SC. II.]
PRINCE OF DENMARK
85
the first row of the pious chanson[a 1][b 1] will show
you more; for look where my abridgement[b 2] 445
comes.[a 2]
Enter four or five Players.
You are[a 3] welcome, masters; welcome, all. I
am glad to see thee[a 4] well: welcome, good friends.
—O, my[a 5] old friend! Why, thy[a 6] face is
valanced[a 7][b 3] since I saw thee last; comest thou 450
to beard me in Denmark?—What, my young
lady and mistress! By 'r lady,[a 8] your ladyship[a 9]
is nearer to heaven[a 10] than when I saw you last,
by the altitude of a chopine.[b 4] Pray God, your
voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not 455
cracked within the ring.[b 5]—Masters, you are all
- ↑ 444. pious chanson] Qq 2-5; Pons Chanson F; Pans Chanson Ff 2–4, Q 6; godly Ballet Q 1.
- ↑ 445, 446. abridgement comes] Q 1, Q; abridgements come F.
- ↑ 447. You are] Q, Y'are F.
- ↑ 448. thee] Q, F; ye Dyce (ed. 2).
- ↑ 449. my] F, omitted Q.
- ↑ 449. Why, thy] Q, Thy F.
- ↑ 450. valanced] Q, valiant F.
- ↑ 452. By 'r lady] F, Q 1; by lady Qq 2–4; my Lady Qq 5, 6.
- ↑ 452. ladyship] Lordship Ff 3, 4.
- ↑ 453. to heaven] Q, heaven F.
- ↑ 444. pious chanson] The "godly Ballet" of Q 1 confirms the reading of Q. Attempts have been made by reference to the French "Chanson du Pont Neuf" to justify the Folio misprint. The ballad is "pious" as having a scriptural subject. "Row" perhaps means stanza, or perhaps column of a broadside ballad.
- ↑ 445. abridgement] See Midsummer Night's Dream, V. i. 39, where abridgement means an entertainment, which shortens the time. Here it has both this meaning and that of cutting short the talk.
- ↑ 450. valanced] fringed (with a beard).
- ↑ 454. chopine] Italian ciopinno, Minsheu defines Spanish chapin "a high cork shoe. Coryat in Crudities, 1611, describes the Venetian "chapineys" as worn by ladies under the shoes, sometimes half a yard high. The boy who plays the lady has grown since Hamlet saw him last.
- ↑ 456. cracked within the ring] coins cracked within the circle which surrounded the sovereign's head were unfit for currency. Usurers, Lodge tells us in Wits Miserie, 1596, bought up "crackt angels" at nine shillings a piece. Is there a play on "ring"—a voice that rings clear and true? In Beaumont's Remedy of Love (xi. 477, Dyce) we find the same expression: "If her voice be bad, crack'd in the ring."
