Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2923 Oph. You must sing {a downe} <downe> a downe, | 4.5.172 |
|---|
2923-4 And you call | him a downe a. O how the wheele becomes it,
2924-5 It is | the false Steward that stole his Maisters daughter.
1747 warb
warb
2924 wheele] Warburton (ed. 1747): “We should read Weal. She is now rambling on the ballad of the steward and his lord’s daughter. And in these words speaks of the state he assumed.”
1747 Edwards
Edwards: contra warb
2924 wheele] Edwards (1747, 3rd ed., p. 138): “But how can ‘the weal becomes it signify the ‘state he assumed?’ I suppose, because the commonweal signifies the state or government, therefore weal must signify state or dignity. Our critic seems here to ramble as much as poor Ophelia, and this is called explaining; he had better have owned, that he did not understand the passage.”
Transcribed by HLA, who adds: “4th edition erroneously asterisks it as new.”
1747-53 mtby4
mtby4
2923-5 Thirlby (1747-53): ““strange that mad people sh’d not understand one another’s language better. Mad Tom understands Cousin Betty.””
1765 Mason
Mason = contra warb
2924 wheele]
Mason (1765, pp. 220-1): <p.220> “But how can ‘the
weal becomes
it’ signify ‘the
state he assumed?’ I suppose, because the
commonweal signifies the
state or
government, therefore
weal must signify
state or
dignity. Our critic seems here to ramble as much as poor Ophelia, and this </p/220><p.221> is called explaining; he had better have owned, that he did not understand the passage.” </p.221>
1765 Heath
Heath: Edwards
2924 wheele] Heath (1765, p. 545): “As to this correction of Mr. Warburton’s [who has "weal"], see the Canons of Criticism, p.182. The common reading was, ‘O how the wheel beomces it.’ Possibly by the wheel is here meant, the burden of the ballad.”
Edwards citation in Canons. 3rd-5th ed. 1753, p. 138, in 7th ed. 1765, pp. 220-1. Heath is apparently referring to the 6th ed, which expands on the editions published from the first expansion (3rd ed.).
1765 john1/john2
john1/john2: contra warb
2924-5 the wheele . . . daughter] Johnson (ed. 1765): “I do not see why weal is better than wheel. The story alluded to I do not know; but perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to spin.”
john1/john2
2924 wheele] Steevens (apud ed. 1765, Appendix, Ll3v): “The wheel means no more than the burthen of the song, which she has just repeated, and as such was formerly used. I met with the following observation in an old quarto black letter book, published before the time of Shakespeare. ‘The song was accounted an excellent one, thogh it was not moche graced by the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter thereof.’
“I quote this from memory, and from a book, of which I cannot recollect the exact title or date, but the passage was in a preface to some songs, or sonnets; and I well remember to have met with the word in the same sense in several other old books, and I am very sorry I cannot give, at present, a more satisfactory quotation to prove what I am confident is the true meaning of the expression. Mr. Steevens.”
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1, john2 (Appendix)
Two variants from Appendix: “may mean” for “means” and omission of final line “and I am very sorry I cannot give, at present, a more satisfactory quotation to prove what I am confident is the true meaning of the expression.” These adjustments are tactical.
1774 CAPN
capn
2924 wheele] Capell (1774. 1:1:14): “‘Down a-down,’ l.14, is the burden of several old songs; and therefore the ‘Revisal’s’ conjecture, that ‘wheel’ means—a burden, (qui in orbem recurrit) is highly probable.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773 +
2923 a downe a downe] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Perhaps Shakespeare alludes to Phœbe’s Sonnet, by Tho. Lodge, which the reader may find in England’s Helicon, 1614: ‘Downe, a downe, Thus Phillis sung, By fancy once distressed: & And so sing, I , with downe a-downe, &.
“Down a-down is likewise the burthen of a song in the Three Ladies of London, 1584, and perhaps common to many others. Steevens.”
v1778 = v1773 +
2924 wheele] Steevens (ed. 1778): “The ballad, alluded to by Ophelia, is perhaps entered on the books of the Stationers’ Company. ‘October 1580. Four ballades of the Lord of Lorn and the False Steward, &c.’ Steevens.”
1783 malsii
malsii: Hall, Chaucer analogues; TN //
2924 wheele] Malone (1783, p.59): “I am inclined to think that wheel is here used in its ordinary sense, and that these words allude to the occupation of the girl who is supposed to sing the song quoted by Ophelia.—The following lines in Hall’s Virgidemiarum, 1597, appear to me to add some support to this interpretation: ‘Some drunken rimer thinks his time well spent, If he can live to see his name in print; Who when he is once fleshed to the presse, And sees his handselle have such faire successe, Sung to the wheele, and sung unto the payle, He sends forth thraves of ballads to the sale.’
“Our author likewise furnishes an authority to the same purpose. TN [2.4.42 (931-33)]: ‘Come, the song we had last night:—The spinsters and the knitters in the sun Do use to chaunt it.
“A musical anatiquary may perhaps contend, that the controversial words of the text allude to an ancient instrument mentioned by Chaucer, and called by him a rote, by others a vielle; which was played upon by the friction of a wheel.”
1784 ays1
ays1 ≈ v1773, john1
2924-5 daughter] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “Mr. Steevens says, the wheel may mean no more than the burthen of the song, which she had just repeated, and as such was formerly used. Dr. Johnson says, ‘The story alluded to I do not know; but perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to spin.’”
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778, malsii +
2924 wheele] Malone (apud ed. 1785): “Rota, however, as I am informed, is the ancient musical term in Latin, for the burden of the song. [malsii comment verbatim here] It is likewise enumerated with other instruments in the old metrical romance, called The Squire of low Degree, bl. l.: ‘There was myrth and melodye, With harpe, getron and sautry, With rote, ribible, and clokarde, With pypes, organ, and bumbard.’ Malone.”
New supplement is interpolated before ballad from the False Steward.
1790 mWesley
mWesley ≈ v1785
2924 wheele] Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “(S. says the rota, or wheel, means the burden of a song; and that the song referred to is the ballad of the Lord of Lorn and the False Steward.) This is likely to be right.”
1790 mal
mal = v1785 minus warb, john, mal (The Squire of low Degree ) +
2923 singe a downe a downe] Malone (ed. 1790): “See Florio’s Italian Dictionary, 1598: ‘Filibustacchina, The burden of a countrie song; as we say Hay doune a doune, douna.’ Malone.”
mal = v1785 +
2924 wheele] Malone (ed. 1790): “So, in Sir Thomas Overbury’s Characters, 1614: ‘She makes her hands hard with labour, and her heart soft with pittie; and when winter evenings fall early, sitting at her merry wheele, she sings a defiance to the giddy wheele of fortune.’”
Malone compresses glosses under three different lemma on wheel (2924) into a single running gloss. The new parallel is interpolated after Hall and before TN //s.
1791- rann
rann: Wiv. //
2924 how well . . . becomes it] Rann (ed. 1791-): “how well adapted is the burthen to the song! ‘And down; down, a-down-a.’ Wiv. [1.4.41 (436)]. Quic.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal, v1785 ( “Rota”) +
2924 wheele] Steevens (ed. 1793): “Dr. Farmer, however, has just favored me with a quotation from Nicholas Breton’s Toyes of an idle Head, 1577, which at once explains the word wheel in the sense for which I have contended: ‘That I may sing, full merrily, Not heigh ho wele, but care away!’
“I formerly supposed that the ballad alluded to by Ophelia, was that entered on the books of the Stationers’ Company; ‘ October 1580. Four ballades of the Lord of Lorn and the False Steward,” &c. but Mr. Ritson assures me there is no corresponding theft in it. Steevens.”
1819 Anon Ann
Anon Ann (1819, p. 10) = JOHN1 minus contra warb
1819 cald1
cald1 = v1813 +
2923 sing a downe a downe] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “This, also, is the burden of an old song, ‘Trowle the bowle, the jolly nut-browne bowle, And heere kind made to thee! Let’s sing a dirge for saint Hugh’s soul, And downe it merily. Downe a-downe, hey downe a downe, He dery, dery, downe a-downe.’
“The second Three Man’s Song. Shoomaker’s Holiday, 1618. Brit. Bibliogr. 8vo. 1812, I. 1701.” and “And as such it is used by Mrs. Quickly in Wiv. [1.4.41 (436)].”
cald1 = v1813 +
2924 wheele] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “‘How well is this ditty adapted to the wheel:’ ‘tis a song, as Mr. Malone instances, which ‘The spintsters, and the knitters in the sun Do use to chaunt.’ TN [2.4.42 (931-33)]. Duke. ‘Fleshed to the presse Sung to the wheele, and sung unto the payle, He sends forth thraves of ballads to the sale.’ Hall’s Virgidem. 1597.
“Mr. Steevens says, the wheel may mean no more than the burthen of the song, which she had just repeated, and as such was formerly used: and cites from memory a quarto M.S. before Shakespeare’s time. ‘The song was accounted a good one, though it was not muche graced by the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter thereof.’”
Caldecott abbreviates version of //s on wheel (2924), attributed to Malone (introd in malsii), and abbreviatedsnote attributed to Steevens (introd in john1).
1822 Nares
Nares: v1793
2923 wheele] Nares (1822, glossary, wheel): “Supposed, from the context, to mean the burden of a song. Ophelia says, [Hamlet line cited]. But there is no direct authority for this use of the word; except a sentence quoted by Mr. Steevens without recollection of the book, the author, or the date. This, it must be allowed, is sufficiently uncertain. It should, however, be given. ‘The song was accounted a good one, though it was not much graced by the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the matter thereof.’ The quotation from N. Breton, of ‘heigh ho wele,’ is not satisfactory, without Mr. S.’s interpretation. Yet, after all, it must have some such meaning. Rota, or rote, certainly meant a kind of instrument.”
1826 SING1
sing1: Cotgrave; Chaucer, Breton analogues; v1793
2924 wheele] Singer (ed. 1826): “The wheel is the burthen of a ballad, from the Latin rota, a round, which is usually accompanied with a burthen frequently repeated. Thus also in old French, roterie signified such a round or catch, and rotuenge, or rotruhenge, the burthen or refrain as it is now called. Our old English term refrette, ‘the foote of the dittie, a verse often interlaced, or the burden of a song,’ was probably from refrain: or from refresteler, to pipe over again. It is used by Chaucer in The Testament of Love. This term was not obsolete in Cotgrave’s time, though it would not be as difficult to adduce an instance of its use as of the wheel, at the same time the quotation will show that the down of a ballad was another term for the burthen. ‘Refrain, the refret, burthen, or down of a ballad.’ All this discussion is rendered necessary, because Steevens unfortunately forgot to note from whence he made the following extract, though he knew it was from the preface to some black letter collection of songs or sonnets:—‘The song was accounted a good one, though it was not muche graced with the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter thereof.’ Thus also Nicholas Breton, in his Toyes for Idle Head, 1577:—‘That I may sing full merrily Not heigh ho weele, but care away.’ It should be remembered that the old musical instrument called a rota, from its wheel, was also termed vielle, quasi wheel. It must surely have been out of a mere spirit of controversy that Malone affected to think that the spinning-wheel was alluded to by Ophelia.”
1839 KNT1 (nd)
knt1: v1793
2924 how the wheele becomes it] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “This is explained, ‘how well is this ditty adapted to the wheel,’—to be sung by the spinners at the wheel. The burthen of a song, such as down a-down, was, according to Steevens, called the wheel.”
1843 col1
col1
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Collier (ed. 1843): “No such ballad is known.”
1847 verp
verp: v1793, sing1
2924 wheele]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “Steevens and Singer have shown that the wheel is the burthen of the song or ballad.”
1854 del2
del2
2923-4 sing a downe . . . wheele] Delius (ed. 1854): “Ein ähnlicher Refrain, und als solchen bezeichnet ihn Ophelia gleich darauf: "O, wie der Refrain (wheel) dazu passt!" - Andere fassen wheel hier in der gewöhnlichen Bedeutung = Spinnrad, zu dem das Lied gesungen wurde.” [similar refrain, and Ophelia calls it this immediately afterwards: O, how the refrain (‘wheel’) becomes it!— Others understand wheel here in its usual meaning of spinning wheel, to which the song was sung.]
del2
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Delius (ed. 1854): “Sie meint den Inhalt einer Ballade, die verloren gegangen ist.” [She means the contents of a ballad that has been lost.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1: sing1 without attribution minus Fr. etym.; Chaucer, Breton analogues; mal
2924 wheele] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “‘The wheel is the burthen of a ballad, from the Latin rota, a round, which is usually accompanied with a burthen frequently repeated. Thus also in old French, roterie signified such a round or catch. Steevens forgot to note from whence he made the following extract, though he knew it was from the preface to some black letter collection of songs or sonnets: ’The song was accounted a good one, though it was not muche graced with the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter thereof.’ It should be remembered that the old musical instrument called a rota, from its wheel, was also termed vielle, quasi wheel.”
hud1: standard
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Meaning, probably, some old ballad, of which no traces have survived. H.”
1856b sing2
sing2 = sing1 minus ref. to Malone (“It must surely . . . alluded to by Ophelia.”)
1857 dyce1
dyce1
2923 a downe a downe] Dyce (ed. 1857): “‘Down a-down, and you call him a-down-a.’ Whether these words are rightly given as above, I cannot determine. (On the modern stage they are sung by Ophelia.)”
1857 fieb
fieb: v1778 (Lodge analogue), mal (Florio)
2923-4 a downe . . . downe a] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “This is likewise the burden of a song. Steevens thinks, that Shakespeare alludes to Phoebe’s Sonnet, by Tho. Lodge, which the reader may find in England’s Helicon, 1600: ‘Downe a-downe,/Thus Phillis sung/By fancie once distressed: etc./And so sing I, with downe a downe,’ etc. The same may be common to many others.—Malone quotes Florio’s Italian Dictionary, 1598: ‘Filibustacchina, the burden of a countrie song; as we say, Hay doune a doune, douna,’—As for that particle an, we know it already by what Polonuis has said,—‘We could, an if we would;’ and, ‘There be, an if they might. An if, used for if, is very common in old writers.—In German, we use the particles nun or ja, in that sort of burdens.”
fieb: contra v1793 (incl. Breton analogue); mal (incl. Chaucer, Hall, Overbury analogues; TN //)
2924 wheele] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Wheel is supposed, from the context, to mean the burden of a song. But there is no direct authority for this use of the word, except an observation quoted by Steevens from a preface to some songs or sonnets, and his assertion, to have met with the word in the same sense in other old books. That sentence quoted is, ‘The song was accounted a good one, though it was not much graced by the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the matter thereof.’ He also quotes two lines from Nicholas Breton’s, Toyes of and idle Head, 1577, which he supposes at once to explain the word wheel in the sense for which he contends; ‘That I may sing, full merrily,/Not heigh ho wele, but care away!’ I.e. not with a melancholy, but a cheerful burden. But even this quotation cannot be judged satisfactory, without Steevens’ interpretations. Moreover, he quotes in favour of his opinion the Latin rota, being the ancient musical term, for the burden of a song; in addition to which Malone says, that a musical antiquary may perhaps contend, that the controverted words of the text allude to an ancient instrument mentioned by Chaucer and called by him a rote, by others a vielle; which was played upon by the friction of a wheel. Notwithstanding this most judicious commentator is inclined to think that wheel is here used in its ordinary sense, and that these words allude to the occupation of the girl who is supposed to sing the song alluded to by Ophelia. The following lines in Hall’s Virgidemiarum, (Sat. IV, 6.) 1597, appear to him to add some support to this interpretation: ‘Some drunken rimer thinks his time well spent,/If he can live to see his name in print;/Who when he is once fleshed to the presse,/And sees his hanselle have such fair successe,/Sung to the wheele, and sung unto the payle,/He sends forth thraves of ballads to the sale.’ So, in Sir Thomas Overbury’s Characters, 1614: ‘She makes her hands hard with labor, and her head soft with pittie; and when winter evenings fall early, sitting at her merry wheele, she sings a defiance to the giddy wheele of fortune.’ Our author likewise furnishes an authority to the same purpose. TN [2.4.42 (931-33)]: ‘—Come, the song we had last night: —The spinsters, and the knitters in the sun, etc./Do use to chaunt it.’”
fieb: john, mal
2925 Steward . . . daughter] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “There is no sufficient information given about the story alluded to; but Johnson adds, that perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to spin, and by this remark he seems to agree with Malone, concerning the meaning of the word wheel.”
1858 col3
col3 = col1 +
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Collier (ed. 1843): “No such ballad is known: ‘The Lord of Lorn’ is a ballad regarding a false steward, but there is no ‘master’s daughter.”
1860 stau
stau ≈hud1
2924 the wheele] Staunton (ed. 1860): “The ‘wheel’ = rota, is another name for the burden or refrain of a ballad: it was perhaps the practice on the old stage for Ophelia to play the ‘wheel’ upon her lute before these words.”
1861 wh1
wh1
2924 wheele] White (ed. 1861): “A peculiar rhythm recurring at the end of each stave of a ballad, and which was sometimes produced by a repetition of the same words, themselves nearly or quite senseless, (as in the ‘Down a-downe,’ which Ophelia has just sung,) was called a wheel or burthen. There is a distinction made between the wheel and the burthen; but it does not seem to have been very closely observed of old.”
1865 hal
hal = sing1 minus “It should be remembered . . . . by Ophelia.”
1866a dyce2
dyce2 = dyce1 on Down a-down (2923)
1866b cam1
cam1: john, v1778, cap, Taylor
2923-5 You must . . . daughter] Clark and Wright (ed. 1866): “IV. 5. 166. Ophelia’s speech, or song, is printed as three lines in the Quarto thus: [quotes Q2 ‘Oph. You must . . . daughter’]. It is printed as prose in the Folio; beginning, ‘You must sing downe a-downe, &c.’ There is no indication that any part was meant to be sung.
“Johnson first printed ‘You must sing . . . call him a-down-a’ in italics, as a snatch of song. Steevens (1778) put ‘Down a down, as you call him a-down-a’ in italics, a reading suggested by Capell’s text, where ‘Down’ begins with a capital letter. The late Mr. John Taylor, in a copy of the second Variorum edition (1813) now in the Library of Trinity College, has made the following note. ‘Ophelia gives the song without the Burthen first, and then she instructs them ‘You must sing a-down a-down, and you (speaking to another) call him a-down-a.’”
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ wh1 +
2924 O how he wheele becomes it]
Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “The wheel” was an old name for ‘the burden’ of a ballad; Latin,
rota—that which goes round and round, recurring again and again. Ophelia, repeating the words “Down a-down,” &c.—probably the burden of some old ballad—
and using the word “wheel” in commendation, by an association of ideas, thinks of the instrument of torture so called, and says it would well befit ‘the false stewart that stole his master’s daughter.’”
1869 tsch
tsch: WT //
2924 a downe a] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Das angehängte a scheint dem in nördlichen namentlich schottischen Volksliedern häufig als Refrain begegnenden o zu entsprechen. S. WT 4.3.132.” [The added a appears to correspond to the o often encountered in northern, and especially Scottish folksongs as a refrain. See WT 4.3.132 [1792].]
tsch: Johnson (Dict.)
2924 O . . . it] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “O, wie das Rad gut dazu passt! Dass Sh. das Rad als Folterinstrument kennt, erwähnt S. Johnson, ED. Da O. gleich darauf von dem falschen Verwalter redet, der seines Herrn Tochter stahl, so scheint mir die Erwähnung des Rades hier weit eher auf jene grausamen mittelalterlichen Strafproceduren hinzuweisen, wie sie namentlich an Unfreien bei schweren Verbrechen vollzogen wurden, als auf “wheel” im Sinne von refrain, Spinnrad u. s. w. Der Gedanke an den Verwalter und das Edelfräulein, das er entführt, war der Unglücklichen nahe gelegt durch die Standesverschiedenheit, in welcher sie selbst zu H. stand, und der sie ja auch ihr Unglück zuzuschreiben hat.” [O how well the wheel fits it! That Shakespeare knew the wheel as an instrument of torture is mentioned by S. Johnson, E. D. Since Ophelia right afterwards speaks of the false steward who stole his master’s daughter, the mention of the wheel here seems rather to be a reference to that horrible medieval punishment , as it was especially carried out on slaves for serious crimes, than to wheel in the sense of refrain, spinning wheel, etc. The thought of the steward and the noble young woman that he kidnaps was appealing to the unhappy girl because of the difference in rank between herself and Hamlet and because she also attributed her unhappiness to it.]
1869 Romdahl
Romdahl ≈ v1785
2923 a downe a downe] Romdahl (1869, p. 38): “is the burden of a song in The Three Ladies of London 1584, and perhaps common to many others.’ Steevens4).”
<n><p.38> “4) Reed p. 273.” </p.38></n>
Romdahl: Steevens, Nares, Worcester
2924 wheele] Romdahl (1869, p. 38): “denotes here, according to Steevens, Nares and Worcester, the burden of the song; there is, however, no certain authority for the word so used elsewhere.”
1870 rug1
rug1 ≈ cald
2923 Moberly (ed. 1870): You must sing down a down] “This is a song found in a collection of 1618—’Let’s sing a dirge for Saint Hugh’s soule, And downe it merrily! Down a down, hey down a down!’”
rug1 ≈ v1793
2924-5 O how . . . daughter] Moberly (ed. 1870): “How well the chorus fits the sense of the last lines. Steevens quotes a passage from memory to which he had lost the reference: ’the song was accounted a good one though it was not much graced by the wheel.’ By the false steward stealing his master’s daughter she may mean that the rollicking chorus instead of aiding the sense steals away all its pathos and dirge-like character.”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1 for wheele (2924) minus “Thus also . . . . quasi wheel.”
hud2: standard
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Meaning, probably, some old ballad of which no traces have survived.”
1872 del4
del4 = del2 for sing a downe . . . wheele
1872 cln1
cln1
2924 wheele] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “It is doubtful whether ‘wheel’ here means the refrain or burden of the song, or a spinning-wheel to which the song might be sung. No satisfactory example has been found of the word in the former sense.”
cln1
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “Nothing is known of the story of the false steward to which Ophelia refers.”
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ warb, Heath, Dyce (Gloss.), cln1, john, malsii, stau; contra v1778
2924 wheele]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Warburton: We should read
weal. She is now rambling on the ballad of the steward and his lord’s daughter; and in these words speaks of the state he assumed.
Heath: Possibly by the ‘wheel’ is here meant, the burden of the ballad.
Dyce (Gloss.) says that ‘most critics seem now to agree with Steevens in’ thus referring it to the burden or refain; but
Clarendon asserts that no satisfactory example has been found of the word in this sense.
Steevens cites a very appositive illustration ‘from memory, from a book of which’ he could not ‘recollect the exact title or date’;
unfortunately when Steevens does not adduce line, page, and title, hs illustrations are to be received with caution; his wit was too ready at a pinch, and the simple reference to a ‘black-letter quarto in my possession’ was convenient, much like Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Old Play.’ The illustration in question (which has been repeated by several edd, since his day) is as follows: ‘The song was accounted a good one, thogh it was not moche graced by the
wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter thereof.’ A conclusive quotation, if—. Steevens adds that ‘Rota’ is the ancient musical term in Latin for the burden of a song.
Johnson suggests: ‘perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to
spin!’
Malone divests this suggestion of its tragic element by supposing that the wheel is here used in its ordinary sense, and that these words refer to the occupation of the girl who is supposed to sing the song alluded to by Oph.
Staunton says it was, perhaps, the practice on the old stage for Oph. to play the ‘wheel,’
i.e. the
refrain, upon her lute before these words. [
If ‘wheel’ ever meant refrain, the meaning apparently had become obsolete when F2 was printed.
Ed.]”
v1877 ≈ col1, rug
2925 Steward]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Collier: No such ballad is known.
Moberly: By the false steward stealing his master’s daughter she may mean that the rollicking chorus, instead of aiding the sense, steals away all its pathos and dirge-like character.”
1877 neil
neil: standard for wheele
1878 rlf1
rlf1: mal, john (for Steevens note), v1877 + magenta underlined
2924 wheele] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Malone explains this as the spinning-wheel, at which the singer is supposed to be occupied. Cf. TN 2. 4. 45. Steevens makes the word=burdon, or chorus, and quotes ‘from memory’ a passage (but he cannot recollect where he saw it) in which it is thus used; but, as F. remarks, ‘when Steevens does not adduce line, page, and title, his illustrations are to be received with caution.’ No satisfactory example of the word in this sense has been found by anybody else.”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2 for wheele (2924)
hud3 ≈ hud2
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Probably some old ballad, of which no traces have come to light.”
1882 elze2
elze2: Florio analogue; v1877)
2923 a downe]
Elze (ed. 1882): “The wording as given in F1 is supported by Florio (s.
Filibustacchina). See
Furness ad loc.”
elze2: Guest
2924 the wheele] Elze (ed. 1882): “Guest, History of English Rhythms, II, 290, understands by wheel ‘the return of some marked and peculiar rhythm’.”
1883 wh2
wh2: knt1 + magenta underlined
2924 wheele] White (ed. 1883): “perhaps the spinning wheel at which the song was sung, or a burthen called the wheel. Neither explanation is quite satisfactory.”
1885 macd
macd
2923-4 And you call him] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘if you call him’: I think this is not a part of the song, but is spoken of her father.”
macd
2924-5 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “The subject of the ballad.”
macd = v1785
2924 wheele] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “the burden of the song” Steevens.”
1888 mulls
mulls: xref.
2923-4 You must . . .
call him]
Mull (1888, p. 22): <p.22> “A dim recognition of her brother, as well as a ‘precious instance’ [4.5.163 (2915)] of her father, are here manifested. She reminds Laertes to join with her in singing this snatch of a threnody—or perhaps the refrain only—if he would
remember their father, call him to mind, show reverence to his memory.” </p.22>
mulls
2924-5 Mull (1888, p. 24): <p.24> “Will it be permitted to suggest, that there may be here a subtle allusion, after Shakespeare’s manner? ‘It I a false brother that stole his brother’s wife,’ would be a generalization that the King, in his susceptible state, might in a thought realize. Laertes of course regards it as ‘noting.’” </p.24>
mulls: xrefs
.; Schmidt, rug, Hunter
, cln, mal, Nares + magenta underlined
2924 O . . .
it]
Mull (1888, pp. 22-24): <p.22> “Much perplexity has been manifested over this line, and strange are the several comments suggested in explanation—or in bewilderment. Its wrongful ascription to Ophelia in the received text mainly accounts, I think, for all the confusion. [Here Mull quotes comments from
Schmidt, the Rugby editor, Hunter, the Clarendon editors, Malone, and Nares, followed by his own comment, which follows]
“The difficulty vanishes when, a, the exclamation is put into the mouth of Laertes, and, b, the true meaning of ‘wheel’ is found:—he is interrupted by Ophelia (2917); then, so heart-stirring are her strains, he bursts into rapture—’O, how her surpassing, culminating excellent becomes all’—’becomes it,’ i.e. all that which he has just described her to be: ‘rose of May, dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia:’ he is overcome with her sweet pathetic utterance in song, and her touching gentleness: so the ‘wheel’ is her elevation, acme of excellence, in song and person. Laertes proclaims, of her, that she ‘Stood challenger on mount of all the age For her perfections.’ It has been overlooked, that ‘wheel’ in [3.3.17 (2290)], furnishes the exact illustration required:—’it (majesty) is a massy wheel, Fix’d on the summit of the highest mount.’ i.e. Majesty stands at the highest elevation; ‘lesser things’ are subordinated to this supreme excellence.
“After this line of treatment—Ophelia’s elevation—I am confronted with the reflection that we have here a curious instance of the profundity of Shakespeare, as well as the fecundity of his thoughts and language, so that the metaphor of the ‘wheel’ might here be interpreted in an antithetical sense: Ophelia is matchless and unrivaled in her brother’s estimation, but ‘boisterous ruin’ [3.3.22 (2295)] has reversed her state, so the exclamation might imply distress and sadness, ‘O, how the wheel becomes it’—becomes her ‘fall’. Here is an alternative which doubtless presents itself with some force.
“The use of the word ‘wheel’ by Lovelace—a writer of Shakespeare’s age—is very apt. It is in his lines ‘On Lely’s Portrait of Charles I’: </p.23><p.24> ‘So sweet a scorn Never did happy misery adorn! So sacred a contempt, that others show To this (o’ the height of all the wheel) below, That mightiest monarchs by this shaded book May copy out their proudest, richest look.’ The parallel use of the word is singularly exact: Lovelace describes with intenseness Charles’s personal and kingly elevation (‘height’); Laertes is in rapture with the culminating excellence of Ophelia. And as if to confirm the meaning of ‘wheel,’ it is in immediate association with ‘below,’ i.e. fallen, overthrown.” </p.24>
1889 Barnett
Barnett ≈ knt1
2924 wheele] Barnett (1889, p. 57): “the spinning-wheel, to which the song may be sung.”
1890 irv2
irv2 ≈ mal (Florio), rann (wiv. //)
2923-4 You. . . downe a] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “It is not certain whether these two lines should be printed thus, or as two lines of verse. Mrs. Quickly, in Wiv. 1.4.44 [436], sings: ‘And down, down, adown-a.’ Florio has ‘Filibustacchina, the burden of a countrie song, as we say hay doune a doune douna.”
irv2 ≈ john (Steevene), cln1
2924 wheele] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Steevens supposed that wheel was an old word for the burden of a song, but neither he noranyone else has adduced any trustworthy testimony to that effect. Until that is forthcoming it may be quite sufficient to suppose that Ophelia means nothing more than the spinning-wheel, to which old songs are usually sung in romances, as they doubtless were in reality.”
1891 dtn
dtn: Abbott
2923 And] Deighton (ed. 1891): “An] if; see Abb. § 101.”
dtn: contra v1773; ≈ malsii (incl. TN //; Chaucer analogue)
2924 the wheele] Deighton (ed. 1891): “according to Steevens, the refrain; but the quotation by which he supports his explanation is generally regarded as mythical. Malone is inclined to think that the allusion is to the occupation of the girl whose song Ophelia quotes. Among other passages in some way bearing out his view he quotes TN [2.4.42 (931-33)], ‘The spinsters and the knitters in the sun . . . Do use to chant it’; he further suggests as possible that the allusion may be to an instrument called by Chaucer a rote, which was played upon by the friction of a wheel.”
dtn: standard
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Deighton (ed. 1891): “the ballad is on the subject of the false steward who, etc. No such ballad has yet been discovered.”
1899 ard1
ard1: john, cap, stau, glo, cam1, v1773
2923-4 You. . . downe a] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Q, F print the whole speech in Roman type. Johnson used italics for You . . .a-down-a; (Capell had printed Down with a capital). Staunton, Globe, Cambridge print the same words as verse. The above follows Steevens. It has been suggested that You and And you should be in Roman, as instructions to two supposed singers.”
ard1: elze (Guest) without attribution; v1778); Cotgrave, malsii (TN //; Hall)
2924 wheele] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Guest, English Rhythms, bk. IV. chap iv., uses wheel for a kind of refrain, the return of some peculiar rhythm at the end of each stanza. Steevens quoted from memory an example of this use of the word from a book of which he had forgotten the title and date. No early example appears to have been found. Cotgrave explains French refrain as ‘the Refret, burthen, or downe of a ballade.’ F2 has ‘wheeles become.’ Perhaps Malone was right in thinking that the reference is to a song sung at the spinning-wheel; he refers aptly to TN [2.4.42 (931-33)] and quotes a mention of ballads ‘sung to the wheel,’ from Hall, Virgidemiarum, IV. vi.”
1903 p&c
p&c
2923 You must sing] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “Ophelia is instructing them how the burthen of chorus is to go after the song which she has given. You must sing downe a-downe, she says, and then, turning to another, you call him a-downe-a.”
p&c ≈ sing (incl. Cotgrave)
2924 the wheele] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “The burthen of a ballad, from the Latin rota, a round, which is usually accompanied with a burthen for the several voices, frequently repeated. ‘In old French,’ says Singer, ‘roterie signified such a round or catch and rotuenge the burthen, or the refrain, as it is now called. Our old English term refrette, “the foote of the dittie,” a verse often interlaced, or the burden of a song, was probably from refrain or refrestater, to pipe over again.’ Cotgrave gives: ‘Refrain, the refret, burthen or downe of a ballad’.”
p&c ≈ hud3
2925 false Steward] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “Apparently an old ballad, all clue to which is lost.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 minus Steevens and “No satisfactory . . . else.”
2924 wheel] Rolfe (ed.1903): “Malone explains this as the spinning-wheel, at which the singer is supposed to be occupied. Cf. TN [2.4.42 (931-33)].”
1904 ver
ver: Wiv. //; Bullen analogue
2923 a downe a downe] Verity (ed. 1904): “Another ballad refrain, which occurs in Wiv. 1. 4. 44. This is the refrain, slightly varied, of that grim old ballad, “There were three Ravens sat on a tree” (Bullen’s Lyrics from Elizabethan Song-Books, p. 128).
“It is impossible to determine how exactly the passage should be printed—whether as verse which she sings (the stage-custom), or as prose. (F.)
“The thought, presumably, in Ophelia’s mind is that Polonius has been “called a-down” into his grave.”
ver: TN //; v1877
2924 O how the wheele becomes it] Verity (ed. 1904): “O, how prettily the spinning-wheel and the song go together. Cf. TN [2.4.42 (931-33)], where the Duke bids the Clown sing an old-world ballad (“Come away, come away, death”) and says: ‘Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain: The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, And the free maids that weave their thread with bones, Do use to chant it’; where, of course, ‘spinsters’ has its literal sense ‘those who spin.’
“The theory that wheel means ‘burden, refrain’ (referring to “a-down a-down” etc.), because the ‘burden’ recurs like the revolutions of a wheel, is unsupported by any evidence whatever. Moreover, the 2nd Folio’s reading wheeles become it shows that wheel was then (1632) understood in its ordinary sense. (F.).”
ver: xrefs.
2924-5 It is the false Steward] Verity (ed. 1904): “This allusion to some ballad or song, like the reference to “the famous ape” [3.4.194 (2570)], has not been traced. It seems impossible here to “collect” the connection (if any) of her thoughts. Can it be that she is dwelling on the court-gossip about Hamlet and herself? No doubt, people had kindly said that Polonius (a ‘chamberlain’ is not so very far removed from a ‘steward’) had ‘stolen his master’s son’ for his daughter, i.e. by seeking to bring about the match; cf. Polonius’s own words, [2.2.131-139 (1160-68)]. One stage-custom is to identify ‘the false steward’ with Claudius, from whom Ophelia starts in horror.”
1905 rltr
rltr: standard
2924 wheele] Chambers (ed. 1905): “burden.”
1921 TLS
Cuningham
2923-4 call] Cuningham (1922, p. 444): The word call means recall as in other places in Sh. So the song contains the interruption, an you call him or, placing the song in italics: “You must sing down a-down (An you call him) a-down-a.
1929 trav
trav: xref.
2923 a-downe a downe]
Travers (ed. 1929): “belongs to a less indefinite order of refrains than [4.5.166 (2918)] and is obviously associated, in Ophelia’s mind, with the lowering of the body
adown the grave.”
trav: TN
2924 O . . .
it]
Travers (ed. 1929): “what a fitting accompaniment to it is the sound of the spinning wheel! A passage
TN [2.4.42 (931-33)], where a song, ‘old and plain,’ is described as ‘chanted’ by ‘spinsters’ at their work, supports this now generally received interpretation.”
trav
2925 Maisters]
Travers (ed. 1929): “Q1 calls the
master King. One stage interpretation makes Ophelia move towards Claudius after ‘
becomes it’ and suddenly start back in horror, identifying him with the ‘
false steward.’
He had ‘
stolen’ his royal brother’s wife; cp. [4.5.181 (2932)] n.”
1931 crg1
crg1: Onions, v1778
2924 wheele] Craig (ed. 1931): “spinning wheel as accompaniment to the song (Onions); refrain (Steevens).”
crg1 ≈ dtn
2925 false Steward] Craig (ed. 1931): “The story is unknown.”
1934 Wilson
Wilson: john, glo, cam1 (Taylor)
2923-4 Wilson (1934, rpt. 1963, 2:228): <2:228> “[A difficult problem is] presented by the first two lines of Ophelia’s speech, which Johnson, The Globe Shakespeare and many modern editors, without any warrant from Q2 or F1, print as song thus: ‘Oph. [Sings] You must sing a-down a-down, An you call him a-down-a.’ Others, however, follow Capell and read” ‘Oph. You must sing A-Down a-down, and you call him a-down-a,’ as if she were bidding Laertes join her in the refrain, while a certain John Taylor, cited in a note of The Cambridge Shakespeare, went a step further and suggested that ‘Ophelia gives the song without the Burthen first, and then she instructs them ‘You must sing a-down a-down, and you (speaking to another) call him a-down-a.’” This, I think, comes near to Shakespeare’s intention, though it seems to put a strained interpretation on ‘call him.’ In my belief, the true explanation is that Ophelia asks Laertes to sing ‘a-down a-down,’ and then adds, after her wandering fashion, ‘if you really think that he (i.e. Polonius) is fallen low a-down.’ I should print the whole speech, therefore, as follows: ‘Oph. You must sing “adown, adown,” an you call him “adown-a.” </2:228><2:229> O how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward that stole his master’s daughter.’ Such an arrangement has the merit of giving point not only to ‘call him’ but also to ‘wheel,’ which I take to signify both ‘wheel,’ the refrain of a song, and the wheel of Fortune which had brought the chief statesman of Denmark low ‘adown.’” </2:229>
1934 cam3
cam3: xref.; MSH
2923-4 You . . . a downe a] Wilson (ed. 1934): You must sing...adown-a]“Again Q2, F1 make no distinction in type between speech and song, and there have been many different attempts to differentiate them. I take it that Oph., addressing Laer., bids him sing ‘adown, adown’ as the refrain to her song, if he indeed agrees that Pol. is ‘adown,’ i.e. fallen low. This interpretation leads on to ‘the wheel’ in [4.5.172 (2924)]. MSH. pp. 228-29.”
cam3: OED; TN //; Schipper
2924 O how . . . becomes it] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Variously explained as referring to the refrain (v. N.E.D. [OED]‘wheel’ 16), or to the spinning-wheel, as an accompaniment to ballad-song; cf. TN. [2.4.45 (934)]. The former fits the context well, but I suggest that Oph. is also thinking of Fortune’s wheel which has brought the leading statesman of Denmark low ‘adown’; if so ‘becomes it’ means that the a wheel (= refrain) corresponds well enough with his condition. Technically ‘wheel’ = a stanza of at least 4 lines, but it might apparently be used vaguely for any kind of refrain or chorus, v. J. Schipper, Hist. of Eng. Vers. pp. 280 ff.”
cam3: xref.
2925 the false . . . daughter] Wilson (ed. 1934): “The reference has not been traced in folk-tale or ballad. It seems to refer back to the song at [4.5.48-66 (2790-2803)].”
1937 pen1
pen1
2923-4 how . . . it] Harrison (ed. 1937): “variously explained as the ‘refrain’, or the ‘spinning wheel’ to which the song is sung. The likeliest explanation is that she breaks into a little dance at ‘you must sing’, and the ‘wheel’ is the circle as she turns on her toes.”
1939 kit2
kit2: Deloney analogue
2923-4 a downe . . . downe a] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “For this chorus or burden cf. Deloney, The Garland of Good Will, Song 3: ‘Whenas King Edgar did govern this Land, adown, adown, down, down, And in the strength of is Years he did stand, call him down-a.’”
kit2: TN//
2924 the wheele] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “the spinning wheel, to whose rhythmic motion songs and ballads were often sung. Cf. TN [2.4.42 (931-33)]: ‘The spinsters and the knitters in the sun . . . . Do use to chant it.’”
kit2: xref.
2924 becomes it] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “suits the ballad and its tune. Cf. n. [4.7.78 (3078+13)].”
kit2 ≈ crg1
2924-5 It is . . . Steward] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “The song tells the story of the false steward. The ballad is unknown.”
1942 n&h
n&h ≈ Barnett
2924 wheele] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “(1) refrain, (2) the spinning wheel, at which women sang ballads.”
1947 cln2
cln2: TN //
2924 the wheele] Rylands (ed. 1947): “Perhaps the spinning-wheel which turns with the song, as in TN [2.4.42 (931-33)] (the spinsters and the knitters in the sun do use to chant it): or, some say, ‘wheel’ is a technical term for a ‘stanza’ and is here used loosely to mean a refrain.”
1957 pel1
pel1 ≈ n&h minus “spinning wheel” alt. def.
2924 wheele] Farnham (ed. 1957): “burden, refrain.”
1958 fol1
fol1
2924 You must sing . . . a downe a Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “both phrases are from the chorus of a song but to the hearer they may seem applicable to Polonius.”
1974 evns1
evns1: Wilson
2923-4 And . . . a downe a] Evans (ed. 1974): “’if he indeed agrees that Polonius is “a-down”, i.e. fallen low’ (Dover Wilson).”
evns1 ≈ n&h
2924 wheele] Evans (ed. 1974): “refrain (?) or spinning-wheel, at which women sang ballads (?).”
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ fol1
2923-4 a downe . . . a downe a] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Perhaps Ophelia is thinking of Polonius as having been called down to his grave, and therefore says that this is a preferable refrain to Hey non nony . . . It is possible that the correct reading is ‘You must sing “A-down a-down”, and you call him a-down-a’ (if you refer to Polonius as being dead.”
pen2 ≈ evns1
2924 wheele] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Perhaps the spinning-wheel, to which she imagines she is singing the song; or perhaps wheel means ‘refrain’ (‘how appropriate is that refrain “A-down a-down to my song of woe!”); or perhaps it is a movement in her dance.”
pen2
2925 the false . . . daughter] Spencer (ed. 1980): “This story (perhaps a ballad) is unknown. It may be that the three lines sung by Ophelia at [4.5.165-6 (2917-19)] above are from the ballad, of which she is here giving the title or subject.”
1982 ard2
ard2: Florio, Chettle analogues; Wiv. //
2923 a down a down] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Cited by Florio to illustrate ‘the burden of country song’ (World of Words, under Filibustacchina), this common and all but meaningless refrain is found in a number of ballads in a variet of forms. It is sung by Quickly in Wiv. [1.4.41 (436)] and by the mad Lucibella in Chettle’s Hoffman (l. 1976). Here Ophelia instructs her hearers to sing it as a refrain to her song.”
ard2: Deloney anal., Dover Wilson
2923-4 and you . . . a-down-a] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “You addresses others of those present. The refrain is apparently to be sung by alternating voices. ln. With both Q2 and F printing the whole speech in roman type, there has been much uncertainty as to which words exactly Ophelia is directing to be sung; and attempts to construe and as ‘if’, instead of the simple connective, have only added to perplexity. Some editors take A-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a all to belong to the required refrain. But the assumption that and you is an instruction to a further singer has some support from Q1 (even though the words are there misplaced), ‘you shall sing a downe, And you a downe a’. Some suppose that the direction to the second singer is ‘and you call him’. But the arrangement of the present text, which regards call him as part of the answering refrain, is attested by a ballad of King Edgar in Deloney’s Garden of Goodwill (Song 3): ‘Whenas King Edgar did govern this Land, adown, adown, down, down, down; And in the strength of his years he did stand,/ call him down a.’ Attempts to identify him with Polonius, and Dover Wilson’s consequent paraphrase of and you call him a-down-a as ‘if you really think that he is fallen low a-down’ (MSH, p. 228), mistake the dramatic function of the refrain when they seek to give its words a literal (and rational) application.”
ard2: contra v1778; tn //, Hall analogue; SQ; Guest, Saintsbury
2924 wheel] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “refrain. Strictly, a term for a metrical or rhythmic (rather than a verbal) element in a poem which recurs at the end of each stanza. ln. Though Steevens could cite no authority for wheel meaning refrain, there is no reason to doubt the correctness of his explanation. The rival explanations of the sceptics—that wheel alludes to the spinning-wheel, the wheel of Fortune (or alternatively of Occasion), a dance movement, a musical instrument, and even Ophelia’s farthingcale – are mere guesses, despite the claim of the first to have support from the song in TN [2.4.42 (931-33)] which is chanted by ‘the spinsters and and the knitters in the sun’ (ii.iv.43) and from the ballads referred to in Hall’s Satries as being ‘Sung to the wheel, and sung unto the pail’ (iv.vi.54). As for Occasion (=Opportunity), it is true that she, like Fortune, is often pictured circling on a wheel (see SQ, xviiii, 35-6) and that this might have some relevance to ‘revenge’ (2921), but I do not think a mere mention of ‘the wheel’ could, without further particular, identify it as hers. The objection that F2 did not understand wheel in the sense of refrain applies equally to the other explanations offered. Among historians of prosody Guest defines a wheel as ‘the return of some marked and peculiar rhythm’ at the close of each stanza (A History of English Rhythms, ii.290, 324); and Saintsbury as ‘a short or short-lined stanza suffixed as coda to a longer one’ (A History of English Prosody, i.428). Guest distinguishes a wheel, which repeats the same rhythm, from a burden, which repeats the same words, but adds that the Elizabethans used the two terms indifferently.”
ard2: contra Emp. St. Res. Stud.
2924-5 It is the false steward] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Ophelia’s mind is still running on hapless maidens and deceits in love. It is sometimes taken (I think unnecessarily) to refer to the ballad which ‘the wheel becomes’. No appropriate ballad, or tale, has been traced. The false steward in the ‘Second History’ of Wotton’s Cupid’s Cautels (1578), which has been unconvincingly proposed as a source for the Ophelia story (see Emporia State Research Studs., 1966, pp. 18-26), is not a candidate here: he ravishes his master’s daughter after making her drunk.”
1984 chal
chal
2923 a downe a downe] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “a common refrain. Ophelia’s third song is again of unhappy love (cf. ‘false steward’).”
chal = pel1 for wheele
chal
2924 becomes] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “suits, enhances.”
1985 cam4
cam4: Dekker, England’s Helicon analogues
2923 a downe a downe] Edwards (ed. 1985): “A popular refrain. Two songs, printed in 1600, which use it, have associations suitable for Ophelia’s plight. The song at the end of Dekker’s Shoemakers’ Holiday begins ‘cold’s the wind, and wet’s the rain’. ‘Let’s sing a dirge for St Hugh’s soul, / And down it merrily. /Down a down, hey down a down . . . ’ in England’s Helicon (Q2r) is a song about the miseries of love, which maidens are better to avoid; it begins ‘Hey down a down did Dian sing’.”
cam4
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Edwards (ed. 1985): “In view of Laertes’ next remark, indicating that Ophelia’s disconnected remarks have a special significance, it is embarrassing that no one has been able to throw light on the false steward.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4 ≈ ard2
2923-4 call . . . a downe a] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “Jenkins points out that these words occur as a refrain to Song 3 in Deloney’s The Garland of Goodwill (Works, ed. F. O. Mann (Oxford, I9I20, pp. 305-9). The song, which could be obscurely connected in Ophelia’s mind with ‘the false steward’, tells how a false knight, sent be King Edgar to woo the beautiful Lady Estrild for him, wooed for himself, won the lady, lied to the King, and was eventually found out and killed. The King then married the widow, who had revealed her husband’s lie to him.”
oxf4: OED
2924 wheele] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “The context here almost dictates that wheel be interpreted as ‘refrain’, even though no precise parallel to such a meaning has come to light. OED, after defining the normal prosodic sense (wheel sb. I6), quotes Edwin Guests’s opinion that a wheel signifies ‘the return of some marked and peculiar rhythm’ at the end of each stanza (A History of English Rhythms (I838), ii. 290.”
oxf4
2924-5 It is . . . daughter] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “No such ballad or folk-tale is extant, but the very topic suggests there may well have been one. Ophelia is haunted by the idea of betrayal.”
1988 bev2
bev2
2923-4 You . . . a down a] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(Ophelia assigns the singing of refrains, like her own “Hey non nonny,” to various imaginary singers).”
bev2 ≈ crg1 without attribution
2923-4 wheele] Bevington (ed. 1988): “spinning wheel as accompaniment to the song, or refrain.”
bev2 = crg1 for false Steward
1993 dent
dent: xrefs.
2923 a downe] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Like the nonsense words in [4.5.166 (2918)], this refrain would normally function simply as melodic filler; in this context, however, it reminds us that, like Ophelia’s father, Ophelia’s wits are now ’quite quite down’ [3.1.154 (1810)]. She is ’of Ladies most Deject and Wretched’, and her own ’Noble and most Sovereign Reason, /Like sweet Bells jangl’d out of Time, and Harsh’, is ’Blasted with Ecstasy’ [3.1.155-160 (1811-16)].”
dent: xrefs.
2925 Steward] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Household manager, ’husband’ (line 140). This word recalls the parables on stewardship cited in the note to [3.3.82 (2358)].”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
2923 You. . . ’a-down-a’] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Ophelia instructs her listeners to sing the refrain a-down, etc.”
ard3q2
2923 an] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “if.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Eastward Ho analogue; Mowar, Werstine, Farley-Hills
2924 wheel] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Usually interpreted as meaning ’refrain’, but Ophelia may be referring to the wheel of Fortune. Mowar and Werstine suggest a spinning wheel, ’to which motion ballads were sung’ (Folg). Farley-Hills (’Crux’) points out that F2 has ’How the wheeles become it’ and argues that Ophelia is still thinking about coach (as at 71) and that this is how the authors of Eastward Ho understood (and parodied) the scene.”
ard3q2: Edwards, Barnett
2924-5 It. . . daughter] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Edwards comments, ’In view of Laertes’ next remark, indication that Ophelia’s disconnected remarks have a special significance, it is embarrassing that no-one has been able to throw light on the false steward’, but Barrnett has argued for the ’multiple contexts’ of the remark in scriptural parallels and in the romance tradition, where servants steal their masters’ daughters. Perhaps, however, this is just Ophelia’s confusion for the steward’s daughter (herself) and the false king or prince (Hamlet).”
2923 2924 2925
