Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2120-1 Ham. So you mistake {your} husbands. | Beginne murtherer, <Pox> leaue | |
|---|
| 2121-2 thy damnable faces and | begin, come, the croking Rauen doth bellow | |
|---|
| 2122-3 for {reuenge} <Re-| uenge>. | |
|---|
1723- mtby2
mtby2
2120 husbands] Thirlby (1723-): “fsql [low-level probability] husband.”
1726 theon
theon
2120 mistake]
Theobald (1726, p. 90): <p.90> “
Mistake, in the
Last Line, runs thro’ all the printed Copies, that I have ever seen, from the second
folio Edition downwards. Mr.
POPE, who very justly restores the true Reading there, takes no manner of Notice of the Various Reading in the
last Line but
One: Tho’, if I understand the Poet’s Conceit at all, the whole Smartness of the
Repartee depends upon it. I think, therefore, the entire Passage ought to stand thus. ‘Ophel. You are keen, my Lord, you are keen. Haml. It would cost You a Groaning to take off mine Edge. Ophel. Still BETTER and WORSE. Haml. So you must take your Husbands.’ In short,
HAMLET has been all along talking to the young Lady in
double Entendtre’s, or, rather, in a Strain of Freedom which scarce admits of that nice Distinction. She tells him once before, that he’s naught, and
she’ll mark the Play. He still keeps up his Vein of
Drollery, and throws in such
plain Hints, that she is forced to parry them by an indirect Answer; and remarks, as I conceive, that his Wit is
smarter, tho’ his Meaning is more
blunt. This, I think, is the Sense of her—
Still better
and worse,—and then there is some Reason and Acuteness in
HamleT’s Answer,
So you must take
your Husbands. For he certainly alludes to the Words in the Church-Service of Matrimony, where the Husband and Wife promise alternately to take each other
for BETTER,
for WORSE;
for richer,
for poorer, &c.” </p.90>
See also n. 2119.
1733 theo1
theo1
2120 mistake] Theobald (ed. 1733): “So you mistake Husbands.] Hamlet is talking to her in such gross double Entendre, that she is forc’d to parry them by indirect Answers: and remarks, that tho’ his Wit be smarter, yet his Meaning is more blunt. This, I think, is the Sense of her—Still better and worse. This puts Hamlet in mind of the Words in the Church Service of Matrimony, and he replies; so you mistake Husbands, i.e. So you take Husbands, and find yourselves mistaken in them.”
Theobald in theo1 reverses theon position on need for emendation must take. See also comment in 2119.
1733- mtby3
mtby3
2120 Thirlby (1733-): “[?] not. fsql. must take off ye husband’s.”
Transcribed by BWK.
1747-53 mtby4
mtby4 = mtby2
Note reads “fs d[elete] s”
1765 Heath
Heath: theon, contra warb
2120 mistake] Heath (1765, p. 539): "Mr. Theobald, in his Shakespear restored, p. 89, 90. had clearly evinced that the genuine reading is, ‘So you must take your husbands.’ Notwithstanding which, Mr. Warburton, without taking the least notice of Mr. Theobald’s reasons, hath thought proper to admit into his edition the olde mistaken one."
1765+ mtol2
mtol2
633 cerements] Tollet (ms. notes in Heath, p. 531): “i.e. you do wrong or amiss for yourself to take them for worse.”
1765 john1/john2
john1
2120 mistake] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Read, So you must take your husbands; that is, for better for worse.”
This gloss illustrates how JOHNSON handles emendations in modern editions: he maintains Q2/F1 reading but silently incorporates POPE emendation in note, though w/o attribution in this case.
1773 v1773
v1773: theon
2120 mistake] Steevens (ed. 1773): “Theobald proposed the same in his Shakespeare Restored, however, he lost it afterwards.”
v1773: Jonson analogue
2120 mistake] FARMER(ms. note in ed. 1773): “The word is used sometimes thus ludicrously. “Your true trick, rascal, (says Ursula in Bartholomew Fair) must be to be forever busie, and mistake away the bottles & cans, before they be half drunk off. Farmer.”
v1773 = Farmer (ms. note) + magenta underlined
2120 mistake] Farmer (apud ed. 1773, Appendix II, Qq5v): “‘So you mistake your husbands.’ I believe this to be right: the word is sometimes used in this ludicrous manner. ‘Your true trick, rascal (says Ursula in Bartholomew Fair) must be to be ever busie, and mistake away the bottles and cans, before they be half drunk off.’”
1773- mstv1
mstv1 = v1773 (≈ Farmer Appendix)
1774 capn
capn
2120 mistake] Capell (1774, 1:1:137): “i.e. So you take husbands, and take them amiss, make very wrong choice of them.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773; Farmer (Appendix II); ≈ Tollet (Heath) +
2120 mistake] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Again, in Ben Jonson’s Masque of Augurs: ‘——To mistake six torches from the chandry, and give them one.’
“Again, in the Elder Brother of Fletcher: ‘I fear he will persuade me to mistake him.’”
v1778 = v1773; = Farmer (Appendix II); ≈ Tollet (Heath) +
2120 mistake] Tollet (apud ed. 1778): “I believe the meaning is—you do amiss for yourselves to take husbands for the worse. You should take them only for the better.”
The note attributed to Farmer appears verbatim in Appendix II but in somewhat different form as ms. note (mstv1) in Folger Sh. Col. 1773b/c.3. See v1773 above. See also mTOL2 in Heath (1765).
1784 Davies
Davies: Hippisley (perform.)
2121 leaue thy damnable faces]
Davies (1784, pp. 92-3): <p.92> “This contains a censure upon the custom of certain actors, who were cast into the parts of conspirators, traitors, and murderers who used to disguise themselves in large black wigs; and distort their features, in order to appear terrible; in </p.92><p.93> short, to discover that which their art should teach them to conceal. I have seen Hippisley act the first Murderer in
Mac.; his face was made pale with chalk, distinguished with large whiskers, and a long black wig. This custom, of dressing so preposterously the hateful implements of the tragic scene, is now almost worn out.” </p.93>
1791- rann
rann
2120 mistake] Rann (ed. 1791-): “You should take them for the better only.—you must take.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785 +
2120 mistake] Steevens (ed. 1793): “Again, in Chrestoleeros; Seven Bookes of Epigrams written by T. B. [Thomas Bastard] 1598, Lib. VII. Epig. xviii: ‘Caius hath brought from forraine landes A sootie wench, with many handes, Which doe in golden letters say is his wife, not stolne away. He mought have sav’de, with small discretion, Paper, inke, and all confession: For none that see’th her face and making, Will judge her stolne, but by mistaking.’ “Again, in Questions of Profitable and Pleasant Concernings, &c. 1594: “Better I were now and then to suffer his remisse mother to mistake a quarter or two of corne, to buy the knave a coath with,’ &c.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour
2121-2 Beginne . . . begin] Seymour (1805, p. 179): “This appears to be a spontaneous reproof from the actor, to check the grimface and buffoonery of the murderer, and is, perhaps, among a multitude, an instance to shew that the best authority existing, for many passages and scenes in these plays, is transcription from oral and capricious utterance.”
Seymour
2122-3 the croking . . . reuenge] Seymour (1805, p. 179): “It is not apparent how these words, or whatever sense they contain, should be applied; but I am inclined to think that Hamlet, who is supposed to know the play and the catastrophe, affects, before the king and the court, (the better to conceal his contrivance) to treat the composition with a shew of contempt.”
1819 cald1
cald1 = Farmer (apud ed. 1773 Appendix II; = v1773 (Jonson); = v1793 (Concernings bit) + :
2120 mistake] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “From quartos the modern editors add ‘your husbands.’ Acting upon an ill or false principle, you neither rightly or wisely take them. Dr. Farmer instances Bartholomew Fair: ‘Your trick, rascal, must be to be ever busie, and mistake away the bottles and cans, before they be half drunk off.’ Ursula. And Mr. Steevens, ‘—To mistake six torches from the chandry, and give them one.’ Jonson’s Masque of Augurs.
“Again, in Questions of Profitable and Pleasant Concernings, &c. 1594: ‘Better I were now and then to suffer his remisse mother to mistake a quarter or two of corne, to buy the knave a coat with,’ &c.”
1826 sing1
sing1 = v1793 (Bastard) +
2120 mistake] Singer (ed. 1826): “The first quarto—’So you must take your husband [sic].’ Hamlet puns upon the word mistake: ‘So you mis-take, or take your husbands amiss for better or worse.’ The word was often thus misused for any thing done wrongfully, and even for privy stealing. In one of Bastard’s Epigrams, 1598, cited by Steevens—’none that seeth her face and making Will judge her stoll’n but by mistaking.’”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1+
2120 mistake]
Caldecott (ed. 1832): “i.e. ‘in these very terms of confusion and contradiction it is, that you make up what you call your
solemn contract of marriage.’ In
H8 mistaken is ‘wrongly judged of.’ [3.1.101 (1732)]. Camp. ‘Your rage
mistakes us.’”
1840- mlet
mlet: Donne analogue
2120 So you mistake your Husbands] Lettsom (ms. note in F1, 1807 facsimile, DYCE LF 8937): “Donne. Serm LXII. p.624, ed. 1640. B, l.7 “They take[?] and mistake all.”
1839 knt1 (nd)
knt1
2120 mistake] Knight (ed. [1839] n.d.): “This is the reading of the quarto of 1603. Johnson, who had not seen that edition, suggested must take as a correction of the common text, mistake. Mistake may, however, be used in the sense of to take wrongly.
“While Johnson (ed. 1765) recommends this emendation, it was Pope (ed. 1723) who first introduced this reading, though without comment or reference to Q1.”
1843 col1
col1: theo
2120 mistake] Collier (ed. 1843): must take] “i.e. For better or worse. The quartos, 1604, &c. and the folios, have mistake for ‘must take,’ which last is a reading suggested by Theobald. It is authorized by the quarto, 1603, where it stands, ‘So you must take your husband.’
“Actually Theobald commends Pope’s emendation must take in theon (1726, p. 90), but theo1 reverses position in comment and retains mistake in the text.”
col1
2121-2 the croking . . . reuenge] Collier (ed. 1843): “This perhaps was a quotation from some other play in Hamlet’s memory: it does not seem to belong to that under representation, for Lucianus does not begin with it.”
1844 Dyce
Dyce = col1 + magenta underlined
2122-3 the croking Rauen . . .
reuenge]
Dyce (1844, pp. 215-6): <p.215> “ ‘This perhaps was a quotation from some other play in Hamlet’s memory: it does not seem to belong to that under representation, for Lucianus does not begin with it.’
Collier. [3.2, p. 275]
“‘Lucianus does not begin with it’! no, truly; one would wonder if he did; it would come rather oddly from his mouth.
“Whether the words in question be cited from some other </p.215><p.216> play or not, Hamlet seems to mean, ‘Begin without more delay; for the raven, prescient of the deed, is already croaking, and, as it were, calling out for the revenge which will ensue.’”
1845 Hunter
Hunter: theon, john
2120 mistake]
Hunter (1845, 2:253-4): <p.253> “This passage affords another instance of the value of the first quarto. There has been some learning thrown away in the attempt to justify ‘mistake,’ which has clearly found its way into the text by the error of an early copyist or printer. Theobald proposed the true reading and so did Johnson, but, notwithstanding, the corrupt has kept its place. It stands thus in the quartos, ‘So you must take you husbands.’ Who, after such an instance as this can doubt that </p.253><p.254> we ought not to profess such an unlimited deference to any old copy as to forbear entirely from conjectural emendation, whenever a faint glimmering of meaning can be perceived.”
1847 verp
verp: Garrick, Henderson, Kemble (perform.); Mac. //
2122 the croking . . .
reuenge]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “This is printed here, as in the old edition, appearing as an expression of Hamlet’s own feelings. Most modern editors print it as verse, and consider it as a part of the mock play. So, it is said, Garrick pronounced it, addressing Lucianus. Henderson and Kemble gave it as Hamlet’s own reflection; which seems more natural, more practical, as well as more consonant to the old text. It resembles the poet’s own strong figure elsewhere:—’the raven himself is hoarse That croaks the entrance of Duncan Under my battlements’ [1.5.38-40 (389-91)].”
1853 coln
coln: john, v1773, Farmer, Tollet
2120 mistake]
Collier (1853, p. 425): “Johnson, Steevens, Farmer, and Tollet differed whether, when Ophelia remarks, ‘Still better and worse,’ Hamlet ought to say, ‘So you
mistake your husbands,’ as it is given in the quarto, 1604, and in the folios, or ‘So you must take your husbands,’
viz. for better for worse. When these annotators wrote, it was not known that a still earlier quarto (1603) has it, ‘So you must take your husband;’ and, in addition, it now appears that the old corrector of the folio, 1832, altered the reading there found to ‘So you must take your husbands.’”
1853 Singer
Singer: theon
2120 mistake] Singer (1853, p. 264): “Theobald had long since proposed to read ‘so you must take your husbands,’ and the correctors probably followed his suggestion or the mention of it; but there is no valid reason for departing from the reading of all the old copies, ‘so you mistake your husbands.’ i.e. you do amiss for yourselves to take husbands for the worse.”
Singer is “vindicating” Shakespeare from “the interpolations and corruptions” advocated by Collier.
1854 del2
del2
2120 mistake] Delius (ed. 1854): “So liest Q. A. und, vor der Wiederauffindung dieser Q., änderten schon einige Herausgeber so die Lesart der Qs. und der Fol.; So you mistake your husbands. - to mistake = fehlgreifen, hier in der Wahl des Gatten fehlgreifen. Must take schliesst sich aber enger an das vorhergehende: Still better and worse, mit einer Anspielung an das Englische Trauungsformular, demgemäss die Weiber ihre Männer nehmen müssen for better and worse. [This is the reading in Quarto A [Q1], and before the rediscovery of this Quarto several editors had already changed to this reading the words of the Quartos and the Folio: So you mistake your husbands. to mistake means to blunder, make a mistake, here to err in the choice of a husband. Must take fits more closely, however, to the preceding Still better and worse, with an allusion to the English marriage formula, according to which wives must take their husbands for better and worse.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1: theon +
2120 mistake] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Alluding, most likely, to the language of the Marriage service: ‘To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,’ &c. All the old copies, but the first quarto, have mistake; which Theobald conjectured should be must take, before any authority for it was known.”
1857 dyce1
dyce1: LLL //
2121 Pox] Dyce (ed. 1857): “(Need I observe that, in Shakespeare’s time, this imprecation undoubtedly referred to the small-pox? Our author in LLL [5.2.46 (1934)], makes Katherine exclaim ‘A pox of that jest!’)”
dyce1
2121-2 the croking . . . reuenge] Dyce (ed. 1857): “These words are usually given in the modern editions as a quotation,—which probably they are.”
1861 wh1
wh1: theon
2120 mistake] White (ed. 1861): “must take] i.e., for better for worse. The folio and 4to. of 1604, ‘so you mistake your husbands.’ The correction was made by Theobald, whose conjecture was confirmed on the discovery of the 4to. of 1603. The s of the folio is the mere superfluity so often indicated in these Notes.”
White restores husband based on Q1 as governing precedent; yet in Introduction, he disparages Q1, claiming that it has neither authority nor value.
1863 Hackett
Hackett ≈ verp +
2122-3 the croking . . .
reuenge]
Hackett (1863, p. 196): “Mr.
Verplanck says ‘It resembles the poet’s own strong figure elsewhere.’
“Of course, the figure referred to elsewhere, can be no other than—’the raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements.’
“There may be some analogy in the sentiment, but not the least in the occasion; the figure in Macbeth has special reference to the messenger—’Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message,’ and who is therefore compared by Lady Macbeth to a raven, because he could only croak out his news.”
1866a dyce2
dyce2 = dyce1 for pox (2121)
dyce2
2122-3 the croking . . . reuenge] Dyce (ed. 1866): “Probably a quotation from some play.”
Note on the croking . . . reuenge is slightly modified and located at bottom of text page.
1866b cam1
cam1: pope, han, mlong
2120 mistake] CLARK & WRIGHT (ed. 1866): “Pope. must take your husband (Q1). mistake your husbands Qq. mistake husbands Ff. most of your take husbands Hanmer. must take husbands Long MS.”
1867 ktlyn
ktlyn: standard
2121 mistake] Keightley (1867, p. 293): “So the 4to 1603 reads, with an evident allusion to the Marriage Service. The others and the folio have mistake.”
ktlyn: standard
2121 Pox] Keightley (1867, Index): “i.e. pocks, were properly the pits or holes pocked or sunk in the face by the disease now called the small-pox, then simply the pox. Hence there was indelicacy in its use by a lady (LLL 5.2 [1934]).”
1869 tsch
tsch
2120 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “In diesen Worten Anspielung auf das englische Trauungsformular finden zu wollen, rechtfertigt sich mit Nichts. Die Worte können nur heissen, wenn must take gelesen wird: Ihr könnt nicht anders als so eure Männer wählen; d. h. wenn ihr eine Besseren habt nach einem Schlechteren trachten; oder mit mistake: Ihr greift fehl; nehmt den schlechteren, wo ihr eine besseren Mann haben könntet.” [To find in these words a reference to the English marriage service cannot be shown. The words can only have these meanings: if must take is read: You can choose your husbands in no other way; i. e., if you have tried to get a better one after a worse one; or with mistake: You make a bad choice, take the worse man, where you could have had the better.]
tsch
2122 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Ein Zuruf, durch den H. den König aufmerksam macht. Der Nachtvogel steht metaphorisch hier für den Geist des Vaters.” [A summons with which Hamlet calls the king’s attention. The night bird is here a metaphor for the father’s ghost.]
1872 del4
del4 = del2 +
2121 pox] Delius (ed. 1872): “Im Folgended lassen die Aqs. das Duchword pox aus, das die Fol. hat in Uebereinstimmung mit a pox der Q1—Die letzten Worte dieser Rede: the croaking raven etc. sind vielleicht ein Citat.”
1872 del4
del4
2120 Delius (ed. 1872): “So liest Q.A., und schon vor der Wiederauffindung dieser Q. änderten nach Pope’s Vorgange einige Hgg. so die Lesart der Qs. So you mistake your husbands und der Fol. So you mistake husbands. – to mistake = fehlgreifen, hier = in der Wahl des Gatten fehlgreifen. – must take schliesst sich aber enger an das vorhergehende Still better, and worse, mit einer Anspielung auf das englische Trauungsformular, demgemäss die Weiber ihre Männer nehmen müssen for better and worse.—Im Folgenden lassen die Qs. das Fluchwort pox ans, das die Fol. hat in Uebereinstimmung mit a pox der Q.A.—Die letzten Worte dieser Rede: the croaking raven etc. sind vielleicht ein Citat.” [Thus Q.A., and already before the rediscovery of this Q. some editors (following Pope’s suggestion) changed the reading of the Qs. the same way So you mistake your husbands and the Folio So you mistake husbands.—to mistake = to choose badly, here = to choose badly in the choice of a husband. - must take, however, relates better to the preceding Still better, and worse, with a reference to the English marriage formula, where the wives must take their husbands for better and worse. In what follows, the Qs. omit the curse pox that the Folio has in agreement with a pox of Q.A.—The last words of this speech: the croaking raven etc.are perhaps a quotation.]
1874 Corson
Corson
2120 mistake] Corson (1874, p. 27): “There is a quibble evidently intended: so you mistake, or take amiss, husbands, i.e., for better and worse.”
In each of his “jottings on the text,” Corson notes variants between F1 and CAM1, stating his preference and, to a greater or lesser extent, offering a rationale.
1874 Malleson
Malleson
2122 Rauen] Malleson (New Shakespeare Society’s Transactions, 1874, p. 473): “ . . . the Raven is the Danish typical bird, and therefore no unfit emblem of ‘the majesty of buried Denmark.’”
1875 Marshall
Marshall
2121-3 Beginne . . . reuenge] Marshall (1875, p. 160): “We are coming to the most important speech which he had inserted, and he is feverishly anxious that the actor should speak the speech correctly: ‘Begin, murderer, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come: ‘The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.’”
1877 neil
neil ≈ Simpson, Malleson
2122-3 The croking . . . reuenge] Simpson (apud Neil ed. 1877): “The late Mr. Simpson thought this was a Shakespearian allusion to the line: ‘The screeking raven sits croaking for revenge,’ which occurs in the True Tragedie of Richard III, Hazlitt’s Dodsley’s Old Plays, vol. v, p. 117. Mr. W. T. Malleson notes ‘that the raven is the Danish Typical bird, and therefore no unfit emblem of “the majesty of buried Denmark” ’—New Shakespeare Society’s Transactions, 1874, p. 473.”
1877 v1877
v1877=theon; contra theon (magenta underlined); ≈ Farmer, cald1, sing1
2120 mistake]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Theobald (
Sh. Rest. p. 90): “Hamlet certainly alludes to the church-service of matrimony, where the husband and wife promise alternately to take each other for ‘better for worse.’
[Theobald changed his mind when he came to print his edition; for there he follows the QqFf, and paraphrases: ‘So you take Husbands, and find yourselves mistaken in them.’ The majority of notes on this passage are in favor of reading of the QqFf. Those edd. who have followed the reading of Q1 have been apparently so firmly fixed in their belief in the excellence of that text in this passage, that they have not thought it worth while to vindicate it. Ed.] Farmer: I believe
mistake to be right; the word is sometimes used in this ludicrous manner: ‘Your true trick, rascal’ (says Ursula, in
Bartholomew Fair), ‘must be to be ever busie, and mistake away the bottles and cans, before they be half drunk off.’
Steevens: Again, in Jonson’s
Masque of Augurs: ‘To mistake six torches from the chandry, and give them one.’ Again, in The Elder Brother of Fletcher: ‘I fear he will persuade me to mistake him.’ Again, in
Chrestoleros; Seven Bookes of Epigrams, written by T.B. [Thomas Bastard], 1598, lib. vii, epig. xviii: ‘---For none that see’th her face and making, Will judge her stolne, but by mistaking.’ Again, in
Questions of Profitable and Pleasant Concernings, 1594: ‘Better I were now and then to suffer his remisse mother to mistake a quarter or two of corne.’
Tollet: The meaning is : ‘You do amiss for yourselves to take husbands for the worse. You should take them only for the better.’
Caldecott: In these very terms of confusion and contradiction it is that you make up what you call your
solemn contract of marriage. For ‘mistake’ = wrongly judged of, see
H8 [3.1.101 (1732)].
Singer: Hamlet puns upon the word
mistake: ‘So you
mis-take, or
take your husbands
amiss for better and worse.’ The word was often thus misused for anything done wrongfully, and even for privy stealing.”
v1877 ≈ dyce
2121 Pox]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Dyce: Need I observe that, in Shakespeare’s time, this imprecation undoubtedly referred to small-pox?”
v1877 ≈ col1, Dyce (Remarks), Simpson
2122 reuenge]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Collier: This perhaps was a quotation from some other play in Hamlet’s memory.
Dyce (
Remarks, &c., p.
2i5): Ham. seems to mean: ‘Begin without more delay; for the raven, prescient of the deed, is already croaking, and, as it were, calling out for the revenge which will ensue.’
Simpson (
The Academy,
19 Dec. ‘74) : Ham. rolls into one two lines of an old familiar play:
The True Tragedie of Richard the Third (p.
61, Sh. Soc.
Reprint). The king is describing the terrors of his conscience: ‘Methinks their ghosts comes gaping for revenge Whom I have slain in reaching for a crown;’ and of the two lines that follow, Hamlet’s speech is a satirical condensation: ‘The screeking raven sits croking for revenge Whole herds of beasts comes bellowing for revenge.’
1878 rlf1
rlf1 ≈ neil (Simpson)
2122-3 the croking. . . reuenge] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Mr. Simpson (in the London Academy, Dec. 19, 1874) says: ‘Hamlet rolls into one two lines of an old familiar play, The True Tragedie of King Richard the Third: “The screeking raven sits croking for revenge,/Whole herds of beasts comes bellowing for revenge.””
1881 hud2
hud2 ≈ dyce2 +
2122-3 the croking . . . reuenge] Hudson (ed. 1881): “‘The croaking raven,’ &c., is probably a quotation from some plays then well known. The raven’s croak was thought to be ill-boding.”
1882 elze2
elze2
2120 So you mistake your husbands] Elze (ed. 1882): “It is a matter of surprise to me, that those critics that endeavour to squeeze a meaning out of the reading of Q2 and F1 have not yet died out.”
elze2
2121 pox] Elze (ed. 1882): “Poxe has inadvertently been left out in the text; it is indeed omitted in Q2, but is contained in Q1 (a poxe) and F1 (Pox).”
elze2: Malleson
2122 the croking Rauen] Elze (ed. 1882): “See Transactions of the New Shakspere Society, 1874, Part I, p. 472.”
1885 macd
macd
2120 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Is this a misprint for ‘so you must take husbands’—for better and worse, namely? or is it a thrust at his mother—‘So you mis-take husbands, going from the better to a worse’?”
1889-90 mBooth
mBooth
2122-3 the croking Rauen . . . reuenge] E. Booth (ms. notes in PB 82, HTC, Shattuck 108): “The Raven was the royal emblem of Denmark: The outraged, rightful King—himself & typified by the Raven, is impatient for revenge. This is what Hamlet means, I think, by this fanfare. E.B.”
Inside front cover of scrapbook, someone has pasted a small insignia of a raven on a crest (1” x 1”).
1890 irv2
irv2
2120 mistake] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Qq. read So you mistake your husbands; Ff. So you mistake Husbands; the reading in the text (that of Pope) is derived from Q.1: So you must take your husband. It seems to be decidedly preferable; indeed, the arguments in favour of the mistake can only be qualified by the word which they prefer.”
irv2 ≈ neil (Simpson)
2122 croking . . . reuenge] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “This is a satirical condensation, as Simpson pointed out in the Academy, Dec. 19, 1874, of the following lines of the True Tragedy of Richard the Third: The screeking raven sites croking for revenge, Whole herds of beasts comes bellowing for revenge.’ —Sh. Soc. Reprint, p. 61.”
1899 ard1
ard1: pope, cap
2120 mistake] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Pope reads ‘must take’ with Q1, and has been followed by many editors; but this effaces Hamlet’s insult to womanhood. Brides, according to the marriage-service, take their husbands ‘for better, for worse.’ Hamlet means that women do not take them but mis-take them (as Capell prints it) in these words, for the words are not fulfilled; you all are faithless wives—with a thought of his mother.”
ard1 ≈ irv2 (Simpson)
2122 croking . . . reuenge] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Simpson (Academy, December 19, 1874) shows that Hamlet rolls into one two lines of The True Tragedie of Richard the Third—ghosts of those whom Richard has slain in reaching for a crown come gaping for revenge: ‘The screeking raven sits croking for revenge,/Whole herds of beasts come bellowing for revenge.’”
1891 dtn
dtn ≈ ard1
2120 So you mistake . . . husbands] Deighton (ed. 1891): “that’s how you must take your husbands, sc. for better, for worse ; a reference to the ritual of the marriage ceremony in which the husband and wife each engage to take the other ‘for better or for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health,’ etc.”
dtn
2121 leaue . . . faces] Deighton (ed. 1891): “have done with all the contortions of your face.”
dtn ≈ irv2 (for Simpson)
2122 the croking . . . reuenge] Deighton (ed. 1891): “Simpson says that this is a satirical condensation of two lines of The true Tragedie of Richard the Third, ‘The screeking raven sits croking for revenge, Whole herds of beasts come bellowing for revenge.’”
1909 subb
subb: xref.
2122 the croking Rauen] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “a secondary significance—the raven is croking aloud for the act of murder by way of revenge. Though Hamlet has arranged the play to ‘catch the conscience’ of Claudius, he in a way looks upon the act of murder as the Nephew’s revenge. See n. [3.2.238 (2106)].”
1929 trav
trav ≈ ard1, Greg
2120 mistake]
Travers (ed. 1929): “the reading of Q1, was first preferred by Pope to “
mistake” (Q2, F etc.) = pretend to take (Dowden) or take foolishly (W. W. Greg).”
trav: Bradley
2121 leaue . . .
faces]
Travers (ed. 1929): “spoken, partly, in disgust at the player’s most conventionally villainous
faces (Bradley); but, of course, chiefly, in an outburst of impatience, all the fiercer if what is coming is the speech (cp. p. 128 n. 6). Only five lines are delivered, not ‘
some dozen,’ as announced in [2.2.542 (1581)]; but is this a case for arithmetic?”
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ dyce1 without attribution minus analogue
2121 Pox] Craig (ed. 1931): “an imprecation.”
crg1 ≈ ard1 (incl. True Tragedie analogue)
2121-3 the . . . reuenge] Craig (ed. 1931): “possibly reminiscent of the True Tragedie of Richard the Third: ‘The screeking raven sits croaking for revenge. Whole herds of beasts come bellowing for revenge.’”
1934 Wilson
Wilson: Greg, cap contra cam1
2120 mistake your husbands] Wilson (1934, rpt. 1963, 2:292): <2:292> “Cam. Sh. ‘So you must take your husbands.’ This emendaton, condemned by Dr Greg, following Capell, is peculiarly unfortunate since ‘must take’ is clearly a mis-hearing on the part of the Q1 pirate, and blunts the point of Hamlet’s bitter reference to the marriage service at which women mis-take their husbands ‘for better or worse.’” </2:292>
Wilson:
2121 Wilson (1934, rpt. 1963, 2:254): <2:254> “Pox] The ‘Pox,’ which appears in Q1 also, may be pure Burbadge, though its aptness to Hamlet’s jumpy condition of anxiety leads me to accept it as authentic.” </2:254>
1934 cam3
cam3
2120 mistake] Wilson (ed. 1934): mis-take] “Q2 and F1 ‘mistake,’ Q1 ‘must take’which many edd. follow. Ham. refers to the marriage service in which man and wife ‘take’ each other ‘for better for worse.’ The pl. ‘husbands’ shows that here as elsewhere Oph. stands for Woman in general in his mind.”
cam3: xref.
2121 damnable faces] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Cf. Ham.’s warning against mouthing, sawing the air with the hand, strutting and bellowing, [3.2.4-35 (1852-82)] above.”
cam3: Simpson (True Tragedy of Richard III)
2122 the croking . . . reuenge] Wilson (ed. 1934): “As R. Simpson showed, these words are ‘a satirical condensation’ of the following passage from The True Tragedy of Richard III (an old Queen’s company play, printed in a garbled version 1594): ‘The screeking Rauen sits croking for reuenge. Whole herds of beasts comes bellowing for reuenge.’ The lines, which occur in a speech by Richard describing the terrors of his conscience, were prob. familiar to Sh.’s audience as a stock absurdity of the revenge drama. Ham. ironically exhorts the strutting Player to bellow in Termagant fashion. On June 22, 1602 Henslowe, the financial director of the Admiral’s company, advanced money to Jonson in earnest of a play-book called ‘Richard Crookbacke’ (Jonson, i. 33).”
1935 ev2
ev2
2121-2 leaue . . . begin] Boas (ed. 1935): “addressed to the actor.”
1938 parc
parc
2120 mistake] Parrott and Craig (ed. 1938): “err in taking.”
1939 kit2
kit2: standard
2120 so] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “i.e., for better, for worse.”
kit2
2120 you] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “you women.”
kit2
2120 mistake] Kittredge (ed. 1939): must take] So the First Quarto. The other Quartos and the Folios read mistake—a word formerly common in the sense of ‘take wrongly (or wrongfully),’ ‘take (something) to which one has no right.’ Attempts to justify this reading amount to something like the following interpretation: ‘According to the marriage service you take your husbands “for, better, for worse”; that is, promising to be faithful wives in all the changes of fortune; but, in fact, your “taking” is ‘mis-taking” fraudulent taking), since you do not keep your marriage vows.’ But this is to torture language unmercifully.”
kit2
2121 Pox] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Plague on it.”
kit2: standard (Simpson)
2122-3 the . . . reuenge] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Simpson notes Hamlet’s quotation from an old play, The True Tragedy of Richard III, 1594 (Malone Society ed., ll. 1892, 1893): ‘The screeking Rauen sits croking for reuenge. Whole heards of beasts come bellowing for reuenge.’”
1947 cln2
cln2
2120 mistake] Rylands (ed. 1947): “mis-take] The reading of F and Q2. Q1 reads ‘must take,’ which is less effective. Hamlet refers to the marriage service, ‘take for better, for worse,’ but suggests that women are not true to their vows.”
1958 mun
mun: v1877 (sing) + magenta underlined
2120 mistake]
Munro (ed. 1958): “There has been a tendency to associate this phrase, both in reading
must take and
mistake, with the marriage service. Singer explained: “So you
mis-take, or
take your husbands
amiss for better and worse” (
Furness, i 257). This is another of Hamlet’s equivoques.
The allusion to taking in marriage is there; but the word mistake has here the late Middle English meanings as well, of misunderstanding both the meaning and the character of a person.”
mun: Sidney analogue
2121 leaue . . . faces] Munro (ed. 1958): “The actor is beginning to frown and glare like the conventional stage-murderer. Cf. Sidney’s description of the tragic actor Clinias, Arcadia, 203.”
mun: standard (Simpson)
2122 the . . . reuenge.] Munro (ed. 1958): “R. Simpson pointed out in Academy, 19 Dec., 1874, that the line condenses two lines in The True Tragedie of Richard the Third,--The screeking Rauen sits croking for reuenge. Whole heads of beasts comes bellowing for reuenge. (Malone Socy’s. Reprint, ed. Greg, ll. 1892, 1893).”
1974 evns1
evns1: standard
2120 So] Evans (ed. 1974): “i.e. ‘for better, for worse,’ in the words of the marriage service.”
evns1≈ cln1
2120 mistake] Evans (ed. 1974): “i.e. mis-take, take wrongfully. Their vows, Hamlet suggests, prove false.”
evns1
2121 faces] Evans (ed. 1974): “facial expressions.”
evns1: standard
2122-23 the croking . . . revenge] Evans (ed. 1974): “Misquoted from an old play, The True Tragedy of Richard III.”
1980 pen2
pen2
2120 mistake] Spencer (ed. 1980): must take] “This reading comes from Q1. Both Q2 and F read ‘mistake’, from which it is difficult to get any satisfactory meaning (unless it is another sneer at his mother, who had ‘mis-taken’ her husbands by going from a good to a bad one).”
pen2
2121 Pox] Spencer (ed. 1980): “a pox on you, may (venereal) disease afflict you.”
pen2 ≈ irv2 (Simpson) + magenta underlined
2122 the croking . . . reuenge] Spencer (ed. 1980): “These words seem irrelevant to the situation portrayed. They sound like a fragment of an ‘old play’, and something like them occurs in the anonymous True Tragedy of Richard III (printed in 1594). They also seem to be a cue for Lucianus, but they do not begin his speech. The word bellow applied to the sound of a raven reduces the line to burlesque.”
ard2: R3 //, Bartholomew Fair analogue; v1877
2120 mistake your husbands]
Jenkins (ed. 1982): “‘For better of worse’ is how women ‘take’ their husbands in the marriage-service. In saying that they
mistake them Hamlet gibes at the lightness of their vows. For
mistake, cf.
R2 [3.3.16-7 (1600-1)], ‘Take not . . . lest you mistake’;
Bartholomew Fair, 3.2.101-2, ‘to . . . mistake away the bottles and cans . . . before they be half drunk off’; and other examples in
Furness.
ard2 ≈ irv2 (Simpson); msr + magenta underlined
2122 the croking Rauen . . . reuenge] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Recognized by Simpson (Academy, 19 Dec. 1874) as telescoping of two lines from the anonymous True Tragedy of Richard III, ‘The screeking Raven sits croking for revenge./Whole heads [herds] of beasts comes bellowing for revenge’ (MSR, 1892-3). It is often remarked that the line is inappropriate for the murderer. But it is of course apt for the ‘nephew to the King’ (sec1. 239 LN) and sustains the ambivalent character of Lucianus. Claudius is simultaneously confronted with the image of his crime and the threat of its avenging.”
1984 chal
2120 mistake]
Wilkes (ed. 1984): “
mistake (mis-take) suggests female faithlessness.”
chal
2120 husbands]
Wilkes (ed. 1984): “husbands taken for better or worse in the wedding ceremony.”
chal
2122-3 the croking Rauen . . . reuenge] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “humorous reference to a grandiloquent ‘revenge’ speech in the anonymous True Tragedy of Richard III.”
1984 klein
klein
2121 leaue . . . faces] Klein (ed. 1984): “This is an implied stage direction; one remembers Hamlet’s instructions at the beginning of this scene.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4: WT //; Jonson analogue; OED, Tilley
2120 mistake your husbands] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “ cheat your husbands (by deliberately mistaking, and substituting for one another). Compare WT [2.1.81-2 (685-6)], ‘You have mistook, my lady, / Polixenes for Leontes’, and Jonson’s Masque of Augurs 34-6, where a Groom is accused of being accustomed ‘To fetch . . . a parcel of invisible bread and beer for the Players (for they never see it) or to mistake six torches from the chandlery, and give them one’ (Jonson vii. 630). See also OED mistake v. I. As Q1’s must take makes especially clear, Hamlet relates Ophelia’s remark to the marriage service in which the man and the woman take one another ‘for better for worse’ (Tilley M65), and then quibbles who mistook Claudius for Old Hamlet.”
1988 bev2
bev2
2120-1 mistake] Bevington (ed. 1988): mis-take] “take erringly, falseheartedly. (The marriage vows say, “for better, for worse”).”
1992 fol2
fol2 ≈ kit2
2122 the croaking . . . reuenge] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “Hamlet here amusingly condenses two lines from the anonymous The True Tragedy of Richard III (c. 1591): “the screeking raven sits croaking for revenge./Whole herds of beasts comes bellowing for revenge.’”
Editors correct date for True Tragedy , which kit2, pen2, and fol1 had given as 1594. Perhaps earlier editors had derived this date from the publication date for Questions of Profitable and Pleasant Concernings, which had been cited as a possible source text.
1993 dent
dent: JC, Tmp. //s
2122 Rauen] Andrews (ed. 1993): "A black bird of evil omen, proverbially associated with retribution. Compare JC [5.1.84 (2424)], and Tmp. [1.2.322 (460)].”
dent: xref.
2123 reuenge] Andrews (ed. 1993): “By introducing the theme of revenge, Hamlet manages a neat variation on both Claudius’ crime and the crime depicted in ’The Murther of Gonzago’ (there too the villain is motivated by lust and ambition rather than by revenge). Meanwhile, by presenting the ’Nephew to the King’ (line 268 [2112]) as the murderer, Hamlet sends Claudius a signal that another king’s nephew is brooding over another regicide.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: ≈ ard2; R2 //; Spencer
2120 So . . . husbands] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “ Hamlet alludes to the Christian wedding ceremony in which bride and groom promise to take each other ’for better or for worse’; he implies that women mistake their husbands, i.e. take other men. Spencer adopts Q1’s ’must take’ for mistake, and so do some productions, but the play on take/mistake has a precedent in R2 3.3.10-16.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
2121 damnable faces] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “execrable grimaces.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: ≈ ard2; Bullough analogue; R3 //
2122 the croaking . . . revenge] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “a version of two lines from The True Tragedy of Richard III (c. 1591): ’The screeching raven sits croaking revenge, / Whole herds of beasts come bellowing for revenge’ (Bullough, 3.339, 1892-3). This play was in the repertory of the Queen’s Men, to which company Shakespeare probably belonged before 1592, and the lines are from Richard’s speech before the battle of Bosworth in which he imagines his victims calling for revenge; the word ’revenge’ occurs 16 times in the first 23 lines. In Shakepeare’s own version of the sequence, the ghosts repeat the refrain ’despair and die’ and the word ’revenge’ is not used until Richard’s waking soliloquy (R3 5.3.119-78 and 187). The murder of Gonzago is not in fact presented as a revenge killing in any of the three texts, but obviously this is appropriate to Hamlet’s own situation.”
2120 2121 2122 2123
