1350-1 Elze (ed. 1882): “This celebrated passage has been imitated in Marston’s Malcontent (1604), I, 5 (Works, ed. Halliwell, II, 217): In body how delicate, in soule how wittie, in discourse how pregnant, in life how warie, in favours how juditious, in day how sociable, and in night, how! — O pleasure unutterable! Dr Ingleby, however, has not admitted this allusion into his Centurie of Prayse.”
1899 ard1
ard1
1350 man] DOWDEN (ed. 1899): “Dyce (ed. 2) thinks ‘a’ in Qq. 2-5 was shuffled out of its place before piece, and that Ff, instead of transposing ‘a,’ added another before piece.”
1934a cam3
cam3
1350-55 Wilson (ed. 1934): “Such is the pointing of Q2. Cf. that of the F1 text, accepted by all edd., substituting notes of exclamation for the orig. queries, the two being alternatives in old printing: What a piece of worke is a man! how noble in Reason! how infinite in faculty! in forme and mouing how expresse and admirable! in Action, how like an Angel! in apprehension, how like a God! the beauty of the world, the Parragon of Animals; This rhetorical, the declamtion of a player; Q2 without an exclamation of any kind, gives us the brooding Ham. The sense too is different, to the bewilederment of some critics. But the absolute ‘how like a god’ makes a fine climax, esp. as followed at once by ‘this quint--essence of dust’; ‘how like an angel in apprehension’ recalls ‘with wings as swift | As meditation of the thoughts of love’ [(714-6)]; while ‘how infinite in faculties, in form and moving’ may be paraphrased ‘how infinitely varied in his bodily powers: in sight, hearing and other qualities of sense (cf. ‘the very faculties of eyes and ears’ [(1606)]; in facial expression and gesture (cf. ‘his whole function suiting | With forms to hes cocnceit ‘ [(1596-7)]); and in the motion and activity of his body.’ The traditional (F1) rendering, on the other hand, involves two grave difficulties: (I) to a thinking Eliz. angels were discarnate spirits whose onlly form of action was ‘apprehension’ (cf. Aquinas, Summa, I. 50-8). To make Ham. compare human action to that of an angel is, therefore, to make him talk nonsense. (ii) The epithet ‘express’ goes so awkwardky with ‘form and moving’ that N.E.D. has had to devise a nonce--use, i.e. ‘well framed’ or ‘modelled’ to wxplain it; whireas its ordinary meaning, i.e. ‘direct and purposive’ is exactly suited to ‘action.’ MSH. pp.210-14.”
Clough, B. W.
Main Title: How like a god / Brenda W. Clough.
Published/Created: New York : TOR, 1997.
Description: 287 p. ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 0312862636
Stout, Rex, 1886-1975.
Main Title: How like a god.
Published/Created: New York, The Vanguard Press, 1929.
Thomson, Stewart, 1910-
Main Title: How like a god.
Published/Created: London, M. Joseph [1955]
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Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music 1989; 272 p.; illus., facs., music, bibliog., index, charts, diagr., transcr. ISBN: 0-931902-63-0.
Publication Type:
book, monograph, or pamphlet; bm
Major Topic:
Performance practice and notation - Notation and paleography
Abstract:
Part 1 discusses the letter notations found in medieval theoretical writings, tonaries, and practical sources including the repertoire and notational features of the a-p, A-G, and a-q systems, and pitch-letters. Part 2 catalogues 57 MSS containing about 300 items recorded by alphabetic notation. The description of each codex includes the date, number of folios, size, provenance, summary of contents, title of pieces, type of letter notation, genre, and a brief bibliography. The a-p system, the most widely used letter notation, appears in MSS from Norman monasteries reformed by Guillaume de Volpiano early in the 12th c., while the A-G/a-q system is found in only a few sources outside of music theory treatises. (author)