HW HomePrevious CNView CNView TNMView TNINext CN

Line 3770, etc. - Commentary Note (CN) More Information

Notes for lines 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand
For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.
3770-1 Ham. Come for the third | Laertes, you {doe} but dally. 3770 
1875 Marshall
Marshall
3771-73 Marshall (ed. 1875, p. 107): <p. 107>“Laertes would really seem to deserve the playful reproach of Hamlet—[cites 3771-73] for he scruples, now it is in his hand, to use the treacherous weapon. It may be, if he had not committed himself so deeply with Claudius, in whose presence he felt an ignoble shame at the idea of seeming to flinch from his deadly purpose, Laertes’ better feelings might even now have prevailed. But it is too late: he rouses himself to action, attacks his antagonist with the utmost vigour, meeting with a more obstinate and skilful defence than he had anticipated. At last he breaks down Hamlet’s guard and wounds him; both had already become somewhat heated in the struggle, and the slight pain which Hamlet would feel, though he does not notice it, would serve to aggravate his excitement: their play becomes wild, and in the scuffle Hamlet changes foils with Laertes† and wounds him in turn. So completely absorbed is he in this trial of skill that he seems to have forgotten for the moment everything else, and does not even feel the wound, or see the blood to which Horatio draws attention. But he is soon brought back to a horrible consciousness of his tragic surroundings, no less thanof his own fate. His mother falls on the ground in agony: Hamlet’s first anxiety is for her; he does not even answer Horatio’s inquiry as to himself. The Titanic hypocrisy of Claudius does not even now fail him; he cannot resist the temptation to life, however useless it may be: ‘King. She swounds to see them bleed.” Perhaps he thought Gertrude’s love would even now be stronger than aught else, and that she would with her dying breath seek to conceal his infamy. But he is mistaken: [cites 3788-90] It is fit that the first denunciation of his treachery, which was his death-warrant, should come from her who was at once the cause, and the victim, of his heaviest crime.” </p. 107>
1882 elze2
elze2
3770-1 Ham. Come for the third Laertes, you doe but dally] Elze (ed. 1882): “The reading of [Q1] seems of too different a nature to be cited in support of [F1].”
1934 Wilson
Wilson
3771 doe but dally] Wilson (1934, 2:261): you but GLO, CAM1, Ard1
3770 3771