Line 1165-66 - 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.”
7. Further information: See the Introduction for explanations of other abbreviations.
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Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
| 1165 If I had playd the Deske, or Table booke, | 2.2.136 |
|---|
1166 Or giuen my hart a {working} <winking> mute and dumbe,
1747 warb
warb
1165-6 If...dumbe,] Warburton (ed. 1747): “i.e. If either I had conveyed intelligence between them, and been the confident of their amours, [play’d the desk or table-book,] or had connived at it, only observed them in secret without acquainting my daughter with my discovery, [given my heart a mute and dumb working,] or lastly, had been negligent in observing the intrigue and over-looked it, [look’d upon this love with idle sight;] what would you have thought of me?”
1773 v1773
v1773 = warb +
1166 working] Steevens (ed. 1773): “The folio reads a winking.”
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778 +
1166 Or...dumbe,] Malone (ed. 1785): Or given my heart a working mute and dumb;— The same pleonasm [mute and dumb ] is found in our author’s Rape of Lucrece: ‘And in my hearing be you mute and dumb.’”
1791- rann
rann
1165 If I had play’d the desk,] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—If I had played the go-between, or kept their love a secret, as judging it of no consequence.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785 + magenta
1165 If...booke,] Malone (ed. 1793): “I doubt whether the first line is rightly explained. It may mean, if I had lock’d up this secret in my own breast, as closely as if it were confined in a desk or table-book.”
1166 Or...dumbe,] Malone (ed. 1793): Or given my heart a working mute and dumb;— The same pleonasm [mute and dumb ] is found in our author’s Rape of Lucrece: ‘And in my hearing be you mute and dumb.’”
1819 cald1
cald1 : malone
1165-6 If...dumbe,] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Had I merely minuted this in my mind, locking it up in the treasury of my memory, as in a desk, for future use; or had I dealt with the active energies of body and mind, as with the eyes when yielding torepose, and suffering its bearing in silence to pass unnoticed; or had contemplated it with a careless eye as a thing frivolous and unworthy of regard. The enforcing of an idea by use of synonimes or reduplication of similar terms, is common to our author with those of his age. The identical instance is given by Mr. Malone from his Rape of Lucrece: ‘And in my hearing be you mute and dumb.’ In the folios winking was substituted for working the reading of the quartos. Between the two words there is not much to chuse: and whether from the critical character of that age it is to be considered that the change was made in consequence of such a nicety as the recurrence of the word work, only two lines below (went round to work) is left for the reader to say.”
1826 sing1
sing1 ≈ cald1
1166 If...dumbe,] Singer (ed. 1826): “That is ‘if I had acted the part of depositary of their secret loves, or given my heart a hint to be mute about their passion.’ The quartos read —‘given my hearat a working,’ and the modern editors follow this reading: I prefer the reading of the folio. ‘Conniventia, a winking at; a sufferance; a feigning not to see or know.’ The pleonasm, mute and dumb, is found in the Rape of Lucrece: — ‘And in my hearaing be you mute and dumb.’ [1123]”
1843 col1
col1 ≈ cald1
1166 working] Collier (ed. 1843): “The quartos have working for ‘winking’ of the folio, which seems the better reading.”
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 = sing1 without attribution
1165-6 If...dumbe,] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “That is, if I had given my heart a hint to be mute about their passion. ’Conniventia, a winking at; a sufferance; a feigning not to see or know.’ The quartos have Working instead of winking.”
1867 ktlyn
ktlyn
1165 playd] Keightly (1867, p. 290): “Perhaps ply’d, as pretending to be occupied. In Titus Andronicus [5. 2. 80. (2366)], the 4tos read ‘ply,’ the folio ‘play my theme.’”
1872 hud2
hud2 ≈ v1793
1165 Table booke] Hudson (ed. 1872): “By keeping dark about the matter. A desk or table-book does not prate of what it contains. A table-book is a case or set of tablets, to carry in the pocket, and write memoranda upon. See page 542, note 14.”
hud2 = hud1 minus Quarto note
1165-6 If...dumbe,] Hudson (ed. 1872): "If I had given my heart a hint to be mute about their passion. ’Conniventia, a winking at; a sufferance; a feigning not to see or know.’"
1872 cln1
cln1
1165 Table booke] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “if I had been the agent of their correspndence. Table-book occurs Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 610. It is the same as ’ tables,’ i. 5. 107."
1166 winking] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "The reading of the folios. The quartos have ’ working.’ ’ Winking ’ means ’ convivance,’ as in Henry V, v. 2. 332. In Cymbeline, ii. 4. 89, ’ two winking Cupids of silver ’ mean two blind Cupids, two Cupids with their eyes shut. So Acts xvii. 30."
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
1165 Table booke] Hudson (ed. 1881): “By keeping dark about the matter. A desk or table-book does not prate of what it contains. A table-book is a case or set of tablets, to carry in the pocket, and write memoranda upon. See [1. 5. 98. (783)].”
1882 elze
elze: malone
1166 mute and dumbe] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Lucrece 1123: ‘And in my hearing be you mute and dumb’.”
1890 irv
irv ≈malone
1165 working] Symons (in IRVING & MARSHALL ed. 1890): “Qq. have working, which looks like a misprint. Compare Henry V. v. 2. 331, 332: ‘Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent winking.’ In Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 317, the word wink is used in a somewhat similar sense: ‘To give mine enemy a lasting wink’ where wink signifies a closing of the eyes, not temporarily, but for ever. The tautology, mute and dumb, is found again in Lucrece, 1123: ‘And in my hearing be you mute and dumb’.”
1899 ard1
ard1 = cln1
1165 desk or Table booke] Dowden (ed. 1899): “silent recipient. Clar. Press explains: ‘If I had been the agent of their correspondence.’ See tables, I. v. 107.”
1166 working] Dowden (ed. 1899): “closed the eyes of my heart. ‘Wink’ did not necessarily mean, as now, ‘a brief closure of the eyes.’ In Sonnets, xliii. I, it is used for sleep.”
1909 subbarau
subbarau
1165 playd the Deske, or Table booke] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “Just so: ‘If I pretended to have no more knowledge of the love-making carried on under my very nose, than a desk of the correspondence conducted thereon, or a table-book of the notes jotted down therein.’”
1934a cam3
cam3 = ard1 +
1165 If...Table book] Wilson (ed. 1934): “i.e. moted the matter privately and kept it secret. Cf. ‘tables’ [(792)].”
1166 working] Wilson (ed. 1934): “working (Q2) F1 ‘winking’ — which all edd. follow. Cf. L.L.L. [4.1.33. (1008)] ‘the working of the heart’; Son xciii [(11)] ‘thy heart’s workings’; I Hen. VI, [5.5.86. (2908)]; above [(83)} ‘In what particularthought to work I know not’; and below [(1593-4)], where Ham. speaks of the ‘working’ of the ‘soul.’ Thus ‘working’ = mental operation of any kind. MSH. pp. 74-5”
1982 ard2 Only Ard2’s ‘longer notes’ have been entered. Do we not need the gloss notes?
ard1 : wilson
working] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Q2 working is strongly defended by Dover Wilson (MSH, pp. 74-5), who cites LLL IV.i. 33, ’the working of the heart’, and Sonn. XCIII, and shows that this was a common word with Shakespeare for any operation of heart, mind, or soul (cf. II. ii. 548). Yet it is here more probably a misreading, assisted by work two lines below, of winking (F), which is equally Shakespearean and better fits the context of inaction. With the combination of winking and dumbness cf. Rom. III. ii. 6-7, where winking of eyes will allow Romeo to be ’untalk’d of’ as well as ’unseen’. "
1985 cam4
cam4
1165 played...or table-book] Edwards (ed. 1985): “i.e. taken note and said nothing.”
1166 given...winking] Edwards (ed. 1985): “closed the eyes of his heart; i.e. connived at the affair.”
1165 1166