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. Click here for more information about browsing the entries and here for more information about the special symbols used in Hamletworks. Click the question mark icon above to remove this help message.

- 1761 Rochester?

Rochester?

44-5 Rochester? (-1761, p. 191) shows that he is using a Players’ Quarto, which has, “Well, let’s down, And let us hear Barnardo speak of this”; Rochester, without annotation, emends to eliminate the doubling of the word let: “Well, let’s down, And hear Barnardo speak of this.”

Ed. note: See Browne; Rochester in alphabib.

1829 Neele

Neele

44 et passim Neele (1829, pp. 305-7) after writing in general about the ecellence of Sh.’s supernatural beings, continues: <p. 305>“The introduction to the entrance of the Ghost in ‘Hamlet,’ shows infinite taste and judgment. Just as our feelings are powerfully excited by the narration of it’s appearance on the foregoing evening, the speaker is interrupted by ‘majesty of buried Denmark’ [61] once more standing before him:—‘The bell then beating One,— But soft, break off! —look where it comes again!” [50-1] then the solemn adjuration to it to speak; the awful silence which it maintains; the impotent attempts to strike it; and the exclamation of Horatio, when it glides away,—‘We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the shew of violence,’ [142-3] present to us that shadowy and indistinct, but at the same time, appalling and fearfully interesting picture, which constitutes one of the highest efforts of the sublime. The interview with Hamlet is a masterpiece. The language of this awful visitant </p. 305 ><p. 306> is admirably characteristic. It is not of this world. It savours of the last long resting-place of mortality: ‘of worms, and graves, and epitaphs.’ It evinces little of human feeling and frailty. Vengeance is the only possible passion which has survived the wreck of the body; and it is this passion which has burst the cerements of the grave, and sent it’s occupant to revisit the ‘glimpses of the moon.’ It’s discourse is of murder, incest, suffering, and revenge; and gives us awful glimpses of that prison-house, the details of which are not permitted to ‘ears of flesh and blood.’ Whether present or absent, we are continually reminded of this perturbed Spirit. When on the stage, “it harrows us with fear and wonder;’ and when absent, we see it in it’s influence on the persons of the Drama, especially Hamlet. The sensations of horror and revenge which at first possess the mind of this Prince; then his tardiness and irresolution, which are chided by the re-appearance of the Spectre; and his fears, notwithstanding all the evidence to the contrary, that it may be an evil Spirit, which,— ‘Out of his weakness and his melancholy Abuses him to damn him,’ form one of the most affecting and interesting </p.306 ><p. 307> pictures in the whole range of Shakspeare’s dramas.” </p. 307>

1870 Abbott

Abbott

44-5 Abbott (§ 361): “Subjunctive, simple form. . . . The indicative is sometimes found where the subjunctive might be expected . . . . Perhaps we may thus explain the so-called imperative in the first person plural [quotes 44-5], i.e. ‘suppose we sit down?’ ‘what if we sit down?’ Compare [167].”

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ Abbott § 361

44-5

1881 hud3

hud3 = Abbott without attribution

1891 dtn1

dtn1 = Abbott § 361

1934 cam3

cam3

44 Wilson (ed. 1934): “Hor. is bored.”

1947 cln2

cln2 = dtn without attribution

1953 Alexander

Alexander

44 sit we downe] Alexander (lecture 1953, published 1955, p. 27): clearly the men sit down so that they can leap to their feet when the ghost appears.