Line 2483 - 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 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2483 Ham. A King of shreds and patches, | 3.4.102 |
|---|
1765 john1/john2
john1: xref.
2483 Johnson (ed. 1765): “This is said, pursuing the idea of the Vice of Kings [3.4.98 (2477)]. The Vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches.”
1771 HAN3
han3 ≈ john1 + [Hawkins addendum]
2483 shreds and patches] Hanmer (ed. 1771): “[Alluding to the fool’s coat.]”
1774 capn
capn ≈ 
john (xref
.)
2483 A King . . . patches] Capell (1774, 1:1:140-1): See [3.4.98 (2477)].
1791- rann
rann ≈[p[p john1
2483 shreds and patches] Rann (ed. 1791-): “dressed in a coat of party-coloured patches.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour
2483 shreds and patches] Seymour (1805, p. 187): “What follows wants regulation: ‘A king of shreds and patches.’ Perhaps, all unseemly.”
1857 fieb
fieb ≈ john + magenta underlined
2483 shreds and patches] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “A shred is a small piece cut off;—and a patch, a piece sewed on to cover a hole.—This is said pursuing the idea of the vice of Kings. The vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches. J.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc: Tmp., AYL //s
2483 Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “ In allusion to the motley coat or parti-coloured suit worn by the fool-jesters. See Note 11,
Tmp. [3.2.63 (1415)], and note 67,
AYL [2.7.43 (1016)].”
1870 rug1
rug1: Tennyson analogue
2483 Moberly (ed. 1870): “Just when Hamlet’s rage is on the verge of becoming impotent and verbose, it is restored to overpowering grandeur by the ghost’s reappearance, (no longer in armour but in a furred night-robe,) who with divine compassion interferes to save his erring wife from distraction. Compare the splendid passage in Tennyson’s Guinevere, p. 253, where Arthur says to his false queen—‘I do not come to curse thee, Guinevere, / I, whose vast pity almost makes me die / To see thee laying there thy golden head.... / Lo, I forgive thee, as eternal God / Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest. / Let no man dream but that I love thee still-- / Perchance, and so thou purify thy soul, / And so thou lean on our fair father Christ, / Hereafter, in that world where all are pure, / We two may meet before high God, and thou / Wilt spring to me, and claim me thine, and know / I am thy husband.’”
1873 rug2
rug2 = rug1 + magenta underlined
2483 Moberley (ed. 1873): “Just when Hamlet’s rage is on the verge of becoming impotent and verbose, it is restored to overpowering grandeur by the ghost’s reappearance (no longer in armour but in a furred night-robe, as an old stage-direction shows), who with divine compassion interferes to save his erring wife from distraction. Compare the splendid passage in Tennyson’s Guinevere, p. 253, where Arthur says to his false queen –‘I do not come to curse thee, Guinevere, I, whose vast pity almost makes me die To see thee laying there thy olden head... Lo, I forgive thee, as Eternal God Forgives: do thou for thine own soul the rest. Let no man dream but that I love thee still – Perchance, and so thou purify thy soul, And so thou lean on our fair father Christ, Hereafter, in that world where all are pure, We too may meet before high God, and thou Wilt spring to me, and claim me thine, and know I am thy husband.’”
1891 dtn
dtn: JC //
2483 Deighton (ed. 1891): “a king with nothing kingly about him, made up of nothing but the cast-off remnants of kingly dignity. Cp. Antony’s contemptuous description of Lepidus, JC [4.1.35-39 (1891-95)].”
1904 ver
ver: john1 + Tmp. //; Burke, Carlyle analogues magenta underlined
2483 of shreds and patches] Verity (ed. 1904): “referring to the ‘motley’ dress of the Vice of Clown. Cf. patch=‘clown, fool, simpleton,’ e.g. in Tmp. [3.2.63 (1415)] ‘What a pied ninny’s this! Thou scurvy patch!’ The professional jester or fool attached to a court or nobleman’s house was called a patch from his patch-like, ‘motley’ dress: hence ‘Patch’ became a kind of nickname; Wolsey had two jesters so named.
“This phrase has become proverbial; cf. Burke’s Letters on a Regicide Peace (III.), ‘our embassy of shreds and patches, with all its mumping cant,’ and Carlyle’s French Revolution, Bk 6. chap. 7, ‘He was no king of yours, this Louis: and he forsook you [his Swiss Guard] like a kind of shreds and patches.’”
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ ver minus Tmp. //, Burke, Carlyle analogues
2483 shreds and patches] Craig (ed. 1931): “i.e., motley, the traditional costume of the Vice.”
1934 cam3
cam3
2483 of shreds and patches] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Referring to the motley of the ‘vice’ (v. G.) or clown.”
1934 cam3 Glossary
cam3 ≈ john (xref
.)
2483 Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “riotous buffoon, orig. a clownish character in a morality play representing one of the vices. Here, a depraved example, a caricature; [3.4.98 (2477)].”
1939 kit2
kit2: contra crg1 (et al)
2483 Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Often taken as alluding to the motley attire of a fool or jester; but apparently Hamlet means merely that Claudius’s royalty is a threadbare, out-at-elbows, patched-up thing. He has compared hiim to a clown, then to a pickpocket and sneak-thief; now he compares him to a ragged vagabond. Cf. the First Quarto: ‘a king of clowts, of very shreads.’”
1947 yal2
yal2
2483 Cross & Brooke (ed. 1947): “A mock king dressed in oddments of costume, such as one might see in a peasant folk-play. This line points the contrast with the ghost, who here enters in peaceful dress – ‘in his nightgown,’ or robe of velvet and fur, according to Q1.”
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ dtn
2483 of . . . patches] Evans (ed. 1974): “clownish (alluding to the motley worn by jesters) (?) or patched-up, beggarly (?).”
1982 ard2
ard2: xrefs.
2483 of . . . patches] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “In contrast to the complete man of [3.4.96-97 (2444-46)]. Some eds. suppose the phrase to have been suggested by the parti-coloured dress of the Vice [3.4.98 (2477)].”
1984 chal
chal: xref.
2483 shreds and patches] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “shreds and patches consistent with the description of him as a ‘pajock’ [3.2.288 (2156)].”
1988 bev2
bev2 ≈ evns1
2483 shreds and patches] Bevington (ed. 1988): “i.e., motley, the traditional costume of the clown or fool.”
1993 dent
dent
2483 of . . . patches] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Hamlet is probably thinking once more of the Vice figure and his clown-like particoloured costume. His point is that by comparison with the paragon of divinity he supplanted (the epitome of human perfection), Claudius is a beggarly thief (unworthy of being even so lowly a figure as the court jester) rather than a man of king-like stature.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: Stallybrass
2483 shreds and patches] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. ragged patchwork (as contrasted with the paragon of your precedent lord). Stallybrass (’Clothes’, 315) points out that this line appears in Q2 and F after the entry SD for the Ghost and might apply to his apparently diminished status (see next note) as well as to his brother, though this hardly fits Hamlet’s gracious figure (101).”
2483