1726 theon

theon

1730 bodkin] Theobald (1726, pp. 85-6): <p. 85>“I know that the Poet is generally interpreted to mean in this Place, When we might give ourselves a Release by any, the least, Weapon of Offence that can be. ‘Tis true, This exaggerates the Thought in that particular; but I can scarce suppose that he intended to descend to a Thought, that a Man might dispatch himself with a Bodkin, or a little Implement with which Women separate, and twist over their Hair. I rather believe, the Poet designed the Word here to signify, according to the old Usage of it, a Dagger. Tho’ the Glossaries give us no such Interpretation, the use of an Old and Learned Poet, who may weigh against their Comments, I am sure will support me in it. Chaucer, in his Monke’s Tale, recounting the Murther of Julius Cæsar, has this Stanza.This Julius unto the Capitol went, Upon a day, as he was wont to gone, And in the Capitol anon him hent This false Brutus, and his other fone, And sticked him with BODKINS anone With many a Wound, and thus they let him lie: But never grutch’d he at no stroke but One, Or else at two, but if his story lie. </p. 85></p. 86>‘Tis plain, that the Poet here means Daggers by this Word: And no one ever yet thought that Brutus and Cassius, or any other of the Conspirators, stabb’d Cæsar with their Ladies Bodkins.”</p. 86>

1773 v1773

STEEVENS (ed. 1773): “The first expression probably alluded to the writ of discharge, which was formerly granted to those barons and knights who personally attended the king on any foreign expedition, which was called a Quietus.

The word is used for the discharge of an account by Webster, in his Duchess of Malfy, 1623.

“You had the trick in audit time to be sick

“Till I had sign’d your Quietus.

A bodkin was, I believe, the ancient term for a small dagger. Gascoigne, speaking of Julius Caesar, says,

“At last with bodkins, dub’d and doust to death,

“All his glory vanish’d with his breath.”

In the margin of Stowe’s Chronicle, edit. 1614, it is said, that Caesar was slain with bodkins; and in The Muse’s Looking-glass, by Randolph, 1638.

“Apho. A rapier’s but a bodkin.

“Deil. And a bodkin

“Is a most dang’rous weapon; since I read

“Of Julius Caesar’s death, I durst not venture

“Into a taylor’s shop for fear of bodkins.”

Again, in The Custom of the Country, by B. and Fletcher:

“--Out with your bodkin,

“Your pocket-dagger, your stilletto.”--

1793 v1793

Malone (ed. 1793): By a bare bodkin, does not perhaps mean, “by so little an instrument as a dagger,” but “by an unsheathed dagger.”

In the account which Mr. Steevens has given of the original meaning of the term quietus, after the words, “who personally attended the king on any foreign expedition,” should have been added,--and were therefore exempted from the claims of feutage, or a tax on every knight’s fee.”

1809 sherwen

sherwen

1730 bodkin] Sherwen (1809, pp. 90-1): <p.90> “‘And for a bodykin a swarthe obteyne.’ Æl, l. 265.

“Bodykin, is used by Chaucer more than once to signify a bodkin or dagger. I know not that it had any other signification in his time.’ ‘Swarthe used as a noun, has no sense that I am acquainted with.’—Appendix.

“Mr. T[yrwhitt] might have added Shakspeare’s bare bodkin. ‘Who would fardles bear when he himself might His quietus make with a bare bodkin?’ And he ought to have known that a dagger was called a bodykin by Chaucer, from its having been worn stuck in the girdle close to the body; which establishes the propriety of the word for the body. Bodkin, though here used for the body, is properly its diminutive.”

1843 col1

1730 Collier (ed. 1843): “Many passages from dramatists and other writers of the time might be produced, if necessary , to show that a ‘bodkin’ was the old term for a small dagger. The folios give the rest of the line,’ who would these fardels bear,’ which is clearly wrong on every account.”

-1845 mhun1

mhun1

1730 with...bodkin] Hunter (-1845, f.225v): “A question might be raised upon this, whether it merely means an unsheathed dagger or bodkin: or with any thing so insignificant as a bodkin. ‘Bare’ is often used now in that sense.”

1730 With...bodkin] Hunter (-1845, f.225v): “‘With a bare bodkin’ I take to signify with any thing so mean as a tailors bodkin. See the passage quoted from the Muse’s Looking Glass.”

1730 fardels] Hunter (-1845, f.225v): “‘Fardels’ is an old word for burdens— Who would bear burdens .”

1845 hunter

hunter

1730 bodkin] Hunter (1845, p. 241-2): <p. 241>“Bodkin seems to me not rightly explained as meaning a little dagger. Any thing mean and insignificant, even a bodkin, may take away life. The passage quoted by Steevens seems to be when a dagger is spoken of with a kind of derision or contempt. Reginald Scot plainly distinguishes a dagger from a bodkin when describing the Juggler’s trick in which he appeared to stab himself— ‘Then thrust or cause to be thrust into your breast a round bodkin, or the point of a dagger.’—Discovery of Witchcraft, fol. 1665, p. 198, first </p. 241><p. 242>printed in the reign of Elizabeth. We have the bodkin figured at p. 200, where it is plainly nothing but the common semptress’s [sic] instrument so called.”</p. 242>

1730 Who...beare] Hunter (1845, p. 242): <p. 242>“The folios read, ‘Who would these fardels bear?’ a reading which ought not to have been merely shewn in the margin but placed in the text,— ‘these fardels,’ these burdens just before spoken of, the whips and scorns, the oppressor’s wrongs, and the other evils he had specified.”</p. 242>

1847 verp

verp

1730 who would fardels beare] Verplanck (ed. 1847): “‘Who would these fardels bear?’ This reading of the folios is here preferred to that of the other editions, as giving a more natural connection to the whole passage. It resumes the thought of the preceding sentence – ‘Who would bear the whips and scorns of time,’ &c., and asks, ‘Who would bear these burdens, ‘the oppressor’s wrong,’ ‘the proud man’s contumely,’ &c., ‘were it not for the dread of an hereafter?’ The common reading, founded on the quartos, (Who would fardels bear?) merely asks, Who would bear any of the loads of life, were it not for this reason? The continuity of thought, the evolution of the sentence from the preceding, effected by the insertion of ‘these,’ is very characteristic of Shakespeare.”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

1730 bodkin] HUDSON (ed. 1856): "The allusion is to the term quietus est, used in settling accounts as exchequer audis. Thus in Sir Thomas Overbury’s character of a Franklin: ’Lastly, to end him, he cares not when his end comes; he needs not feare his audit, for his quietus is in heaven.’ Bodkin was the ancient term for a small dagger."

1861 wh1

1730 WHITE (ed. 1861): “‘---who’d these fardels bear’:--So the folio; with the trifling variation of ‘who would’ for ‘who’ld.’ This reading has been almost universally set aside in favor of that of the 4tos., ‘Who would fardels bear?’ although the latter loses, with the pronoun, the essential thought,--that the crosses which Hamlet has just enumerated are the fardels, the burthens, under which men would refuse to grunt and sweat, if it were not for the uncertainty of the future beyond the grave.--’Grunt’ is one of the many words which have been degraded since Shakespeare wrote.”

1862 cartwright

1730 bare bodkin] CARTWRIGHT (1862, pp. 64-65): <p. 64> “Bodkin is said to be a small sword, and that Caesar was, according to old writers, slain by bodkins; but Hamlet is speaking slightingly of our tenure of life, ‘who would bear such fardels, such a weary life, when it can so easily be put an end to by a bodkin, by a little pin;’— a similar passage occurs in Richard II.:— ‘K. Rich. For within the hollow crown, That rounds the mortal temples of a king, Keeps death his court: and there the antick sits, Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp; Allowing him a breath, a little scene To monarchize, be fear’d, and kill with looks; Infusing him with self and vain conceit,— As if this flesh, which walls about our life, Were brass impregnable, and, humour’d thus, </p. 64><p. 65> Comes at the last, and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall, and— farewell king.’— Act. iii., scene 2.

“The bare bodkin and the little pin should be taken as evidence of Shakspere’s anatomical knowledge.” </p. 65>

1865 hal

hal = v1773+

1730 With a bare bodkin] HALLIWELL (ed. 1865): “A bodkin was the ancient term for a small dagger. So, in the Second Part of the Mirrour for Knighthood, 1598,:--"Not having any more weapons but a poor poynado, which usually he did weare about him, and taking it in his had, delivered these speeches unto it. Thou, silly bodkin, shalt finish the piece of worke," c. In the margin of Stowe’s Choricle, edit. 1614, it is said, that Cësar was slain with bodkins; and in the Muses’ Looking- Glass, by Randolph, 1638:-- Quotation. Again, in the Custom of the Country, by Beaumont and Fletcher: Quotation. Quotation from Old Play.

Who would fardels beare] HALLIWELL (ed. 1865): “"Randle Holme, the Chester Herald," observes Mr. Fairholt, "in his quaint work on heraldry, has a direct illustration of this passage; in noting the distinction between the pack of the pedlar and the porter--the porter’s pack reacheth over his head, and so answerable below; but the pedlar’s is a small truss, bundle, or fardel, not exceeding the middle of his head, as in this figure."

1866a dyce2

1730 Dyce (ed. 1886): “Folio ‘who would these fardels bear.’ Perhaps right; ‘who’ld.’ Walker’s Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 266; where his editor observes in a note, ‘This contraction of ‘who would’ is not necessary for the metre. See (Walker’s) S(hakespeare’s) V(ersification), Art. ix.”

1867 ktlyn

1730 Keightly (1867, p. 291-2): “This is the reading of the folio, which I retain. ‘These,’ </p. 291><p. 292> which gives much force to the expression, refers to the evils he had enumerated, or is, as is so frequently the case, used in a general indefinite sense.”

1869 romdahl

romdahl

1730 bodkin] Romdahl (1869, p. 31): “Bodkin was the ancient term for a small dagger. The diminutive bodkin is formed from O.E. bot (a sword, a knife, anything that bites or wounds), A.S. bât (a staff, stick). In Love’s L.L. A. V. Sc. II, 615 and Winter’s Tale A. III. Sc. III, 87, where bodkin also occurs, it is used for a pin.”

1730 fardels] Romdahl (1869, p. 31): “burdens; Provençal: fardel, modern Fr. fardeau. Instances of the word are found in other passages, e.g. Winter’s Tale A. IV. Sc. IV, 728, 739.”

1872 cln1

cln1

1730 bodkin] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “an old word for dagger. See Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 3958: ’With panade or with knyf or boydekyn.’ And 16193, speaking of Caesar’s murder: ’And in the capitoil anoon him hent This false Brutus, and his other foon, And stiked him with boydekyns anoon.’ A ’bare bodkin’ is an unsheathed dagger, but the other sense of ’bare’ may have been in Shakespeare’s mind."

1730 fardels] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “bundles. Used in Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 739,781. Cotgrave (French Dict.) says: ’Fardeau: a fardle, burthen, trusse, packe, bundle.’ "

1874 corson

1730 Corson (1874, p. 24): “Who would these Fardles beare F. who would fardels bear, C. ’these Fardles’ is the reading of all the Folios; according to the C. reading, which is that of the Quartos, ’fardels’ means something additional to what Hamlet has enumerated in the six preceding lines, ’the whips and scorns of time,’ ’the oppressor’s wrong,’ ’the poor man’s contumely,’ etc.; but according to the F. reading, ’fardels’ represents all these. It would seem that, having said, 11. 70 et seq., ’who would bear’ (the several things he specifies,) he repeats ’who would bear,’ with the general object, ’fardels,’ (representing all the special ones,) for the purpose of introducing the exceptive clause, ’But that the dread of something after death, . . . puzzles the will,’ etc. Besides, the general term ’fardels’ when not identified in meaning, by the use of ’these,’ with the preceding specifications, comes in somewhat flat. The F. reading seems altogether the best.

1877 clns

clns

1730 who would fardels beare] Neil (ed. 1877): “In the Commendatory Verses prefixed by Thomas Churchyard to Jerome Cardanus’ Comforte, translated by Thomas Bedingfield, 1573, it is said: ‘This book bewrays what wretched wracke belongs to life of man, What burdens bears he on his back since first this world began.’”

1885 macd

macd

1730 bodkin] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “small sword. If there be here any allusion to suicide, it is on the general question, and with no special application to himself. 24. But it is the king and the bare bodkin his thought associates. How could he even glance at the things he has just mentioned, as each a reason for suicide? It were a cowardly country indeed where the question might be asked, ‘Who would not commit suicide because of any one of these thins, except on account of what may follow after death?’! One might well, however, be tempted to destroy an oppressor, and risk his life in that.”

1730 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “”Fardel, burden: the old French for fardeau, I am informed.”

1897 rushtonN

rushtonN

1730 bodkin] Rushton (1897, p. 22): “‘And euery thynge that enters by a turnynge and boring facion, the more flatter it is, the worse it enters, as a knife thoughe it be sharpe yet because of the edges, wil not bore so wel as a bodkin, for euery rounde thynge enters beste and therefore nature, sayeth Aristotle, made the rayne droppes rounde for quicke percyinge the ayer.’ It appears from this passage that the bodkin was not an edged dagger, but round and pointed, for Ascham says, ‘a knife though it be sharp, yet because of the edge, will not bore so well as a bodkin, for every round thing enters best.”

1899 ard1

bare bodkin] DOWDEN (ed. 1899): “unsheathed dagger; or bare may mean ‘mere.’ Sidney, Arcadia: ‘I . . . doe defie thee in a mortal affray from the bodkin to the pike upward.’”

fardels] DOWDEN (ed. 1899): “packs, burdons, as in Winter’s Tale, IV. Iv. 728.”