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Line 3158 - 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 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand

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

3158 Quee. There is a Willow growes {ascaunt the} <aslant a> Brooke

1752 Dodd

Dodd

3158 There is a Willow . . .] Dodd (1752, pp. 254-5): <p. 254> “The character ofthe [sic] jailor’s daughter is as beautiful, and every way comparable to this of Ophelia : it may be no disagreeable entertainment to any reader to compare them together: I shall only subjoin the following accent given of her by her wooer:As I late was angling In the great lake, that lies behind the palace,From the fair shore thick set with reeds and sedges,As patiently I was attending sport,I heard a voice, a shrill one: and attentiveI gave my ear, when I might well perceive ‘Twas one that sung, and by the smallness of it A boy or woman. I then left my angleTo his own skill, came near, but yet perceiv’d not,Who made the sound: the rushes and the reeds Had so encompast it: I laid me downAnd listen’d to the words she sung, for then Thro’ a small glade cut by the fisherman I saw it was your daughter. She sung much, but no sense: only I heard her Repeat this often; Palamon is gone, Is gone to th’ wood to gather mulberries, I’ll find him out to-morrow. His shackles will betray him, he’ll be taken, And what shall I do then? I’ll bring a beavy A hundred black-ey’d maids, that love as I do, With chaplets on their heds, with daffadillies,With cherry lips, and cheeks of damask roses, And we’ll all dance an antick ‘fore the duke, And beg his pardon: then she talk’d of you, sir,That you must lose your head to-morrow morning, And she must gather flowers to buy you, And see the house made handsome: then she sung Nothing but willow, willow, willow, and between Ever was palamon , fair Palamon , And Palamon was a tall young man. The place Was knee-deep where she sate: her careless tresses A wreath of bull-rush rounded: about her stuck Thousand fresh-water flowers of several colours: That methought she appear’d like the fair nymph That feeds the lake with waters: or as Iris </p. 254> <p. 255> Newly dropt down from heaven: rings she made Of rushes that grew by, and to’em spoke The prettiest posies: ‘Thus our true love’s ty’d: This you may loose, not me: ‘ and many a one; And then she wept, and sung again, and sigh’d: And with the same breath smil’d, and kist her hand. I made to her: She saw me and straight sought the flood: I sav’d her And set her safe to land: when presently She slipt away, and to the city made With such a cry, and swiftness, that, believe me, She left me far behind her: three or four I saw from far off cross her: one of them I knew to be your brother, where she staid, &c. Act 4.

Mr. Seward very justly observes upon this passage, the Aurora of Guido has not more strokes of the same hand which drew his Bacchus and Ariadne , than the sweet description of this pretty maiden’s love-distraction has to the like distraction of Ophelia , in Hamlet : that of Ophelia , ending in her death, is like the Ariadne , more moving; but the images here, like those in Aurora , are more numerous and equally exquisite in grace and beauty. May we not then pronounce, that either this is Shakespear’s , or that Fletcher has here equall’d him in his very best manner? Mr. Warburton peremptorily assures us, ‘the first act only of the Two Noble Kinsmen , was wrote by Shakespear , but in his worst manner.” </p. 255>

1755 John

John

3158 ascaunt] Johnson (1755, aslant): “aslant]] adv. [from a and slant.] Obliquely; on one side; not perpendicularly.

“‘There is a willow gros aslant . . . stream. Hamlet

“‘He fell; the shaft Drove through his neck aslant; he spurns the ground, and the soul issues through the weazon’s wound.’ Dryden

“‘Aslant the dew-bright earth, and clour’d air, He loks in boundless majesty abroad.’ Thomson’s Summer.”

1770 Gentleman

Gentleman

3158-75 Quee. There . . . death] Gentleman (1770, I : 27): <p. 27> “There is a degree of detestation mingled with contempt, and that disagreeable feeling both these characters raise; the Queen’s account of Ophelia’s mournful end is justly admired; and tho’ the lady while in her senses, said very little to affect us, yet here the poet teaches us to feel for the event which has deprived her of life.” </p. 27>

1774 capn

capn

3158 ascaunt the Brooke] Capell (1774, 1:1: 145):“In this natural and affecting description of Ophelia’s misfortune, the folio’s, and the editions succeeding, give us three lines (the third, the fifth, and the ninth) all beginning with “There ;” a fault of no little size in good writing, which Shakespeare could not fall into. But this is not all: By reading “ come,” in l. 5, instead of “ make ,” (as they all do) we lose the cause that brought Ophelia down to this “willow :” for she did not come with ready-made garlands, only to hang them there; but to make garlands of the flowers she had gather’d, by stringing them upon boughs of that willow, pluck’d and broken off for that purpose: and when her garlands were finish’d, a thought takes her to make the tree fine with them, and this produces the accident. ≈ “ incapable” (l. 15.) is the negative of that “ capable “ which occurs at 85, 13, and is explained in the “Glossary .”

1774 capn

3158 ascaunt] Capell (1779-83 [1774]:1:1: Glossary):” (Shr. a.s.l.[0000] askew, awry: also—aslope, sloping over.”

1778 v1778

v1778

3158 ascaunt] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Thus the quartos. The folio reads, aslant. Ascaunce is interpreted in the Glossary to Chaucer—askew, aside, sideways. STEEVENS”

1784 ays1

ays1 ≈ v1778 (only “aside, sideways”)

3158 ascaunt]

1785 v1785

v1785=v1778

3158 ascaunt]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

3158 ascaunt]

1790 mal

mal=v1785

3158 ascaunt]

1791- rann

rann

3158 ascaunt] Rann (ed. 1791): “aslant , sideways”

[from STEEVENS?]

1793 v1793

v1793:mal (modified with reference to Tyrwhitt)

3158 ascaunt] Steevens (ed. 1793) : “Ascaunce is interpreted in a note of Mr. Tyrwhitt’s on Chaucer— askew, aside, sideways . STEEVENS”

1803 v1803

v1803=v1793

3158 ascaunt]

1805 Seymour

Seymour

3158 There is a Willow . . .] Seymour (1805, 2:197-8) : <p. 197>“As the queen seems to give this description </p. 197> <p. 198> from ocular knowledge, it may be asked, why, apprised as she was, of Ophelia’s distraction, she did not take steps to prevent the fatal catastrophe of this amiable young woman, especially when there was so fair an opportunity of saving her while she was, by her cloaths, borne ‘mermaid-like-up,’ and the queen was at leisure to hear her ‘chaunting old tunes.’” </p. 198>

1813 v1813

v1813=v1803

3158 ascaunt]

1815 Becket

Becket

3158 ascaunt] Becket (1815, p. 67): <p. 67> “‘Ascaunt the brook.’ ‘Aslant’ i.e. by the side of: standing by is the right reading. Why should the willlow be described as growing askew , which ascaunt undoubtedly means? B” </p. 67>

1818-19 mCLR2

mCLR2

3158-84 Coleridge (ms. notes 1819 in Ayscough, ed. 1807; rpt. Coleridge, 1998, 12.4:858): <p. 858>“And that Laertes might be excused in some degree for not cooling the Act concluding with the affecting Death of Ophelia—who does not seem like a little projection of Land into a Lake or Stream, covered with spring-flowers lay quietly reflected in the great waters but at length undermined and loosened becomes a floating Faery Isle, and after a brief vagrancy sinks almost without an eddy.”</p. 858>

1821 v1821

v1821=v1813

3158 ascaunt]

1822 Nares

Nares : standard

3158 ascaunt] Nares (1822; 1905): “prep. Across. This use is not noticed in the dictionaries. ‘There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook That shews his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.’ Ham 4.7. ? (0000)

“I have observed no other instance of it.”

1824 Farren

Farren

3158 There is a Willow . . .] Farren (1824, pp. 191-2): <p. 191>“If any thing could heighten our admiration of the Immortal Bard, after a careful examination of the life of the unfortunate Ophelia, it would be the exquisite contrivance of her death: [cites 3156-75]</p. 191> <p. 192>

“There is something so exquisitely affecting in this draught of sorrow, that it is impossible not to drain the cup to the very dregs. [cites 3178-81]” </p. 192>

1826 sing1

sing1:standard

3158 ascaunt] Singer (ed. 1826): “Ascaunce is the same as askew , sideways, overthwart; à trauers , Fr.”

1829 Farren2

Farren2 = Farren

3158 There is a Willow . . .]

1848 Strachey

Strachey ≈ mCLR2 without attribution [actually, Strachey seems to take Coleridge from L.R., where this passage follows L.R. verbatim]

3158 There is a Willow . . .] Strachey (1848, p. 87): <p. 87>That Laertes might be excused in some degree for not cooling, the Act concludes with the affecting death of Ophelia,—who in the beginning lay like a little projection of land into a lake or stream, covered with spray-flowers quietly reflected in the quiet waters, but at length is undermined or loosened, and becomes a faery isle, and after a brief vagrancy sinks almost without an eddy! [cites 3158-75].” </p. 87>

1854 del2

del2

3158 ascaunt] Delius (ed. 1854): “aslant a brook]] So die Fol., die Qs. ascaunt the brook. Der Sinn ist derselbe” [“The sense is the same [between Q2 and F1]”]

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1

3158-60 There . . . make] Hudson (ed. 1856): “This exquisite passage is deservedly celebrated. Nothing could better illustrate the Poet’s power to make the description of a thing better than the thing itself, by giving us his eyes to see it with.”

1856 sing2

sing2: deletes SING1 and gives VN only

3158-60

1856 SINGER (1856 ed., p. 293) alters its 1826 note: <p. 293>“The quartos have ascaunt ; and two lines lower, ‘Therewith fantastick garlands did she make .’”</p. 344>

1857 elze1

elze1

3158 ascaunt] Elze (ed. 1857): "QB folgg. Fs: aslant a brook. QA: Sitting upon a willow by a brook. Man könnte, um beiden Lesarten gerecht zu werden, lesen: ascaunt a brook." ["Q2ff. F. ’aslant a brook.’ Q1: ’Sitting upon a willow by a brook.’ One could read, for both readings to be right, ’ascaunt a brook.’"]

This, of course, is what ELZE does in ELZE2

1858 col3

1858 COLLIER (1858 ed., p. 584) reports the 1603 Q reading. He also reports the Folio reading. He also reports the reading of “ did she come” from the folio.

1864 ktly

ktly : standard

3158 ascaunt] Keightley (ed. 1864 [1866]: Glossary): “aside, sideways.”

1864 c&mc

c&mc ≈ standard

3158 ascaunt] Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary)

1869 tsch

tsch

3158 ascaunt] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Der Unterschied zwischen aslant und ascaunt ist der Bedeutung nach unwesentlich; ersteres vonslant, oblique, letzteres von an. â skâ, oblique. S. Koch II. 386.” [“The difference between aslant and ascaunt is an unimportant distinction afterwards:; the first from slant, oblique, the latter from â skâ, oblique. S. Koch II. 386.”]

3158 Brooke] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “the brook ist wohl besser, weil ein bekannter Bach in der Umgebung gemeitn sein muss.” [“the brook is still better, because a well-known stream must be meant in the area.”]

1872 del4

del4 ≈ del2

3158 ascaunt] Delius (ed. 1872): “aslant a brook]] So die Fol., die Qs. ascaunt the brook. Der Sinn ist derselbe” [“The sense is the same [between Q2 and F1]”]

1872 cln1

cln1

3158ff Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “This speech of the Queen is certainly unworthy of its author and of the occasion. The enumeration of plants is quite as unsuitable to the occasion as the description of the Dover cliff in [Lr. 4.6.11-24 (0000)]. Besides there was no one by to witness the death of Ophelia, else she would have been rescued.”

3158 ascaunt the Brooke] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “aslant a Brooke]] For ‘aslant a brook’ which the folios have, the quartos read ‘ascaunt the brook.’ The indefinite article is more appropriate.”

1874 Malleson & Keeley

Malleson & Keeley

3158-75] Furnivall (in Malleson & Keeley, 1874, pp. 495): <p. 495> “As Mason notic’t with regard to Ophelia’s death, ‘there is not a single circumstance in the relation [by the Queen] of Ophelia’s death, that induces us to think she had drowned herself intentionally.’ )Variorum, vii. 460); on the contrary, we are expressly told that the branch (sliver) broke, and she fell in. Yet directly afterwards (V.i.) we are told that she sought her death ‘wilfully’, ‘did with desperate hand fordo [her] own life’; the priest declares her death was doubtful, buries her with maimed rites only by the express command of the King, and says that, but for this command, she’d have been buried in ground unsanctified (in ‘the open fieldes’, Q1).” </p. 495>

1877 v1877

v1877 : Campbell (Blackwood’s Mag.)

3158 Quee. There . . . Brooke] Campbell (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “The Queen was affected after a fashion by the picturesque mode of Ophelia’s death, and takes more pleasure in describing it than any would who really had a heart. Gertrude was a gossip,—and she is gross even in her grief.”

This is found in Blackwood’s for March, 1833.

v1877= Hunter (see n. 3160)

3158 Quee. There . . . Brooke]

v1877 : ≈ col3 ; Beisley

3158 ascaunt] Beisley (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “This willow, the Salix alba, grows on the banks of most of our small streams, particularly the Avon, near Stratford, and from the looseness of the soil the trees partly lose their hold, and bend ‘aslant’ over the stream.”

1877 neil

neil ≈ Beisley (via v1877)

3158 Quee. There . . . Brooke] Neil (ed. 1877, Notes): “This willow, the Salix alba, grows plentifully on the banks of the Avon, near Stratford, and may often be seen growing aslant.”

1880 Meikeljohn

Meikeljohn

3158ff. Meikeljohn (1880, p. 180): "It is not improbable that this improbable and ’botanical’ speech of the Queen was inserted for the mechanical exigences of the stage—to give the scene-shifters time to prepare the last important scene."

1882 elze2

elze2

3158 ascaunt the Brooke] Elze (ed. 1882): “The agreement of [Q1] and [F1] decides in favour of the indefinite article [a].. See Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, XVI, 238.”

1885 macd

macd

3158-75 Quee. There . . . death] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “How could the queen know all this, when there was no one near enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of her death given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl’s suicide, and by circumstance beguile the sorrow-rage of Laertes?”

3158 Willow] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—the choice of Ophelia’s fantastic madness, as being the tree of lamenting lovers.”

1890 irv2

irv 2: v1877 ; v1821

3158-75 Quee. There . . . death] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Compare with this description the description in [TNK 4.1.52-103 (0000)], of the attempted suicide of the Jailor’s Daughter. It seems curious that the Queen should be so well acquainted with all the minute particulars of the affair. Seymour (vol. ii. p. 197, apud Furness) reasonably asks why, as the Queen seems to give this description from personal observation, ‘she did not take steps to avert the fatal catastrophe of this amiable young woman, especially as there was so fair an opportunity of saving her while she was, by her cloaths, borne ‘mermaid-like-up,’ and the queen was at leisure to hear her ‘chaunting old tunes.’ Monck Mason [see n. 3170-1] also notes that ‘there is not a single circumstance in this relation of poor Ophelia’s death that induces us to think she had drowned herself intentionally;’ to which, however, Malone plausibly enough replies [see n. 3175], ‘that the account here given, is that of a friend; and that the queen could not possibly know what passed in the mind of Ophelia, when she placed herself in so perilous a situation. After the facts had been weighed and considered, the priest in the next act pronounces, that her death was doubtful.

“The Qq, in this line, print ascaunt the brook, and they have been followed by some editors, who take ascaunt to be the same as Chaucer’s ascaunce.”

Symons wrongly suggests that Seymour’s quote is found in Furness; did he use the original? or did Furness insert it somewhere else in his edition?

1896 White

White

3158 ascaunt] White (1896, p. 319): <p. 319>“Ascaunt (if it be retained in preference to the better reading, aslant) in the passage,’There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook,’ does not mean ‘across.’ Indeed, that is just what it does not mean. It means ‘obliquely,’ ‘leaning to one side.’ Such willows by such brooks lean over them, and never at right angles with the stream, but always inclined more or less up or down,—aslant.” </p. 319>

1899 ard1

ard1

3158 Willow] Dowden (ed. 1899): “significant of forsaken love.”

1926 Bradby

Bradby

3158-75 Bradby (1926, p. 33): <p. 33> “Shakespeare was before all things a poet. Probably it was as difficult for him not to write poetry as it is for most of us to do so. And in his plays we sometimes see the poet getting the better of the dramatist. That is to say, some of his characters, who are meant to be of quite common clay, will suddenly break out into the language of great poets. [. . . ] [I]n Hamlet, the beautiful description of Ophelia’s death is put, not very appropriately, into the mouth of the Queen.” </p. 33>

1931 crg1

crg1 ≈ Ard1 w/o attribution

3158 Willow]

1934 Wilson

Wilson

3158 ascaunt] Wilson (1934, 2:272): Wilson feels that Q2 offers the more “attractive reading” than F1. Wilson observes that CAP and v1821 follow Q2 and GLO, CAM1 and ‘most mod.” follow F1

3158 ascaunt] Wilson (1934, 2:278) <p. 278> Wilson provides a table of Q2 and F1 words to indicate that Q2 often has the more poetic form:

iump : iust

deuise : aduise

topt : past

prefard : prepar’d

ascaunt :aslant

cronet : Coronet

laudes : tunes

clawed : caught

Crants : Rites

Wilson’s conclusion is: “A study of these variants is a lesson at once in Shakespearian diction and in the kind of degradation his verse suffered at the hands of those responsible for the F1 text, for what the context loses in every instance is poetic value rather than meaning.”

1934 rid1

rid1 : standard

3158 ascaunt] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):

1934 cam3

cam3

3158-75 Wilson (ed. 1934): “C.C. Stopes and E.I. Fripp conjecture that Sh. may have drawn upon memories of the drowning of ‘Katherine Hamlett spinster,’ in the Avon on Dec. 17, 1579/80 (cf. Fripp, Minutes of the Corp. of Stratford, iii. 50), but the time of year makes it impossible for ‘the setting’ to have been drawn upon also, as Chambers (Will. Shak. I. 425) seems to suggest. Cf. also Harrison, Sh. at Work, pp. 272-73.”

Cam3 : OED

3158 ascaunt] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary, askant): “sidewise ((N.E.D. quotes this passage as the only instance of the word as a prep.)).”

1939 kit2

kit2

3158-75 Quee. There . . . death] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “The Queen’s speech is lyrical rather than dramatic. It is Shakespeare the poet that speaks rather than Shakespeare the dramatist. But it is a masterpiece of its kind and any dramatic loss is our gain.”

kit2

3158 ascaunt] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “aslant]] So the Folio. The Quarto reading, ascaunt, means the same thing.”

Kit2 ≈ standard

158 ascaunt] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):

1937 pen1a

pen1a : standard + Bestrafte Brudermord (see note above)

3158ff

1951 crg2

crg2=crg1

3158 Willow]

1954 sis

sis ≈ standard

3158 ascaunt] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary)

1956 Sisson

Sisson

3158 ascaunt] Sisson (1956, 2:226): <p. 226>“Folio reads aslant, followed by most editors, including Alexander. But askant gives equally good, indeed the same, sense, and is read by New Cambridge. The same pattern of writing could well produce either reading.”

1957 pel1

pel1 : standard

3158 ascaunt]

1970 pel2

pel2=pel1

3158 ascaunt]

1974 evns1

Evns1 ≈ standard

3158 ascaunt]

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ standard

3158 Willow]

3158 ascaunt]

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ standard +

3158 ascaunt] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “A variation of askance, familiar as an adverb but not otherwise recorded as a preposition.”

ard2 : contra cam3 +

3158-75 Quee. There . . . death] Jenkins (ed. 1982, Longer Notes, 544-5): <p. 544> “There may be more than coincidence here, and although Dover Wilson robustly observes that a December drowning could hardly have supplied Shakespeare with his setting, an imagination familar with the Avon scene could well have transposed the incident, in recalling it years later, to a less austere season. Yet the imagination could not need such prompting: the primary source of the willow and hence of the mode of Ophelia’s death is emblematic. By tradition the willow is ‘a sad tree, whereof such who have lost their love make their mourning garlands’ ((Fuller, Worthies, 1662,p. 144)), which they then wear or hang up like a trophy ((ll. 171-2). And the tradition is one to which Shakespeare’s mind readily responded: he had </p. 544> <p. 545> Dido ‘with a willow in her hand’ (MV 5.1.10 (0000)], he had shown Benedick mockingly inviting Claudio ‘to a a willow tree . . . to make him a garland, as being forsaken’[Ado 2.1.166-70 (0000), 193-4 (0000)]; and in the pathos of the willow Ophelia’s end anticipates the death of Desdemonda [Oth. 4.3.27-55 (0000)].

“Yet symbolism felicitously combines with realism. The common ‘white’ willow ((salix alba)), when precariously rooted in a riverbank, often leans across the stream [3158]; and its leaves are hoary ((silver-grey)) on the underside, which it shows when reflected in the water. The flowers used for the garlands, though two of them have posed problems of identification, would seem to be natural to English water-meadows as well as emblematically apt.” </p. 545>

ard2 : Kit2 ; N&Q (#226) ; SQ (vol. 15) ; Jenkins’s Hamlet and Ophelia

3158-75 Quee. There . . . death] Jenkins (ed. 1982, Longer Notes, 546): <p. 546> It is a very limited notion of drama which regards as ‘lyrical rather than dramatic’ ((Kittredge)), and even awkwardly ‘fulsome’ ((N&Q, ccxxvi, 134)), a speech designed in all its details to provide the Ophelia we have seen with her most appropriate end. And though the Queen does not speak in character, it is an essentially dramatic conception which makes her, who has in large part caused Hamlet’s revulsion from love and marriage, the messenger of Ophelia’s lovelorn death from love and marriage, the messenger of Ophelia’s lovelorn death (cf. HO[[Jenkins’s Hamlet and Ophelia, p. 148))]. Her account of it, reaching chorus-like beyond the dialogue, the play expects us to accept. So with the breaking of the branch [3165] the dramatist refutes in advance the suspicions of suicide which will nevertheless be allowed to determine the manner of Ophelia’s funeral ((5.1.1-29, 211-31 (0000))). In the circumstances of her death divergence of opinion among the folk of Elsinore is natural enough and must not be misconstrued as Shakespearean inconsistency ((cf. [5.1.2n])). Her failure to struggle against her fate may lend colour to the ‘doubtful’ verdict, but it is also given its exculpatory reason ((l. 177)). Her hymns of praise ((and hence the Q2 reading lauds,[3160])) have often been objected to as incompatible with her earlier love-songs; but the critics have not perhaps sufficiently appreciated that what both have in common is their very incongruity. Ophelia’s uninhibited songs in the royal presence, her lauds while sinking to a watery death show a complete unawareness of her physical surroundings in which the crazed mind is only too consistent. In each may be heard a voice from those deepest levels of the emotional being which sanity keeps secret. What can be incompatible between Ophelia’s regard for Hamlet and for heaven? She appealed to heaven in her love’s beginning ((I.iii.114)) and also in its crisis ((III.i.135, 143), and her mad songs are significantly interspersed with pious thoughts ((IV.v.42-4, 68-71, 179-80, 197)). It is in more than one way that her departure from the stage prepares for the account of her death. Shakespeare’s conception of Ophelia is profounder than that of his critics; and the present speech, neither a digression nor an afterthought ((as SQ, xv, 345-8)), is its supremely imaginative culmination.”</p. 546>

1984 chal

chal :

3158 ascaunt] Wilkes (ed. 1984): "lit. obliquely, so ’leaning over.’"

1987 oxf4

oxf4 : OED ; Sternfeld Music in Shakespearean Tragedy (1963)

3158 Willow] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “The tree is an appropriate one, since the willow was the emblem of mourning and of forsaken love; see OED willow sb. 1d and 6d for numerous examples, and Sternfeld’s discussion ((pp. 23-52)) of ‘The Willow Song’ in [Oth. 4.3.25-55].”

oxf4 :OED

3158 ascaunt] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “aslant]] slanting across ((as willows so often do)). Whereas aslant, the reading of F, is a well authenticated word, OED can cite no other instance of askant ((Q2)), a variant of askance ((adv.)), being used as a preposition.”

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

3158 ascaunt]

1992 fol2

fol2≈ standard

3158 ascaunt]

1993 dent

dent ≈ standard

3158 ascaunt]

1998 OED

OED

3158 ascaunt] OED (aslant): aslant A. adv. 1. On the slant, in a slanting or sloping direction, obliquely.

B. prep. Across in a slanting direction, athwart.

1602 SHAKS. Ham. IV. vii. 167 There is a Willow growes aslant a Brooke. [etc.]