Line 1419-20 - 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.”
7. Further information: See the Introduction for explanations of other abbreviations.
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Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
| 1419-20 mee comply with you in {this} <the> garb: | {let me} <lest my> extent to the players, | |
|---|
1774-79? capn
capn
1419 let mee comply with you in this garb] Capell (1774-79?, pp. 132-133): “By ‘garb’ is meant– fashion, the dress or garb of the times; and ‘comply with you in the garb,’ is– comply with this garb towards you; speaking it in excuse for the ceremony which he had just us’d to them, being more than they as friends might expect from him: ‘extent,’ l. 2, is– what I extend, meaning– his courtesy. The quarto’s, and the moderns, have ‘this garb,’ which hurts the sound of the period: and the latter have hurt a number of others, that have not been remark’d upon; some by wrong choice of readings, and some by additions unauthoriz’d, and changes of various sorts; the two latter pages will afford the reader six several examples, if he chooses to take the pains of examining: In one of those pages, (48, 11.) ‘costed,’ the contraction of– accosted, is put into the text, both as suiting the period better, and as nearer to the old reading– ‘coted.’”
1785 v1785
1419 let mee comply with you in this garb]
Johnson (ed. 1785): “Hanmer reads,
Let me compliment
with you.”
1791- rann
rann
1419 let me comply with you in the garb;] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—permit me to fall in with this customary mode of complimenting you, left when I come to observe it towards the players, I should appear to give them a more friendly reception than yourselves.”
1793 v1793
v1793
1419 let mee comply with you in this garb] Steevens (ed, 1793): ‘To comply is again apparently used in the sense of--to compliment, in Act V: ‘He did comply with his dug, before he suck’d it.’”
1826 sing1
sing1: Steevens
1419 let mee comply with you in this garb] Singer (ed. 1826): “Hanmer, with his usual temerity, changed comply to compliment, and Steevens has contented himself with saying that he means ‘to compliment with, ‘ here and in a passage in the fifth act, ‘He did comply with his dug before he sucked it,’ where that sense would be even more absurd. He evidently never looked at the context. Hamlet has received his old schoolfellows with somewhat of the coldness of suspicion hitherto, but he now remembers that this is not courteous : He therefore rouses himself to give them a proper reception, ‘Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore:-- Your hands. Come then, the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me EMBRACE you in this fashion: lest I should seem to give you a less courteous reception than I give the players, to whom I must behave with at least exterior politeness.’ That to comply with was to embrace will appear from the following passages in Herrick :--- ‘----witty Ovid, by| Whom fair Corinna sits, and doth comply, | With iv’ry wrists, his laureat head, and steeps| His eye in dew of kisses, while he sleeps.’ Again :--- ‘------a rug of carded wool| Which, sponge-like, drinking in the dull| Light of the moon, seem’d to comply, | Cloud-like, the dainty deity.’ Dr. Nott’s Selections from herrick, pp.127 and 153.”
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 (1851-6)
1419 with you in this garb]HUDSON (1856, p.262): "That is, let my embrace you in this fashion; lest I should seem to give you a less courteous reception than I give the players, to whom I must behave with at least exterior politeness. That comply with was sometimes used in the sense of embrace appears by the following from Herrick: ’Witty Ovid, byWhom fair Corinna sits, and doth comply, With iv’ry wrists, his laureat head, and sleeps His eye in dew of kisses, while he sleeps.’"
1856b sing2
sing2=sing1 (minus Nott reference)
1858 col3
col3
1419 let mee comply with you in this garb] Collier (ed. 1858): “The verb ‘comply’ seems used here, and in [5.2.187 (3651-2)], in the sense of compliment: strictly it means to bend or yield. Hamlet wishes it to appear, that he pays no more respect to the players than to the courtiers.”
1419-20 let mee...showe] Collier (ed. 1858): “Is there not room to doubt here, whether the word ‘extent’ has not been misprinted for ostent, a word Shakespeare not unfrequently uses, in the sense of external show? The context supports this emendation-- ‘lest my ostent to the players, which, I tell you must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than your’s.’ We have no authority for the change, but the word ‘extent’ is not very intelligible here, though it may be reconciled to a meaning.”
1861 wh1
wh1
1419 let mee comply with you in this garb] White (ed. 1861): “‘---let me comply with you in this garb’:--In my judgment ’comply with’ (not ’comply’ alone) has here, as in the speech about Osric, (Act V. Sc. 2,) merely the sense of ’compliment.’ But Mr. Singer would have it in both cases mean embrace.”
1872 hud2
hud2
1419-20 let mee comply with you in this garb...showe] Hudson (ed. 1872): “To comply with, as here used, evidently means to be formally civil or polite to, or to compliment. We have it again in the same sense, in [5.2.187. (36510)] where Hamlet says of Osric, ‘he did comply with his dug before he suck’d it.’”
1872 cln1
cln1
1419 comply with you in this garb] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “use ceremony with you in this fashion. For ’comply’ see v. 2. 175."
1874 Corson
Corson
1419 let mee comply with you in this garb] Corson (1874, p. 22): “Let me comply with you in the Garbe, F. this garb, C. ’the’ is used in the F. generically, and makes the better sense.”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
1419-20 let mee comply with you in this garb...showe] Hudson (ed. 1881): “To comply with, as here used, evidently means to be formally civil or polite to, or to compliment. We have it again in the same sense, in [5.2.187. (36510)] where Hamlet says of Osric, ‘he did comply with his dug before he suck’d it.’“
1419-20 garb] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Garb is style or manner. Repeatedly so.”
1419-20 extent] Hudson (ed. 1881): “‘My extent to the players’ means extension of courtesy and civility to them.”
1885 macd
macd
1419-20 let mee comply with you in this garb] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “comp’ly—accent on first syllable—‘pass compliments with you’ (260) –in the garb, either ‘in appearance,’ or ‘in the fashion of the hour.’”
1419-20 extent] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “ ‘the amount of courteous reception I extend’—‘my advances to the players.’”
1899 ard1
ard1
1419 comply] Dowden (ed. 1899): “observe the formalities of couresy as in V. ii. 192; garb, fashion.”
1420 extent] Dowden (ed. 1899): “behaviour, deportment, as in Twelfth Night, IV. I. 57. Collier proposed ostent.”