Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 127 Ile crosse it though it blast mee: stay illusion, {It spreads} | 1.1.127 |
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| 128 If thou hast any sound or vse of voyce, {his armes.} | 1.1.128 |
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1597 King James: Daemonologie
King James
127-36 James (1597, pp. 60-1) <p. 60> “
Philomathes. And what meanes then these kindes of spirites, when they appeare in the shaddow of a person newlie dead, or to die, to his friends?
“
Epistemon. When they appeare vpon that occasion, they are called Wraithes in our language. Amongst the
Gentiles the Deuill vsed that much, to make </p. 60> <p. 61> them beleeue that it was some good spirite that appeared to them then, ether to forewarne them of the death of their friend, or else to discouer vnto them, the will of the defunct, or what was the way of his slauchter, as is written in the booke of the histories Prodigious. And this way hee easelie deceiued the
Gentiles, because they knew not God: And to that same effect is it, that he now appeares in that maner to some ignorant Christians. For he dare not so illude anie that knoweth that, neither can the spirite of the defunct returne to his friend, or yet an Angell vse such formes.” </p. 61>
King James
127-36 James VI (1597, pp. D3-D3v [pp. 21-2]): <p. D3> According to Epistemon, the devil will give some necromancers powers so as to entrap them at some later point: he gives them “news of anie parte of the world, which the agilitie of a Spirite may easelie performe: to reueale to them the secretes of anie persons, so being they bee once spoken, for the </p. D3> <p.D3v> thought none knows but G O D; except so far as yee may ghesse by the countenance, as one who is doubtleslie learned inough in the
Physiognomie: [. . . ].”
Ed. note: Thus, for James there is no way the ghost, if he were a creature of the devil, would know that Claudius had killed the king.
1736 Stubbs
Stubbs
127-36 Stubbs (1736, p. 9) considers
Horatio’s speeches to the ghost “exceeding Natural, Aweful, and Great, and well suited to the Occasion and his own Character.”
It may be overdoing it to quote this whole segment. Opinions?
1765 john1
john1 ≈ Stubbs without attribution
127-36 Johnson (ed. 1765) admires
Horatio’s speech as “very elegant and noble, and congruous to the traditions of the causes of apparitions.”
1773 v1773
v1773 = john
127-36
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773
127-36
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
127-36
1787 ann
ann = v1785
127-36
1790 mal
mal = v1785
127-36
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
127-36
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
127-36
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
127-36
1817 Drake
Drake: Catholicism
127-36
Drake (2: 411-12): <p. 411> "The adjuration and interrogation of the ghost by
Horatio and
Hamlet, are conducted in conformity to the ceremonies of papal superstition; for it may be remarked, that in many things relative to religious observances, or to the preternatural as connected with religion, Shakspeare has shown such a marked predilection for the imposing </p.411> <p. 412> exterior, and comprehensive creed of the Roman church, as to lead some of his biographers to suppose that he was himself a Roman Catholic. This adoption, however, is to be attributed to the poetical nature of the materials which the doctrines of Rome supply, and more particularly to the food for imagination which the supposition of an intermediate state, in which the souls of the departed are still connected with, and influenced by, the conduct of man, must necessarily create.
"Such a system, it is evident, would very readily admit some of the oldest and most prevalent superstitions of the heathen world, and would give fresh credibility to the re-appearance of the dead, in order to reveal and to punish some horrible murder, to right the oppressed orphan and widow, to enjoin the sepulture of the mangled corse, to discover concealed and ill-gotten treasure, to claim the aid of prayer and intercession, to announce the fate of kingdoms, . . . . Thus
Horatio, addressing the Spectre, alludes to some of these as the probable causes of the dreadful visitation which appals him: [quotes 127-36, from
Stay, illusion to
Speak of it]." </p.412>
1819 cald1
cald1 = v1813
127-36
Ed. note: see also n. 133-4
1819 cald1
cald1
128 sound . . . voyce] Caldecott (ed. 1819) glosses, “Articulation.”
1819 mclr2
mclr2
127-33 Coleridge (1819, ms. notes in
Ayscough, ed. 1807): “
Horatio’s increased courage from having translated the late individual specter into thought & his experience and Marcellus’s & Bernardo’s sympathy with it in daring to strike—while yet the former feeling returns in ‘We do it wrong &c’”
1819 mclr2
mclr2
127-45 Ile . . .
mockery]
Coleridge (1819, rpt. 1987, 5.2:296): “
Horatio’s increased Courage from having translated the late individual Spect[r]um into Thought & past experience, and Marcellus’ & Bernardo’s Sympathy with it, in daring to strike—while yet the former feeling returns in ‘We do it wrong &c.’”
1821 v1821
v1821 = john1 +
127 crosse it] Blakeway (apud ed. 1821) asserts, “The person who crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen, became subjected to its malignant influence. Among the reasons given in a curious paper, printed in the third volume of Mr. Lodge’s Illustrations of British History, p. 48, for supposing the young earl of Derby (Ferdinando, who died in 1594) to have been bewitched, is the following: ‘On Friday there appeared a tall man who twice crossed him swiftly ; and when the earl came to the place where he saw this man, he first fell sick.’”
Ed. note: in Blakeway’s example the danger is not to the one crossing but to the person being crossed.
1826 sing1
sing1 ≈ v1821 without attribution + in magenta underlined
127 crosse it] Singer(ed. 1826): “The person who crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen, became subjected to its malignant influence. Among the reasons given in a curious paper, printed in the third volume of Mr. Lodge’s Illustrations of British History, p. 48, for supposing the death of Ferdanand, young Earl of Derby (Ferdinando, (who died young in 1594), to have been occasioned by witchcraft. bewitched, is the following: ‘On Friday there appeared a tall man who twice crossed him swiftly ; and when the earl came to the place where he saw this man, he first fell sick.’”
sing1: john1
127-33 Singer(ed. 1826): “Johnson remarks that the speech of
Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common tradition of the causes of apparitions.”
1832 cald2
cald2 ≈ cald1
128 sound . . .
voyce]
Caldecott (ed. 1832) glosses, “i.e. articulation.”
1843 col1
col1
127-8 It spreads his armes] Collier (ed. 1843): “At these words [Stay, illusion] there is a stage-direction in the edition of 1604, copied into the later quartos, which seems to show the action used by the Ghost; the words are ‘It spread his arms.’”
1854 del2
del2
127 blast mee] Delius (ed. 1854): “to blast eigentlich = versenge, wird namentlich von übernatürlichen, verderblichen Einflüssen gebraucht, denen sich der einem, Geist oder einer Hexe in der Weg Tredente aussetzt.” [Speaking of the danger of crossing the path of a spirit such as a ghost, del2 says that “to blast means literally to sear . . .]
del2
127-8 It spreads his armes]
Delius (ed. 1854): “Die Qs. haben hier die Bühnenweisung:
It (d.h. der Geist)
spreads his arms, weraus
Rowe, auf
Horatio bezüglich, machte:
Spreading his arms.” [The 4tos give the SD to the ghost while Rowe has
Horatio Spreading his arms.]
1856 hud1
hud1 ≈ v1821 (diff. in magenta; minus struck out)
127 crosse it] Hudson (ed. 1856): “It was believed that a person who crossing the path of the spot on which a spectre was seen, became subjected to its malignant influence. Among the reasons given in a curious paper, printed in the third volume of Mr. Lodge’s Illustrations of British History, p. 48, for supposing the young earl of Derby (speaking of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, who died by witchcraft in 1594) to have been bewitched, is, has the following: ‘On Friday there appeared a tall man who twice crossed him swiftly; and when the earl came to the place where he saw this man, he first fell sick.’”
hud1 = john1
127-36 Hudson (ed. 1856): “Johnson remarks that the speech of
Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common tradition of the causes of apparitions.”
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1 minus Johnson
127 crosse it]
1860 stau
stau: v1821 (Blakeway minus analogues) w/ attribution
127 crosse it]
1860 stau
stau ≈ col without attribution, improved,
127-8 It . . . armes] Staunton (ed. 1860): “Attached to these words [i.e. cross it] in the 1604 quarto, is a stage direction.—‘It spreads his arms.’”
1861 wh1
wh1: col without attribution +
127-8 It spreads his armes]
White (ed. 1861):
It “perhaps is a misprint for ‘
He spreads,’ &c.; indicating
Horatio’s action in his attempt to stay the Ghost. ‘His’ might, of course, refer to the Ghost through ‘it;’ but there seems to be no occasion for the Ghost to make such a gesture.”
1865 hal
hal = Blakeway in v1821(not as in stau)
127 crosse it]
1868 c&mc
c&mc ≈ hud1(minus all after 1st sentence) without attribution
127 crosse it]
1869 tsch
tsch
127 crosse it] Tschischwitz (apud ed. 1877): “Evil spirits were not exorcised by the sign of the cross alone, but cried out to the exorciser the Latin hexameter Signa te signa, temere me tangis et angis, a verse which being a palindrome reveals its diabolic origin.”
tsch has this note in 54, where I have also recorded it.
1872 cln1
cln1: Blakeway ≈ v1821 without attribution
127 crosse it] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “it was an ancient superstition that any one who crossed the path of a ghost was subject to its baleful influence. Blakeway, who gives this explanation, quotes from Lodge’s Illustrations of British History, iii, p. 48, the following passage referring to the Earl of Derby, who was supposed to have been bewitched: ‘On Fryday, in his chamber at Knowsley, aboute 6 of clocke at nighte, there appeared a man, talle, as hee thoughte, who twise crossed him swyfthly, and when he came to the place where hee sawe him, hee fell sycke.’”
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1
127 crosse it]
1873 rug2
rug2 ≈ Coleridge
127 crosse it]
Moberly (ed. 1873): “Coleridge characteristically remarks, that
Horatio and the others display much more courage after he has in line 114 [124+7] ‘translated the late individual spectre into a thing known to history and experience.”
1877 v1877
v1877 = wh1
127-8 It spreads his armes]
v1877 ≈ v1821 without attribution
127 crosse it]
Blakeway (
apud Furness, ed. 1877): “Whoever crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen, became subject to its malignant influence. Among the reasons given in a curious paper, printed in the third volume of Mr. Lodge’s Illustrations of British History, p. 48, for supposing the young earl of Derby (who died 1594) to have been bewitched, is the following: ‘On Friday there appeared a tall man who
twice
crossed him swiftly;
and when the earl came to the place where he saw this man, he first fell sick.’—Lodge’s
Illustrations of British History, vol. iii, p. 48.”
1878 rlf1
rlf1: Blakeway (varies from v1877)
127 crosse it]
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 (minus attribution to Blakeway)
127 crosse it]
1880 Tanger
Tanger
127-8 It spreads his armes] Tanger (1880, p. 116), as part of his claim for Q2’s authority and not F1’s, claims that F1 omits this SD and the one at 135-6 “because the text leaves their places doubtful.”
1880 meik
meik ≈ Blakeway without attribution
127 Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “It was an old belief that any who crossed the path of a ghost was ‘blasted’ by it.”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
127 crosse it]
1883 wh2
wh2
127 crosse it] White (ed. 1883): “To cross the path of a ghost or a fiend was to defy it.”
1885 macd
macd
127 blast mee] MacDonald (ed. 1883): “There are various tales of the blasting power of evil ghosts.”
macd
127 Stay illusion] MacDonald (ed. 1883): “Plain doubt, and strong.”
He means, I think,
Horatio’s doubt of the reality of the ghost?
1885 macd
macd
128 MacDonald (ed. 1883): “sounds of voice, or use of voice: physical or mental faculty of speech.”
1899 ard1
ard1: Blakeway
127 crosse it]
1901 gol
gol ≈ rowe without attribution
127-8 It . . . armes]
Gollancz (ed. 1901) sees no occasion for the Ghost to make the gesture and therefore assigns it to
Horatio.
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1 (minus attribution to Blakeway)
127 crosse it]
1909 subb
subb: standard
127 Ile crosse it] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “In allusion to the old belief that any one who crossed the path of a spectre became subject to its malicious influence.”
subb
127 blast] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “ destroy, strike with its pernicious influence.”
subb: contra wh, mcol1 +
After 127
It spreads his armes]
Subbarau (ed. 1909): “The direction really refers to the Ghost, not to
Horatio. A similar one is found in the Coll. MS at [622] [‘armed as before’, i.e., spreading his arms.”
Ed. note: Subbaru’s is a strange reading of armed as before, which he takes to mean not dressed in armor as before but holding his arms wide as before.
In Subburu’s “Few Brief Hints,” p. xiii, he explain the significance of the spreading arms: “thereby sending out, we are to suppose, a mysterious fluid which hypnotizes them in a second.”
1911 Onions
Onions
127 crosse] Onions (1911, apud http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/): “to meet, face”
1912 dtn3
dtn3: standard + in magenta underlined
127 Deighton (ed. 1912): “I will walk across its path, intercept it, even though the result should be that it blast me; an allusion to the old belief that any one crossing, or being crossed by, a spirit came under its baneful influence.”
dtn3
127 illusion]
Deighton (ed. 1912): “the sceptical
Horatio still refuses to acknowledge the reality of the apparition.”
1912 dtn3
dtn3
128 Deighton (ed. 1912): “if you are capable of making yourself heard in any way, or of using speech; not quite tautological.”
1930 Granville-Barker
Granville-Barker
127-36 Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 48) notes that
Horatio starts us off on a wrong trail; the real reason for the visitation will be a surprise.
Ed. note: G-B says that both Hor. and Bar. do this.
1931 crg1
crg1: Onions + in magenta underlined
127 crosse] Craig (ed. 1931): “meet, face; thus bringing down the evil influence on the person who crosses it.”
1934 Wilson
Wilson MSH
127-8 It spreads his armes]
Wilson (1934, p. 183) asserts his right to change
It to
He on the grounds that
It is a misprint for
He. “Connecting the direction with the words ‘I’ll cross it though it blast me,’ I follow White [v1877 n] in . . . supposing that
Horatio should stand in the path of the Ghost with arms outstretched as if to prevent it passing on. Whether this be right or wrong, the direction undoubtedly embodies an important piece of stage-business intended by Shakespeare, and editors who ignore it merely abdicate their functions.”
Ed. note: Wilson (1935, p. 76) repeats this point. But it is at least as likely that his is the regular form for third person singular possessive, since its was not yet in use and is not found anywhere in the quartos. Wilson also inserts 3 ellipses, which signal “dramatic effect” [see his “Note to Readers”] after “blast me.”
1934 cam3
cam3 ≈ Blakeway without attribution
127 Ile crosse it]
Wilson (ed. 1934): “i.e. cross its path, stop it. To cross or be crossed by a spirit or demon, which often took the form of a man or animal, was considered exceedingly dangerous; and Fernando Stanley, Earl of Derby, one-time patron of Sh.’s company, died in 1594, as many thought, because he had been thus crossed (cf.
Furness).”
cam3
127 mee:] Wilson (ed. 1934) calls for a “marked pause” after me, as Q2 suggests and Capell (ed. 1768) signs explicitly with a dash.
cam3
127 illusion] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Hor. still retains shreds of scepticism.”
Ed. note: Wilson repeats this idea in WHH, p. 70
1934 cam3
cam3
127-8 It spreads his armes.] Wilson (ed. 1934) uses the variant from Q6. “Carelessly written, ‘he’ might be taken for ‘yt,’ and the S.D, seems clearly connected with ‘I’ll cross it though it blast me,’ signifying that Hor. steps in the path of the Ghost and spreads his arms across the narrow platform (the upper-stage) so as to stop its passage.”
1937 pen1
pen1: standard gloss; King James
127- 36 stay . . .
speake]
Harrison (ed. 1937): “According to contemporary belief, the appearance of a spirit or wraith ‘in the shadow of a person newly dead’ was evil. ‘Amongst the Gentiles the Devil used that much to make them believe that it was some good spirit that appeared to them then either to forewarn them of the death of their friend, or else to discover unto them the will of the defunct, or what was the way of his slaughter . . . And this way he easily deceived the Gentiles because they knew not God: and to that same effect is it, that he now appears in that manner to some ignorant Christians, For he does not so illude any that knoweth that, neither can the spirit of the defunct return to his friend, or yet an angel use such forms.’ [
Daemonology, 1597, Book III, Chapter i.]] To reveal buried treasure was a third reason.
Horatio thus adjures the Ghost by three potent reasons, but before he can mention the fourth (and true) cause of its uneasiness, the cock crows.”
1938 parc
parc contra cam3
127-8 It spreads his armes.] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938) disagree with Wilson. The it indicates the ghost and there is no reason to change the SD “to make it correspond with a hypothetical bit of ‘business.’” He also mentions the active physicality of the ghost in Bestrafte Brudermord, which may be part of the original business.
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ cam3 on danger without attribution + in magenta underlined
127 Kittredge (ed. 1939): “
Horatio crosses the Ghost’s path so as to pass directly before its
face, calling upon it to stay.
The apparition then stands still and he adjures it to speak. The Ghost is about to obey when the cock crows.
Horatio’s courage comes out strongly here, for to cross a spirit, or to let it cross you, was even more dangerous
than to speak to it.”
kit2: Q6; rowe; ≈ cam3 without attribution
127-8 It . . .
armes.]
Kittredge (ed. 1939), who has “
spreads his arms,” says: “The Quarto of 1676 and Rowe are probably right in letting
Horatio make this gesture.”
1939 kit2
kit2: standard + analogues
128-36 Kittredge (ed. 1939): “
Horatio shows a scholar’s knowledge in his enumeration of the causes that send ghosts back to earth. He mentions (1) some good action which remains undone; (2) some disclosure for the benefit or protection of surviving friends; (3) the revelation of buried treasure. Abundant illustration of all three point occurs in European folklore.”
Ed. note: He refers to Marlowe, Jew, 2.1 (ed. Dyce, 1: 263); Dekker, Newes from Hell, 1606, ed. Grosart, II, III; Henry More, The Praeexistency of the Soul, 1647, stanzas 19-20; Glanvil’s Saducismus Triumphatus, 1681, Part II, pp. 235-42, 276-87; Brand’s Popular Antiquities, ed. Hazlitt, III, 117-19.
1947 cln2
cln2: standard; cam3; contra cam3
127 Rylands (ed. 1947): “To cross the path of a demon might cause death. Q2 gives the stage direction ‘It spreads his arms.’ Dover Wilson thinks that ‘it’ is a mis-reading for ‘he’ and refers to
Horatio barring the Ghost’s way, but it may describe a gesture of the Ghost.”
1956 Sisson
Sisson: cam3 and kit
127-8 It spreads his armes]
Sisson (1956, p.207)
cam3 and
kit “follow Rowe in attributing the gesture to
Horatio, despite the plain direction in [Q2].
his is the normal Elizabethan equivalent of modern
its. I cannot see much probability of
he being misread as
yt. The Ghost does not speak here, and there is the more need of a gesture. The gesture warns
Horatio not to approach, and is the reason for his reply, ‘I’ll cross it, though it blast me.’ As for the notion that
Horatio crosses it by making a cross of himself, this seems improbable. The usual sign of the cross was familiar enough, as was the ordinary sense of
cross it.
“read: Ghost spreads his arms.”
1957 pel1
pel1: standard
127 crosse it] Farnham (ed. 1957): “cross its path.”
1970 pel2
pel2 = pel1
127 crosse it] Farnham (ed. 1970): “cross its path”
1974 evns1
evns1
127 Ile crosse it] Kermode (ed. 1974): “ [. . . ], confront it directly.”
evns1
127 blast] Kermode (ed. 1974): “wither (by supernatural means)”
1980 pen2
pen2
127 Spencer (ed. 1980), who changes the SD so that
Horatio crosses the ghost by spreading his arms, explains that by this “dangerous action”
Horatio not only bars the ghost’s path but also with his body makes the sign of the cross, which would deter a demonic spirit.
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ cam3 without attribution
127 illusion]
Spencer (ed. 1980):
Horatio is still skeptical.
1982 ard2
ard2: Blakeway without attribution; Sisson without attribution + contra pen2 without attribution
127 crosse it] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “cross its path. [. . . ]. The context rules out the interpretation ‘make the sign of the cross.’ which would be to guard against rather than to invite blasting.”
1982 ard2
ard2: Sisson
127-8 It spreads his armes]
Jenkins (ed. 1982) questions whether Sh. would introduce a SD for a speaker’s gesture. “If the Ghost’s spreading its arms is taken as a prelude to departure, it may be this that provokes
Horatio’s ‘Stay.’ [. . . ].” The gesture, “going beyond its behaviour on its first appearance, increases awe and still further quickens expectation in the audience.”
[does Sh ever have a SD for a gesture? Of course, here the SD is for a non-speaker].
1985 cam4
cam4
127-8 SD]
Edwards (ed. 1985): Q6 and Rowe and their followers are wrong in thinking this gesture is
Horatio’s “in the double sense of barring its way and making the sign of the cross. [. . . ] This dumb gesture by the Ghost, preluding the speech he never makes, could be extremely effective.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4
127 Stay]
Hibbard (ed. 1987):
Horatio interprets the ghost’s gesture as preparation to depart and speaks to stop it.
But why should the ghost arrive and immediately leave?
1993 dent
dent ≈ pen2
127 crosse it]
dent
127 illusion] Andrews (ed. 1993) glosses apparition, and denies that Hor. suggests it is illusory.
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
127 crosse it] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “cross its path, impede its progress (also suggests ’make the sign of the cross’, a traditional way of attempting to ward off the supernatural) ”
ard3q2: standard
127 blast] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “blight, destroy”
ard3q2: standard
127-8 It spreads his armes]
Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Q2’s version seems most likely to refer to the Ghost, though from Q6 onwards the question has been raised as to whether
It refers to
Horatio, who perhaps stretches out his arms in his attempt to
cross the Ghost.”
127 128
