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Line 274 - 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.”

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

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

274 To doe obsequious sorrowe, but to perseuer	1.2.92

c.1639 mWright

mwright

274-9 Wright (1639, fol. 85r): “to p[er]severe in obstinate condolement, is a course of impious stubbornness, and shewes a will most incorrect to heauen, an vnderstanding simple and vnschoold”

Ed. note: An early quotation from the play.

1752 Dodd

Dodd: Juvenal

274-88 but to . . . be so] Dodd (1752, 1: 216) “Juvenal says, (Sat. 13.) ‘Panamus nimios gemitus: flagrantior æquo Nun debet dolor esse viri, nec vulnere major. Abate thy passion nor too much complain,, Grief shou’d be forc’d: and it becomes a man to let it rise no higher than his pain.’”

Ed. note: Juvenal and Persius. Trans. G. G. Ramsay. Loeb Classical Library. London: Heinemann, New York: Putnam’s, 1918. Satire 13: “Away with undue lamentations! a man’s wrath should not be hotter than is fit, nor greater than the loss sustained.”

1755 Johnson Dict.

Johnson

274 obsequious] Johnson (1755): “2. In Shakespeare it seems to signify, funereal; such as rites of funerals require.”

1765 john1

john1 ≈ Johnson

274 obsequious] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Obsequious is here from obsequies, or funeral ceremonies.”

1765 john1 3H6 2.5.118 (1256)

john 1 3H6 ≈ Ham. + in magenta

274 obsequious] Johnson (ed. 1765, 5: 159 n. 6): “Obsequious is here careful of funeral rites.”

1771 han3

han3 = john1 [3H6 5:159 n. 6]

274 obsequious]

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1 +

274 obsequious] Steevens (ed. 1773): [Tit. 5.3.152 (2656)]: “ ‘To shed obsequies tears upon his trunk.’”

1778 v1778

v1778 = 1773 +

274 obsequious] Malone (apud ed. 1778) sees a parallel in Son. 31:5: “How many a holy and obsequious tear, Hath dear religious love stoll’n from mine eye!”

1780 mals1

mals1 = Malone in v1778

274 obsequious] Malone (1780, 1:607 n. 1) says, for Son. 31.5, “Obsequious is funereal” and cites Ham.

1784 ays1

ays1= john1 without attribution

274 obsequious]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1773: john, Steevens on Tit., with a x-ref to vol. vii.sc.12, and no ref to Malone .

274 obsequious]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

274 obsequious]

1790 mal

mal ≈ v1785

274 obsequious]

1791- rann

rann ≈ mal without attribution

274 obsequious] Rann (ed. 1791-): “funereal. ‘Obsequious tear.’ Poems, p.607.”

[See 1780, mals1 ]

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

274 obsequious] Steevens (ed. 1793, 10: 471 n. 2) on R3 1.2.3 (176) [with a xref to Ham.], Anne’s “obsequiously lament”: “Obsequious, in this instance, means funereal.”

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793 except “see Vol. XIV. p.282 n4.”

274 obsequious]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

274 obsequious]

1819 cald1

cald1: standard + //s

274 obsequious] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Follow with becoming and ceremonious observance the memory of the deceased. See [3H6 2.5.118 (1256)] Father & [Wiv. 4.2.2 (1902)] Falst. [then quotes Tit. 5.3]. Luc.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813 +

274 obsequious] Malone (ed. 1821): “So, in [R3 1.2.3 (176)]: ‘Whilst I a while obsequiously lament.’ Malone.”

1822 Nares

Nares: standard without attribution

274 obsequious] Nares (1822): “Belonging to a funeral, or obsequies [quotes 274].

“Absorbed in funeral grief. [quotes 3H6 2.5.118 (1256), Son. 31].”

1826 sing1

sing1: standard

274 obsequious] Singer (ed. 1826): “Obsequious sorrow is dutiful, observant sorrow. Shakspeare seems to have used this word generally with an allusion to obsequies, or funereal services.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

274 obsequious]

1832- mLewes

mLewes ≈ mal without attribution

274 obsequious] Lewes (ms. notes in ed. 1832): “funereal—obsequies ‘a holy & obsequious tear’ Sonnet 31 [5]. ‘To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk’ Tit. And. [5.3.152 (2656)].

1839 knt1

knt1: standard

274 obsequious sorrowe] Knight (ed. 1839): “funeral sorrow,—from obsequies.”

1843 col1

col1: standard

274 to do obsequious sorrowe] Collier (ed. 1843): “i.e. sorrow as at obsequies. See [5:270, 352].

col1 Glossary note: standard

274 obsequious] Collier (ed. 1843, 1: ccc): “as at obsequies. [5: 270, 352; 7:206 (Ham. 274), 8: 490]. ”

1844 Dyce

Dyce: Gifford; contra Collier for using perseveres

274 perseuer] Dyce (1844, p. 204): “On the passage of The Virgin Martyr, ‘Harp. My best lady, Perséver in it,’ Gifford observes, ‘So this word was anciently written and pronounced: thus the King in Hamlet: ‘but to perséver In obstinate condolement,’ ” &c. Massinger’s Works, i.7, ed. 1813.

“Here, too, Mr. Collier himself, who on the line in the [TGV 3.2.28 (1473)] (vol. i.144), ‘Ay, and perversely she persevers so,’ remarks, ‘This was the old mode of accenting the word, as many instances might be produced to establish.”

1844 verp

verp: standard

274 obsequious] Verplanck (ed. 1844): “here derived from ‘obsequies’ or funeral ceremonies. [quotes Tit.].”

1854 del2

del2

274 perseuer] Delius (ed. 1854): “Sh. konnt nur to persever mit dem Ton auf der Mittlesylbe, kein modernes persevere, mit bekannte Endsylbe.” [Sh. knows only of persever with stress on the middle syllable, not at all the modern persevere with the familiar stressed final syllable.]

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1 minus what is struck out + in magenta underlined

274 to do obsequious sorrowe] Singer (ed. 1856): “Obsequious sorrow is dutiful, observant sorrow. Shakespeare seems to have used this word generally with an allusion to obsequies, or funereal services a feeling for the more general scope of the Latin derivative, even when he connects it with funeral rites.”

1856 hud1

hud1 standard

274 obsequious] Hudson (ed. 1856): “The poet sometimes uses obsequious as having the sense of obsequies. So in his 31st Sonnet [5]: ‘How many a holy and obsequious tear, Hath dear religious love stol’n from mine eye, As interest of the dead!’ H.”

1858 col3

col3 = col1, cald Wiv. // + in magenta underlined

274 to do obsequious sorrowe] Collier (ed. 1858): “i.e. Sorrow as at obsequies of the dead. See [4:153, 231]. In [Wiv. 4.2.2 (1902)] ‘obsequious in your love’ means observant: and in [MM 2.4.28 (1031)] ‘obsequious fondness’ is dutiful fondness.”

col3: v1778 (subst.)

274 perseuer] Collier (ed. 1858): “At the end of the line the word ‘persever’ was accented on the second syllable, and we here repeat the old form for that reason. See also [TGV 3.2.28 (1473)]. ”

See DyceN above.

1860 stau

stau ≈ rann without attribution and Steevens on Tit. without attribution

274 obsequious sorrowe] Staunton (ed. 1860): “The customary funereal sorrow: this, in [Tit.] ‘To shed obsequies tears upon his trunk’.”

1861 wh1

wh1: standard gloss + in magenta underlined

274 obsequious] White (ed. 1861): “—i.e., formal sorrow, the sorrow shown at obsequies.”

1865 hal

hal: dyce [accent in text itself] or del2 without attribution +

274 perseuer] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “The ancient form and pronunciation of this verb of which innumerable examples might be produced. ‘Leave yet a length, at length, for know this ever, ‘Tis no such sinner to erre, but to persever.’ Marston’s Dutch Courtezan, 4to. Lond. 1604. ‘Neither hath man in perpetuity bin And shall on earth eternally persever By endlesse generation, running in One circuit; In corruption lasting ever.’ Heywood’s Great Britaines Troy, 1609. ‘He caused him to be called, and after that he had signified to him with divers words full of sharpness, the grief he had to see him fall into and persever in so uncommon a crime, he represented the deformity of it in such terms as were capable to reduce him to reason if he had been in a condition to hearken to them.’—Hymen’s Praeludia, 1658.

1868 c&mc

c&mc ≈ sing2 without attribution

274 obsequious] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “Here used not only in the usual sense of ‘deferential,’ but in the sense of ‘belonging to obsequies or funereal observances.’”

c&mc ≈ hal without attribution

274 perseuer] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “An accentuation of ‘persevere’ formerly in use.”

1870 Abbott

Abbott:

274 perseuer] Abbott (§492): “Words in which the accent was nearer the beginning than with us. Ben Jonson (p. 777) says all nouns, both dissylable (if they be ‘simple’) and trisyllabic, are accented on the first syllable . . . . The accent on the first syllable was the proper noun accent; the accent on the second syllable . . . was derived from the verb. . . . ”

1872 hud2

hud2 = hud1 minus //

274 obsequious]

1872 cln1

cln1 : standard def., // Tit. from Steevens without attribution

274 obsequious]

cln1 ≈ dyce2 [accent in text itself] or del2 + //

274 perseuer] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “Compare [MND 3.2.237 (1264)]: ‘Ay, do; persever, counterfeit sad looks.’ The word is always accented on the second syllable by Shakespeare.”

1877 v1877

v1877 = john; col3

274 obsequious]

v1877: Gifford (via Dyce, Remarks, &c. 204), Abbott § 492 + xref.

274 perseuer] Furness (ed. 1877): “See also ‘cómplete,’ [637]; ‘sècure,’ [746]; ‘pìoner,’ [860]; ‘ènginer,’ [2577+5]; ‘òbscure,’ [2964].”

1880 meik

meik: standard w // R3

274 obsequious]

meik: standard + // AWW 4.2.36

274 perseuer]

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

274 obsequious]

1885 macd

macd: standard gloss

274 obsequious]

1885 mull

mull : standard

274 obsequious]

1899 ard1

ard1: standard gloss and Tit., Son. // without attribution

274 obsequious]

ard1 = cln1 on accent

274 perseuer]

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

274 obsequious sorrowe] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "sorrow befitting obsequies (funeral rites)."

kit2: standard

274 perseuer] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "perséver: persevere."

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

274 obsequious ]:

1950 Tilley

Tilley

274-86 but . . . fathers] Tilley (1950, D 126): “To lament the Dead avails not and to the living it is hurtful [. . . ] . 1600 Dekker Shoe, Hol., p. 49: Come, weep not: mourning, though it rise from loue, Helpes not the mourned, yet hurts them that mourne.”

1969 Spevack

Spevack

274 obsequious ] According to Spevack, Harvard Conc. (1969), Shakespeare uses obsequious eight times, obsequiously once, and obsequy once.. In five of these ten, Sh. means compliant and obedient. Five are associated with funereal sorrow: Ham. 274, Tit 5.3.152, R3 1.2.3, Son. 31.5 (metaphorically) and PHT 12.

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

274 obsequious] Farnham (ed. 1957): “proper to obsequies or funerals.”

pel1: standard

274 perseuer] Farnham (ed. 1957): “persevere (accented on the second syllable, as always in Shakespeare).”

1957 pen1b

pen1b

274 obsequious sorrowe] Harrison (ed. 1957): “literally, ’suitable for obsequies’.”

1958 fol1

fol1: standard

274 To doe . . . sorrowe] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “demonstrate sorrow suitable for a funeral.”

fol1: standard

274 perseuer] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “persevere.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

274 obsequious] Farnham (ed. 1970): “proper to obsequies or funerals”

pel2 = pel1

274 perseuer] Farnham (ed. 1970): “persevere (accented on the second syllable, as always in Shakespeare)”

1980 pen2

pen2

274 obsequious] Spencer (ed. 1980): “dutifully mourning in a way appropriate to his obsequies.”

pen2

274 perseuer] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(accented on the second syllable.”

1982 ard2

ard2: //s

274 obsequious] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “appropriate to obsequies (funeral rights). Cf. Tit. 5.2.152; 3H6 2.5.118.”

ard2: standard

274 perseuer] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “With stress on the second syllable, the regular form down to the mid-17th century.”

1985 cam4

cam4

274 Edwards (ed. 1985): "Scan [with accent on <i>do, -se-, sor-, but, -se-, </i>]. ’obsequious’ = relating to obsequies for the dead."

1987 oxf4

oxf4 : standard gloss; // Tit. 5.3.152 and quotes

274 doe . . . sorrowe]

oxf4: standard on accent

274 perseuer]

1987 Mercer

Mercer

274-88 to perseuer . . . so] Mercer (1987, p. 146) calls the king’s advice “a badgering, anxious rant. Even an excess of grief in such a case can hardly be a ’fault to nature’; not to mourn would be truly to be unnatural. And, however hostile Hamlet’s outburst [258-67] may have seemed, ” it does not display what the king says it does [277-8]. “Claudius treats him as if he were a peevish adolescent, a schoolboy who obstinately refuses to see the point.”

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

274 obsequious] Bevington (ed. 1988): “suited to obsequies or funerals.”

bev2: standard

274 perseuer] Bevington (ed. 1988): “persevere.”

1989 OED

OED

274 OED has Shakespeare as 1st user of obsequious in the funereal sense, but as early as 1386, Chaucer used obsequies for funeral rites in Knt’s Tale, 135. OED says that “Late or Med. L. obsequiae seems to have arisen through mixture of exsequiae funeral rites, and obsequium dutiful service. See these words in Du Cange, and cf. Exequy.”

1991 Ward

Ward

274 Ward (1991, p. 32) points out that here Claudius begins the rhetorical figures of onedismus = upbraiding. He also uses amplification in the speech that starts here.

1992 fol2

fol2 ≈ col3 without attribution + in magenta underlined

274 obsequious] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “dutiful (Claudius seems to be playing on the related word ’obsequy,’ funeral service.)” Ed. note: fol2 emphasizes what in earlier editions was an incidental idea.

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: OED +

274 obsequious] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “dutiful in regard to the dead (OED a. 1b). The adjective, from ’obsequies’ (as at [3415]), is now more common in its later meaning, ’flattering’.”

ard3q2: standard

274 perseuer] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(stressed on second syllable) persist, continue”