HW Home	Previous CN	View CN	View TNM	View TNI	Next CN

Line 2212+1 - 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. Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.

Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary

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

2212+1 {Enter the Players with Recorders.}

1773 mstv1

mstv1

2212+1 Recorders] [Steevens] (ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1773): “flutes”

1778 v1778

v1778: Brome, Sidney, Repentance of Mary Magdalene analogues

2212+1 Recorders] Steevens (ed. 1778): “i.e. a kind of flute. In The Antipodes, a comedy by Brome, 1638, is ‘A solemn lesson upon the recorders.’ Again, in Sidney’s Arcadia: ‘— the other shepherds pulling out recorders, which possess’d the place of pipes, &c.’ Again, in the old enterlude of the Repentance of Mary Magdalene, 1567: ‘If that you can play upon the recorder, I have as faire a one as any is in this border: Truely you have not seene a more goodlie pipe.’ To record, anciently signified to sing or modulate. Steevens.”

1784 ays1

ays1=v1778 minus “In Antipodes . . . . modulate.”

2212+1 Recorders] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “i. e. a kind of flute.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778 + magenta underlined

2215 Recorders] Steevens (ed. 1785): “i.e. a kind of large flute. In The Antipodes, a comedy by Brome, 1638, is ‘A solemn lesson upon the recorders.’ Again, in Sidney’s Arcadia: ‘—the other shepherds pulling out recorders, which possess’d the place of pipes, &c.’ Again, in the old enterlude of the Repentance of Mary Magdalene, 1567: ‘If that you can play upon the recorder, I have as faire a one as any is in this border: Truely you have not seene a more goodlie pipe.’ See vol. 3, p.118. To record, anciently signified to sing or modulate. Steevens.”

1790 mal

mal = v1785

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

1807 Douce

Douce ≈contra v1785 + magenta underlined

2212+1 Recorders] Douce (1807, pp. 248-250): “‘i.e.’ says Mr. Steevens, ‘a kind of large flute.’ Yet the former note, to which he refers, </p.248><p.249> vol. v. p. 149, describes this instrument as a small flute. Sir J. Hawkins, in vol. iv. p. 479, of his valuable History of musick, has offered very good proofs that the recorder was a flagelet, and he maintains that the flute was improperly termed a recorder, and that the expressions have been confounded: yet his opinion that the books of instructions entitled ‘for the recorder’ belong in reality to the flute, seems rather doubtful. The confusion is in having blended the genus with the species. In the Promptuarium parvulorum, 1516, 4to, a recorder is defined to be a ‘lytell pype.’ In Udall’s flowres for Latine spekyng selected oute of Terence, 1532, 12mo, the line from Virgil’s Bucolics, ‘Nec te pœniteat calamo trivisse labellum,’ is rendered, ‘and thyhnke it not a smalle thynge to have lerned to playe on the pype or the recorder:’ and it is not a little curious that in modern cant language the recorders of corporations are termed flutes. The following story in Wits fits and fancies, 1595, 4to, shows that the pipe and recorder were different; such is the uncertainty of definition among old writers: ‘A merrie recorder of London mistaking the name of one Pepper, call’d him Piper: whereunto the partie excepting, and </p.249><p.250> saying: Sir, you mistake, my name is Pepper, not Piper: hee answered: Why, what difference is there (I pray thee) between Piper in Latin, and Pepper in English; is it not all one? No, sir (reply’d the other) there is even as much difference betweene them, as is between a Pipe and a Recorder.’”

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

1819 cald1

cald1: MND //

2212+1 Recorders] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Flagellet. See MND [5.1.123 (1920)]. Hippol.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813, Douce minus contra v1785

1826 sing1

sing1 ≈ v1793

2212+1 Enter . . . Recorders] Singer (ed. 1826): “Malone added here a stage direction [Taking Guild. aside.] Steevens thinks it an answer to a motion Guildenstern had used, for Hamlet to withdraw with him.

1839 knt1: (nd)

knt1: v1793 + magenta underlined

2212+1 Recorders] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “The recorder was (not ‘a king of large flute,’ as Mr. Steevens says, but) a flageolet, or small English flute, the mouthpiece of which, at the upper extremity of the instrument, resembled the beak of a bird: hence the larger flutes so formed were called flutes à bec. The recorder was soft in tone, and an octave higher than the flute. Milton speaks (‘Par. Lost,’ I. 550) of ‘—the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders.’ It would appear from Bacon’s ‘Sylva Sylvarum,’ cent. iii. 221, that this instrument was larger in the lower than in the upper part; and a wood-cut of the flageolet, in Marsenne’s ‘Harmonie Universelle,’ leads to the same conclusion. On the etymology of the word much ingenuity has been bestowed, but without any satisfactory result.”

1843 col1

col1≈ Douce(Hawkins) without attribution

2212+1 Recorders] Collier (ed. 1843): “A ‘recorder’ was probably a flageolet, but some have contended that it was a flute—a position Sir John Hawkins controverted in his ‘History of Music,’ Vol. iv. p. 479.”

1847 verp

verp ≈ col1 without attribution

2212+1 Recorders] Verplanck (ed. 1847): “Hawkins, in his History of Music, shows the recorder to have answered to the modern flageolet. It was not a flute, since Bacon and Milton speak of both, as distinct:—‘the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders.’”

1854 del2

del2

2212+1 one with Recorders] Delius (ed. 1854): “So die Fol. mit Recht, da nur eine Flöte nötig und das Auftreten der Schauspieler überflüssig ist. Die Qs. lesen: Enter the Players with recorders, und fügen zu let me see noch one.” [The Folio correctly has this, since only one flute is needed, and the appearance of the players is unnecessary. The Quartos read: Enter the Players with recorders, and add to let me see the word one.]

1856b sing2

sing2 = sing1

1857 dyce1

dyce1: xref.

2212+1 Recorders] Dyce (ed. 1857): “So the quartos, 1604, &c. (except that there the stage-direction stands, ‘Enter the players with recorders’).—The folio has,—‘Enter one with a Recorder.’ O the Recorder. Let me see;’—an alteration which I have not the slightest doubt we must attribute to the ‘company,’ who were obliged to be economical both of persons and properties. A single recorder, indeed, suffices for the mere business of the scene: but the alteration is quite at variance with what precedes, p. 527, ‘come, some music! come, the recorders!’ [3.2.292 (2164)].”

1858 col3

col3 =col1 + Squyr of Lowe Degre analogue

2212+1 Recorders] Collier (ed. 1858): “One of the earliest notices of the ‘recorder’ is in the romance of ‘The Squyr of Lowe Degre.”

1860 stau

stau: Bacon + magenta underlined

2212+1 Recorders] Staunton (ed. 1860): “The best, indeed the only reliable description of these instruments, is that furnished by Mr. W. Chappell in his delightful work, called ‘Popular Music of the Olden Time:’—

“Old English musical instruments were commonly made of three or four different sizes, so that a player might take any of the four parts that were required to fill up the harmony. So Violins, Lutes, Recorders, Flutes, Shawms, &c. have been described by some writers in a manner which (to those unacquainted with this peculiarity) has appeared irreconcileable with other accounts. Shakespeare (in Hamlet) speaks of the Recorder as a little pipe, and says, in MND, ‘he hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder;’ but in an engraving of the instrument,* <n.> *See ‘The Genteel Companion for the Recorder,’ by Humphrey Salter, 1683. </n.> it reaches from the lip to the knee of the performer; and among those left by Henry VIII, were Recorders of box, oak, and ivory, great and small, two base recorders of walnut, and one great base recorder. Recorders and (English) Flutes are to outward appearance the same, although Lord Bacon, in his Natural History, cent. iii. sec. 221, says the Recorder hath a less bore, and a greater above and below. The number of holes for the fingers is the same, and the scale, the compass, and the manner of playing, the same. Salter describes the recorder, from which the instrument derives its name, as situate in the upper part of it, i.e. between the hole below the mouth and the highest hole for the finger. He says, ‘of the kinds of music, vocal has always had the preference in esteem, and in consequence, the Recorder, as approaching nearest to the sweet delightfulness of the voice, ought to have first place in opinion, as we see by the universal use if it confirmed.’”

1864a glo

glo: standard

2212+1 Recorders] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: glossary, Recorder): “sb. a flute. Ham. 3. 2.”

1865 hal

hal ≈ Douce without attribution+ magenta underlined

2212+1 Recorders] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “A recorder was a kind of flageolet. The following story is very common in old jest books, and told of various persons.

A merrie recorder of London mistaking the name of one Pepper, call’d him Piper: whereunto the partie excepting, and saying: Sir, you mistake, my name is Pepper, not Piper: hee answered: Why, what difference is there, I pray thee, between Piper in Latin, and Pepper in English? is it not all one? No, sir, reply’d the other, there is even as much difference betweene them, as is between a Pipe and a Recorder.

‘One payre virginalls, vj. cushions, two vialls, one raser, once citterne, one recorder and flute and musick bookes,’ Inventory, 1625, Stratford-on-Avon MSS.’”

1866a dyce2

dyce2 = dyce1

1877 neil

neil ≈ Douce (Hawkins ref.) without attribution; ≈ KNT1 (Marsennus) without attribution

2212+1 Recorders] Neil (ed. 1877): “Sir Joshua Hawkins thinks that the recorder was the same instrument as we now call a flageolet (History of Music, iv, 479); but others are of the opinion that it was a kind of flute, of soft tone, with nine holes, called by Marsennus, in his Harmonie Unverselle, i, 237, ‘fluste de Angleterre.’ ”

v1877 ≈ dyce1

2212+1 Recorders] Furness (ed. 1877): “Dyce: The change from the plural of the Qq to the singular of the Ff I have not the slightest doubt we must attribute to the ‘company,’ who were obliged to be economical both of persons and properties. A single recorder, indeed, suffices for the mere business of this scene; but the alteration is quite at variance with what precedes in line 280.”

v1877 = stau without attribution + magenta underlined

2215+1 Recorders] Furness (ed. 1877): “Chappell (Popular Music of the ‘Olden Time,’ p. 246, and note): Old English musical instruments were commonly made of three or four different sizes, so that a player might take any of the four parts that were required to fill up the harmony. So Violins, Lutes, Recorders, Flutes, Shawms, &c., have been described by some writers in a manner which (to those unacquainted with this peculiarity) has appeared irreconcilable with other accounts. Sh. (in Hamlet) speaks of the Recorder as a little pipe, and says, in MND, ‘he hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder;’ but in an engraving of the instrument* it reaches from the lip to the knee of the performer; and among those left by Henry VIII were Recorders of box, oak, and ivory, great and small, two base Recorders of walnut, and one great base Recorder. Recorders and (English) Flutes are to outward appearance the same, although Lord Bacon in his Natural History, cent. iii, sec. 22i, says the Recorder hath a less bore, and a greater above and below. The number of holes for the fingers is the same, and the scale, the compass, and the manner of playing, the same. Salter describes the recorder, from which the instrument derives its name, as situate in the uper part of it, i.e. between the hole below the mouth and the highest hole for the finger. He says, ‘Of the kinds of music, vocal has always had the preference in esteem, and in consequence the Recorder, as approaching nearest to the sweet delightfulness of the voice, ought to have first place in opinion, as we see by the universal use of it confirmed.’ Ward, the military instrument-maker, informs me that he has seen ‘old English flutes’ with a hole bored through the side, in the upper part of the instrument, covered with a thin piece of skin, like gold-beater’s skin. I suppose this would give somewhat the effect of the quill or reed in the Hautboy, and that these were Recorders. Recorders were used for teaching birds to pipe.” <n*> See ‘The Genteel Companion for the Recorder,’ by Humphrey Salter, 1683. </n*>

1877 col4

col4 = col1 minus Hawkins +

2212+1 Recorders] Collier (ed. 1877): ““Flageolets were instruments ordinarily employed by companies of actors.”

1882 elze

elze

2212+1 Recorders] Elze (ed. 1882): “From Massinger’s Old Law, II, I (Works, ed. Hartley Coleridge, p. 421 a) it appears that funerals were accompanied with recorders.”

1883 wh2

wh2: standard

2212+1 Recorders] White (ed. 1883): “these were wind instruments, like large flageolets; they were of various sizes.”

1934 Wilson

Wilson

2212+1 Wilson (1934, rpt. 1963, 1:37): <1:37> “in the conversation between Hamlet and his two school-fellows after the play-scene, Q2 prints Enter the Players with Recorders and gives Hamlet the exclamation, ‘ô the Recorders, let mee see one,” which in F1 have become Enter one with a Recorder and “O the Recorder. Let me see.’ Such changes are innocent enough, if a little cheese-paring; but manhandling Shakespeare is a dangerous business—as every editor is aware—and the person responsible for these alterations is always liable to trip.” </1:37>

1982 ard2

ard2

2212+1 the Players] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The actors of course. The notion that this might refer to special recorder-‘players’ would not need refuting if it had not been so strangely persistent.”

1998 OED

OED

2216 recorders] OED (Sept. 10, 1998): “recorder2. Forms: 5-6 recordre, 5 Sc. -our, 6 Sc. -ar, (5 recourder), 5- recorder. [app. f. RECORD v.1 (senses 2 and 3) + -ER1.] a. A wind instrument of the flute or flageolet kind (see quot. 1626). The popularity of the instrument spread in the twentieth century after its revival by Arnold Dolmetsch in 1919.

“1430-40 LYDG. Bochas II. xv. (1554) 54 b, Pan..Of recorders fond fyrst the melodies. c 1450 HOLLAND Howlat 759 The rote, and the recordour, The trumpe, and the talburn. 1542 UDALL Erasm. Apoph. 5 b, Yf a manne would fayn bee reputed a good player on the recordres. 1598 YONG Diana 475 One of them plaied on a Lute; another on a Harpe; another made a maruellous sweet countertenour vpon a Recorder. 1626 BACON Sylva §221 The Figure of Recorders, and Flutes, and Pipes are straight; But the Recorder hath a less Bore and a greater; Above, and below. 1683 TRYON Way to Health 655 Flutes or Recorders are a brave noble Instrument, being skilfully handled. 1719 D’URFEY Pills (1872) IV. 94 All maids that make trial of a Lute or a Viol,..If you like not this Order, come try my Recorder. 1773 BARRINGTON in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 250 A musical instrument, formerly used in England, called a recorder. 1791 COWPER Iliad x. 14 Pipes, and recorders, and the hum of war.1920 Glasgow Herald 10 Aug. 6 One was able to understand why the Greeks went into battle to the soft strains of solemn music rendered on flutes and recorders. 1932 R. DONINGTON Work & Ideas A. Dolmetsch 16 The first group of early instruments to regain something of its original popularity has been the family of recorders, or English flutes. Many hundreds of Dolmetsch recorders are already in use. 1958 M. DOLMETSCH Personal Recoll. A. Dolmetsch viii. 88 Our broken consorts now, for the first time, included the recorder, the instrument employed being, of course, the ancient boxwood and ivory recorder which Arnold had brought over from England. It was played by his first recorder pupil, namely the Harvard Professor Peabody. 1962 E. HUNT Recorder & its Music 7 The present-day meteoric return to popularity of the recorder – whose seductive tone charmed the ears of Henry VIII, Shakespeare and Pepys – is a development unparalleled in the history of any other musical instrument. 1976 D. MUNROW Instr. Middle Ages & Renaissance i. 14/1 The essential features of the recorder are its beak-shaped mouthpiece and the number of its finger-holes: seven finger-holes plus a thumb-hole.”