HW HomePrevious CNView CNView TNMView TNINext CN

Line 333 - 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.
333 Like Niobe all teares, why she <, euen she.>1.2.149
1780 mals1
mals1
333 Niobe] Steevens (apud Malone, ed. 1780; 2:713): “Shakspeare might have caught this idea from an ancient ballad entitled ‘The falling-out of Lovers is the renewing of Love: ’ ‘Now I, like weeping Niobe, May wash my hands in teares.’ Steevens.”
ref. x.191.
1785 v1785
v1785 ≈ mals1 (with minor variations in magenta and omissions struck out) + in magenta underlined.
333 Niobe] Steevens (ed. 1785): “Shakspeare might have caught this idea from an ancient ballad intitled The falling out of Lovers is the renewing of Love: ‘Now I, like weeping Niobe, May wash my handes in teares, &c.’
“Of this ballad Amantium irae, &c. is the burden. Steevens.”
Ed. note: Since Ovid was close at hand for Sh., Steevens’s analogue seems far-fetched.
1790 mal
mal ≈ v1785
333 Niobe]
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
333 Niobe]
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
333 Niobe]
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
333 Niobe]
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813 +
333 Niobe] Malone (ed. 1821) adds, “Or from Whitney’s Emblems, p. 13, 1586: ‘Of Niobe behoulde the ruthfulle plighte, Bicause shee did despise the powers devine, Her children all, weare slaine within her sighte, And, while her selfe, with tickling teares did pine, Shee was transform’de into a marble stone, Which, yet with teares, doth seem to waile and mone.’”
1865 hal
hal = v1821
333 Niobe]
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ v1821 (Niobe story) without attribution with some additions in magenta underlined
333 Niobe] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “The mother of several sons and daughters, of whom she was so proud that she vaunted herself to be better worthy of immortal honors than Latona, who was the mother of Apollo and Diana. This so incensed Latona that she urged her children to avenge her; and the sons of Niobe were all slain by the darts of Apollo, while the daughters perished by those of Diana, Overwhelmed by her loss, Niobe wept till she became transformed to stone.”
1872 hud2
hud2 : Malone without attribution; ≈ c&mc without attribution + in magenta underlined
333 Niobe] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Niobe was the wife of Amphion, King of Thebes. As she had twelve children, she went crowing one day over Latona, who had only two, Apollo and Diana. In return for this, all her twelve were slain by Latona’s two; and Jupiter, in pity of her sorrow, transformed her into a rock, from which her tears issued in a perennial stream.”
1874 Malleson
Malleson
333 Malleson (1874, p, 484): “ . . . she may have followed [her husband’s] body like Niobe, all tears, but her sorrow was feigned, her thoughts upon the new marriage.”
1880 Tanger
Tanger
333 why she] Tanger (1880, p. 122): Q2’s om. of F1 euen she “seems to be a simple accidental omission.”
1880 meik
meik ≈ hud2 + in magenta underlined
333 Niobe] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, king of Lydia. . . .”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
333 Niobe]
1888 macl
macl
333 why she] Maclachlan (ed. 1888), who relies primarily on Q2, thinks the F1 addition is needed for meter and emphasis.
1930 Granville-Barker
Granville-Barker
333 all teares] Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 228): “She wept bitterly when he died. We need not, however, see hypocrisy there. She may well have wept the more bitterly because she had been false to him.”
1934 Wilson
Wilson MSH
333 why she] Wilson (1934, pp. 247-8) <p. 247> includes among the missing in Q2 several of the duplications in F1; besides even she in 333, he names a 2nd indeed in 418, and 2nd very like in 435, </p. 247><p. 248> a 2nd well in 1747, a 2nd yours in 3647, and a 2nd Hamlet in 3793. </p. 248>
1957 pen1b
pen1b: standard
333 Niobe] Harrison (ed. 1957): “she boasted of her children to the annoyance of the Goddess Artemis, who slew them. Niobe was so sorrowful that she was changed into a fountain.”
1958 fol1
fol1: standard
333 Niobe] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “a proud woman in Greek mythology, who offended the goddess Leto and was punished by the death of her children and her own transformation to a stone which appeared to weep continually.”
1970 pel2
pel2: standard
333 Niobe] Farnham (ed. 1970): “the proud mother who boasted of having more children than Leto and was punished when they were slain by Apollo and Artemis, children of Leto; the grieving Niobe was changed by Zeus into a stone, which continually dropped tears”
1980 pen2
pen2
333 Niobe] Spencer (ed. 1980): “She was the type of the grieving mother—her seven sons and seven daughters were slain by Apollo and Diana—who shed so many tears that she was turned into stone.”
1982 ard2
ard2: standard
333 Niobe] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The type of sorrowing womanhood. In the Greek myth she wept inconsolably for the deaths of her children, slain by Apollo and Diana [for her hubris], until grief turned her into a stone, from which tears continued to fall. See Ovid, Met., 6.146-312”

ard2: Q2 better
333 she] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The F even she, which fills out the metre, may be Shakespearian but is comparable to the F repetitions [elsewhere]. See Intro., p. 62. As suggesting that better had been expected of her than of other women, it adds no doubt a note of poignancy but goes somewhat against the rest of the speech. And it weakens the sudden breaking off for the passionate exclamation which follows.”
1985 cam4
cam4
333 Niobe] Edwards (ed. 1985): "The mythical mother whose fourteen children were slain by the gods because she boasted about them. She wept until she was turned to stone--and still the tears flowed."
1987 oxf4
oxf4
333 Niobe] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "In Greek mythology Niobe is the personification of bereavement. She boasted that she was at least the equal of Leto, because she had six (or seven) children of either sex, whereas Leto had but one of each. In revenge of the slight, Leto’s two children, Apollo and Artemis, killed all of Niobe’s children, leaving her to grieve."

oxf4
333 why she] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "These words, for which F is the sole authority, are required for metrical reasons and also for emphasis. Repetition, reasons and also for emphasis. Repetition, so indicative of an obsessive preoccupation, is a feature of the entire speech. Eye-skip, to which both compositors were prone, would account for Q2’s omission."
1988 bev2
bev2: standard
333 Niobe] Bevington (ed. 1988): “Tantalus’ daughter, Queen of Thebes, who boasted that she had more sons and daughters than Leto; for this, Apollo and Artemis, children of Leto, slew her fourteen children. She was turned by Zeus into a stone that continually dropped tears.”
1992 fol2
fol2: standard
333 Niobe] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “In Greek mythology, Niobe, so grief-stricken at the loss of her children that she could not cease crying, was transformed into a stone from which water continually flowed.”
1999 Mallin
Mallin
333 Mallin (1999, p. 136): “Hamlet’s description of Gertrude’s following ‘my poor father’s body’ . . . gives the game away, insofar as Niobe mourned for her children, not for a husband.”
2003 Kliman
Kliman: Malone; Steevens; Mallin
333 Niobe] Kliman (2003): Both Steevens and Malone speculate on sources for this image, but it certainly could have been from Ovid. Niobe was punished because she put herself above the gods, and she wept because her children were slain. Mallin sees this image as evidence of “Oedipal drama.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
333 Niobe] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Greek mythical figure who mourned for the deaths of her children until she was turned into a weeping stone statue; see Ovid, Metamorphoses, 6.146-312 (Latin text); 6.184-395 (Golding).”

ard3q2: ard2
333 she] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “F follows she with even she, seen by Jenkins as an actor’s interpolation, though it does make the line metrically regular (see [418]n.).”
333

Copyright ©2024 hamletworks.org. All rights reserved.