Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2206 Ham. {And} <So I> doe still by these pickers and stealers. | 3.2.336 |
|---|
1765 john1/john2
john1
2206 by these pickers] Johnson (ed. 1765): “By these hands.”
1774 capn
capn
2206 by these pickers and stealers] Capell(1774, 1:1:138): “Action would be again the explainer of the oath Hamlet swears by at 2206: but Guildenstern’s speech in that page, being wrapt up in a courtly mysteriousness, will not be understood without words; the last editor explains the speech thus:—’if my duty to the king makes me press you a little, my love to you makes me importunate; if that makes me bold, this makes me even unmannerly [3.2.348-9 (2219-20)].”
1785 v1785
v1785 ≈ john1+ magenta underlined
2206 by these pickers] Whalley (apud Steevens in ed. 1785): “By these hands, says Dr. Johnson; and rightly. But the phrase is taken from our Church catechism, where the catechumen, in his duty to his neighbour, is taught to keep his hands from picking and stealing. Whalley.”
1790 mal
mal ≈ v1785 without attribution
2206 by these pickers and stealers] Malone (ed. 1790): “Alluding to the Church Catechism:—‘to keep my hands from picking and stealing,’ &c. Malone.”
Whalley not recognized for noting this allusion.
1791- rann
rann: john1
2206 these pickers] Rann (ed. 1791-): “these hands.”
1810-13 mclr1
mclr1: xref.
2206 So]
Coleridge (ms. notes 1813 in THEOBALD
, ed
. 1773; rpt.
Coleridge, 1998, 12.4:743): <p. 743>“I never heard an Actor give this word its proper emphasis.—Shakespear’s meaning is—Lov’d
you?—
Ham! So I do still, &c—There has been no change in my opinion. Else Hamlet tells an ignoble Falsehood, & a useless one—as the last speech to him Why, look you now—proves [3.2.363-73 (2234-42)
].”</p. 743>
1819 cald1
cald1: v1785 (Whalley) +
2206 by these pickers] Caldecott (ed, 1819): “‘Pyker or lytell thefe.’ Promptuar, parvulor. ‘Furtificus. a picker or privie stealer.’ Biblioth. Eliotæ. fo. 1559. ‘A great pyker makes a profer to a stronge thefe. Furax gradum facit ad insignem latronem.’ Vulgaria Hormanni. 4to. 1530, signat. iiii. 3, b. ‘After which sorte of bourdyng our feloe myndyng to signifie that Cicero was a bryber and a previe theef, in stede of Tullius called hym Tollius (for tollere is to take awaye) as theeves and pickers dooe take awaye by embesleyng.’ Nic. Udall’s Erasmus’s Apopthegm, 12mo. 1542, fo. 323. ‘We say that a theft or pickerie is done with a good grace, when the cautels and subtilities of thieves and thieving is well observed.’ G. North’s Philbert’s Philosopher of the Court, 18mo. 1575, p. 95. ‘Every extortioner, every picker, every robber.’ Barnabe Rich’s Honestie of this Age, 4to. 1616, p.4.”
1819 mclr2
mclr2
2206 and doe still] Coleridge (ms. notes 1819 in Ayscough, ed. 1807; rpt. Coleridge, 1998, 12.4:853): “I believe, it should be: And do so still—i.e. as well as I ever did.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 +
2206 by these pickers] Caldecott (ed, 1832): “We call small theft pickery. Mackenzie’s Institut. of the law of Scotland, 8vo. 1694, p. 157.”
1841 knt1 (nd)
knt1 ≈ v1785 (Whalley) without attribution
2206 pickers and stealers] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “‘To keep my hands from picking and stealing,’ as an expression of the Church Catechism.”
1847 verp
verp ≈ v1785 (Whalley) without attribution
2206 pickers and stealers]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “Alluding to the phrase of the Anglican church-catechism, ‘to keep my hands from picking and stealing.’”
Verplanck might have derived this note from any number of earlier editions.
1848 Strachey
Strachey contra Coleridge
2206 Strachey (1848, pp. 68-69): <p.68> “I should rather say, that in — ‘So I do still, by these pickers and stealers,’ the last gleam of Hamlet’s old regard for his schoolfellows shines for a moment; but it fades again instantly, and he ends with the jesting allusion to the catechism—intended to avow, rather than to conceal, his feeling that he is using his tongue in a way forbidden as much as picking and stealing are to his hands. Though the occasion is more serious, the contradiction is much like that which nine men out of ten find themselves guilty of, without the <p.68><p.69> least intention of hypocrisy, when they pay a morning visit to a common acquaintance; and express their pleasure at seeing the person whom they had the moment before hoped to find not at home. Each is the real feeling at the moment, because each is a mere transient impulse. It seems worth while to say so much in connection with these subordinate characters, because it is necessary to a just appreciation of Hamlet’s after conduct, to notice the way in which the growing evidence of their worthlessness and malevolence prepares him to take, without remorse, the strong step o sacrificing their lives to save his own.” </p.69>
1850 Grinfield
Grinfield ≈ v1785 (Whalley) without attribution
2206 by these pickers and stealers] Grinfield (1850, p. 31): “An allusion, perhaps, to that clause in the Church Catechism, which bids us ‘to keep our hands from picking and stealing.’”
1854 del2
del2 ≈ v1785 (Whalley) without attribution
2206 pickers and stealers] Delius (ed. 1854): “Hamlet beschwört dem Rosencrantz die Fortdauer seiner Freundschaft charakteristisch genug, nicht bei etwas Erhabnem und Edlem, sondern bei diesen "Ausnehmern und Stehlern". Er versteht darunter die Hände, weil diese, nach dem Englischen Katechismus, vom "Ausnehmen und Stehlen" (from picking and stealing) ferngehalten werden sollen.” [Hamlet swears to Rosencrantz the constancy of his friendship in a characteristic enough manner, not by something exalted and noble, but by these pickers and stealers. By this he means his hands, because in the English Catechism they should be kept from picking and stealing.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 ≈ verp without attribution
2206 pickers and stealers] Hudson (ed. 1856): “This is explained by a clause in the Church Catechism: ‘To keep my hands from picking and stealing.’”
Whalley had alluded to the Catechism in v1785. MAL and KNT1, respectively, repeat a version of this allusion without acknowledging WHALLEY; Malone credits himself. Coleridge ref. may be traced to mCLR.
hud1 ≈ Coleridge
2206 And doe still] Hudson (ed. 1856): The quartos have, ‘And do still,’ instead of ‘So I do still.’ The latter reading gives a very different sense, and one of our reasons for preferring it is thus stated by Coleridge: ‘I never heard an actor give this word ‘so’ its proper emphasis. Shakespeare’s meaning is,—‘Lov’d you? Hum! so I do still.’ There has been no change in my opinion: I think as ill of you as I did.’ H.”
1857 fieb
fieb ≈ hud1 + magenta underlined
2206 pickers and stealers] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “I.e. by these hands. The phrase is taken from the English church catechism, where the catechumen, in his duty to his neighbour, is taught to keep his hands from picking and stealing, and is intended to form a most bitter allusion to the king, who, by his murder, stole his father’s life, crown and wife.”
1865 hal
hal=cald2
Inclusions of Mackenzie note indicates that hal is using cald2 as his source for commentary from Caldecott.
1866 ktlyn
ktlyn: standard
2206 pickers] Keightley (ed. 1866, glossary): “hands.”
1869 tsch
tsch: Grimm
2206 pickers] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Hamlets Ironie zeigt sich darin, dass er bei seiner Betheurung an den zum Schwur dienenden Fingern hervorhebt, dass sie Dieben zur Ausübung ihrer Verbrechen behilflich sind. Grimm R. A. 140f. 903. Mit der Hand, der rechten, wurde der heilige Gegenstand angerührt. Gewöhnlich legten Männer nur die zwei Vorderfinger ihrer rechten hand auf: zwêne finger fiz der hant biutet gein dem eide. Parc. 8n.” [Hamlet’s irony is shown by lifting the fingers used for an oath as he mentions that they are a help to thieves in their crime. Grimm R. A. 140f. 903. With the right hand the holy object was touched. Usually men laid on it only the two first fingers of their right hand: zwêne finger fiz der hant biutet gein dem eide. Parc. 8n.]
1870 rug1
rug1 ≈ Whalley without attribution
2206 pickers and stealers] Moberly (ed. 1870): “His hands, which the Catechism says should not pick or steal.”
1870 Rushton
Rushton: Henry VII Royal Epistle
2206 pickers and stealers]
Rushton (1870, p. 30-1): <p.30> “To the King and Sovereign Lord, and to the noble lords spiritual and temporal and commons in this present Parliament assembled, humbly and lamentably shewn and complain unto your most abundant grace, your humble subjects and pewterers </p.30><p.31> and brasiers of your cities of London and York, and of all other places of this your realm, That whereas many simple and evil-disposed persons of this your realm of England, using the said crafts, daily go about this your realm, from village, from town, and from house to house, as well in woods and forests and in other places, to buy pewter and brass; and that knowing thieves and other
pickers that steal as well pewter and brass belonging to your Highness and under your mark, and to the lords spiritual and temporal, as to other your subjects of this your realm, bring such stillen vessels unto them in such hid places, or into corners of cities and towns, and there sell much part of it to strangers, which carry it over the sea by stealth</p.31>. . . . <p.32> X. li. 19
Henry VII. cap. vi.” </p.32>
1872 hud2
hud2 ≈ hud1 minus Coleridge ref.
2206 And doe still] Hudson (ed. 1881): So I do still] “So the folio. The quartos have ‘And do still.’ The latter reading gives a different sense, so being emphatic, and strongly ironical.”
hud2 = hud1 for pickers and stealers
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈Whalley without attribution + magenta underlined
2206 these pickers and stealers] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “that is, these hands. The phrase ‘picking and stealing’ in the Catechism is familiar, and probably suggested this. ‘By this hand! is a frequent form of asseveration. See Tmp. [3.2.49 (1401)], MV [5.1.161 (2583)]; and compare 2H6 [1.3.190 (587)], ‘By these ten bones, my lord.’”
1874 Tyler
Tyler: contra cln1 without attribution
2206 pickers and stealers] Tyler (1874, p. 19): “The words ‘pickers and stealers’ have been taken, in accordance with the well-known clause in the Church Catechism, as equivalent to ‘hands.’ But, if the hands are called ‘pickers and stealers,’ it would seem that theft is a purpose, if not the purpose, which the hands of men very usually subserve, so usually that they may be appropriately designated therefrom. And in the same vein, a very little further on, Hamlet tells Guildenstern that to make the recorder ‘discourse most excellent music’ is ‘as easy as lying.’”
Tyler argues here that Hamlet betrays his own pessimistic philosophy in using this phrase, rather than illustrate a familiar idiom.
1877 v1877
v1877=Coleridge
2206 And]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Coleridge: I never heard an actor give this word its proper emphasis. Shakespeare’s meaning is--’loved you? Hum!--
so I do still,’ &c. ‘There has been no change in my opinion: --I think as ill of you as I did.’ Else Hamlet tells an ignoble falsehood, and a useless one, as the last speech to Guildenstern,--’Why, look you now,’ &c.--proves.
Strachey (p. 68): I should rather say, that the last gleam of Hamlet’s old regard for his schoolfellows shines out here for a moment; but it fades again instantly, and he ends with a jesting allusion to the catechism,—intended to avow, rather than to conceal, his feeling that he is using his tongue in a way forbidden, as much as picking and stealing are to his hands.”
v1877=Whalley, Nares, cald, cln1
2206 pickers and stealers]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Johnson: Hands.
Whalley: The phrase is taken from our church catechism, where the catechumen, in his duty to his neighbor, is taught to keep his hands from picking and stealing.
Nares: Examples are common of swearing by the fingers, called in cant phrase, ‘the ten bones.’ See [1.3.190 (587)].
Caldecott:
‘Pykare or lytylle theef.’ --
Prompt. Parv.
Clarendon: ‘By this hand!’ is a frequent form of asseveration. See
Tmp. [3.2.49 (1401)];
MV [5.1.161 (2583)
].”
1878 rlf1
rlf1=Whalley
2206 pickers and stealers] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Hands, which the church catechism admonishes us to keep from ‘picking and stealing’ (Whalley).”
1881 hud3
hud3 ≈ hud2
2206 And doe still] Hudson (ed. 1881): “So the folio. The quartos have ‘And do still.’ I think the former gives a characteristic shade of meaning which is lost in the latter. In ‘So I do still’ so is emphatic and strongly ironical.”
hud3 = hud2 for pickers and stealers
1882 elze
elze: A Larum for London analogue
2206 pickers and stealers] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare A Larum for London; or, The Siege of Antwerp (Simpson, The School of Shakspere, 1872, p. 72): Or with my sword I’ll hack your filchers off.”
1885 macd
macd: standard
2206 by . . . stealers] Mac Donald (ed. 1885): “He swears an oath that will not hold, being by the hand of a thief.
“In the Catechism: ‘Keep my hands from picking and stealing.’”
1888 bry
bry: standard
2206 pickers and stealers] Bryant (ed. 1888): “The phrase is from the English church catechism, where it is enjoined to ‘keep one’s hands from picking and stealing.’”
1888 Savage
mPudsey
2206 by these . . . stealers] Pudsey (apud Savage, 1888, p. 73): “by thees pickers & stealers scilt hands”
Savage’s transcription is said to be from a notebook attributed to Edward Pudsey, which was supposedly compiled by 1616 (the dates on the last two page are 1615 and 1616, respectively).
1889 Barnett
Barnett
2206 pickers and stealers] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “ten fingers. Cf. ‘Keep my hands from picking and stealing.”
1890 irv2
irv2: standard (Whalley) without attribution; elze (A Larum analogue, MV and 2H6 //s) without attribution. + magenta underlined
2206 pickers and stealers] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “An allusion, doubtless, to the admonishment in the Church Catechism to keep our hands from picking and stealing. Elze quotes A Larum for London: ‘Or with my sword I’ll hack your filchers off’ (Simpson’s School of Shakespeare, 1872, p. 72). ‘By this hand!’ is used as a mild oath in MV [5.1.161 (2583)], and elsewhere in Shakespeare. In 2H6 [1.3.190 (587)], Peter, the armourer’s man, swears ‘by these ten bones, my lords.’ Compare Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, ii. 2, where Pharamond says to Galatea: ‘By this sweet hand.’”
1891 dtn
dtn: standard
2206 And doe . . . stealers] Deighton (ed. 1891): “so I do still, I swear by these hands ; said with grim irony ; pickers and stealers, a reference to the Church Catechism, one of the promises made in it by the catechumen being to keep his ‘hands from picking and stealing.’”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ irv2 minus analogue and MV // + magenta underlined
2206 pickers and stealers] Dowden (ed. 1899): “hands, which the Church Catechism admonishes us to keep from picking and stealing. A mild oath, found in MV [5.1.161 (2583)]. Hamlet wishes to have done with professions of love, and swears ‘by these rogueish hands.’”
1903 rlf3
rlf3=rlf1 minus Whalley attribution
1906 nlsn
nlsn
2206 pickers] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “thieves, i.e. fingers.”
1931 crg1
crg1: standard
2206 pickers and stealers] Craig (ed. 1931): “hands, so-called from the catechism, ‘to keep my hands from picking and stealing.’”
1934 cam3
cam3: xref.
2206 by these pickers and stealers] Wilson (ed. 1934): “i.e. by these hand, referring to ‘keep my hands from picking and stealing’ (Church Catechism), and intended to recall what follows, viz. ‘and my tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering’—which he imputes to them; cf. [3.2.357 (2228)].”
1937 pen1
pen1
2206 pickers and stealers] Harrison (ed. 1937): “fingers, appropriately used of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern because they were trying to steal Hamlet’s secrets from him.”
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ Whalley
2206 by . . . stealers] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “by these ten fingers; by this hand (with a gesture). The phrase, as Whalley notes, comes form the catechism of the Church of England, where the catechumen is told to keep his hands from ‘picking [i.e., pilfering] and stealing.’”
1942 n&h
n&h: standard
2206 pickers and stealers] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “i.e. hands.”
1974 evns1
evns1: standard
2206 pickers and stealers] Evans (ed. 1974): “hands; which, as the Catechism says, we must keep ‘from picking and stealing.’”
1980 Frye, Northrop
Frye
2205 Frye (1980, p. 94): Rosencrantz and Guildenstern “are serving the king, whom they assume is the rightful king. Hamlet hasn’t taken them into his confidence to that extent—and it never occurs to them that they are not acting in Hamlet’s own best interests. ’My lord, you once did love me,’ Guildenstern says with simple dignity. For Hamlet to describe them so contemptuously to Horatio as the shabbiest kind of spies, whose death is simply a good riddance [3560-5], is one of those bewildering shifts of perspective that make . . . ’easy listening’ impossible.”
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ evns1+ magenta underlined
2206 these pickers and stealers] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(his hands, or perhaps those of Rosencrantz who is holding them out in protestation). The allusion is to the Catechism in the Prayer Book: ‘My duty towards my neighbour is to . . . keep my hands from picking and stealing’. Instead of the usual oath ‘by this hand’, Hamlet swears one that is not valid, as if the only purpose of hands was theft.”
1982 ard2
ard2: standard
2206 pickers and stealers] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “i.e. hands. From the Church catechism, ‘To keep my hands from picking and sealing.’”
1984 chal
chal ≈ evns1
2206 pickers and stealers] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “hands: according to the Catechism, one’s duty to one’s neighbour is in part ‘to keep my hands from picking and stealing’.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
2206 pickers and stealers] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “hands; so-called from the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer where the person being catechized promises to ’keep my hands from picking and stealing.’”
2206
