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Line 294 - 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.

294 Doe I impart {toward you for} <towards you. For> your intent	1.2.112

1730 mtheo2

mtheo2: see n. 292

294 Doe I impart] Theobald (1730, fol. 57r): “I not only declare you my successor, but [als]o impart to you the same cordial love, that the fondest Father can impart to a Son.”

1747 warb

warb

294 impart] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Impart, for profess.”

Ed. note: OED does not have this def.; by changing to an intransitive instead of a transitive verb, warb avoids the issue of the substantive and the Theobald emendation. See Heath.

1753 blair

blair = warb

294 impart]

1758 Edwards

Edwards Glossary

294 impart] Edwards (1758, p. 200): “‘profess.’ [Ham.:] evidently in the latin sense of impertio, give, bestow.”

1765 Heath

Heath

294 impart] Heath (1765, pp. 523-4): <p. 523> “The verb, impart, seems to be used in this place in a neutral [intransitive] signification, for, impart or communicate, myself and whatever depends on my power. If the idiom of our language will bear this interpretation, as I believe it will, there will be no occasion for Mr. </p.523 > <p. 524>Theobald’s correction of the line next but one preceding ‘And with’t no less nobility of love,’ which otherwise seems absolutely necessary to compleat the construction.” </p. 524>

1765 john1

john1 = warb +

294 impart] Johnson (ed. 1765): “I believe impart is, impart myself, communicate whatever I can bestow.”

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

294 impart

1774 capn

capn = Heath (minus struck through) + in magenta underlined

292-4 Capell (1774, 1.1:123) quotes Heath’s Revisal at length and approves: “ Revisal . . . proceeds to observe, —‘ that the verb, impart [294], seems to be us’d ~~in this place~~ in a neutral signification, for—impart or communicate, myself and whatever depends on my power.’ The interpretation is right; and the passage, thus consider’d, is of a piece with many others that come from this speaker, which are attir’d in a pompous obscurity.”

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773

294 impart

1780 mals1

malsi: Blackstone note; see n. 291

1783 Ritson

Ritson: contra Johnson; contra Steevens +

294 impart] Ritson (1783, p. 192): “Impart most assuredly means profess myself, bear me towards you; and not what dr. Johnson says, (i.e. communicate whatever I can bestow) whose note, as well as mr. Steevenses, should be entirely expunged.”

Ed. note: sic. Ritson uses his own spelling and capitalization scheme.

1784 ays1

ays1: john without attribution

294 impart]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778 + mals1 Blackstone; see n. 291

1787 ann

ann = v1785

294 impart]

1790 mal

mal = v1785

294 impart]

Ed. note:Blackstone given credit for note.

1791- rann

rann

292-4 Rann (ed. 1791-): “devote myself, and best services to your interest.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

294 impart]

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

294 impart]

1813 v1813

v1813 =v1803

294 impart]

1819 cald1

cald1: n. 42, p. 18

294 impart] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Impart is dispense, hold out. ‘Impart, I say; give him twenty pieces.’ Shak. Marmyon’s Fine Companion.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

294 impart]

1826 sing1

sing1 ≈ cald1 + analogue

294 impart] Singer (ed. 1826): “i.e. dispense, bestow. Thus Dryden: — ‘High state and honours to others impart, But give me your heart.’ ”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 transposition in magenta.

294 impart] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “Impart is dispense, hold out. So Marmyon’s Fine Companion. ‘Impart, I say; give him twenty pieces.’ Shak. Marmyon’s Fine Companion.”

1854 del2

del2

294 Doe I impart] Delius (ed. 1854): “Die Commentatoren erklären: impart myself. Wahrscheinlich aber bezog Sh. in ungenauer, durch den Zwischensatz veranlasster Construction no less nobility of love als Object auf import und vergass, dass er with no less geschrieben.” [The commentators explain impart as impart myself. Probably, however, Sh. was referring (in an inexact construction caused by the intervening clause) to no less nobility of love as the object of impart and forgot that he had written with no less.]

1856 hud1

hud1 ≈ cald2 without attribution

294 Doe I impart] Hudson (ed. 1856): “That is, dispense, bestow.”

1859 Werder

Werder

294-8 For . . . sonne] Werder (1859, trans. 1907, p. 71) claims that the king’s wish is a command that Hamlet cannot disobey.

1868 c&mc

c&mc ≈ hud1 without attribution + in magenta underlined; see also n. 291

294 impart] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “Here used for confer,’ ‘bestow,’ ‘dispense.’ ”

1870 Abbott

Abbott § 415

294 impart] Abbott (§ 415) does not refer to this line but discusses similar instances when the construction changes with a change in thought.

1870 Abbott

Abbott § 149

294 for] Abbott (§ 149): “loosely used in the sense ‘as regards.’” He cites Ham. 294 and 832.

1870 rug1

rug1 ≈ hud1 without attribution

294 impart] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Do I dispense to you.”

1872 cln1

cln1: theo; Badham; john +

294 impart] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “Impart has no substantive following it. . . .”

1872 hud2

hud2 = hud1 (w minor diff. in magenta) + in magenta underlined

294 impart] Hudson (ed. 1872): “plainly equivalent here to bestow upon you. I do not remember another instance of impart so used. See, however, St. Luke iii.11 [‘He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none . . .‘].”

1878 rlf1

rlf1: Abbott § 149

294 for] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “as for”

1880 meik

meik ≈ del2 without attribution

294 impart]

meik≈ rlf1 and Abbott gloss without attribution

294 for] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “= as for.”

1881 hud3

hud3

294 impart towards you] Hudson (ed. 1881) “seems rather odd language, especially as impart has no object. The meaning probably is, ‘I take you into a partnership,’ or ‘I invest you with a participation of the royal dignity, as heir presumptive.’”

1899 ard1

ard1: Badham, john both attributed but from cln1 without attribution

294 impart] Dowden (ed. 1899): “The verb has no object; perhaps it is a confused construction; possibly it is a case of the absorption of ‘it’ by the ‘t’ of ‘impart.’”

1904 ver

ver

294 Doe I impart] Verity (ed. 1904); “When he began with [with in 292] he was going to use some phrase like ‘am I disposed.’

Ed. note: Sh. perhaps purposely meant the king to appear a bit flustered as he makes these fulsome promises.

1946 [note added to 1936 ed.] Granville-Barker

Granville-Barker: Dover Wilson

294-5 for your intent . . . Wittenberg ] Granville-Barker (1930; rpt. 1946, 1: 52 n. 6: “No one, of course, could leave England to travel abroad without permission, and in Shakespeare’s Denmark the same laws apply . . . One does not let a discontented heir to the throne go abroad and out of reach.”

Granville-Barker

294-5 For your intent . . . Wittenberg ] Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 257) refers to the university as “Protestant Wittenberg,” blaming the new faith in part for Hamlet’s uncertainties that have him questioning when he should be doing.

1938 parc

parc

294 impart] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “offer myself.”

1939 kit2

kit2

294 impart] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "express myself. Cf. Henry Porter, Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599 (Malone Society, II, 257, 258): ’With all the parts of neighbor loue I [do] impart my selfe to maister Goursey.’ "

kit2 = meik without attribution

294 for] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "as for."

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

294 impart] Rylands (ed. 1947): "behave, make myself known (’myself’ is understood)."

1958 fol1

fol1: standard

294 impart toward you] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “express myself to you.”

1964 SQ

Strathmann

294-9 for your intent . . . our sonne] Strathmann (1964, p. 2) remarks on the “refusal of permission to return to Wittenberg, the kind of permission just granted to Laertes. If a ghostly visitor and an uncanonical marriage have put us on alert, we just possibly may be suspicious of this refusal [to alllow Hamlet] to travel.”

1980 pen2

pen2

294 I] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Claudius adopts the singular pronoun when he addresses Hamlet as a father to a son.”

pen2

294 impart toward] Spencer (ed. 1980): “bestow (my affection) upon. The syntax seems awkward; with in line 110 expects a different verb.”

pen2

294 for] Spencer (ed. 1980): “as for.”

1982 ard2

ard2: kit2; john

294 impart] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “deal liberally. Such intransitive use does not occur elsewhere [in Sh.]. It may be that by the time he had reached the verb Shakespeare regarded nobility as its object, forgetting that he had begun with with. But Kittredge compares Porter, Two Angry Women of Abington [Malone Society Rpt., line 258], ’With all the parts of neighbour love, I impart myself to Master Goursey’; and it is possible that Shakespeare used impart for ’impart myself’. So Johnson interpreted it.”

1985 cam4

cam4; Johnson; Kittredge

294 impart toward you] Edwards (ed. 1985): "convey (this gift of my vote) to you. This is admittedly an unusual intransitive usage of ’impart’, but I think it agrees with Johnson’s not very clear gloss: ’I believe impart is, impart myself, communicate whatever I can bestow.’ Kittredge glossed the word as ’express myself’."

1985 Fisher

Fisher

294 impart] Fisher (1985, p. 4): “‘Impart’ means ‘bestow,’ ‘import’ means ‘to bear as its purport,’ and thus it conveys Shakespeare’s meaning. The emendation is negligible except in sense.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4= Abbott § 149

294 for]

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

294 impart toward] Bevington (ed. 1988): “i.e., bestow my affection on.”

bev2: standard

294 for] Bevington (ed. 1988): “as for.”

1990 OED

OED

294 impart] OED: considers the verb impart, trans., “now only with immaterial object, e.g. a condition, quality, etc.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

294 impart toward] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “give to”