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Line 135-6 - 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. 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.

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

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

135 For which they say {your} <you> spirits oft walke in death. {The cocke}	1.1.138

136 Speake of it, stay and speake, stop it Marcellus. {crowes.}	1.1.139

1736 Stubbs

Stubbs

136 stop it Marcellus] Stubbs (1736, p. 9):“His desiring Marcellus to stop it, is also much in Nature, because it shews a Perturbation of Mind, very much to be expected at such an Incident. For he must know, being a Scholar, (as they term him) that Spirits could not be stopp’d as Corporal Substances can.”

Ed. note: See n. 38

1819 Jackson

Jackson ≈ Stubbs, re 136, 138

136 stop it Marcellus]

1830 harn

harn: T. Warton

135-6, 141 The cocke crowes, Exit] T. Warton (apud Harness, ed. 1830): “The moment of the evanescence of spirits was supposed to be limited to the crowing of the cock. This belief is mentioned as early as Prudentius, Cathem. Hymn. i.v.40. But some of the commentators prove it to be of much higher antiquity.—T. Warton.”

-1853 mcol1

mcol1: the Perkins forgery; see Collier 1853

135-6 The cocke crowes]

1853 col2

col2 Perkins F2 notes, forged by Collier

135-6 The cocke crowes] Collier (1853, pp. 418-19): <p. 418> “We may presume also that in this first scene a cock </p. 418> <p.419> was heard to crow, in order to give the Ghost notice of the fit time for his departure, Cock crows being placed [the forged marginal note] in the margin opposite the words ‘Stop it, Marcellus.’” </p. 419>

1853 dyce

dyce = Collier +

135-6 Dyce (1853, p. 135): The cock used to crow when Garrick acted Hamlet, and perhaps also when that part was played by some of his successors; but now-a-days managers have done wisely in striking out the cock from the list of Dramatis Personae.”

1854 del2

del2 = mal

135 spirits] Delius (ed. 1854): “spirits ist in Sh.scehn Vers oft einsylbig.” [spirits is often mono-syllabic.]

1854 del2

135-6 The cocke crowes] Delius (ed. 1854): “Die Bühnenweisung, dass der Hahn kräht, findet sich nur in Q. A. und den Qs., nicht in her Fol., ist aber ohne Zweifel an ihrer Stellan.” [Without doubt the SD though not found in the folio is correct. ]

1856 Mitford

Mitford: Dyce +

135-6 The cocke crowes] Mitford (1856, p. 43): “Mr. Dyce remarks that in Garrick’s time the cock crowed in Hamlet. It is said in the life of one of the actors, I think of George Cooke, that on one occasion not fewer than six cocks were collected in order to summon the spirit to his diurnal residence, lest one cock, like one single clock, might not keep time exactly, when the matter was of importance.”

1860 Walker

Walker: see Furness, below

135 spirits] Walker (1860, 1:193-4, 205): <p. 193>“It may safely be laid down as a canon, that the word spirit in our old poets, wherever the metre does not compel us to pronounce it disyllabically, is a monosyllable. And this is almost always the case. The truth of the above rule is evident from several considerations. In </p. 193><p. 194> the first place, we never meet with other disyllables—such, I mean, as are incapable of contraction—placed in a similar situation; the apparent exceptions not being really exceptions (see S. V. passim). Another argument is founded on the unpleasant ripple which the common pronunciation occasions in the flow of numberless lines, interfering with the general run of the verse; a harshness which, in some passages, must be evident to the dullest ear. Add to this the frequent substitution of spright or sprite for spirit (in all the different senses of the word, I mean, and not merely in that of ghost, in which sprite is still used); also spreet, though rarely (only in ante-Elizabethan age, I think, as far as I have observed); and sometimes sp’rit and sprit. (For the double spelling, spright and sprite, one may compare despight and despite; which in like manner subsequently assumed different meanings, despight being used for contempt, despectus. [ref. to Cor. 3.1. and to Milton L’Allegro, l. 45]) </p. 194> . . .[examples pp. 194-205] <p. 205>Perhaps it would be desirable, wherever the word occurs as a monosyllable, to write it spright, in order to ensure the proper pronunciation of the line. I prefer spright to sprite: inasmuch as the latter invariably carries with it a spectral association; although the old writers, in those passages where they write the word monosyllabically, use sometimes the one form, sometimes the other. . . . ” </p. 205>

1865 hal

hal = coln; dyce1

135-6 The cocke crowes]

1868 c&mc

c&mc

135 they say] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “There is great propriety in making Horatio, the scholar and the unbeliever in ghosts, use the words ‘they say’ and ‘I have heard’ [148, 164], when citing the various superstitious beliefs regarding apparitions.”

1870 Abbott

Abbott

135 spirits] Abbott (§ 463): “R frequently softens or destroys a following vowel (the vowel being nearly lost in the burr which follows the effort to pronounce the r). . . . [quotes 135, 443].”

1877 v1877

v1877: Clarke

135 they say] Clarke (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “There is great propriety in the use of these words in the mouth of Horatio, the scholar and unbeliever in ghosts.”

v1877: Walker; Abbott; del without attribution

135 spirits] Furness (ed. 1877): “For the monosyllabic pronunciation of this word, see Walker (Crit. i. 193, 205), quoted in [Mac. 4.1.127 (1674)]. Also Abbott, §463; and [160].”

Ed. note: Mac. 4.1.149 in Furness rpt.

1877 v1877

v1877 = Dyce (Few Notes), Mitford

135-6 The cocke crowes]

1877 v1877

v1877: Steevens (see n. 138)

136, 138 SP Hor.

1878 rlf1

rlf1 = Clarke & Clarke

135 they say]

1880 Tanger

Tanger

135-6 The cocke crowes] Tanger (1880, p. 116), as part of his claim for Q2’s authority and not F1’s, claims that F1 omits this SD and the one at 127-8 “because the text leaves their places doubtful.”

Ed. note: Those, including Tanger, who argue for the authority of Q2 make the claim that Sh. did not necessarily take the time to insert SDs where they would be needed for a performance; yet here are two SDs (127-8 and 135-6) that the F1 text does not have.

1880 Tanger

Tanger

135 your] Tanger (1880, p. 121): Q2 variant “probably owing to the negligence, inattention, or criticism of the compositor.”

Ed. note: See discussion of colloquial your in 864.

1891 dtn1

dtn1

136-47 Deighton (ed. 1891, p. ix) remarks that the ghost “slowly fades from sight.”

Ed. note: The speed depends on how quickly or slowly lines 136-41 are spoken.

1903 rlf3

rlf3 = rlf1

135 they say]

1930 Granville-Barker

Granville-Barker

165-6 Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 198), commenting on these lines, says of Horatio: “a gentle spirit speaks.”

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH

135 your] Wilson (1934, pp. 278-82), whenever he discovers an instance of F1’s aesthetic superiority to Q2, surmises compositor error in Q2. <p. 278> Here he prefers F1 you. He lists also </p. 278><p. 279> 542, 548, 581, 634, 705, 720, 780, 931, 935, and many others. Acceptation by eds. varies. <p. 282> Though Wilson approves the colloquial your in other places (e.g. 864) where the colloquialism “is clearly intended. Such a colloquialism, with its implied touch of contempt, would, however, be much out of place in Horatio’s mouth as he tremblingly addresses the Ghost.” </p. 282>

1934 cam3

cam3

135-6 The cocke crowes] Wilson (ed. 1934): “The crowing distracts the audience for a moment, and the Ghost slips into the recess at the back of the upper-stage, while the three men cover the action by scuffling together in a knot.”

1938 parc

parc: Wilson

135 your] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938) emend to you, referring to Wilson’s change of mind from his Cranach Ham. to the Cambridge ed. They cite the agreement of Q1 to bolster their case and say that the colloquial your would not fit Horatio’s character.

parc

135 death.] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938) believe that the period meant a comma in Elizabethan printing.

1939 kit2

kit2

136 stay and speake] Kittredge (ed. 1939), who places a comma after stay, says: “The Ghost starts as if to go. Then the cock crows and it stalks away. Horatio forgets his learning in his excitement and calls upon Marcellus, who the spirit must pass in its course, to ‘stop it,’ though that is impossible.”

1958 mun

mun: eds. generally

135 your] Munro (ed. 1958): “your is tempting and, occurring in a passage where the printer seems to have consulted Q1, may be the intended reading; but editors read you.”

1971 r&k

r&k

136 Ribner (ed. 1971), though he places the SD after 135, thinks that the ghost begins to move away before the cock crows, before Hor.’s Stay.

1974 evns1

evns1

135 your] Kermode (ed. 1974): “Colloquial and impersonal [. . . ].”

1982 ard2

ard2: OED

135 your] Jenkins (ed. 1982) thinks your with its familiarity fits Horatio’s scepticism (“they say”) “and is more in keeping than the quite different familiarity of the F you spirits, which is additionally awkward when only one is being addressed.”

1982 ard2

ard2: Warton (unknown source)

136 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “For the Ghost’s behaviour here, see [409]. Warton noted as ‘a most inimitable circumstance in Shakespeare’ the aggravation of suspense when the Ghost, hitherto silent, at length prepares to speak, only to be interrupted.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ mun without attribution

135 your] Though Hibbard (ed. 1987) chooses Q1/F1 you, he admits the attractiveness of the more colloquial your, the indefinite adjective, which Sh. often uses.

1999 Dessen&Thomson

Dessen&Thomson

135 spirits] According to Dessen & Thomson(1999), the word spirit or sprite in a SD connotes “a figure in the same general category as a devil or fury, typically associated with the underworld and supernatural events . . . . ” but it seems from Hamlet’s conjuration in 625 “Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned,” that a spirit may be either malignant or benign. See also 153, 160, 170, 456 (where Hamlet uses the term), 610, 694 (where the apparition uses it about himself), 879, 1638 (the last time the texts refer to the apparition by this term).

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: xref; Hope

135 your] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “an indefinite version of the possessive like your philosophy (see [864] and n.) and ’your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body’ ([3361-2]); perhaps more informal than F’s ’you’ (see Hope 1.3.2b).”

ard3q2: stage practice

135-6 The cocke crowes] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “John Ward’s promptbook (see [40 CN]) has ’one Ready to Crow’ as a ’warning entry’ some 30 lines before this SD (Thompson, ’Ward’, 144); modern productions normally use a recorded sound effect, but an actor was used to mimic the sound at the London Globe in 2000.”

2007 Wilson

Wilson

135-6 cocke crowes] Wilson (2007, pp. 240-1) discusses the significance of the crowing of the cock throughout the play [146, 149, 156, 411--all having to do with the ghost’s disappearance]. He relates the crowing to prognostications good and ill, more or less arriving at a situation of radical uncertainty: “And the truly ’good news’ in Hamlet is surely that, whether rough beast [as in Yeats] or something ’soft as the sinews of the newborn babe [as the king wishes for his hard heart, 2347], whatever is coming [as announced by the cock] may yet never arrive. So, is this the promised end? [Lr.] What’s to come is still unsure [Feste’s song in TN]. The readiness is all [3670]. The rest is silence [3847].” Ed. note: This comment, which draws on several of Sh’s works [references added], ends his chapter on Ham.