Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2236-7 you would plucke out the hart | of my mistery, you would sound mee | |
|---|
| 2237-9 from my lowest | note to <the top of> my compasse, and there is much mu|sique ex- | |
|---|
| 2239-40 cellent voyce in this little organ, yet cannot | you make it {speak, s’bloud} | |
|---|
1774 gent2
gent2
2240-2 s’bloud. . . . me] Gentleman (ed. 1744): “This is a masterly turn of satire on court spies, and a fine rebuff to the man ready agents of power.”
1774 capn
capn
2240 s’bloud] Capell (1774,1:1: glossary, ‘s blood): “(H. 76, 12 & 1.H.4. 21, 17.) God’s Blood.”
1839 knt1 (nd)
knt1
2240 speak] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “The poet certainly meant to say, yet cannot you make this music, this excellent voice. Guildenstern could have made the pipe speak, but he could not command it to any utterance of harmony. We believe that even in the quarto the passage has not the meaning which we find in the modern text, but that it should be printed, ‘there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it. Speak! ‘Sblood, do you think,’ &c.”
1844 Dyce
Dyce: contra knt1; xref.
2239-40 yet cannot you make it speak]
Dyce (1844, pp. 216-1): <p.216> “Mr Knight gives the conclusion of the last speech thus; —‘and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ;
yet you cannot make it.’
“‘So, ’he observes, ‘the folio; in the quartos ‘yet you cannot make it speak.’ The poet certainly meant to say, yet cannot you make this music, this excellent voice. Guildenstern could have made the pipe speak, but he could not command it to any utterance of harmony. We believe that even in the quarto the passage has not the meaning which we find in the modern text, but that it should be printed, “there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it. Speak!” &c.’ [3.2—C. p. 279; K. p. 102]
“Here Mr. Knight defends the error of the folio with the same dreadful subtlety which he has previously employed to defend another of its errors in [2.2.301-2 (1347-8)],—the acccidental omission of the word ‘firmament’ in the passage, ‘the brave o’erhanging—this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,’ &c., where he labours to prove that ‘o’erhanging’ is a substantive!
“Can anything possibly be plainer than that in the reading, ‘yet cannot you make it speak,’ the word ‘speak’ does not mean ‘give forth a sound,’ but, ‘utter some of the “much music, excellent voice,” ’ mentioned immediately before? Be- </p.216><p.217> sides ‘speak’ in the present passage answers to ‘discourse’ in the preceding speech of Hamlet’ ‘govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music [3.2.357-9 (2228-30)].’”
1854 del2
del2
2237 sound] Delius (ed. 1854): “to sound ist sowohl=tönen lassen, als auch=sondiren.” [to sound is to make sound, as well as to take a depth reading.]
del2
2240 s’bloud] Delius (ed. 1854): “d. h. God’s blood. Für diese profane Betheurung hat die Fol. why.” [God’s blood. Instead of this profane oath the Folio has why.]
1857 dyce1
dyce: contra knt1
2239-40 and there is . . . think] Dyce (ed. 1857): “‘The folio,’ observes Mr. Knight, ‘omits speak. The poet may have meant to say, yet cannot you make this music, this excellent voice; for Guildenstern might have made the pipe speak, but he could not command it to any utterance of harmony. We now prefer to consider the folio erroneous.’ That Mr. Knight should labour to explain a reading which he now allows to be an erroneous one. How it originated is plain enough: when ‘’Sblood’ was struck out, to be replaced by ‘Why,’ the preceding work ‘speak’ was at the same time accidentally struck out.”
Either Dyce’s quotation of knt1 is inaccurate or he is citing a diff. ed.
1857 fieb
fieb
2237 sound] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Take note of the verb to sound, which means to cause to make a noise, to play on, and to try depth, to examine.”
fieb
2238 compasse] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Compass means the power of the voice to express the notes of music.”
1869 tsch
tsch: xref.
2238 the top . . . compasse] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “top of my compass, die höchste Höhe meines Stimmumfangs. Wir hatten bereits eben to cry on the top. [2.2.340 (1387)].” [top of my compass, the highest point of my vocal range. We have already just had to cry on the top. [2.2.340 (1387)].]
tsch
2240 s’bloud] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Die Lesart der F. entstand offenbar dadurch, dass, als man das austössige ’Sblood entfernte, um why zu setzen, das vorangehende speak aus Versehen mit weggestrichen wurde.” [The wording of the Folio evidently originated because, as the exclamation Sblood was removed, to be replaced by why, the preceding speak was accidentally removed with it.]
1872 del4
del4=del2 +
2237 sound] Delius (ed. 1872): “Aus der Musik ist auch die Metapher my stops entlehnt: die Griffe oder Klappen an einer Flüte.” [The metaphor my stops is also taken from music: the holes or keys of a flute.]
del4 ≈ del2 for s’bloud (2240)
1873 rug2
rug2
2238 to . . . compasse] Moberley (ed. 1873): “They are to indulge my extravagancies as much as I please.”
1874 Corson
Corson
2239-40 cannot . . . speak] Corson (1874, p. 28): “yet cannot you make it. F. . . . yet cannot you make it speak. C. The C. reads better, but the F. is not imperfect without ‘speak;’ ‘it’ stands for ‘music’ or ‘voice.’”
In each of his “jottings on the text,” Corson notes variants between F1 and cam1, stating his preference and, to a greater or lesser extent, offering a rationale.
1877 v1877
v1877=knt1, Dyce (Remarks, 1844) + magenta underlined
2240 speak]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Knight (ed. i): Sh. certainly meant to say [in F1], yet cannot you make this music, this excellent voice. Guil. could have made the pipe
speak, but he could not command it to any utterance of harmony. Even in the Qq it should be printed ‘yet cannot you make it. Speak! ‘Sblood,’ &c.
[This last conj. is withdrawn in ed. ii, and instead is the sentence: ‘We now prefer to consider the Folio erroneous.’] Dyce: When ‘’Sblood’ was struck out [of Ff], to be replaced by
Why, the preceding word, ‘speak,’ was at the same time accidentally struck out. ‘Speak’ answers to ‘discourse,’ line 243.—
Remarks, &c., p.
217.”
1878 rlf1
rlf1: xref.; Chaucer analogue
2240 s’bloud] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “See on [3.2.357-9 (2228-30)] above. These oaths were extremely common in that day, and indeed much earlier. Chaucer (C. T. 13886) makes the Pardoner say: "Her oaths been so greet and so dampnable,/That it is grisly for to hiere hem swere./Our blisful Lordes body thay to-tere;/Hem thoughte Jewes rent him nought y-nough."”
1883 wh2
wh2: standard
2240 s’bloud] White (ed. 1883): “By his blood; but its full significance was lost even in S.’s day.”
1891 dtn
dtn: 1H4 //
2237-8 you would . . . compasse] Deighton (ed. 1891): “you fancy you can interpret my every thought ; a play upon the word sound in the sense that (1) to bring forth a sound, (2) to try the depth of water, cp. 1H4 [2.4.5 (970)].”
dtn
2237 compass] Deighton (ed. 1891): “the range of a musical instrument from its highest to its lowest note.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3=rlf1 minus Chaucer analogue
1929 trav
trav
2237 mistery]
Travers (ed. 1929): “primarily: ‘
mystere,’ of course,; but with a secondary suggestion, from the whole context, of a then usual word of the same form (Lat.
ministerium, French “
mestier,
metier” in the sense of skilled occupation, a secret consequently to the unskilled). “
1931 crg1
crg1
2237 compasse] Craig (ed. 1931): “range of voice.”
crg1
2239 organ] Craig (ed. 1931): “musical instrument, i.e. the pipe.”
1934 cam3
cam3: xref.
2240-1 easier . . . pipe] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Dramatic irony; cf. note [3.2.68-72 (1919-23)].”
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ crg1
2239 organ] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “musical instrument.”
kit2: xref.
2240 s’bloud] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “This oath is rapped out with startling unexpectednesss and almost makes Guildenstern jump. See n. [2.2.367 (1412)].”
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ kit2
2239 organ] Evans (ed. 1974): “instrument.”
1980 pen2
pen2
2237 sound] Spencer (ed. 1980): “fathom (with a quibble on ‘produce sound from a musical instrument’).”
pen2
2238 top of my compasse] Spencer (ed. 1980): “uppermost range of my notes.”
pen2
2239 organ] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(the recorder).”
pen2
2240 s’bloud] Spencer (ed. 1980): “by God’s blood (on the cross).”
1982 ard2
ard2
2239 organ] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Though the word could signify, then as now, the instrument of many pipes, it was commonly used for a single-pipe instrument.”
1984 chal
chal
2237-9 compasse] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “range.”
chal ≈ kit2 (xref.)
2239-40 s’bloud] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “[2.2.367 (1412)].”
1987 oxf4
oxf4: OED
2236 mistery] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “personal secret (OED mystery 5b).”
oxf4: OED
2239 organ] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “i.e. musical (especially wind) instrument, in this case the recorder (OED sb. 1).”
1988 bev2
bev2
2237 sound] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(1) fathom (2) produce sound in.”
1993 dent
dent: xref.
2236-2237 the hart . . . mistery] Andrews (ed. 1993): “My essence, the core of my being. Here as elsewhere the Quarto spelling is hart. See the note to [3.2.272 (2144)]."
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2 ≈ oxf4
2237 mystery] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(1) secret; (2) skill at a craft or trade (such as, here, playing an instrument).”
ard3q2: 934, 1654 xref
2237 sound me] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(1) play on me, cause me to make sounds; (2) explore my depths, probe me (see 2.1.41 [934], 3.1.7 [1654]).”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: ≈ dtn; 2H6 //; OED
2238 to my compass] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “to my limit; see ’Above the reach or compass of thy thought’ (2H6 1.2.46). F’s reading makes the metaphor from music more explicit: see OED compass sb. I 10: ’the full range of tones which a voice or musical instrument is capable of producing.’”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2 ≈ crg1
2239 organ] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “instrument, i.e. the recorder.”
ard3q2
2239 speak] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. make music.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2 ≈ pen2
2240 ’Sblood] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “an oath (by God’s blood). Some performers break the recorder in rage at this point.”
2236 2237 2238 2239 2240
