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Line 692 - Commentary Note (CN)

Commentary notes (CN):

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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

692 Ghost. So art thou to reuenge, when thou shalt heare.	1.5.7

1625 Bacon

Bacon

692, 710 Bacon (1625, D2v-D3) in “Of Revenge” (IIII. D2-D3, Kiernan, 1985, pp. 16-17), after deploring revenge, says, <D2v> “The most Tolerable Sort of Revenge, is for those wrongs which there is no Law to remedy; . . . . </D2v> <D3> This is certaine; That a Man that studieth Revenge, keepes his own Wounds greene, which otherwise would heale, and doe well. Publique Revenges, are, for the most part, Fortunate; As that for the Death of Cæsar; For the Death of Pertinax; for the Death of Henry the Third of France; And many more. But in private Revenges it is not so. . . . .” </D3>

Ed. note: Bacon’s comment is appropriate to the second-act soliloquy (1589-1645); Hamlet berates himself for letting his passion die away.

1627 Milton

Milton

692 reuenge] Milton (Latin Elegia prima . . . , 1627, published 1645), possibly alludes to Sh. See Warton’s ed. of Milton, 1791, p. 425. As trans. by Cowper apud Ingleby et al. 1932, 1: 335): “Or when the ghost, sent back from shades below, Fills the assassin’s heart with vengeful woe.”

1752 Dodd

Dodd: MM

692 Dodd (1752, p. 2), writing about the Countess’s advice to Bertram in AWW 1.1.65 (67-8), notes for “Be able, &c--the meaning is, --’rather be able to revenge yourself on your enemy in ability, than in the use of that ability: have it in your power to revenge, but shew god-like in not using that power.’ ”

1807 Douce

Douce

692 reuenge] Douce (1807, 1: 292) says on revenge in MV "It is much to be lamented that this exquisitely beautiful drama can neither be read nor performed, without exciting in every humane and liberal mind an abhorrence of its professed design to vilify an ancient and respectable, but persecuted, nation. It should be remembered that contempt and intolerance must naturally excite hatred; that to provoke revenge is, in fact, to become responsible for the crimes it may occasion; that to those who would degrade and oppress us, it is but justice to oppose craft; and that nature has supplied even the brute creation with the means of resisting persecution. It will be readily conceded that there happily exist in the present moment but few remains of the illiberal prejudices complained of, the asterity of which has been greatly mitigated by the laudable and successful exertions of a modern dramatic writer, to whom the Jewish people are under the highest obligation.”

Ed. note: He refers to Lessing (1729-81); Nathan the Wise, 1779, Eng. 1781. Re Shylock’s revenge, Douce says that the person who “provokes revenge” is the one “responsible for the crimes” occasioned. That means that the king, not the ghost and not Hamlet, is the ultimate one responsible for all the deaths that ensue from the killing of King Hamlet.

1816 Gifford’s Jonson

Gifford

692 reuenge] Gifford (1816, 2: 456-7 n) denies that Jonson, in The Poetaster, sneers at Sh. Jonson’s key words are “Vindicta!” and “Murder! ”: <n> <p. 456> “Here, again, Jonson is accused of sneering at Shakspeare! Nay, so determined are the commentators </p.456> to find enemies to this great poet, (who probably had none,) that they ever charge the anonymous author of A Warning for fair Women with a hostile attack upon him, in the following lines: —‘A filthie whining ghost, Lapt in some foule sheet, or a leather pilch, Comes screaming like a pigge half stickt, And cries, Vindicta, revenge revenge !’ Though the words are not in Hamlet, but, like Jonson’s, literally taken from the ghost of Albanactus, in the old tragedy of Locrine. ¶ This absurd piece of fustian seems to have shared with Jeronimo (to which it is infinitely inferior) the ridicule of the wits of James’s days: allusions to it frequently occur, and particularly to the ‘whining of this filthie ghost’ </p. 456> <p. 457> Thus Fletcher: ‘In despite of thee, my master, and thy master, the grand devil himself, Vindicta! vindicta!’ Fair Maid of the Inn. And Crispinus himself. ‘Ant. Vindicta! Alb. Mellida! Ant. Vindicta! Alb. Antonio!’ Antonio’s Revenge.” </p. 457> </n>

1843 col1

col1

692 reuenge] Collier (ed. 1843): “This and the preceding speech are quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher’s ‘Woman Hater,’ 1607. See Dyce’s Beaumont and Fletcher [1:37].

1873 rug2

rug2

692 reuenge] Moberly (ed. 1873, p. xiii): the lesson of the play is that “those who shrink from punishing [crime] bring on fresh sternness of judgment by every moment of delay and unwillingness to perform this holy duty.”

1950 Tilley

Tilley

692 reuenge] Tilley (1950, R90; R91; R92): “Revenge is sweet 1566 Painter’s Pal. Pleas. I. 52, II, 35: Vengeance is sweet . [. . . ] . Revenge is womanish 1639 . [. . . ] ; To pardon is a divine Revenge 1580 Lyly Euph. and His Eng., p. 207 . [. . . ] 1623 Webster Duch. of Malfi IV i 39: I account it the honorabl’st revenge Where I may kill, to pardon [. . . ] . See also P371: It is better to pity than revenge; W946: To forget a wrong is the best revenge.”

1960 Knights

Knights

692 reuenge] Knights (1960, p. 46): Sh.’s concern with forgiveness and reconciliation in many plays, particularly those that follow Hamlet, argues that a call to revenge must be one that should be denied; a ghost who “clamours” for revenge is one who should be suspected of evil.

1963 Devlin

Devlin: contra Battenhouse

692 reuenge] Devlin (1963, pp. 46, 47) <p. 46> says that Battenhouse takes this word to be counter to what a soul in Purgatory should require. He agrees that the second reason (after prayer for himself) for the return of a Catholic Ghost would be to warn against sin, and he thinks that the ghost does this. Devlin quotes Fr Robert Person who uses the word "revenge" meaning "to purge" in Christian Directory 1650 Ed), p. 365. He also quotes Cardinal Allen, A Defense of Purgatory (Antwerp, 1565), p. 592, speaking of sins purged in fires: " ’If sin then be so revenged and thoroughly tried [i.e. rendered as fat is rendered by heat] out of man’s body, and all corruption out of the elements for the glory of the new and eternal kingdom, shall we doubt of God’s justice in the perfect revenge of sin in the soul . . . ?’ . . . . It must be remembered, also, that nowhere does the Ghost advocate assassination or even violence. On the contrary, it says: ’But howsoever though pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind nor let thy soul contrive’ [but he stops the quotation there]--a most Christian sentiment." </p.46>

<p. 47> Devlin admits, though, that Hamlet takes " ’revenge’ as ’assassination’ . . . . There is a clear psychological connection between the Ghost’s visitation and Hamlet’s desire for prayer [in 824] but there is no such connection between the Ghost’s visitation and Hamlet’s plan to overthrow Claudius." </p. 47>

1980 pen2

pen2

692 Barton (ed. 1980, p. 10) takes the view that revenge runs counter to religious precepts. Yet she cites the contradictory 1584 Bond of Association, which many signed, pledging themselves to revenge any attempt to overthrow the government of Elizabeth, including murdering any monarch that thus succeeded her.

While as she points out, because of the nature of the fable neither Saxo nor Belleforest needed to justify revenge, Belleforest nevertheless took pains to do so against a usurping tyrant.

1980 pen2

pen = Bacon

692 Barton (ed. 1980, p. 13), quotes Bacon, who said that “the most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to punish. . . . ”

1995 Keyishian

Keyishian

692 reuenge] Keyishian (1995) focuses on the “potentially redemptive functions of revenge.” As defined by Keyishian, Hamlet is both an avenger, “retaliating for the wrongs and sufferings of others,” and a revenger, “retaliating for the wrongs done to [himself]” (2) Victims who cannot retaliate, often women, lose all potency and often die pitifully (Ophelia for one) (15-30).