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Line 2213-18 - 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.

2213-4 Ham. I {sir}, but while the grasse growes, the prouerbe is \| something

2214-16 musty, \| <Enter one with a Recorder.> \| ô the {Recorders,} <Recorder.> let mee see {one}, to withdraw with you, why

2217-8 doe you goe about to recouer the wind of mee, as if you \| would driue

2218 me into a toyle?	3.2.347

1733- mtby3

mtby3

2213-14 Thirlby (1733-): “the steed starve. Ra[y’s} 115 I find not[hing] else there.”

1754 Grey

Grey: Ray’s Proverbs

2213 while . . . growes] Grey (1754, p. 297): “The proverb, While the grass grows, the steed starves.—Caval non morire che herba de venire. Ital,—See Ray’s Proverbs, entire sentences, under the letter G.”

1755 Johnson Dict.

Johnson Dict.

2216 recorders ] Johnson (1755): 1. “one whose business is to register any events.”

2. “the keeper of the rolls in a city.”

3. “a kind of flute; a wind instrument.”

1773 mstv1

mstv1

2216 Recorders] [Steevens] (ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1773): “flutes”

1774 capn

capn

2216 to withdraw with you] Capell (1774, 1:1:138): “signifies — to have done with you, draw toward an end with you; and he singles out Guildenstern, as of a darker and more treacherous temper than the other.”

1778 v1778

v1778: Brome, Sidney, Repentance of Mary Magdalene analogues

2215 Recorder] 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.”

1783 malsii

malsii: Whetstone analogue

2213 while . . . musty] Malone (1783, II, 58): “The remainder of this old proverb is preserved in Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, 1578: ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede.’ Hamlet means to intimate, that whilst he is waiting for the succession to the throne of Denmark, he may himself be taken off by death.”

1784 ays1

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

2215 Recorders] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “i. e. a kind of flute.”

1785 Mason

Mason

2216 to withdraw with you] Mason (1785, p. 388): “These last words have no meaning, as they stand; yet none of the editors have attempted to amend them. They were probably spoken to the players, whom Hamlet wished to get rid of:—I therefore should suppose that we ought to read, ‘so, withdraw you;’ or, ‘so, withdraw, will you?’”

1785 v1785

v1785 = malsii, v1778 + magenta underlined

2215 Recorder] 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. iii. p.118. To record, anciently signified to sing or modulate. Steevens.”

v1785: Second Maiden’s Tragedy analogue

2217 recouer the wind of mee] Steevens (ed. 1785): “So, in an ancient MS. play entitled the Second Maiden’s Tragedy:‘—Is that next? Why then I have your ladyship in the wind.’ Steevens.”

v1785: Churchyard analogue

2217 recouer the wind of mee] Henderson (apud Steevens, ed. 1785): “Again, in Churchyard’s Worthiness of Wales. ‘Their cunning can with craft so cloke a troeth, That hardly we chall have them in the winde, To smell them forth or yet their fineness finde.’ Henderson.”

1790 mal

mal = v1785 + magenta underlined minus Henderson

2213 while . . . musty] Malone (ed. 1790): “The remainder of this old proverb is preserved in Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, 1578: ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede.’ Again, in the Paradise of Daintie Devises, 1578: ‘To whom of old this proverbe well it serves, While grass doth growe, the silly horse he serves.’ Hamlet means to intimate, that whilst he is waiting for the succession to the throne of Denmark, he may himself be taken off by death. Malone.”

1791- rann

rann

2216-8 to withdraw . . . toyle] RANN (ed. 1791-): “A word with you in private: why do you sift thus narrowly into the cause of my present eccentric appearance; is it with a view to betray me?”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mason, mal +

2216 to withdraw with you] Steevens (ed. 1793): “Here Mr. Malone adds the following stage direction:—[Taking Guildenstern aside.] But the forgoing obscure words may refer to some gesture which Guildenstern had used, and which, at first, was interpreted by Hamlet into a signal for him to attend the speaker into another room. ‘To withdraw with you?’ (says he) Is that your meaning? But finding his friends continue to move mysteriously about him, he adds, with some resentment, a question more easily intelligible. Steevens."

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

1807 Pye

Pye

2213 while . . . growes] Pye (1807, p. 320-1): <p.320> “Mercy on us! here we have one of the </p.320><p.321> commonest proverbs in the English language explained, and the preservation of part of it in an old play as pompously announced, as if it had been of the lost decades of Livy.” <p.321>

1807 Douce

Douce ≈contra v1785 + magenta underlined

2215 Recorder] 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 Jackson

Jackson: Mason + magenta underlined

2216 withdraw with you] Jackson (1819, p. 352): “Before I paid attention to Mr. Mason’s note, I was of the opinion that these words should be addressed to the Players, first correcting the passage thus—So: withdraw with you. On receiving any article from an inferior, as Hamlet does the recorder from the Players, the word so implies very well, or that’s well. But it should be observed that there is no stage direction for the exit of the Players; and Hamlet would scarcely suffer them to remain in his presence during the remainder of the scene: Farther, it is not evident that the Players are introduced merely to give Hamlet an opportunity of taking one of the recorders. The pasage should be regulated thus: ‘O, the recorders—let me see one. (He takes a recorder.) So:—withdraw with you.—(to the Players, who exit.) It is a playful or vulgar saying, Set off with you: so, withdraw with you, has the same meaning.”

Jackson: contra mal

2217-8 why . . . toyle?] Jackson (1819, p. 353): “Mr. Malone seems to have mistaken the sense of this passage; the import of which I understand to mean,—Why do you go about, in such an underhand manner, to sift my thoughts, or lay stratagems to drive me into a toil? The idea is taken from a trap to catch wild beasts.”

1819 cald1

cald1

2213 while . . . growes] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Partakes of the staleness it is descriptive of. He was, as he had just told the king, ‘promise-cramm’d: you can’t feed capons so.”

cald1: MND //

2215 Recorder] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Flagellet. See MND [5.1.123 (1920)] Hippol.”

cald1

2216 ô, the recorder . . . with you] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “The two royal emissaries at first only request that the prince would ‘vouchsafe them a word’; and they then acquaint him with the king’s rage, and the queen, his mother’s, command to visit her. They then, by a waving of the hand, or some such signal, as the exclamation of Hamlet denotes, intimate, that he should remove to some more retired quarter. Although aware that the above, their only proper business, could not require any private communication, he at first, in gentle expostulation, reproaches them; but presently recollecting their insidious aims, and feeling at the same time, as an indignity, the freedom taken in thus beckoning him to withdraw, he in a moment assumes a different tone; and, with the most galling sneer and interrogatory, heaps upon them the utmost contempt and contumely.”

cald1 ≈ v1785 minus “So . . . entitled” + magenta underlined

2217 recouer the wind of mee] Steevens (apud Editor, ed. 1819): “Get on the blind side. Mr. Steevens cites So, in an ancient MS. play entitled the Second Maiden’s Tragedy:‘—Is that next? Why then I have your ladyship in the wind.’ Steevens.”

cald1 ≈ v1785

2217 recouer the wind of mee] Henderson (apud Editor, ed. 1819): “And Mr. Henderson, Again, in Churchyard’s Worthiness of Wales. ‘Their cunning can with craft so cloke a troeth, That hardly we chall have them in the winde, To smell them forth or yet their fineness finde.’ Henderson.”

cald1: TGV //

2217 recouer the wind of mee] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “‘The forest is not three leagues off, ‘If we recover that, we’re sure enough.’ TGV [5.1.11-12 (2037-8)], Egl.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813, Douce minus contra v1785

1826 sing1

sing1 ≈ v1793

2215 Enter . . . Recorder] 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.”

sing1

2213 withdraw] Singer (ed. 1826): “I think that it means no more than ‘to draw back with you,’ to leave that scene or trail. It is a hunting term, like that which follows.”

sing1: Gentleman’s Recreation

2217 recouer the wind] Singer (ed. 1826): “This is a term which has been left unexplained. It is borrowed from hunting, as the context shows; and means, to take advantage of the animal pursued, by getting by the windward of it, that it may not scent its pursuers. ‘Observe how the wind is, that you may set the net so as the hare and wind may come together; if the wind be sideways it may do well enough, but never if it blow over the net into the hare’s face, for he will scent both it and you at a distance.’—Gentleman’s Recreation.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 + Oth. //

2217 recouer] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “See ‘weapon recovered from the Moor.’ Oth. [5.2.240 (3537)], Mont.”

1841 knt1 (nd)

knt1: v1793 + magenta underlined

2215 Recorder] 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.”

knt1

2216 to withdraw with you] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have intimated, by some signal, that they wish to speak with Hamlet in private.”

1843 col1

col1 ≈ Douce (Hawkins) without attribution

2215 Recorder] 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

2216 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.’”

1853 Dyce

Dyce ≈ mal + magenta underlined

2213 while the grasse growes] Dyce (1853, p. 141): “Malone quotes this proverb in full from Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, 1578,—’Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede;’ and from The Paradise of Daintie Devises, 1578,—‘While grasse doth growe, the silly horse he starves.’ I find it, with a variation, in Whitney’s Emblemes, 1586; ‘While grasse doth growe, the courser faire doth sterue.’ p. 26.”

1854 del2

del2

2215 one with a Recorder] 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.]

del2

2216 withdraw with you] Delius (ed. 1854): “to withdraw with you sagt Hamlet, wenn auch nicht laut, doch in Bezug auf Guildenstern und Rosencrantz: um von euch loszukommen. to withdraw = sich zurückziehen, wird hier mit with construirt, wie to part with you, = von einem scheiden.” [Hamlet says, to withdraw with you, even though not loudly, yet in connection with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz: to get away from you. to withdraw meaning go away, is combined here with the word with, as to part with you= to leave someone.]

del2

2217-8 recouer. . . toyle] “Das Bild is von der Jagd entlehnt. Wind ist die Witterung des Wilds und toil das Jägernetz.” [The illustration is taken from the hunt. Wind is the scent of the game, and toil the hunter’s net.]

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1

2213 withdraw] Hudson (ed. 1856): “To withdraw,’ it is said, is sometimes used as a hunting term, meaning to draw back, to leave the scent or trail. H.”

hud1 ≈ sing1 (incl. Gent’s Rec. ) without attribution

2217 recouer the wind] Hudson (ed. 1856): “‘To recover the wind of me’ is a term borrowed from hunting, and means, to take advantage of the animal pursued, by getting to the windward of it, that it may not scent its pursuers. ‘Observe how the wind is, that you may set the net so as the hare and wind may come together; if the wind be sideways it may do well enough, but never if it blow over the net into the hare’s face, for he will scent both it and you at a distance.’—Gentleman’s Recreation.”

1856b sing2

sing2 = sing1

1857 dyce1

dyce1: xref.

2215 ô . . . one] 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

2215 Recorder] 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

2215 Recorder] 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 irreconcilable with other accounts. Shakespeare (in Hamlet) speaks of the Recorder as a little pipe, and says, in MND [5.1.123 (1920)], ‘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.’ ”

stau ≈ mal

2216 to withdraw with you] Staunton (ed. 1860): “Malone, to render these words intelligible, was fain to interpolate a stage direction:—[Taking Guildenstern aside.] Steevens conceived them to hve been in reply to some gesture Guildenstern had used, and which Hamlet interpreted into a signal for him to attend the speaker into another room. We take them to be simply a direction addressed to the players who bring in the recorders, and their true reading,— ‘So,—[taking a recorder] withdraw with you.’ What subsequently transpires between Hamlet and his schoolfellows could hardly have taken place in presence of the players, and the disputed words may have been intended to mark the departure of the latter.”

stau ≈ sing

2217 to recouer . . . mee] Staunton (ed. 1860): “An expression borrowed from hunting, as Mr. Singer explains, and meaning, ‘to get the animal pursued to run with the wind, that it may not scent the toil or its pursuers.”

1857 fieb

fieb = mal for while . . . growes (2213)

fieb=v1793 for to withdraw with you (2216)

fieb: v1793 (Sec. Maid’s Trag. analogue)

2217 recouer . . . mee] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “A hunting-expression, as well as toil, a net or snare, woven or meshed. Steevens, quotes the same from an ancient MS. play entitled The Second Maiden’s Tragedy; ‘—Is that next? Why. Then I have your ladyship in the wind.’ Again, in Churchyard’s Worthiness of Wales: ‘Their cunning can with craft so cloke a trooth,/That hardly we shall have them in the wind,/To smell them forth or yet their fineness finde.’”

1864a glo

glo: standard

2215 Recorder] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: glossary, Recorder): “sb. a flute. Ham. [3.2.292 (2164)].”

1865 hal

hal = malsii forwhile the grasse growes (2213)

hal = cald1 for to recouer the wind of mee (2217)

hal ≈ Douce without attribution+ magenta underlined

2215 Recorder] 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

1866b cam1

cam1: summarizes history of commentary from Mason to Knight

2216 to withdraw with you] Clark and Wright (ed. 1866): “III. 2. 329. Mason conjectured that the words ‘To withdraw with you’ were spoken to the players whom Hamlet wished to get rid of, and proposed to read ‘So, withdraw you,’ or ‘So withdraw, will you?’ Malone adds the stage direction ‘Taking Guil. aside.’ Steevens supposes that the words ‘To . . . you’ “May refer to some gesture which Guildenstern had used, and which, at first was interpreted by Hamlet into a signal for him to attend the speaker into another room. ‘To withdraw with you?’ (says he) ‘Is that your meaning?’” Mr Staunton, agreeing substantially with Mason, proposes to read ‘So,—[taking a recorder] withdraw with you.’ He adds that the disputed words may have been intended to mark the departure of the players. Jackson (1819) proposed the same reading and explanation, adding a stage direction, ‘To the Players, who exit.’

“If the reading and punctuation given in our text be right, the words seem to be addressed to Guildenstern. Mr. Knight, however, suggests that ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have intimated, by some signal, that they wish to speak with Hamlet in private.’”

1868 c&mc

c&mc: Err. //

2216 to withdraw you] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “These words have been variously interpreted. Bearing in mind that to ‘draw’ is a term of the chase for track by scent, trail, or foot-print of the animal pursued (see Note 22, Err. [4.2.39 (1148)]), and a hunting term (‘recover the wind’) is immediately after used, we think it probable that the words in the text are indicative that Hamlet, observing the two spies ‘going about,’ or drawing a little apart to watch him, mutters, ‘Now, then, to withdraw a little as you do, and to track you as you do me’; and then proceeds to tax them with their intention, and to trap them by his proffer that they shall play upon the recorder. Hamlet habitually and characteristically uses words with double meaning and comprehensive meaning; we believe that his employment of the word ‘withdraw’ here is one of many instances of this.”

1869 tsch

tsch: del

2213 but . . . growes] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Del. theilt das Sprichwort vollständig aus Paradise of Daintie Devises 1578 mit: While grass doth grow, the silly horse starves. Die Anspielung passt nicht recht auf H’s. Situation, deshalb nennt er es "something musty," d. h. es wird nicht viel gebraucht, ist schimmlig.” [Del. gives the whole proverb from Paradise of Daintie Devises 1578: While grass doth grow, the silly horse starves. The reference does not fit Hamlet’s situation; therefore he calls it something musty, that is, it is not much used, is moldy.]

tsch: dyce

2215 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Hamlet hat vorher nach Musik gerufen, als Rosencrantz und Guildenstern auftreten, um ihnen zu zeigen, wie aufgeräumt er sei. Jetzt treten die Musicanten mit ihren Instrumenten auf, von denen Hamlet eins ergreift. Dyce VII. 228. Die Spielleutewürden nur müssige Zuschauer des Auftritts zwischen Hamlet und dessen Freunden sein, aber der Prinz schickt sie mit den Worten zurück: To withdraw with you, ähnlich wie man sagt: go with you, fort mit dir! Der Infin. mit to würde hier wie auch sonst eine Mahnung, Aufforderung, enthalten, M. III. 50. b. wenn nicht etwa zu lesen ist: Go, withdraw with you, was mir sehr wahrscheinlich ist. Zu R. und G. sagt er am Schluss des Auftritts: leave me, friends.” [Hamlet called for music earlier, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern entered, to show them in what good spirits he was. Now the musicians enter with their instruments, of which Hamlet takes one. Dyce VII. 228. The players would be just idle observers of the exchange between Hamlet and his friends, but the prince sends them back with the words: To withdraw with you, like one says: go with you, away with you! The infinitive with to would be kept here as an order or challenge, M. III. 50. b. if not perhaps to be read: Go, withdraw with you, which seems to me very probably. At the close of the scene, Hamlet says to R. and G., Leave me, friends.]

1870 rug1

rug1

2216 to withdraw with you] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Just step aside for a moment.”

rug1

2217 recouer the wind of mee] Moberly (ed. 1870): “As if you were stalking a deer.”

1872 hud2

hud2 ≈ Grey (1754) without attribution

2113 while. . . growes ] Hudson (ed. 1872): “The ‘musty proverb’ probably is, ‘While the grass grows the horse will starve.”

hud2 = hud1 minus ref. to Gent. Rec. for recover . . . wind (2216)

hud2: standard

2218 toyle] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Toil is snare or trap.”

1872 del4

del4: Paradise of Daintie Devises analogue

2214 Delius (ed. 1872): “Das alte, daher etwas schimmelige Sprichwort lautet nach dem Paradise of Daintie Devises (1578) While the grass doth grow, the silly horse he starves.” [The old, thus somewhat moldy, saying is, according to the Paradise of Daintie Devises (1578) while the grass doth grow, the silly horse he starves.]

del4=del2 for one with a Recorder (2215)

del4: stau, Mason

2216 to . . . you] Delius (ed. 1872): “Die elliptischen Worte sind an Guildenstern gerichtet: um mich mit Euch zurückzuziehen, um Euch allein zu sprechen. – Staunton nimmt nit M. Mason an, dass sie an die Schauspieler gerichtet sind, die Hamlet damit verabschiedet. Er möchte lesen So – (taking a recorder) withdraw with you.” [The elliptical words are directed to Guildenstern: to withdraw with you, to speak with you alone. Staunton assumes with M. Mason that they are directed to the players whom Hamlet therewith dismisses. He would read So - (taking a recorder) withdraw with you.]

del4=del2 for recouer . . . toyle (2217-8)

1872 cln1

cln1 ≈ hud2 without attribution

2213 while the grasse growes] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “‘While the grass grows the steed starves,’ is the full proverb.”

cln1 ≈ Mason, mal v1785, stau + magenta underlined

2216 to withdraw with you] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “For this use of the infinitive compare [3.4.216 (2583)], and KJ [1.1.236 (249)]: ‘Marry, to confess.’ Editors have supposed a corruption of the text to exist. Mason conjectured ‘So, withdraw you,’ or ‘So, withdraw, will you?’ Malone added the stage direction ‘Taking Guildenstern aside.’ Steevens supposed that Hamlet referred to some gesture used by Guildenstern to suggest a private interview, and read the words interrogatively, ‘To withdraw with you?’ Staunton imagines them to be addressed to the players, and suggests, ‘So, (taking a recorder) withdraw with you.’”

cln1 ≈ stau + magenta underlined

2217 to recouer the wind of mee] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “a hunting term, signifying to get to windward of the game so as to startle it and make it run in the direction of the toil. Compare Beaumont and Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, iv. 4: ‘How daintily and cunningly you drive me Up like a deer to the toil! yet I may leap it; And what’s the woodman then?’”

1873 rug2

rug2=rug1

1874 Corson

Corson

2216 to withdraw with you] Corson (1874, p. 28): “Taking the F. reading as it stands [same as Q2], it appears that Hamlet, after receiving the recorder from the attendant, steps aside, and as he does so, says to Guildenstern, ‘To withdraw with you,’ as an intimation of his wish to speak with him apart, and then continues, ‘why do you go about’ etc. A similar example of this absolute use of the infinitive occurs, [3.4.216 (2583)]: ‘Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.’”

1877 neil

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

2215 Recorder] 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.’”

1877 v1877

v1877 = mal

2213 prouerbe] Furness (ed. 1877): “Malone: The remainder of this old proverb is preserved in Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, 1578: ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steed.’ Again, in The Paradise of Daintie Devises, 1578: ‘To whom of old this proverbe well it serves, While grass doth growe, the silly horse he starves.’ Ham. means to intimate that whilst he is waiting for the succession to the throne of Denmark, he may himself be taken off by death.”

v1877 ≈ dyce1

2215 Recorder] 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 Recorder] 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 [5.1.123 (1920)], ‘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*>

v1877 = capn, Mason, v1793, cald1, sing1, stau, cam1, cln1, rug, tsch

2216 to withdraw with you] Furness (ed. 1877): “Capell (Notes, i, 138): That is, to have done with you, draw towards an end with you; and he singles out Guil., as of a darker and more treacherous temper than the other. [Capell marks the phrase as an Aside.] M. Mason: These words were probably spoken to the Players, whom Ham. wished to get rid of. Read, therefore, ‘So, withdraw you’; or ‘So withdraw, will you?’ Steevens: Here Malone added the stage-direction: [Taking Guildenstern aside.] But the foregoing obscure words may refer to some gesture which Guil. had used, and which at first was interpreted by Ham. into a signal for him to attend the speaker into another room. ‘To withdraw with you?’ (says he). ‘Is that your meaning?’ But finding his friends continue to move mysteriously about him, he adds, with some resentment, a question more easily intelligible. Caldecott: The two royal emissaries at first only request that the Prince would ‘vouchsafe them a word;’ and they then acquaint him with the King’s rage, and the Queen’s command to visit her. They then, by a waving of the hand, or some such signal, as the exclamation of Ham. denotes, intimate that he should remove to a more retired quarter. Although aware that the above, their only proper business, could not require any private communication, he at first, in gentle expostulation, reproaches them; but presently recollecting their insidious aims, and feeling at the same time, as an indignity, the freedom taken in thus beckoning him to withdraw, he in a moment assumes a different tone; and, with the most galling sneer and interrogatory, heaps upon them the utmost contempt and contumely. Singer: It means no more than ‘to draw back with you,’ to leave that scent or trail. It is a hunting term, like that which follows. Staunton: It is simply a direction addressed to the Players who bring in the recorders, and the true reading: ‘So, --dressed to the Players who bring in the recorders, and the true reading: ‘So,--[taking a recorder] withdraw with you.’ What subsequently transpires between Ham. and his schoolfellows could hardly have taken place in presence of the Players, and the disputed words may have been intended to mark the departure of the latter. Cambridge Editors: If the reading and punctuation given in our text be right, the words seem to be addressed to Guil. Clarendon: For this use of the infinitive, compare [3.4.216 (2583)]; and KJ [1.1.236 (249)]. Moberly: Just step aside for a moment. Tschischwitz: Perhaps we should read, ‘Go, withdraw with you.”

v1877 = sing1, Moberly

2217 to recouer the wind of mee] Furness (ed. 1877): “Singer: This phrase is borrowed from hunting, and means to get the animal pursued to run with the wind, that it may not scent the toil or its pursuers. ‘Observe how the wind is, that you may set the net so as the hare and wind may come together; if the wind be sideways it may do well enough, but never if it blow over the net into the hare’s face, for he will scent both it and you at a distance.’ --Gentleman’s Recreation. Moberly: As if you were stalking a deer.”

1877 col4

col4 = col1 minus Hawkins +

2215 Recorder] Collier (ed. 1877): ““Flageolets were instruments ordinarily employed by companies of actors.”

1877 dyce3

dyce3 = dyce2

1878 rlf1

rlf1 ≈ mal (Whetsone and Paradise of D. D. analogues)

2213 while the grasse growes] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Malone quotes the whole proverb form Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, 1578: ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede;’ and again in the Paradise of Daintie Devises, 1578: ‘While grass doth growe, the silly horse he starves.’”

rlf1: Schmidt, Mason, stau tsch

2216 to withdraw with you] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “‘A much-vexed passage, probably=to speak a word in private with you’ (Schmidt). M. Mason proposed ‘So, withdraw you’ or ‘So withdraw, will you?’ St. takes it to be addressed to the players, and would read ‘So, (taking a recorder) withdraw with you.’ Tschishwitz conjectures "Go, withdraw with you.’”

rlf1: MND, H5 //s

2217 goe about] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Undertake, attempt. See MND [4.1.207 (1734)] or H5 [4.1.199 (2047)].”

rlf1:sing. (incl. Gents. Rec.), Churchyard

2217 to recouer the wind of mee] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “A hunting term, meaning to get windward of the game, so that it may not scent the toil or its pursuers (Sr.). Cf. Gentleman’s Recreation: ‘Observe how the wind is, that you may set the net so as the hare and wind may come together; if the wind be sideways it may do well enough, but never if it blow over the net into the hare’s face, for he will scent both it and you at a distance;’ also Churchyard, Worthiness of Wales: ‘Their cunning can with craft so cloke a troeth/That hardly we shall have them in the winde,/To smell them forth or yet their fineness finde.’”

1881 hud3

hud3 ≈ hud1

2213 while . . . growes] Hudson (ed. 1881): “‘The musty proverb’ is, ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede.’”

hud3 = hud1 minus Gent. Rec. for recover . . . wind (2217)

hud3 = hud1for toyle (2218)

1882 elze

elze

2216 ô the 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

2215 Recorder] White (ed. 1883): “these were wind instruments, like large flageolets; they were of various sizes.”

wh2

2216 to withdraw with you] White (ed. 1883): “a word aside with you. As in the case of Polonius, Hamlet protects the victims of his satire from the scorn of others their inferiors. S. imagined him a weak, imperfect, morbid creature, but a kind-hearted gentleman.”

1885 macd

macd

2213 while . . . growes] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “. . . the colt starves.”

macd

2215 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Not in Q2. The stage-direction of the Folio seems doubtful. Hamlet has called for the orchestra: we may either suppose one to precede the others, or that the rest are already scattered; but the Quarto direction and reading seem better.”

macd

2216 withdraw] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—taking Guildensterne aside.”

macd

2217-8 why . . . toyle] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘Why to you seek to get the advantage of me, as if you would drive me to betray myself?’—Hunters, by sending on the wind their scent to the game, drive it into their toils.”

macd: standard

2217 to recouer . . . mee] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘to get windward of me.’”

1885 mull

mull

2215-6 Mull (ed. 1885): “To exhaust this interesting subject, and to add to the charm, as I think, of this stirring episode, I fall back upon the text of the first folio, which is this: ‘Enter one with a Recorder. Ham. O, the recorder: let me see, To, &.’ The reflection, ‘let me see,’ would reveal the prompt working of Hamlet’s mind, the swift conception to use the musical instrument as a rod for the back of his interrogator, and, besides, it would introduce with smoothness and with effect the challenge immediately following, ‘To draw with you:’ &c. But if we assume the colon point to be an intrusion, then we must regard the whole sentence as a demand to be given him the recorder. There is much to be said, I think, for so regarding it, and so I accept it.

“The received reading is, ‘Re-enter Players with Recorders. Ham. O, the recorders: let me see one. To, &c.’ With regard to this reading, I shall be reminded that Hamlet had just previously called for ‘some music! come, the recorders!’ [3.2.292 (2164)] but it is not necessary to suppose, what is extremely unlikely, that all the Players were thus summoned; for that would imply, what is most improbable, that they were all distinguished as executants in this way. The recorder, like all instruments of its class, was a solo instrument, ‘approaching nearest to the sweet delightfulness of the voice,’ but not calculated, like the voice, to give pleasure to refined and educated ears if duplicated. Hamlet would enjoy its sweet delightfuless as expressed in solo, and one only would fulfil adequately the command for ‘some music.’ Further, it may fairly be assumed that on calling for some music, he meant the recorder only, and that the plural number was here introduced in subsequent editions to correspond with the other alterations made in the numbers.”

mull: contra cam1; ≈ Mason, mal, v1793, stau, rug +

2216-8 Mull (ed. 1885): “Hamlet says, as I think, ‘let me see the recorder. Now to draw you as you are trying to draw me: You want to drive me into a toil by your questionings of me; you go about to recover the wind of me; you would play upon me; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery: now I will try a similar process with you—to draw you. You say to me, ‘thy love is too unmannerly;’ I do not admit that—I will show, by the same device of drawing you, that your exercise of duty is too bold.’

[Here Mull calls attention to cam1 claim (‘Editors have supposed a corruption of the text to exit.’) and cites Mason, Malone, Steeevens, Staunton] and adds, ‘And the Rugby editor says, ‘Just step aside for a moment.’ Mull then goes on to contest.]

“I contend that there is no withdrawal or retirement whatever—the situation falsifies it. Hamlet, with his keenness to discern opportunity and masterfulness of resource, determines to turn the position, and to effect with his faithless schoolfellows what he succeeded in doing with all the other individuals, great and small, who so ‘dreadfully attended’ him, viz. to find sport in having the enginer hoist with his own petar. The simple device of his arguing from the capacity to play on the recorder to the playing on himself resulted, of course, in a complete victory: thus ‘To draw with you’ was accomplished with scathing effect. It may be remarked, that one of the dictionary meanings of to draw out is ‘to pump out by questioning or address.’

“On the assumption that a corruption exists here, it might be found in the duplication of with. It would then be obvious, ‘To draw with you’ is to unsheathe, to challenge you; and this Hamlet at once proceeds to do, winding up with a racy and vehement outburst of reproach. The sharp and startling interrogatory, it may here be pointed out, provokes Guildenstern to retort, ‘thy love is too unmannerly.’

“I am prepared for the more persistent of my critics to insist that To withdraw means, to cause to retire; but then Hamlet may mean, ‘I’ll cause you to retire from this sounding of me by sounding of you;’ or, ‘with you I will adopt the extracting process you are resorting to with me.’ To withdraw was used at that time as meaning to eviscerate, to pull out, which Hamlet proceeded to effect, in a metaphorical sense, upon his impertinent questioner in a merciless manner and with crushing completeness. ‘I have an eye of you,’ I see through your purpose (the secret reflection in a previous interview), now developed in a truly Hamletian explosion, to the very tearing out of the vitals of his hypocritical dissector, and left the Prince triumphant in the unequal contest.”

1889 Barnett

Barnett ≈ stau

2216 to withdraw] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “Staunton suggests this is addressed to the players, and that to ought to be so.”

1889-90 mBooth

mBooth

2213 while the grasse growes] E. Booth (ms. notes in PB 82, HTC, Shattuck 108): “While the King lives there is no room for my advancement. E.B.”

1889-90 mBarrett

mBarrett ≈ macd

2213 the grasse growes] L. Barrett (ms. notes in PB 82, HTC, Shattuck 108): “the steed starves. L.B.”

1890 irv2

irv2 ≈ mal

2213 while the grasse growes] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Malone cites thewhole proverb from Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, 1578: ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede;’ and from the Paradise of Dainty Devices, 1578: ‘To whom of old this proverbe will it serves, While grass doth growe, the silly horse he sterves.’”

irv2 ≈ mal, v1793 + magenta underlined

2216 to withdraw with you] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “It is a matter of still unsettled conjecture to whom these words are addressed, and what is their precise meaning. Malone added the stage-direction: ‘Taking Guildenstern aside;’ Steevens supposed the words to be said interrogatively in response to a gesture of Guildenstern’s; and emendations of the text have been proposed. It seems to me that the words are capable of either of two meanings. The players have just re-entered with recorders. Hamlet turns to them, takes an insturment, and then, turning again to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, takes up the thread of conversation with ‘To withdraw with you—’ moving apart with them as he speaks, so as to be out of the players’ hearing. Or it may be, as the players come in, Hamlet is about to leave his friends and join them— ‘To withdraw with you,’ as he says, parenthetically; when a thought striking him—a thought suggested by the pipe he has in his hand—he turns back tohis friends with the words which follow.”

irv2: standard

2217 to recouer the wind of mee] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “i.e. in hunting, to get to windward of the game, that it may be driven into the toil without scenting it.”

1891 dtn

dtn ≈ mal

2213 while . . . growes] Deighton (ed. 1891): “Malone gives the remainder of the proverb from Whetstone’s Promos and Cassandra, 1598, ‘oft sterves the silly steede,’ and adds, ‘Hamlet means that whilst his is waiting for the succession to the throne of Denmark, he may himself be taken by death.”

dtn: standard

2214 musty] Deighton (ed. 1891): “stale.”

dtn: xref.

2216 Recorders] Deighton (ed. 1891): “see note on [3.2.293 (2165)], above.”

dtn: TN //

2217-8 why doe you . . . toyle] Deighton (ed. 1891): “why do you endeavor to entrap me into some discreet avowal? A figure from stalking game, the object with the hunter being to get the animal to run with the wind so that it may not scent him or the snare set for it. Cp. TN [3.4.164 (1683)], ‘Still you keep o’ the windy side of the law.’”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ mal

2213 prouerbe] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Malone quotes the proverb from Whetstone, Promos and Cassandra, 1578: ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede.’”

ard1 ≈ v1793, Mason, stau; xref.

2216 to withdraw with you] Dowden (ed. 1899): “to have a word in private with you. Steevens suggests that Guildenstern has indicated by a gesture his wish for privacy, and that Hamlet’s words are interrogative. Mason proposed ‘So, withdraw you,’ or ‘So, withdraw will you?’ Staunton takes the words as addressed to the players, and suggests ‘So (taking a recorder) withdraw with you.’ For the use of the infinitive compare to draw’ in [3.4.216 (2583)].”

ard1: Madden analogue

2217 to recouer the wind of mee] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Madden, TheDiary of Master William Silence, p. 33, note: ‘In order to drive a deer into the toils, it was needful to get to the windward of him, so that, having you in the wind, he might break in the opposite direction.’”

1903 rlf3

rlf3=rlf1 for while . . . growes (2213)

rlf3=Schmidt w/o attrib. for to . . . you (2216)

rlf3=rlf1 minus sing attribution, Churchyard + magenta underlined

2217 goe . . . mee] rolfe (ed.1903): “Undertake, attempt, as often. Cf. Romans, x. 3. To recover the wind of me is a hunting term, meaning to get to windward of the game, so that it may not scent the toil or its pursuers. Cf. Gentleman’s Recreation: ‘Observe how the wind is, that you may set the net so as the hare and wind may come together; if the wind be sideways it may do well enough, but never if it blow over the net into the hare’s face, for he will scent both it and you at a distance.’”

1904 ver

ver

2216 to withdraw with you] Verity (ed. 1904): “will you step aside? The meaning would be made perfectly clear in the acting. We must remember that Shakespeare wrote for the stage, not the study. The fact explains many superficial obscurities.”

1909 subb

subb ≈ cap

2216 to withdraw with you] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “Capell’s seems to me the correct explanation. He marks the phrase ‘aside,’ but it is not necessary. Hamlet is disgusted with the tactics of the courtier-friends, and proceeds to finish with them by a bit of plain talk. He seem to have conceived the idea of baffling them with a recorder, even as early as [3.2.291 (2163)], and called for the recorders solely for that purpose.”

1931 crg1

crg1 ≈ mal

2213 while the grasse growes] Craig (ed. 1931): “The rest of the proverb is ‘the silly horse starves.’ Hamlet may be destroyed while he is waiting for the succession to he kingdom (Malone).”

crg1: standard

2216 withdraw] Craig (ed. 1931): “speak in private.”

crg1: standard

2217 recouer the wind] Craig (ed. 1931): “get to the windward side.”

1934 Wilson

Wilson

2215 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>

1934 rid

rid: standard

2216 withdraw with you] Ridley (ed. 1934): “speak to you aside.”

rid: standard

2217 recouer the wind of mee] Ridley (ed. 1934): “get to windward of (i.e. to frighten the deer in the opposite direction).”

rid:≈ hud2

218 toyle] Ridley (ed. 1934): “snare.”

1934 cam3

cam3 ≈ mal + magenta underlined

2213 while the grasse growes] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Malone quotes Whetstone’s Promus and Cassandra, 1578: ‘Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede’ and adds, ‘Ham. means to intimate that whilst he is waiting for the succession to the throne of Denmark, he may himself be taken off by death.’ But there is a dramatic irony also: the grass is growing under Ham.’s own feet while the K. acts.”

1937 pen1

pen1: standard

2217 recouer . . . mee] Harrison (ed. 1937): “come behind the game against the wind and so drive it into the net (toil).”

1939 kit2

kit2: Petrus de Vineis analogue

2213 while . . . growes] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “While the grass is growing, the horse starves. Hamlet implies that to wait for ‘advancement’ that is so far off is very unsatisfying. The proverb was common, and English examples have been cited from the sixteenth century; but it is far mustier that, for Petrus de Vineis quotes it in a letter written before 1249: ‘Dum herba crescit, equus moritur’ (Epistles, ii, 53).”

kit2

2214 something] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “somewhat.”

kit2

2214 musty] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “and therefore too trite to be quoted in full.”

kit2

2216 to withdraw] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “to step aside so as to be out of the hearing of the players. Hamlet withdraws to one side of the stage with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as if he had something of moment to confide to them.”

kit2

2217 goe about] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “undertake, try.”

kit2: standard

2217 to recouer . . . mee] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “to get to the windward of me.”

kit2: Fletcher analogue

2218 into a toyle] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Cf. Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, iv, 4: ‘How daintily and cunningly you drive me Up like a deer to the toil!.’”

1942 n&h

n&h: standard

2213 prouerbe] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “‘While the grass grows, the steed starves.’”

n&h ≈ crg1

2216 withdraw] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “speak privately.”

n&h: standard

2217 recouer the wind] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “get to windward.”

n&h: standard

2218 toyle] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “snare.”

1958 mun

mun: Tilley

2213 growes,] Munro (ed. 1958): “The proverb was ‘While the grass grows the horse starves.’ See Tilley: G, 423.)”

mun: Phin, Sh. Eng.

2217 recouer the wind] Munro (ed. 1958): “Get to windward of the game so that it may not scent the hunter and prevent him from driving it into the snare (Phin, 253). See also Sh. Eng., ii 342.”

1974 evns1

evns1 = n&h

2213 prouerbe] Evans (ed. 1974): “i.e. ‘While the gras grows, the steed starves.’”

evns1: standard

2214 something musty] Evans (ed. 1974): “somewhat stale.”

evns1 = n&h

2217 recouer the wind] Evans (ed. 1974): “to get windward.”

evns1 = n&h

2218 toyle] Evans (ed. 1974): “snare.”

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

2216 to withdraw with you] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Presumably he takes Guildenstern aside, so that the Player does not hear. Perhaps he gets him at a disadvantage by separating him from Rosencrantz.”

pen2: standard

2217 recouer the wind] Spencer (ed. 1980): “get to windward (like a huntsman trying to get the quarry to run with the wind, so that the scent of the nets and of the men who have prepared them is not perceived).”

1982 ard2

ard2: mun (Tilley) without attribution; xref.

2213 the proverb] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “‘While the grass grows, the horse starves’ (Tilley G 423). Cf. [3.2.94-5 (1949-50)], ‘I eat the air.’”

ard2 ≈ kit (Petrus de Vneis analogue)

2214 musty] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Hence too stale to quote. Kittredge points to it in Petrus de Vineis (d.1249).”

ard2

2215 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.”

ard2: standard

2216 To withdraw] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “to speak in private.”

ard2

2217 recover the wind . . . toil] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Conflicting explanations have often left the hunting metaphor obscure. To recover the wind is to get windward. The quarry is allowed to scent the hunter, so that it will run in the opposite direction into the net (toil).”

1984 chal

chal=evns1 for prouerbe (2213)

chal ≈ evns1

2217 recouer the wind] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “get to the windward of.”

chal ≈ evns1

2218 toyle] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “snare, net.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ ard2 without attribution

2213 the proverbe] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “ i.e. “While the grass grows the horse starves’ (Tilley G423).”

oxf4: OED

2214 musty] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “(because it was already a saying c. 1440, the date of the earliest example cited in OED [grass sb. Ib]).”

oxf4: OED

2214 withdraw] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “be private, have a quiet word (OED v. I2).”

oxf4: OED

2217 goe about] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “(I) busy yourself, conspire (OED about AI0) (2) take a roundabout course.”

1992 fol2

fol2

2214 something musty] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “somewhat stale, i.e., so familiar it need not be quoted in full (the proverb, in Latin, was in use 350 years before Hamlet was written).”

1993 dent

dent

2216 ô the Recorders . . . with you] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Hamlet addresses this line to one of the Players. He has called for them in lines 316 and 319; either they have taken this long to respond, or they have held back while Hamlet conversed with Rosencraus and Guildenstern.

“To speak privately. As he speaks, Hamlet probably draws Guildenstern aside.”

1997 evns2

evns2 = evns1

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.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: ≈ hud2; Tilley

2213 while . . . grows] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Tilley cites ’While the grass grows the horse starves’ (G423).”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2 ≈ evns1

2214-6 something musty] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “either ’a stale thing’ or ’somewhat stale’. Perhaps Hamlet means that his situation, as well as the proverb, is a familiar one.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2

2215 ]Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “In Q1 Hamlet simply produces a pipe himself.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2 ≈ knt1, ard2

2216 withdraw] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “be private - presumably Hamlet motions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern away from the players to address them more confidentially. Or perhaps he separates Guildenstern from Rosencrantz.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2 ≈ ard2

2217 recover . . . me] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “get to windward of me. In hunting this would be a deliberate tactic to cause the quarry to move away from the scent of the hunter and towards the trap he has prepared.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard

2218 toil] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “net or trap.”