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Line 588 - 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.”

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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

588 Set your {intreatments} <entreatments> at a higher rate	1.3.122

1744 han1

han1

588 intreatments] Hanmer (ed. 1744): “Intreatments is the same as Treatments and signifies here, the manner of your being treated by him.”

1745 han2

han2 = han1

588 intreatments]

1747 warb

warb

588 intreatments] Warburton (ed. 1747): “I know not what to make of this reading. These intreatments were not hers but Hamlet’s. Or if, in some sense, they might be called hers, as paid to her, yet they could not be called so here, for she is bid to set a high rate upon them, so certainly, not those which Hamlet made to her. I suspect Shakespear wrote, ‘Set your intraitments at a higher rate,’ i.e. coyness. A word in use among the old English writers. The sense is this, Sell your coyness, before you put it off, at a higher rate than a bare command to lay it aside, and become familiar.”

1753 Edwards

Edwards = warb +

588 intreatments] Edwards (1750 [3rd ed.], pp. 152-3): <p. 152> “A word (he says) used among </p. 152> <p. 153> the old English writers. I doubt no older than the Hyper-critic of the Dunciad. But he knows not what to make of intreatments, the true reading. ‘Set your intreatments at a higher rate.’ Why may it not signifie entertainments, i.e. the opportunities you give him of conversing with you?” </p. 153>

1765 Heath

Heath ≈ warb +

588 intreatments] Heath (1765, p. 528): “The word, intraitments, is of Mr. Warburton’s own coining. He assures us indeed, that it is ‘a word in use among the old English writers, to signify coyness.’ But I am persuaded that his memory hath plaid him false, and that it is no where to be found existing but in his own imagination. The common reading was, ‘your intreatments,’ a word derived, as I apprehend, from the verb, intreat, and signifying such condescensions as may be honourably granted to submissive intreaty, such as admission of visits, listening to the lover’s vows, &c. See [Edwards,] the Canons of Criticism, p. 201.”

1765 john1

john1

588 intreatments] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Intreatments here means company, conversation, from the French entrétien.”

Ed. note: No definition in Johnson’s Dictionary.

1771 han3

han3 ≈ han1; ≈ john1 without attribution

588 intreatments] Hanmer (apud ed. 1771): “*Entreatments is the same as Treatments and signifies here, the manner of your being treated by him. Hawkins (ed. 1771): “[Entreatments means company, conversation, from the French entrétien.]”

Ed. note:Hawkins, in editing han3, indicates his additions with brackets.

1773 jen

jen: warb +

588 intreatments] Jennens (ed. 1773): “W[arburton] reads intraitments, i.e, coyness. A word (he says) in use among the old English writers.”

Ed. note: With the parenthesis, Jensen conveys his disdain for Warburton’s idea.

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

588 intreatments]

1773- Steevens

mSteevens1 = warb

588 intreatments] Steevens (1773-): “For entreatments Dr. Warburton wd read intraitments,. . . ”

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773

588 intreatments]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

588 intreatments]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

588 intreatments]

1790 mal

mal = john1 +

588 intreatments] Malone (ed. 1790): “Entreatments, I rather think, means the objects of entreaty; the favours for which lovers sue. In the next scene we have a word of similar formation: ‘As if it some impartment did desire,’ &c. Malone.”

1791- rann

rann

588 intreatments] Rann (ed. 1791-): “entreatments] —company—Suffer not every slight entreaty to prevail on you to listen to him.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

588 intreatments]

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

588 intreatments]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

588 intreatments]

1819 cald1

cald1: Edwards without attribution; john1

588 intreatments] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Opportunities of entreating or parley. Johnson derives it from entrétien, Fr.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = john1

588 intreatments]

1826 sing1

sing1: john1 +

588 intreatments] Singer (ed. 1726): “i.e. ‘be more difficult of acccess, and let the suits to you for that purpose be of higher respect, than a command to parley.’ How Johnson could conceive entreatments to signify company, conversation, I am at a loss to imagine.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

588 intreatments]

1833 valpy

valpy ≈ john1 without attribution

588 intreatments] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Company, conversation.”

1853 Clarke

Clarke

588 intreatments] Clarke (1853): For entreatments has only 588; nothing for intreatments.

1854 del2

del2

588-9 Set . . . parley] Delius (ed. 1854): “Ophelia soll ihre Unterhaltungen höher taxiren, als sich auf Befehl zum Gespräch bereit finden lassen.” [Ophelia should value her communications higher than to be ready to converse on command.]

1856 hud1

hud1 = sing1 minus john without attribution

588 intreatments] Hudson (ed. 1856): “‘Be more difficult of access, and let the suits to you for that purpose be of higher respect, than a command to parley.’”

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1 minus comment on Johnson

588 intreatments]

1868 c&mc

c&mc: standard

588 intreatments] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “‘The entreaties you receive for granting an interview.’”

1872 cln1

cln1: john + in magenta underlined

588 intreatments] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “Not elsewhere found in Shakespeare. Johnson interprets it as ‘company, conversation’; like ‘entertainment’ in [529].”

1872 hud2

hud2 = hud1

588 intreatments]

1874 Schmidt

Schmidt

588 intreatments] Schmidt (1874): for entreatments: “invitation [. . .] the invitations which you receive.”

1877 v1887

v1877 : john; c&mc; cln1 +

588 intreatments] Clark & Wright (apud Furness, ed. 1877): ‘Parley’ in the next line seems to point to the sense of preliminary negotiations and so solicitations.”

1881 hud3

hud3 ≈ hud2 w/ explan. of parley in magenta underlined

588 intreatments] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Be more difficult of access, and let the suits to you for that purpose be of higher respect than a command to talk or chat.”

1883 wh2

wh2

588 intreatments] White (ed. 1883): “loosely used in the sense of yieldings to entreaty.”

1885 macd

macd ≈ wh2 + in magenta underlined

588 intreatments] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “To be entreated is to yield: ‘he would nowise be entreated:’ entreatments, yieldings: ‘you are not to see him just because he chooses to command a parley.’”

1885 mull

mull ≈ wh2

588 intreatments] Mull (ed. 1885): “That which he entreats or solicits of you.”

1899 ard1

ard1: john; cln1 + NED [OED]

588 intreatments] Dowden (ed. 1899): [OED] has “conversation, interview, from the commoner meaning of negotiation, discussion.”

1938 parc

parc

588 intreatments]] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “interviews.”

1939 kit2

kit2: analogues

588-9 Set your . . . parle] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "When a besieger appears before the castle of your heart and summons you to a parley, do not immediately enter into negotiuations (entreatmens) for surrender. The metaphor by which a woman or a woman’s heart is identified with a castle or walled town defending itself against besiegers was common in the Middle Ages and had become conventional long before Shakespeare’s time. It survives in the phrase ’to lay siege to one’s heart.’ Cf. Greene, Mamillia, 1583 (ed. Grosart, II.25): ’What? shall teh beauty iof Pharicles enchant thy mynde, or his filed speech bewitch thy senses? Will not he thinke the castle wanteth but scaling, that yeeldeth at the first shot; and that the bulwarke wantged but batterie, that at the first parle becomes Prisoners? Chapman, May Day, i, 1 (Pearson ed., II, 325): ’Well shee may hold out a parlee or two, for ’tis a weake fort that obeyes at the first or second summons.’ ’"

Ed. note: Kittredge, pp. 159-60 and n. 159, includes many other analogues.

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

588 intreatments] Rylands (ed. 1947): "interviews."

1957 pel1

pel1 gloss ≈ kit2 without attribution

588 intreatments] Farnham (ed. 1957): “military negotiations for surrender.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

588 intreatments] Farnham (ed. 1970): “military negotiations for surrender”

1980 pen2

pen2

588 your intreatments] Spencer (ed. 1980): “his solicitations of your favour.”

1982 ard2

ard2

588 intreatments] Jenkins (ed. 1982): negotiations. A military metaphor, as is clear from parley [589]. It was of course traditional to represent courtship in terms of war. Ophelia, as defender of a citadel, is not to accept the besieger’s call for a parley as a sufficient reason for her to treat, or enter into negotiations, with him."

1987 oxf4

oxf4: Jenkins

588 intreatments] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "negotiations, interviews. As Jenkins points out, the use of parley in [589] suggests that there are military overtones to entreaments, a rare word not used by Shakespeare elsewhere."

1988 bev2

bev2 ≈ oxf4 without attribution

588 intreatments] Bevington (ed. 1988) “negotiations for surrender. (A military term.)”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

588-9 Set . . . parle] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “Polonius here uses images from finance (Set . . . at a higher rate), diplomacy (entreatments: negotiations), and the military (a command to parle: an order to meet in conference) in order to tell Ophelia to spend less time talking to Hamlet.”

1993 OED

OED

588 intreatments] OED: For Intreatance and Entreatance: 1. Treatment; dealing with, or behaviour towards, a person. The OED does have a form, intrait (1588), of the word warb recommends (see above) but it means entreat.

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard gloss; xref

588 intreatments] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “negotiations, perhaps also suggesting ’entreaties’ = solicitations. The word is a Shakespearean coinage: see [275 CN] ”