Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2240-1 <Why > do you think <that> I am easier to be | plaid on then a pipe, call mee what in- | |
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| 2241-2 strument you wil, | though you <can> fret me {not}, you cannot play vpon me. | |
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1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson Dict.
2242 fret ] Johnson (1755): 1. “a strait of the sea, where the water by confinement is always rough.”
2. “any agitation of liquors by fermentation, confinement, or other cause.”
3. “the stop of the musical instrument, which causes or regulates vibrations of the string.”
1790 mWesley
mWesley:
2242 fret] Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “Here let an excellent double meaning be distinguished from a Pun. To fret a stringed instrument is to divide the string into its proper proportions by brass (or other) wires. The common sense of ‘to fret’ needs no explanation.”
1807 Douce
Douce
2242 fret] Douce (1807, p. 250): “A fret is the stop or key of a musical instrument, and consequently here is a play on words, and a double meaning. Hamlet says, though you can vex me, you cannot impose on me; though you can stop the instrument, you cannot play on it.”
1819 cald1
cald1 ≈ Douce
2242 fret] Douce (apud ed. 1819): “‘A fret is a stop, or key, of a musical instrument. Here is, therefore, a play upon the words. Though you can fret, stop, or vex, you cannot play or impose upon me.’ Douce’s Illustrat. II. 250.”
1839 knt1 (nd)
knt1: contra Nares
2242 fret] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “The musical allusion is continued. The frets of all instruments of the lute or guitar kind, are thick wires fixed at certain distances across the finger-board, on which the strings are stopped, or pressed by the fingers. Nares thinks that the word is derived from fretum; but the French verb frotter seems the more likely source.”
1847 verp
verp: knt1 (incl. Nares), with misattribution to col1
2242 though you can fret me]
Collier (
apud Verplanck, ed. 1847): “The musical allusion is continued. The frets of all instruments of the lute or guitar kind are thick wires, fixed at certain distances across the finger-board, on which the strings are stopped, or pressed by the fingers. Nares thinks that the word is derived from fretum; but the French verb frotter seems the more likely source.—
Collier.”
This note does not appear in col1 but in knt1.
1854 del2
del2
2242 fret] Delius (ed. 1854): “to fret,=ärgern, reizen, dient hier, wo von musikalischen Instrumenten die Rede ist, zum Wortspiel mit fret=Saitenbrett an einer Harfe oder Geige, also als Verbum gefasst=mit solchem Saitenbrett belegen.” [to fret meaning to anger or annoy serves here, where the talk is of musical instruments, as a word play with fret=string board of a harp or fingerboard of a violin, thus as a verb=to equip with such a string board.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 ≈ knt1 without attribution minus contra Nares
2242 fret] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Hamlet keeps up the allusion to a musical instrument. The frets of a lute or guitar are all the ridges crossing the finger-board, upon which the strings are pressed or stopped. Of course a quibble is intended on fret. H.”
1857 fieb
fieb ≈ hud1 + magenta underlined
2242 fret] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “To fret in the meaning of to vex, to make angry, alluding at the same time to the frets i.e. the points at which a string is to be stopped, in such an instrument as the lute or guitar; those stops, by which the vibrations of the string are regulated. The quibble is well rendered by the German verstimmen; to put out of tune, and figuratively, to put out of humour.”
1860 stau
stau: standard
2242 fret] Staunton (ed. 1860): “An obvious quibble on fret, the stop or key of a musical instrument, and the same word in its ordinary sense of vex, irritate, &c.”
1864a glo
glo: Shr., R2, Lr., JC //s
2242 fret] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: glossary, Fret): “sb. the stop of a guitar. Shr. [2.1.149 (1017)]; v.t. to wear away. R2 [3.3.167 (1755)]. Lr. [1.4.285 (799)]. To variegate. JC [2.1.104 (735)].”
1865 hal
hal=Douce +
2242 fret] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “‘Hee’le tell you of well fretting of a lute, Even til you fret; and of the harmonie.’ Skialetheia, or a Shadowe of Truth, 1598.”
1866 ktlyn
ktlyn: standard
2242 fret] Keightley (ed. 1866, glossary): frets] “the stops of a musical instrument, which regulate the vibrations of a string.”
1869 tsch
tsch: Wedgewood, Smart
2242 fret] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Griff an Saiteninstrumenten, wird von Wedgewood 2, 95 ff. mit lat. fritillus in Verbindung gebracht, von Smart auf die allgemeine Bedeutung Zierrath zurückgeführt; ausserdem ist to fret ärgern, Gram verursachen.” [fingering ridge on string instruments. By Wedgewood 2, 95ff. it is connected with Latin fritillus, by Smart taken back to the general meaning of ornament. It has the additional meaning of to fret, anger, cause annoyance.]
tsch
2242 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Q1 lässt Rossencraft an diesem Dialog Theil nehmen; indessen kann die Aufforderung nur an e i n e Person gerichtet sein, da die Antwort schliesslich lautet: these cannot I command, I have not the skill. Nahm Rosencrantz theil, so hätte ein: nor I neither oder Aehnliches folgen müssen. Einige Kritiker haben daher die Worte To withdraw with you, 360, nur auf Guildenstern bezogen, mit dem sich Hamlet nach dem Hintergrunde begäbe.” [Q1 has Rossencraft take part in this dialogue. Meanwhile the challenge can be directed at only one person, since the answer is finally, these cannot I command, I have not the skill. If Rosencrantz took part, the phrase nor I neither or something similar would have to follow. Some critics have therefor applied the words To withdraw with you, 360, to Guildenstern only, with whom Hamlet walked toward the back of the stage.]
1870 rug1
rug1 ≈ glo (Shr. //)
2242 though you fret me not] Moberly (ed. 1870): though you can fret me] “Annoy me. ‘To fret’ also means to use the stops of an instrument. See Shr. [2.1.149 (1017)].
1872 hud2
hud2=hud1 for fret me minus “of course”
1872 cln1
cln1: standard
2242 fret] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “‘Frets’ on a lute or a guitar are pieces of wire fastened on the body of the instrument to serve as guides to the fingers.”
1874 Corson
Corson
2242 you cannot] Corson (1874, p. 28): “you cannot F. . . . yet you cannot C. after the First Quarto; all the others and the Folios, omit ‘yet.’ The use of ‘yet’ as the correlative of ‘though’, adds to the formalness, and takes away from the plain decisiveness, of the speech.”
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=Douce, dyce (glossary)
2242 fret]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Douce (ii, 250): Here is a play on words and a double meaning. Ham. says, ‘though you can vex me, you cannot impose on me; though you can stop the instrument, you cannot play on it.’
Dyce (
Gloss.) :
Frets are stops of instruments of the lute or guitar kind, ‘small lengths of wire on which the fingers press the strings in playing the Guitar.’ Busby’s
Dict. of Musical Terms, ed. iii.”
v1877=Corson
2242 you]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Corson: The use of
yet [as in Q1] as the correlative of ‘though,’ adds to the formalness, and takes away from the plain
decisiveness, of the speech.”
1878 rlf1
rlf1 ≈ douce, dyce (Busby’s Dict.) without attribution + magenta underlined
2242 fret] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Douce notes the play upon the word: ‘though you can vex me, you cannot impose upon me; though you can stop the instrument, you cannot play upon it.’ Frets are stops, or ‘small lengths of wire on which the fingers press the strings in playing the guitar’ (Busby’s Dict. of Musical Terms). Cf. North, Plutarch (Pericles): ‘Rhetoric and eloquence (as Plato saith) is an art which quickeneth men’s spirits and her pleasure; and her chiefest skill is to know how to move passions and affections thoroughly, which are as stops and sounds of the soul, that would be played upon with a fine-fingered hand of a cunning master.’”
1883 wh2
wh2
2242 fret] White (ed. 1883): “frets are pieces of metal on the neck of a viol or guitar which stop the vibration of the string, and so make the various notes of the scale.”
1885 macd
macd
2242 fret] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—with allusion to the frets or stop-marks of a stringed instrument.” See 2642.
macd
2242-3 God . . . Sir] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—to Polonius.”
1887 Mackay
Mackay: contra Chappell
2242 fret] Mackay (1887, glossary, fret): “A partition in the neck of a violin, guitar, mandoline, or other similar stringed instrument, to guide the fingers in the formation of the notes. Mr. Chappell, in his ‘History of Music,’ says the name is given ‘from their fretting or rubbing against the strings when pressed down’ by the finger. This is an error arising from the Saxon and Teutonic meaning of fret, to vex or annoy one’s self, which has no connection in idea with the fret of the musicians. Shakespeare, in ‘Hamlet,’ makes a pun which distinguishes the one from the other:—[quotes 2441-2].”
1889 Barnett
Barnett
2242 fret] Barnett (1889, p. 49): “There is a play on the word fret. Frets were stops on a musical instrument, made by pieces of metal or wires running across the instrument like a grating, a fret in heraldry, and derived from the Lat. ferrata, an iron grating. Then there is a word which Hamlet hints at here to fret, to eat away, to cause to fret, from A.S. fretan contracted from for, an intensive, and etan. (There is a fourth word, fret, to ornament, A.S. fretian.)”
1890 irv2
irv2: standard
2242 fret] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “a quibble; the frets are the stops of an instrument.”
1891 dtn
dtn ≈ dyce (Busby’s Dict.)
2242 fret me] Deighton (ed. 1891): “annoy me; with a play upon the substantive ‘frets,’ i.e. stops of such instruments as lutes, guitars; ‘small length of wire [across the neck of the instrument] on which the fingers press the strings in playing the guitar’ (Busby’s Dict. Of Musical Terms, quoted by Dyce).”
1899 ard1
ard1: standard
2242 fret] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Playing on ‘fret,’ to irritate and ‘fret,’ the piece of gut, metal, or wood which regulates the fingering on certain stringed instruments.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 ≈ rlf1 (Busby’s Dict. only)
1905 rltr
rltr ≈ ard1
2242 fret] Chambers (ed. 1905): “worry (a pun on the fret or stop of an instrument).”
1906 nlsn
nlsn
2242 fret] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “fret] vb., eat away; decorate.”
1929 trav
trav
2241 what . . .
wil]
Travers (ed. 1929): “cp. note on 339.—The
frets (Fr.
tons) on viols and lutes were, then, strings of catgut, tied (whence their German name,
Bunde) round the fingerboard (Fr.
touche) to direct the fingering with the left hand. To fret a lute: to put frets on it. Figuratively, Hamlet, might, perhaps, be supposed to mean: you know what points should be touched upon, in talk with me, but you cannot draw the answers you wish to. Much clearer, however, is the punning introduction, here as elsewhere in Sh., of the other and current verb
fret, irritate.”
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ ard1
2241 fret] Craig (ed. 1931): “quibble on meaning ‘irritate’ and the piece of wood, gut, or metal which regulates the fingering.”
1934 Wilson
Wilson: Greg
2242 you fret me not] Wilson (1934, rpt. 1963, 2:283): <2:283> “F1 ‘you can fret me,’ Q2 ‘you fret me not.’ No editor, as I have noted, has followed Q2, but the Globe and Cambridge texts both follow Q1 and read, to give the whole context, ‘Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.’ The ‘can,’ we may assume, has been omitted from Q2 after the compositor’s usual practice, and the intrusive ‘not’ might be explained as tinkering on the part of the corrector or proof-reader. On the other hand, if Q1 is right, as the Globe editors suppose, the ‘not’ may have been a misreading of ‘yet’ in Shakespeare’s manuscript, since as Dr Greg points out ‘if the tail of the “y” were obscure “yet” might look very like “not.”’1 The F1 reading, however, makes perfectly satisfactory sense as it stands, and is safer to follow than that of Q1.” </2:283>
[<2:283> “1Emendation, p. 67; Aspects, p. 195.” </2:283>]
1934 rid
rid
2242 fret] Ridley (ed. 1934): “equip with frets (i.e. the cross-bars on which the strings of a lute are stopped).”
1934 cam3
cam3: xref.
2240-1 easier . . . pipe] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Dramatic irony; cf. note [3.2.68-72 (1919-23)].”
cam3: MSH
2242 though . . . not, you] Wilson (ed. 1934): though you can fret me, you] “(F1) Q2 ‘though you fret me not, you,’ MSH. p. 283. v. G. ‘fret’: (vb.), (a) anger, irritate, (b) furnish with frets, i.e. rings of gut or bars of wood to regulate the fingering, as in a guitar (v. Sh. Eng. ii. 38).”
1937 pen1
pen1 ≈ crg1
2241-2 fret] Harrison (ed. 1937): “with the double meaning of (a) annoy, and (b) play on, as on the frets or bars of a guitar.”
1939 kit2
kit2: Dekker analogues (Gull’s Hornbok and Honest Whore).
2242 fret] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Frets are small bars of wire or wood on a guitar or the like, to guide the fingering. Hamlet puns on the sense of ‘worry,’ ‘agitate.’ Cf. Dekker, The Gull’s Hornbook (ed. Grosart, II, 254): ‘Theres no musick without frets’; Dekker, The Honest Whore, 1. 2 (Pearson ed., 2. 10): ‘Musitian wil he never be (yet I find much musicke in him), but he loues no frets.’”
1942 n&h
n&h: standard
2242 fret] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “(1) finger, (2) vex.”
1958 mun
mun: Bridge
2242 fret] Munro (ed. 1958): “Sir Frederick Bridge (Bridge, 5) points out that ‘frets’ were proper to stringed instruments and that ‘it is not easy to see the connection between this word and the recorder . . . a wind instrument having ‘ventages’ or air-holes.’”
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ n&H
2242 fret] Evans (ed. 1974): “(1) finger (an instrument); (2) vex.”
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ pen1
2242 fret] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(punning on the meanings ‘a mark on the fingerboard of a stringed instrument’ and ‘irritate’).”
1982 ard2
ard2: Dekker; contra Eds. who adopt F1 reading
2242 fret] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Via ‘what instrument you will’ Hamlet switches from wind to stringed instrument for the sake of the pun on fret: (1) equip with frets (i.e. the ridges on some stringed instruments which mark the places for the fingers); (2) irritate. Cf. ‘There’s no music without frets’ (Dekker, Gull’s Horn-Book, Grosart, ii.254).” Eds. Almost invariably retain can, though this is surely an intrusion in F (and Q1) rather than an omission from Q2. Hamlet not merely can be but is being fretted, and the musical paradox is the greater if you actually fret the instrument and still cannot play it. Modern eds. who read yet with Q1 assume that the non-sensical not of Q2 is a misreading of it. This is also to assume, however, that the two good texts are each in error independently.”
ard2: contra W.J. Lawrence
2243 God bless you, sir.] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “W. J. Lawrence (TLS, 1930, p. 241) argues that for this to have ‘rationality’ it needs to be taken as accompanying the return of the recorder rather than as a greeting to Polonius. But would Hamlet seriously address a player so, and why should it be rational when the following speeches are not?”
1984 chal
chal
2241-2 fret me not] Wilkes (ed. 1984): can fret me “can fret me F (Q fret me not) i.e. can irritate me (with a quibble on the ‘frets’ or ridges for controlling the fingering on some stringed instruments).”
1993 dent
dent: xref.
2242 though . . . me] Andrews (ed. 1993): "Even though you don’t pretend to have the expertise to manipulate me as a trained musician bows or plucks a stringed instrument (one with ’frets’, or bars of wood or wire, to guide the positioning of the fingers), and even if you manage to avoid vexing me (another meaning of ’fret’) with your invasions of my privacy, you will still not be able to have your way with me, not only because of your lack of skill, but also because I will not let you ’play upon me’ as if I were ’what Instrument you will.’ Hamlet is probably punning on a third, architectural sense of ’fret’: make ridges and furrows in my brow like the fretwork (carved or embossed patterns made up of intersecting lines) in a ceiling. Compare line 415 [2255], where the protagonist says, ‘They fool me to the top of my Bent.’”
1995 SQ
Herold
2241-2242 Herold (1995, p. 132): “Young people can be taken with Hamlet’s repeated claim that his self is unfathomable (’I have that within which passes show,’ and ’Call me what instrument you will, though you fret me, [yet] you cannot play upon me’ [3.2.370-7]. They find it a somewhat more difficult proposition, however, to feel themselves put in the same position as the glozing aristocrats Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, sent against the prince to pluck out the heart of his mystery.”
1998 OED
OED
2242 fret] OED (Sept. 10, 1998): “fret (frt), v.5 [f. FRET sb.3] trans. To furnish (a guitar, etc.) with frets. Hence fretted ppl. a. 1600 ROWLANDS Lett. Humours Blood 5 While you your selues like musicke sounding Lutes fretted and strunge, gaine them their silken sutes. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. III. ii. 388 [Punning use] Call me what Instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play vpon me. 1647 WARD Simp. Cobler 39 Instruments may be well made and well strung, but if they be not well fretted, the Musique is marred. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2437/4 All sorts of fretted Instruments, especially Lutes and Viols. 1874 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. II. 1031 An instrument having the fretted neck of the former [the guitar].”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Johnson, Dekker and Middleton analogues
2241-2 Call . . . me] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “That the metaphor ’to play upon a person’ was current is demonstrated by parallels in Ben Johnson’s Everyman Out (1599; Induction, 319) and in Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton’s The Roaring Girl (1611; 4.1.211-13).”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
2242 you fret me] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(1) you can manipulate my ’frets’ (ridges to guide the fingers on lutes or other stringed instruments -- not strictly relevant to wind instruments, as Hamlet seems to acknowledge); (2) you can make me angry. Q2’s ’not’ seems to be an error.”
ard3q2
2242-3 God . . . sir] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “These words are presumably addressed to Polonius, although in all three texts he enters after they are spoken. If they are addressed to Guildenstern they may be pronounced as a sarcastic dismissal, or as part of Hamlet’s generally manic behaviour. Jenkins raises but rejects the suggestion that they are addressed to a player as Hamlet returns the recorder.”
2007 ShSt
Stegner: 793-4, 1645, 1636-8 xref
2241-2 Stegner (2007, p. 115-16): <115> “Hamlet’s behavior during this encounter implies that he distinguishes his own inwardness from nontheatrical individuals who cannot hide their consciences. Indeed, he confronts Guildenstern with attempting to </115> <116> ’pluck out the heart of my mystery’ and then stymies any efforts to gain access into his interiority. Hamlet is aware of Claudius and others’ capacity for dissimulation, explaining ’one may smile, and smile, and be a villain--/At least I am sure that it may be so in Denmark,’ but he identifies himself as the only one capable of preventing an unwanted revelation of his true state (1.5.108-9 [793-4]). Hamlet remains confident that even Claudius’s interiority can be extracted once the appropriate external device triggers a verbal or nonverbal confession. He accordingly designs The Mousetrap to ’catch the conscience of the King’ (2.2.601 [1645; 2.2.605]) and declares that his uncle’s conscience will be outwardly detectable: ’I’ll observe his looks; / I’ll tent him to the quick. If a do blench, / I know my course’ (2.2.592-94 [1636-8; 2.2.596-8).” </116>
2240 2241 2242 2243
