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Line 3030 - Commentary Note (CN) More Information

Notes for lines 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand
For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.
3030 Too slightly tymberd for so {loued Arm’d} <loud a Winde>, 4.7.22
1773 jen
jen
3029-30 Conuert . . . Arm’d]Jennens (ed. 1773): “So the 1st q; the 2d and 3d [Q3, Q5] read so loued armes ; all the rest read so loud a wind ; but the idea of a loud wind reverberating an arrow back to its bow, is so unnatural and impossible that it cannot pass: therefore the reading of the 1st q. [Q2] is to be preferred, Too slightly timber’d for one so loued, and arm’d with the affections and veneration of the people, &c. or that of the 2d and 3d, where the arms or armour are put for the person armed and the love applied to them which is meant of him. In both these readings we have the idea of a suit of armour reverberating an arrow back to its bow, which is not only possible, but just.”
1778 v1778
v1778=
3030 so loued Arm’d]Steevens (ed. 1778): “for so loud a wind]] Thus the folio. One of the quartos reads— for so loued, arm’d. If these words have any meaning, it should seem to be—The instruments of offence I employ, would have proved too weak to injure one who is so lvued and arm’d by the affection of the people. Their love, like armour, would revert the arrow to the bow. Steevens”
1785 v1785
v1785=v1778
3030 so loued Arm’d]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
3030 so loued Arm’d]
1790 mal
mal
3030 so loued Arm’d]Malone (ed. 1790): “ for so loud a wind]] Thus the folio. The quarto 1604, has —’for so loued arm’d : as extraordinary a corruption as any that is found in these plays. ”
1791- rann
rann : standard
3030 so loued Arm’d] Rann (ed. 1791-):“to affect a person so applauded by the populace.”
1793 v1793
v1793=v1785 ; ≈ mal
3030 so loued Arm’d]
1803 v1803
v1803=v1793+
3030 so loued Arm’d]Steevens (ed. 1803) for so loud a wind]]Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads—for so loued, arm’d. If these words have any meaning, it should seem to be—The instruments of offence I employ, would have proved too weak to injure one who is so loued and arm’d by the affection of the people. Their love, like armour, would revert the arrow to the bow.
“The reading in the text, however, is supported in Ascham’s Toxophilus , edit. 1589, p. 57: ‘Weake bowes and lighte shaftes cannot stand in a rough winde .’ STEEVENS
Loved arm’d is as extraordinary a corruption as any that is found in these plays.” MALONE
1805 Seymour
Seymour
3029-30 so . . . Arm’d] Seymour (1805, 2:196) : <p. 196> “My arrows,Too slightly timber’d for so loud a wind]] Here is a false epithet introduced into the folio—a strong wind may be loud, but loudness has no power to resist the force of the arrows; indeed, there is nothign in the preceding words to which ‘wind,’ or ‘so loud a wind’ can at all apply. ‘Loved arm’d,’ the reading of the first quarto, is certainly a strange expression; but, as the speaker is describing Hamlet as being fortified in the people’s affection, perhaps ‘loved-armed’ is the true reading.” </p. 196>
1813 v1813
v1813=v1803
1819 cald1
cald1≈v1813 [minus the v1793 note]
3030 so loued Arm’d]Caldecott (ed. 1819): “‘Weake bowes and lighte shaftes ,cannot stand in a rough winde’ Ascham’s Toxophilus , edit. 1589, p. 57.’”Steevens
1821 v1821
v1813=v1813+[a reference to jennens]
3030 so loued Arm’d] Boswell (ed. 1821): ““Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads—for so loued arm’d. If these words have any meaning, it should seem to be [as Mr. Jennens has remarked]—The instruments of offence I employ, would have proved too weak to injure one who is so loued and arm’d by the affection of the people. Their love, like armour, would revert the arrow to the bow.
“The reading in the text, however, is supported in Ascham’s Toxophilus , edit. 1589, p. 57: ‘Weake bowes and lighte shaftes cannot stand in a rough winde .’ STEEVENS
Loved arm’d is as extraordinary a corruption as any that is found in these plays.” MALONE
1826 sing1
sing1≈v1803 [sing1 fails to include the v1813, v1821 additions]
3030 so loued Arm’d]
1832 cald2
cald2=cald1
3030 so loued Arm’d]
1843 col1
col1
3030 so loued Arm’d] Collier (ed. 1843):”so loud a Winde]] So the folio, and rightly. Some 4tos. read loued armed , and others loued armes . The 4tos, 1604, &c., are however right in giving, in the next line but one [3032], ‘aim’d’ instead of arm’d , as it is misprinted in the folio.
1854 del2
del2
3029-32 so . . . them] Delius (ed. 1854) : “Die Pfeile des Königs, d.h. ein öffentliches Verfahren gegen Hamlet, hätten, dem stürmischen Winde, d.h. der Volksgunst, gegenüber, aus leichtem Holze geschnitzt, wie sie waren, ihr Ziel nicht erreicht, sondern nur den Schiessenden selbst getroffen.—Die Fol. hat arm’d für aimd der Qs.—Für loud a wind der Fol. haben die Qs. theils loved arm’d, theils loved arms.” [“The arrows of the King , that is, the public proceedings against Hamlet had, as it were, like arrows cut from light wood, not reached their goal against the stormy wind [that is, his popularity]; on the contrary, they had struck the shooter himself. The Fol. has arm’d for aimd of the Qs. For loud a wind of the folio, part of the Qs. have loued arm’d, another part loued arms.”]
1855 mHunter
mHunter
3030 so loued Arm’d]Hunter (ms. notes, 1855): <p. 228> “If Shakspeare had written this he would have written rough a wind . That he himself wrote nothing about the wind at all is evident from the quarto, not the new -found quarto in which the speech does not occur [Q1], but the quarto of 1604. The earliest known to the commentators. That copy has the lines thus ‘Too slightly timbered for so loved arm’d ‘’ When loved is not loud but loved & the reading currently exhibited may be drawn from it ‘Too slightly timbered for one so loved and armed is so entrenched in the affection of the common people & so well protected by their strength.’ This will be found to suit the passage at large well.
“I wonder that Mr. Malone should have called the earliest reading known to him ‘as extraordinary a corruption as any that is found in these plays’. ‘Loud a wind’: the reading of the second folio.” </p. 228> (Prolegomena and Notes on Shakespeare [BL ADD. MS. 24495 ] : pp. 219-46)
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1sing1 [w/o attribution; only Ascham //]
3030 so loued Arm’d] Hudson (ed. 1856): “Lighte shaftes cannot stand in a rough wind.—Ascham.”
1856 sing2
sing2=sing1
3030 so loued Arm’d]
1857 elze1
elze1
3030 so loued Arm’d] Elze (ed. 1857): "Einige Qs lesen: for so loved armes, andere: for so loved armed." ["Some Qs read ’for so loved armes’; others, ’for so loved armed."]
1858 col3
col3=col1+
3030 so loued Arm’d] Collier (ed. 1858): “so loud a Winde]] So the folio, and rightly. Some 4tos. read loued armed , and others loued armes . The 4tos, 1604, &c., are however right in giving, in the next line but one [3032], ‘aim’d’ instead of arm’d , as it is misprinted in the folio. This error has not been unfrequent.”
1864-68 c&mc
c&mc ≈ standard
3030 loued Arm’d] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864-68, rpt. 1874-78): “In illustration of this sentence, a passage may be cited from Ascham’s ‘Toxophilus,’(1589): ‘Light shafts cannot stand ina rough wind.’”
1869 stratmann
stratmann ≈ Elze
3030 loued Arm’d] Stratmann (ed. 1869): “All the modern editors adopt the reading of D [F1: loud a Winde], which however is very negligently printed here.”
Ed. note: Stratmann reads in his text: “loved armes”
1872 del4
del4 = del2
3029-32 so . . . them]
1872 cln1
cln1
3030 loued Arm’d] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “loud a winde]] Here the quartos have ‘loued arm’d,’ a curious misprint. Steevens quotes Ascham’s Toxophilus, ed. 1589, p. 57: ‘Weake bowes and lighte shaftes cannot stand in arough winde.’”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1
3030 so loued Arm’d]
1875 Ingleby
Ingleby: standard
3030 loued Arm’d] Ingleby (1875, pp. 122-3): <p. 122>“In [Ham. 4.7.? (3029-32)], as given in the quartos of 1604 and 1605, we have, [cites 3029-32]. The only variation in the words ‘loued Arm’d’ given by the early quartos is, that two read ‘loued armes,’ and one reads ‘loved armes.’
“Such a crux as that would have been ‘larks’ or ‘nuts’ to the critical taste. Happily the folio 1623 gives us the true </p. 122> <p. 123>lection, viz., loud a Winde. So Ascham, in his Toxophilus, book ii. (Arber’s Reprint, p. 150-1), says, ‘The greatest enemy of Shootyng is the winde and wether,&c. Weak bowes, and lyght shafes can not stande in a rough wynde.’”</p. 123>
1877 v1877
v1877: ≈ jen ; ≈ v1803 (Ascham’s Toxophilus)
3030 Too . . . Arm’d]
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
3030 Too . . . Arm’d]
1882 elze2
elze2
3030 loued Arm’d] Elze (ed. 1882): “The unanimous reading of the Qq seems to prove that the original MS in this line contained some such word as armed, arms, or armour, and this suspicion is strengthened by [F1], which two lines further on reads arm’d them instead of aym’d them in {Q2]. It does not appear unlikely, that the original MS or the prompter’s book was damaged somehow or other at this place, and that either the editor of the printer of [F1], finding the passage illegible, had recourse to a conjecture in order to fill up the gap. The words loud a winde interfere indeed so strongly with the poet’s strain of thought, that they can hardly be believed to have come from his pen. According to the folio the love of the people would convert Hamlet’s gyves to graces; then the king tries to shoot his arrows—against the gyves or against the graces?—and finds that they are too slightly timbered for so loud a wind—whence does this wind come all of a sudden? The wind, whether it blow from the gyves, the graces, or the people’s love, proves even so strong, that the arrows of the king would have reverted to his bow, instead of hitting the mark at which they were aimed. I need not dwell on the physcical impossibility of such an occurrence; not even the strongest wind drives an arrow back to the archer, but merely averts it from its direction, and this is what Ascham says in his Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 150 seq.), so that, in my opinion, his words are far from supporting the reading of [F1]. Thus we are driven to conjectural emendation on the basis of [Q2]. Supposing the original reading to have been graves for graces and solid arms (or solid armour) for loued armes, we should then find no difficulty in explaining the poet’s meaning; graves would, of course, stand for the whole armour (as pars pro toto), and from this armour the king’s arrows would have reverted to his bow again. In order to meet an eventual objection, it may be added, that solid armour occurs in Dryden’s Palaomon and Arcite, III, 606. See Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, XVI, 247-49.”
1889 Barnett
Barnett
3030 loued] Barnett (1889, p. 57): <p. 57>“loud]] boisterous.</p.57>
1890 irv2
irv2 : v1821
3030 loued Arm’d] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Qq. here have loued arm’d, which is not too obvious and absurd a misprint to have had defenders. Steevens quotes a surely unnecessary corroboration of the Ff. reading from Ascham’s Toxophilus: ‘Weake bowes, and lyghte shaftes can not stande in a rough wynde.’ A very similar misprint occurs in [3035] below, where Ff. have the impossible reading Who was instead of Whose worth of Qq.”
1897 Rushton
Rushton
3029-31 arrowes . . . bowe againe] Rushton (1897, p. 60): “According to Ascham, weak archers, who use small and hollow shafts with bows of little pith, must, in winter and rough weather, when small boats and little pinks forsake the seas, be content to give place for a time. The rough weather which makes the saucy boat, whose weak untimber’d sides co-rivall’d greatness, flee to the harbour, or became a toast for Neptune, causes the too slightly timber’d arrows to revert to the bow again.”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ v1877 w/o attribution
3030 loued Arm’d] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Jennens would maintain the Q misprint ‘loved arm’d,’ explaining it ‘one so loved and armed with the affections . . . of the people.’ Elze suggests ‘solid arms,’ which he connects with his reading greaves in [3029].”
1909 subb
subb ≈ v1877 (jen ; v1821)
3030 loued Arm’d]
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ standard
3030 slightly tymberd]
crg1 ≈ ard1 w/o attribution
3030 loued] Craig (ed. 1951): “loud]] strong. For loud a wind Jennens would retain the Q2 reading loued Arm’d, explaining, ‘one so loved and armed with the affections of the people’; for so loud a wind Elze suggests solid arms to agree with his reading grieves (for gyes) in former virtues.”
1934a cam3
cam3 : standard
3030 Too . . . Arm’d]
cam3
3030 tymberd] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “made of wood too light.”
1934b rid1
rid1 : standard
3030 tymberd] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):
1947 cln2
cln2cam3 (without attribution)
3030 tymberd]
1951 crg2
crg2 = crg1
3030 slightly tymberd]
crg2 = crg1
3030 loued]
1956 Sisson
Sisson
3030 loued Arm’d] Sisson (1956, 2:225): <p. 225>“Folio reads so loud a Winde, and editors rightly follow. Without guidance from Folio, the emendation might well have been reached on graphic grounds.”
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ standard
3030 Too slightly tymberd]
pen2
3030 loued] Spencer (ed. 1980): “loud]] (suggesting popular clamour on Hamlet’s behalf).”
1982 ard2
ard2 ≈ standard
3030 Too slightly tymberd]
ard2 ≈ standard
3030 loued] loud a Winde
1984 chal
chal : standard
3030 loued] loud a Winde
1985 cam4
cam4 ≈ standard
3030 Too slightly tymberd]
1987 oxf4
oxf4
3030 loued Arm’d] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “loud a Winde]]so strong a gale ((of public opinion)).”
oxf4 : standard
3030 Too slightly tymberd]
1988 bev2
bev2 ≈ standard
3030 Too slightly tymberd]
bev2 ≈ standard
3030 loued] loud a Winde
1993 dent
dentstandard +
3030 Too slightly tymberd]
3030