147-8): <2:147> The </2:147> <2:148> Circumstance of Time I never could enough admire. The Widowhood had lasted for Two Months. This is his First Reflection: But as his Indignation rises, he sinks to scarce Two months: Afterwards into a Month; and at last, into a Little Month. But all this so naturally, that the Reader accompanies him in the Violence of his Passion, and finds the Time lessen insensibly, according to the different Workings of his Disdain.”
330-1 Let . . .
month]
Richardson (1774, rpt. 1812, p. 83): “Hamlet’s laboured composure is imperfect; . . . and he relapses into deeper anguish. Though he turned aside from a painful idea, he was not unable to remove the impression, or vary in any considerable degree his state of mind: the impression remained, and restored the idea in its fullest vigour” [and
Richardson quotes 331-4 </p. 83> <p. 84> 335-7.]
“It is also observable, that, in consequence of the increasing violence of the emotion, the time so dexterously diminished from two months, to a little month, is rendered as it were visible by allusions and circumstances so striking, as to have in themselves a powerful tendency to stimulate and augment his anguish. ‘Or ere those shoes were old, With which she follow’d my poor father’s body, &c.’
“And again: ‘Within a month . . . She married!’ The crisis of his agitation, heightened to its extremity, is strongly marked in the following exclamation: ‘Oh, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!’ </p. 84>
1807 Douce
Douce
331 ere] Douce (1807, 1:2) remarks: “The word should always be written ere, and not ever, nor contractedly e’er, with which it has no connexion. It is pure Saxon, ae<Saxon r>. The corruption in Ecclesiastes cited in the note [for Tmp. in v1793] is as old as the time of Henry the Eighth; but in Wicliffe we have properly “er be to broke the silveren cords,” and so it is given by Chaucer.”
1815 Freron
Freron
331-2 Freron (1815, p. 14): “This young prince also, while ignorant of the real cause of his father’s death, describes with great force the light conduct of his mother, who in so short a time after the death of a most respectable husband, could bring herself to a second marriage. But as it seems the fate of this poet to say nothing beautiful without some vulgar or debasing accompaniment, he makes his hero remark, that she had not yet worn out the shoes with which she followed his father to the grave. In truth, all that is excellent in this author is attended with so many vulgarities and insipidities, that his works appear the production rther of a disordered imaginayion than of a genius of the first order.”
1854 del2
del2
331 ere] Delius (ed. 1854): “in dem zusammengesetzten or ere bedeutet or eigentlich ore ‘ehe’ und ere eigentlich e’er ist = ever, wohl zu unterscheiden von dem alleinstehenden ere.” [In the combination or ere, “or” really means ore ( ’before’} and ere (really e’er} is = ever, probably to distinguish from the isolated ere.]
1856 N&Q
Ingleby
331 shooes] Ingleby (1856?, p. 88) proposes the emendation shows for shoes
Roffe responds to Ingleby, which I have to look up. Dyce2 also discusses it.
1856 N&Q
Roffe: Ingleby +
331 shooes] Roffe (1856, p. 384) rejects Ingleby’s proposed emendation to shows for three reasons: first, because shoes is “a clear particular” image rather than a vague, general one; Hamlet “is inclined to use clear, common images regarding the hurried marriage. . . [as] shown by his presently afterwards speaking of ‘the funeral bak’d meats’. . . . Second, there is a significance in shoes “as involving the whole state or condition of anyone, which is exemplified by such a phrase as ‘I would not stand in his shoes.’ ” Third, Hamlet’s previous use of shows and show, which Ingleby cites in support of his conjecture, “might be an argument against a third and weaker use of the expression.”
see conj. never used doc.1859 Werder
Werder
331-5 Werder (1859, trans. 1907, p. 57) <p. 57> claims, without evidence, that Hamlet believes his mother had never loved his father. </p. 57>
1866 dyce2
dyce2: Ingleby +
331 shooes] dyce (ed. 1866, 1: xv): “Dr. Ingleby . . . substitutes [shows for shoes] recollecting that Theobald had won praise for altering ‘shoes” to ‘shows’ in [Jn. 2.1.144 (444)], and concluding that the change of a word which was good in one place could not but be good in another.”
Get correct page no. from dyce2
1870 Abbott
Abbott
331 or ere] Abbott (§131): “Or (before). Or in this sense is a corruption of A. S. ar (Eng. ere), which is found in Early English in the forms er, air, ar, ear, or, eror. . . .As this meaning of or died out, it seems to have been combined with ere for the sake of emphasis. Thus [quotes Mac. 4.3.173 (2009) . . . .
“We find in E. E, ‘erst er,’ ‘before er,’ ‘before or’ (Mätzner, iii. 451).
“Another explanation might be given. Ere has been conjectured to be a corruption of e’er, ever, and ‘or ever’ an emphatic form like ‘whenever,’ ‘wherever.’ ‘Ever’ is written ‘ere’ in Son. 93, 133. And compare ‘Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns.’—Ps. lviii.
“Against the latter explanation is the fact that “ever’ is much more common than ‘ere.’ It is much more likely that ‘ever’ should be substituted for ‘ere’ than ‘ere’ for ‘ever.’ . . . .”
1872 cln1
cln1
331 or ere] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “This reduplication is found in [Tmp. 1.2.11 (92)] and ‘or ever,’ in [line 371] of this scene.”
1877 v1877
v1877: Mätzner; cln1; Abbott
331 or ere]
Mätzner (3: 446,
apud Furness, ed. 1877): “A strengthening of the notion of time is give by
ever (
e’er, ere). (comp. Germ,
je), which in this case usually preserves the old form,
or. Thus, [
Jn. 4.3.20 (2017), 5.6.44 (2602)].”
Since Abbott quotes Mätzner, the latter is earlier.
v1877 ≈ Ingleby
331 shooes]
1881 hud3
hud3
331 or ere] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Or ever was in common use for before, sooner than.”
1904 Bradley
Bradley
331 A little month] Bradley (1904, p. 320): “The marriage followed, within a month, not the death of Hamlet’s father, but the funeral,” which took place some weeks after the death.
1913 Trench
Trench
331 A little month] Trench (1913, p. 55): Though Hamlet and the ghost mentions incest several times [341, 729, 768, 2365, 3807], Trench thinks that Hamlet is “but little concerned about this grave issue; remarriage, and at an early date, ” being the more significant point.
1929 trav
trav ≈ cln1 without attribution +
331 or ere]
Travers (ed. 1929): “more emphatic than ‘ere’ [ . . .].”
1930 Granville-Barker
Granville-Barker
331, 337 A little month, within a month] Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 228): “Within a month she has married her lover, and she is still the Queen. She owns that . . . it was overhasty [1081] of them. But of any remorse for the past there is no hint at all.”
“It is upon such a nature, then, that the cathartic storm of Hamlet’s stored resentment . . . is to break.”
1939 kit2
kit2: standard
331 or ere] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Both or and ere mean ’before,’ and the combination simply emphasizes the idea." Kittredge then refers to the A.S. derivation, with a xref to Q2 371.
1958 fol1
fol1: standard
331 or ere] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “before.”
1980 pen2
pen2
331 or ere] Spencer (ed. 1980): “before. Probably Shakespeare and his contemporaries supposed the second word to be ’ever’. In fact both or and e’er (or ere) are forms of the same word, meaning ’before’.”
1982 ard2
ard2: standard; //s; OED; Abbott
331 or ere] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “before. Or, from O.E. œr, itself, means ’before’, as at 371 (Q1 Ere), 5.2.30. But once it had weakened in emphasis and perhaps intelligibility, it was very often reinforced by ere, itself from O.E. œr and so another form of the same word. (Lr. 2.4.285; Mac. 4.3.173; etc.) But or ever is also common (see 371 below; Auth. Version as in Proverbs 8.23, Daniel 6.24), and it may be that ere here is really the contradiction of ever. So OED regards it (Or B 1 b, C 1 d, e; Ere C 1 d). Cf. Abbott 131.”
1985 cam4
cam4
331 those shooes were old] Edwards (ed. 1985): "An extraordinarily homely touch among these references to Hyperion and Niobe. His mother had worn new shoes for her husband’s funeral, and they were still as good as new for her marriage to Claudius."
1987 oxf4
oxf4 = Abbott § 131
331 or ere]
1980 pen2
pen2
331 Barton (ed. 1980, p. 27) agrees there has been only one month of widowhood.
1988 bev2
bev2: standard
331 or ere] Bevington (ed. 1988): “even before.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
331 or . . . old] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The assumption must be that the Queen’s shoes were made of cloth or perhaps very fine leather, as worn by Elizabethan Court ladies indoors, and consequently quite fragile; more substantial shoes worn outdoors by ordinary people would not have been considered old after a month or two months.”
ard3q2: xref
331 or ere] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “even before (literally, ’before ever’); see [371].”
