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Line 2943 - 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.”

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

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

2943 No, no, he is dead, goe to thy death bed,	4.5.193

1605 Chapman, Jonson, Marston

Chapman et al.

2943-50 Chapman et al. (Eastward Hoe . . . (3.2. sig. D2), 1605, apud H. C. Hart, in Ingleby et al. 1932, 1: 152): “Gyr[tred]. His head as white as milke, All flaxen was his haire: But now he is dead, And laid in his Bed, And neuer will come againe. God be at your labour.”

1853 coln

coln

2943 goe to thy death bed] Collier (1853, p. 429): “Again, the same authority [“the old corrector”] tells us that the lines on p. 311,—‘No, no, he is dead; Go to thy death-bed,’ ought to run, as we may well believe,—‘No, no, he is dead, Gone to his death-bed, He never will come again.’ It has always hitherto been printed, ‘Go to thy death-bed,’ and we can scarcely think the proposed change merely arbitrary.”

1854 del2

del2

2943 goe to thy death bed] Delius (ed. 1854): “Auch hier bemüht sich der alte Corrector, in die Lieder der wahnsinnigen Ophelia etwas mehr Logik und Zusammenhang zu bringen, als der Dichter ihr hat zu Theil werden lassen. So ändert er hier in anmutige Tautologie: Gone to his death-bed, und Collier kann kaum annehmen, dass dies Aenderung eine bloss willkürliche sei. Nach den sonstigen Erfahrungen, die wir an dem alten Corrector machen, müssen wir doch annehmen, dass sie keinen bessern Grund habe.” [Here too the Old Corrector takes pains to bring somewhat more logic and sense into the songs of the insane Ophelia than the poet gave her. So he changes the line here in a pleasant tautology to Gone to his death-bed, and Collier can hardly accept the this change is a purely arbitrary one. After the other experiences we have had with the Old Corrector, we have to think that this alteration has no better reason.]

1857 dyce1

dyce1: col2; Eastward Ho analogue

2943 goe to thy death bed] Dyce (ed. 1857): “Mr. Collier’s Ms. Corrector substitutes ‘Gone to his death-bed,’ &c.; which agrees with what seems to be a sort of parody on this ballad in Eastward Ho, by Jonson, Marston, and Chapman (see Dodsley’s Old Plays, vol. iv. 223, last ed.)—‘But now he is dead, And lain in his bed, And never will come again.’”

1858 col3

col3

2943 goe to thy death bed] Collier (ed. 1858): “‘Go to thy death-bed’ in the old copies, but manifestly wrong, as corr. fo. 1632 shows, for the reference is to the person who is dead and who, therefore, was ‘gone to his death-bed.’”

1866a dyce2

dyce2 = dyce1

1868 c&mc

c&mc

2943 goe to thy death bed] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “This has been changed to ‘Gone to his death-bed’; but we think that there is intentional irregularity in the delivery of Ophelia’s snatches of songs, serving well to mark her wandering of mind.”

1869 tsch

tsch: dyce (Collier); Eastward Ho! analogue; elze

2943 goe . . . bed] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Collier’s M. C. bietet hier (nach Dyce VII. p. 235) Gone to his death-bed etc., was mit einer Art Parodie dieser Ballade in Eastward Ho (Dodsley’s Old Plays IV. p. 223) übereinstimmt: But now he is dead, And lain in his bed, And never will come again. So auch Elze p. 233. - Ich halte die Lesart der Q2 für die richtige, weil hier der Rhythmus His beard was as white as snow mit dem der ersten Zeile in der vorangehenden Strophe And will he not come again genau übereinstimmt.” [Collier’s M. C. offers here (according to Dyce VII. p. 235) Gone to his death-bed etc., which agrees with a kind of parody of this ballad in Eastward Ho (Dodsley’s Old Plays IV. p. 223): But now he is dead, And lain in his bed, And never will come again. Similarly Elze p. 233—I find the version of Q2 the correct one because the rhythm here His beard was as white as snow agrees exactly with the first line in the preceding verse And will he not come again.]

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ col3

2943 goe] Furness (ed. 1877): “Collier (ed. 2): The reference is to the person who is dead, therefore the (MS) correctly has Gone.”

1877 dyce3

dyce3 = dyce2

1877 neil

neil ≈ dyce for Eastward Ho analogue for goe to thy death bed

1881 hud3

hud3 ≈ col2

2943-4 No, no . . . come againe] Hudson (ed. 1881): “So Collier’s second folio. The old copies have ‘go to thy Death-bed.’ The correction is well approved by a similar passage in Eastward Ho, written by Jonson, Marston, and Chapman: ‘But now he is dead, and lain in his bed, And never will come agan.’”

1891 dtn

dtn: xref.

2943 goe . . . bed] Deighton (ed. 1891): “i.e. you need never hope to see him again however long you may live; corresponding with [4.5.197 (2947)].”

2008 South Atlantic Review

Smith, Barbara

2943 goe to thy death bed] Smith (2008, p. 100): The clause of the second half-line, in the second person and imperative mood, is clearly inconsistent with the rest of Ophelia’s song. Hence editors have often emended it to the expected and more logical “gone to his death bed.” The revision is ill-advised. It wipes out a subtle effect that could only be Shakespeare’s. Ophelia’s mad singing, here and before, is transparent to her unconscious. The person Ophelia addresses is herself. She urges her own death, a command that discloses. to anyone who listens closely, as no one onstage does, her suicidal impulses. And the immediate context of the clause establishes the distressful cause of her death-wish—the absolute loss of her father.