1733 theo1

theo1

1137 beautified] Theobald (ed, 1733): “I have ventur’d at an Emendation here, against the Authority of all the Copies; but, I hope, upon Examination it will appear probable and reasonable. The Word beautified may carry two distinct Ideas, either as applyed to a Woman made up of artificial Beauties, [cites 1703] or as applied to a Person rich in native Charms. As in the 2 Gent of Verona: ‘And partly seeing you are beautified With goodly Shape’ [4.1.53. (1599)].

“As Shakespeare has therefore chose to use it in the latter Acceptation, to express natural Comeliness; I cannot imagine, that, here, he would have excepted to the Phrase, and call’d it a vile one. But a stronger Objection still, in my Mind, lies against it. As Celestial and Soul’s Idol are the introductory Characteristics of Ophelia, what a dreadfull Anticlimax is it to descend to such an Epithet as beautified ? On the other hand, beatified, as I have conjectur’d, raises the Image: but Polonius might very well, as a Roman Catholick, call it a vile Phrase, i.e. savouring of Prophanation; since the Epithet is peculiarly made an Adjunct to the Virgin Mary’s Honour, and therefore ought not to be employ’d in the Praise of a meer Mortal.

“Again, tho beatified, perhaps, is no where else apply’d to an earthly Beauty, yet the same rapturous Ideas are employ’d in Terms purely synonymous.”

1736 stubbs

stubbs

Stubbs (1736, p. 35): “Hamlet’s Letter to Ophelia, which Polonius reads, is none of the best Parts of this Play, and is, I think, too Comick for this Piece. The whole Conduct of Hamlet’s Madness, is, in my Opinion, too ludicrous for his Character, and for the situation his Mind was then really in. I must confess, nothing is more difficult than to draw a real Madness well, much more a feign’d one; for here the Poet in Hamlet’s Case, was to paint such a Species of Madness as should not give cause of Suspicion of the real Grief which had taken Possession of the Prince’s Mind. His Behaviour to those two Courtiers, whom the Usurper had sent to dive into his Secret, is very natural and just, because his chief Business was to baffle their Enquiries, as he does also in another Scene, where his falling into a sort of a Pun upon bringing in the Pipe, is a great Fault, for it is too low and mean for Tragedy. But our Author in this (as in all his Pieces) is glad of any Opportunity of falling in with the prevailing Humour of the Times, which ran into false Wit, and a constant endeavour to produce affected Moral Sentences.

“He was very capable of drawing Hamlet in Madness with much more Dignity, and without any Thing of the Comick; although it is difficult, as I said, to describe a feign’d Madness in a Tragedy, which is not to touch on the real Cause of Grief.”

1740 theo2

theo2 = theo1 minus magenta

1137 beautified] Theobald (ed, 1740): “I have ventur’d at an Emendation here, against the Authority of all the Copies; but, I hope, upon Examination it will appear probable and reasonable. The Word beautified may carry two distinct Ideas, either as applyed to a Woman made up of artificial Beauties, [cites 1703] or as applied to a Person to one rich in native Charms. As in the 2 Gent of Verona: ‘And partly seeing you are beautified With goodly Shape’ [4.1.53. (1599)].

“Again, tho beatified, perhaps, is no where else apply’d to an earthly Beauty, yet the same rapturous Ideas are employ’d in Terms purely synonymous.”

1765 john1

john1 = theo2+

1137 most beautified] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Both Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton have followed Theobald, but I am in doubt whether beautified , though, as Polonius calls it, a vile phrase, be not the proper word. Beautified seems to be a vile phrase, for the ambiguity of its meaning.”

1773 v1773

v1773 = theo2 (minus the final paragraph), john, +

1137 most beautified] Farmer(in Steevens, ed. 1773 10: Qq5r): “Heyward, in his History of Edward VI. says, ‘Katherine Parre, queen dowager to king Henry VIII. was a woman beautified with many excellent virtues’.”

1774-79? capn

capn

1137-9 most beautified] Capell (1779-83 [1774] 1:130): “The exclamation made by Polonius against ‘beatify’d’ (a reading of the third, and last editors) may be justly transfer’d upon ‘beautify’d,’ namely– that ‘tis ‘a vile phrase,take it which way you will: But without mis-spending time upon that word, it will be sufficient to establish beatify’d, to observe in the first place– it’s concordance with ‘celestial,’ and ‘idol;’ and next,– that the passage demands it, which is certainly verse: and let it not be said, that ’tis verse of the editor’s making, by the putting in of the words in black letter; for, without those words, or beatify’d either, there are two entire verses of five feet each, one of four, and another of three, which when the critick has look’d upon, let him say (if he can) that the whole was not intended to be so, as far as l. 22; and, if it was, the amendments are necessary: The objection that will be made to them, is,– the oddness of putting a superscription in metre: which may be answer’d by saying,– that the Poet has chose to do so, and rightly; for it has the air of that character which the penner of it wears at this present.”

1778 v1778

v1778 = john+

1137 most beautified] Steevens (ed. 1778): “So, in The Hag hath lost his Pearl, 1614: ‘A maid of rich endowments, beautified With all the virtues nature could bestow.’ Again, Nash dedicates his Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, 15— to the most beautified lady the lady Elizabeth Carey.’ Again, in Greene’s Mamillia, 1593: ‘—although thy person is so bravely beautified with the dowries of nature.’ Ill and vile as the phrase may be, our author has used it again in the Two Gentlemen of Verona: —seeing you are beautified With good shape, &c. [4.1.53.(1599)]”

1784 davies

davies

1137-9 most beautified] Davies (1784, 3:38): “The repetition (in 2 lines) of ye word beautified in all ye copies convinces me it was ye Original reading—The old Man might well be angry at ye coarse complts. of Hamlet to his Daughter, who does not say that she is beautiful, but made so by art—beautified or painted—”

1785 mason

mason

1137-9 most beautified] Mason (1785, p. 380): “By beautified, Hamlet means beautiful. But Polonius, taking the word in the more strictly grammatical sense of being made beautiful, calls it a vile phrase, as implying that his daughter’s beauty was the effect of art.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = v1785, john, mason +

1137-9 most beautified] Steevens (ed. 1785): “So, in The Hag hath lost his Pearl, 1614: ‘A maid of rich endowments, beautified With all the virtues nature could bestow.’ Again, Nash dedicates his Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, 1594— to the most beautified lady the lady Elizabeth Carey.’ Again, in Greene’s Mamillia, 1593: ‘—although thy person is so bravely beautified with the dowries of nature.’ Ill and vile as the phrase may be, our author has used it again in the Two Gentlemen of Verona: --seeing you are beautified With good lyshape, &c. [4.1.53 (1599)]”

1819 cald1

cald1

1137-9 most beautified] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Accomplished. ‘By art beautified andadorned, and brought far from the primitive rudenesse.’ Puttenham’s Arte English Poesie, 4to. 1589, p.18. ‘Seeing you are beautified with goodly shape.’ TGV [4.1.53. (1599)].”

1826 sing1

sing1

1137-9 most beautified] Singer (ed. 1826): “Vile as Polonius esteems the phrase, from its equivocal meaning, Shakspeare has used it again in The Two Gentleman of Verona:— ‘—Seeing you are beautified | With goodly shape,’ [4.1.53. (1599)] &c. Nash, in his dedication of Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, 1594— ‘To the most beautified Lady Elizabeth Cary.’ It is not uncommon in dedications and encomiastic verses of the poet’s age.”

1839 knt1

knt1 ≠ sing1 (without attribution)

1139-40 Knight (ed. 1839): “Beautified, according to Polonius, is a vile phrase. It was the common phrase in dedications to ladies in Shakespere’s time:-- ‘To the wothily honoured and vertuous beautified lady, the Lady Anne Glemnham,’ &c., is found in a volume of Poems, by R. L. 1596.”

1858 col3

col3: sing2

1137-9 most beautified ] Collier (ed. 1858): “Nash uses the epithet ‘beatufied’ in the dedication of his ‘Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem.’ Mr. Singer, following Steevens, quoted it as published in 1594: that, in fact, was the second time in 1594, and a third time in 1613. The earliest impression contains the apologetic letter of Nash to Gabriel Harvey: as Gabriel Harvey rejected this overture in his ‘New Letter of Notable Contents’ in the same year, 1593, Nash suppressed it, and in 1594 put forth an edition of his ‘Christ’s Tears’ without it.”

1865 hal

hal = standard

1137-39 most beautified] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “Polonius calls beautified a vile phrase, and so it is, but it was at least a common one in those times, particularly in the addresses of letters. "To the most beautified lady, Lady Elizabeth Carey," is the address of dedication by Nash. "To the most beautified lady, the Lady Anne Glemham," R. L. inscribes his Diella, consisting of poems and sonnets, 1596. The examples wherein a person is said to be beautified with particular endowments seem hardly apposite. —Nares.”

1872 cln1

cln1 : standard

1137 beautified] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “endowed with beauty. Our author has used this ill and vile phrase again in Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 1. 55. And, as Steevens remarks, Nash dedicated his ’ Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem ’ (1594) ’ to the most beautified lady, the lady Elizabeth Carey.’ "

1139 vile] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "So the quartos. The first three folios have ’ vilde,’ and so the word was frequently spelt."

1877 clns

clns

1139 beautified] Neil (ed. 1877): “The evil opinion Polonius expresses of this word requires some explanation. It was one of the most common complimentary terms of that age. Nash dedicates his Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, 1594, ‘to the most beautified Lady Elizabeth Carey;’ Shakespeare uses it himself in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV, i; and the verb beautify he employs four times. Henry Chettle, in the preface to Kina Hart’s Dreame, 1593, speaks of works ‘no lesse beautified with eloquente phrase, than garnished with excellent example.’ Something must be surmised as underlying this critical observation. Now, we know that Robert Greene charged Shakespeare with having ‘beautified himself’ with ‘feathers’ not his own, and this we read as stigmatising that phrase as a vile one in its falsity and its ill-nature. Ante, p. 27.”

1882 elze

elze

1139 vile] Elze (ed. 1882): “The two spellings vile and vilde (vild) were used indiscriminately in Shakespeare’s time; the former, as Mr Wright remarks in the Clarendon Edition of The Tempest p. 96, ‘is uniformly employed throughout the Authorized Version of 1611’, whereas Spenser uses both spellings not only in the body of the line, but even in the rhyme; compare Faerie Queene, I, Introduction, 4 (vile — stile — a-while); I, 3, Argument (mylde — vylde); III, 7, 30 (wilde — unfilde — compilde — vilde).”

1890 irv

irv : standard

1137-9 most beautified] Symons (in Irving & Marshall ed. 1890): “The word beautified occurs again, but particularly, in Two Gent. Of Verona, iv. 1. 55. It was not uncommon, however, as an adjective, and used in no affected sense. Nash dedicated his Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, 1594, ‘to the most beautified lady, the lady Elizabeth Carey;’ and Caldecott quotes another dedication (of Certaine Sonnets adjoyned to the amorous Poeme of Diego and Gineura by R.L. Gent, 1506) ‘to the worthily honoured and vertuous beautified Lady. the Ladie Anne Glemnham.’ It is evident, however, that in the passage in the text beautified is used either with a double meaning or else to emphasize the euphuism of the whole letter. In the Q. of 1603 we read ‘To the most beautiful Ophelia,’ and the change has evidently been made deliberately.

1899 ard1

ard1 : standard

1137 beautified] Dowden (ed. 1899): “used by Shakespeare in Two Gentlemen of Verona, [4.1.53-4 (1599-1600)] Theobald read beautified, which Capell approved as agreeing with ‘celestial’ and ‘idol.’ Dyce takes ‘beautified’ as meaning beautiful and not accomplished. Nash dedicated Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, 1594, ‘To the most beautified lady, the lady Elizabeth Carey’; and H. Olney dedicated R. L.’s Diella, 1596, ‘to the most wothily Honoured and vertuous beautified Ladie.’ Greene described Shakespeare in a vile phrase as an upstart crow ‘beautified with our feathers.’ In Henry Wotten’s tale (1578), on which Solyman and Perseda is founded, I find: ‘Persida, seeeing a stranger beautifieed in his feathers.’”

1913 Trench

Trench

1137-40, 1144-52 Trench (1913, p. 93): “His love-letters, to judge by the published specimen, were such that she might well be excused for considering them unintelligible. People wiser than she have found that specimen hard to understand.” He parses the various meanings of the lines with doubt and finds them inconsistent.

Trench

1139 beautified is a vile phrase] Trench (1913, p. 93) claims that Polonius is right, that “the word beautified is properly capable of only one meaning, namely, ’rendered beautiful,’ and it is . . . only one of three several occasions upon which Hamlet made references, direct or indirect, to Ophelia’s attempt at improving, by the use of cosmetics, upon the face that God had given her [1198-9].”

1934 cam3

cam3 : standard

1139-40 most beautified] Wilson (ed. 1934): “beautified = endowed with beauty. Cf. TGV[4.1.53-4. (1599-1600)]; Rom.[1.3.88. (434)]; Luc. [(404)] and Nashe, ded. of Christ’s Tears ‘To the most beautified lady, the lady Elizabeth Carey.’ The jest is that Pol. who himself uses such far--fetched vocabulary should boggle at an innocent word. Some connect it with [(1798-1800)] ‘I have heard of your paintings’ etc., and suppose the whole letter ironical. I see no grounds for this; it is just the love--letter of a young man, beginning à la mode, containing a rather forced jingle for which he aplolgises, and in a note of genuine passsion. The student comes out in the word ‘machine,’ v. note l. 124”

1982 ard2

ard2 : standard

1137 beautified] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Though Shakespeare several times uses the verb ’beautify’, it is only here that he uses the participial adjective beautified. Some commentators, taking it to imply artificially rather than naturally beautiful, have shared Polonius’s objection to it. Yet a not uncommon usage is illustrated by the Homily on Matrimony, which says that a virtuous wife shall be ’most excellently beautified before God’. The use of the word in religious contexts (cf. here celestial, soul’s idol) seems to have been encouraged by confusion with ’beatified’. It may have been fashionable in complimentary addresses : dedications to ’the most beautified lady’ and ’the most worthily honoured and most virtuous beautified lady’ occur respectively in Nashe’s Christ’s Tears (1594) and the Diella of R.L. (1596). They forbid us to regard Hamlet’s superscription as wildly extravagant ; and though Shakespeare sees it to be vulnerable, by subjecting it to Polonius’s criticism he to some degree protects it from our own. Cf. II. ii. 494-6."

2008 Bate

Bate: Greene

1137-9 that’s . . . phrase] Bate (2008, p. 41): “The evidence that Shakespeare was insulted—or amused, or both—by the ’upstart crow’ quip is . . . apparent from the way that ’Greene’s’ terms lodged themselves in his memory. Some years later, he has Hamlet writing a love-letter ’to the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia’ [1137]. Polonius interjects ’That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase: "beautified" is a vile phrase.’ This sounds very like a memory of ’beautified with our feathers.’ The repeated ’vile’ is a telling parry because the word was associated with social inferiority, which was exactly what Shakespeare had been accused of in the original ’upstart crow’ insult.” Ed. note: See "dating essay in ’About Hamlet’ section for reference to ’beautified with our feathers.’