Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-22
SHAKESPEARE AND SHORTHAND.
How the Text May Have Been Bun
gled and Guessed At.


From the Chicago Times Herald
What Shakespeare suffered at the hands
of shorthand writer's formed the subject of
much erudite discussion among the earliest
of his critics. Indeed. it was a common
complaint of the dramatists of the six
teenth century that the stenographers, who
were regular attendants at the play houses,
woefully misrepresented their productions
They were unable to take down verbatim
the winged words Of the authors, and filled
In the gaps In their notes with phrases Of
their own. Those substitutions failed to
please the authors, because the scribe
often made solemn passages ludicrous and
not infreauently turned carefully planned
mirth into sad-eyed melancholy. Many
scholars hold that we are indebted" to
shorthand for the earliest known edition
of Hamlet. Up to 1925 the quarto of 1904
was supposed to be the earliest text of
Hamlet in existence. In that year there
was found in the Duke Of Deyonshire's
library a single edition dated 1903 This
differed materially from the quarto of 1904
sc me OF the quidnuncs believed that 1t con-
tanned the crude and undigested thoughts
OF Shakespeare, which he afterward work.
ed over and elaborated: but the majority.
after careful comparison of the two edi-
was the work of some piratieal stenog-
rapher. Collier gave 1t as his opinion that
where the mechanical skill of the short
hand writer failed he filled in the blanks
from memory. Dyce said: 1.-THE quarto Of
16)S exhibits a text most strangely man
gied and corrupted throughout, and was
manifestly formed on the notes of some
shorthand writer who had imperfectly
taken 1t down during representation Of
the play"
Some of the scenes were transposed and
others omitted; the names of characters
were not the same, and there was a wide
variance certain nd
Inc lines ended abruptly and little regard
was paid to the rhythm. The compiler OF
the 1903 edition got the sense Of most OF
the noted passages. but he played havoc
made many Of the thoughts hazy If not
obscure. Here is the way he rendered the
famous soliloquy:
To be or not to be; ay. there's the point:
To die, to sleep: Is that all? Ay, an.
IN that Of death Whe1 w 1ee swats goes
And And borne before an everlasting Judge.
From whence no passenger ever return'd,
The undiscovered country. at whose sight
The happy smile, and the aecurs'd damned,
WI bes1 s s tine hope Of this =,
scoqn'd BY the right rich. the rich curs'd Of the
The widow being oppressed the orphan wroue.d.
The taste OF hunger. or q tyrant's reign
And thousand more calamities besides;
To grunt and sweat under this weary life,
When that he may his fun quietus make
With bare bodkin. Who would thus endure
AFTER 0eathl
Which puzzles the brain, and doth eonfound the
sense.
Which make us rather bear those evils we have.
Than fly to others that know not Of
Ay that o. this conscience makes towards Of US
Lady. in thy prisons be all my sins remembered.
Here. of course. We have the framework
OF that wonderful speech. The leading
ideas are there, but the lines are abrupt
and halting, the expression is mechanical,
and the poetry takes no aerial fight, but
hugs the common earth with prosaic ten
acity. 1t does not require knowledge of
Brights stenOgraphy to render a verdict
in this instance Any modern shorthand
writer can detect where the pirate fell
down" and patched up his notes from
memory; and where he left out whole lines
because Of his inability to decipher char
acters that obstinately refused to be trans
lated in common-sense English. But the
difficulties to contend against than the
photographer Of today. Bright's system
was conspicuous by its lack of system. 1t
had no alphabet. The doctor merely in
prepared a table of words with characters
annexed, which the student was ito get by
heart" For the sun he used small circle
with dot in the center, similar to the
mark which newspaper copy readers use
for a period. The moon was a semicircle,
and heart was a sign in the shape OF
that organ. which It would take almost as
eng to draw as to write the word itself
Then he had signs for synonyms and ap-
palliative words. Under the heading book
he placed almanac, commentary, dialogue,
treatise, volume, pamphlet" distin-
gushing mark was to be added to the gen.
eric symbol SO as to denote which Of the
words was meant. The writer was to omit
superfuous words when he was unable to
write as fast as the speaker talked. John
Willis, the inventor of another shorthand
system in Shakespeare's time, said of DIR.
Brights stenography: at requires such
understanding and memory that few Of the
ordinary sort of people could attain to the
knowledge thereof"