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Line 2116 - 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 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary

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

2116 Oph. You are keene my lord, you are keene. 2116	3.2.248

1845 Hunter

Hunter

2116 You . . . keene] Hunter (1845, 2:252-3): <p.252> “There is no appropriateness in this reply to what Hamlet had said, and it is in fact an observation on something said by him that is now transposed to another part of the play. This we collect from the first quarto, which, bad as it is, must be allowed to be of no small use in the criticism on this play. There the remarks of Hamlet to Ophelia on the cheerful appearance of his mother, though so recently become a widow, occur in this part of the dialogue, and not in what passes before the entrance of the dumb show, where they are now placed. It is in reference to those satirical remarks that Ophelia says, ‘You are keen, my lord, you are keen,’ or, as it is in the quarto, ‘Your jests are keen, my lord.’ This shews with how little care the refitting of this play was done. Shakespeare was wont to say that he never blotted a line. ‘Tis true, ‘tis pity, and pity ‘tis ‘tis true! Jonson’s remark was that of good sense, not envy, jealousy, or any of the forms of malignity, when he said, Would he had blotted a thousand! But if he had blotted the whole of this outrage on all delicacy and propriety he would have done himself justice. He judged rightly in removing the few speeches respecting his mother to the time before the play commenced, for where they stand as originally written they too much interrupt the progress of the play, which was in the course of performance before the King.”

1854 del2

del2

2116 keene] Delius (ed. 1854): “Ophelia nimmt keen=scharf, satirisch.” [Ophelia takes keen meaning sharp satirically. Hamlet gives an obscene connotation to this sharpness (edge) attributed to him. See Note 42.]

1872 del4

del4 ≈ del2

1877 v1877

v1877: Hunter

2116 keene] Furness (ed. 1877): “Hunter (ii, 252): There is no appropriateness in this as a reply to what Hamlet had said, and it is, in fact, an observation on something said by him that is now transposed to another part of the play. This we learn from Q1, where the remarks of Ham. to Oph. on the cheerful appearance of his mother occur in this part of the dialogue. It is in reference to these satirical remarks about his mother that Ophelia says, ’you are keen,’ or as it reads in Q1.”

1888 Savage

mPudsey

2116-2118 Pudsey (apud Savage, 1888, p. 72): “Yow are keen my L. respo; yt wil cost yow a groaning to take of my edge.”

1909 subb

subb

2116 Subbarau (ed. 1909): “Q1 reads ‘your jests are keene my Lord.’ In Q2 the words are put in Ophelia’s mouth as a remark upon Hamlet’s hit against herself, and the reduplication gives them a touch of entreaty that he should not taunt her so.”

1934 cam3

cam3

2116 You are keene] Wilson (ed. 1934): “i.e. You mock in cruel fashion.”

1974 evns1

evns1

2116 keene] Evans (ed. 1974): “bitter, sharp.”

1980 pen2

pen2

2116 keene] Spencer (ed. 1980): “bitter, quick-witted. Hamlet seems to take the word as meaning ‘eager for sexual intercourse’.”

1982 ard2

ard2: LLL //

2116 keene] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “sharp-tongued, bitter. Cf. LLL [5.2.256-7 (2172-3)], ‘The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As the razor’s edge’.”

1984 chal

chal = evns1

1985 Fisher

Fisher

2216 keene] Fisher (1985, p. 5): “Ophelia’s ‘You are keen, my lord’, ‘keen’ is usually glossed as ‘cruel’; while Ophelia may have meant this, Hamlet did not choose so to understand the word.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ pen2

2116 keene] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “(I) bitterly witty, sharply satirical (the sense in which Ophelia means it) (2) sexually sharp-set (the sense in which Hamlet takes it).”

1993 dent

dent ≈ oxf4; xrefs.

2116 keene] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Ophelia probably means (a) sharp-witted, but in line 273 [2117] Hamlet takes her to mean (b) sexually aroused (compare the play on ’point’ in 1.5.126 [621]).”

1992 fol2

fol2

2116 keene] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1987): “i.e. sharp, penetrating.”

1997 evns2

evns2 = evns1

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2

2116 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Ophelia puts off the innuendo as a joke.”

ard3q2 ≈ evns1

2116 keen] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “sharp, incisive.”