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.

1747 warb

warb

448 tenable] Warburton (ed. 1747): “If treble be right, in propriety it should be read, Let it be treble in your silence now. But the old quarto reads, Let it be tenable in your silence still. And this is right.”

Ed. note: He does not say anything about his contraction nor explain why tenable is right. cam1 calls his first sentence a conj., which is then withdrawn; rather, it is an argument against the F1 reading in the context of the line as a whole.

-1761 Rochester?

Rochester

448 be tenable] Rochester? (-1761, p. 198) emends require, the Players Quarto [specifically Q9] word, to be tenable, the Q2 phrase, saying “Require, is the wrong Voice.”

1765 john1

john1 = warb

448 tenable]

Ed. note: —john uses F1 treble.

1773 v1773

v1773 = warb

448 tenable]

1778 v1778

v1778 ≈ v1773

448 tenable]

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

448 tenable]

1790 mal

mal

448 tenable] Malone (ed. 1790): “So the quarto, 1604. Folio: —treble. Malone.”

1793 v1793

v1793 ≈ warb without attribution; ≈ mal without attribution

448 tenable] Steevens (ed. 1793):“Thus the quartos, and rightly. The folio, 1623, reads—treble. Steevens”

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

448 tenable]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

448 tenable]

1819 cald1

cald1: Farmer; Allot

448 tenable] Caldecott (ed. 1819), arguing for treble: “ Let it be treble in your silence still]]. Impose a threefold obligation of silence.

“In making a high estimate of any thing, this seems to have been a favourite scale or measure with Shakespeare. ‘This to do,’ says Antonio in [Tmp. 2.1.221 (906)], ‘trebles you o’er’: i.e. makes thrice the man of you. This passage is illustrated by Mr. Steevens from Fletcher’s [TNK 1.2.96 (416)], ‘Thirds his own worth.’ Dr. Farmer, in Reed’s edit. [18: 425], says, he has no doubt but that Shakespeare’s hand is to be seen in this play. In [MV 3.2.153 (1500)] Bassanio tells Portia ‘So thrice fair lady stand I in a doubt,’ and she in reply, ‘I would be trebled twenty times myself.’ And in [Per. 4.1.64 (1486)] Marina, we have, ‘The Master calls, and trebles the confusion’;] and in this play [3439) Laert. ‘O treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursed head!’

“And this tenfold triple computation we find in verses ascribed to Shakespeare by Allot in his English Parnassus. 12mo. 1608, p. 369. ‘That time of yeere when the inamour’d sunne, Clad in the richest roabes of living fires, Courted the Virgin signe, great Nature’s Nunne, Which barraines earth of all that earth desires: Even in the mouth that from Augustus woone His sacred name, which unto heav’n aspires: And on the last of his ten-trebled dayes.’

“And in [Ven. line 329], ‘For lovers say, the heart hath treble wrong When it is bard the aydance of the tongue.’”

Ed. note: cald is the 1st since gent to restore F1.

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

448 tenable]

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 minus struck out, + in magenta underlined

448 tenable] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “Let it be treble in your silence still]]. Impose a threefold obligation of silence. In making a high estimate of any thing, this seems to have been a favourite scale or measure with Shakespeare. ‘This to do,’ says Antonio in [Tmp. 2.1.221 (906)], ‘trebles you o’er’: i.e. makes thrice the man of you. This passage is illustrated by Steevens from Fletcher’s [TNK 1.2.96], ‘Thirds his own worth.’ Dr. Farmer, in Reed’s edit. [18: 425], says, he has no doubt but that Shakespeare’s hand is to be seen in this play. In [MV 3.2.153 (1500)] Bassanio tells Portia ‘So thrice fair lady stand I in a doubt,’ and she in reply, ‘I would be trebled twenty times myself.’ ‘Treble sinewed.’ [Ant. 3.13.177 (2362)] ~~only in cald1: And in [Per. 4.1.64 (1486)] Marina, we have, ‘The Master calls, and trebles the confusion’;~~ and in this play [3439) Laert. ‘O treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursed head!’

“And in [Ven. 329], ‘For lovers say, the heart hath treble worng When it is bard the aydance of the tongue.’ ”

1839 knt1

knt1 ≈ cald2 without attribution

448 tenable] Knight (ed. 1839): “Treble. So the folio; in quarto (B) [Q2], tenable. Hamlet imposes a threefold obligation of silence.”

1843 col1

col1

448 tenable] Collier (ed. 1843): “The folio misprints ‘tenable’ as it stands in the quartos, treble. The quarto, 1603, spells the word tenible.”

1844 Dyce

Dyce: knt1, cald1

448 tenable] Dyce (1844, p. 205): “Mr. Knight gives the misprint of the folio, ‘treble,’ as had already been done by Caldecott, from whose edition he has borrowed the explanation, ‘Hamlet imposes a threefold obligation of silence;’ but has very prudently forborne to quote the parallel passages which are there adduced, —for, except that they happen to contain the word “treble,’ ‘thirds,’ and ‘thrice,’ they bear not the most distant resemblance to the monstrous expression, ‘Let it be treble in your silence.’ ”

1854 del2

del2

448 tenable] Delius (ed. 1854): “ ‘lasst dieses Gesicht ferner in Eurem Stillschweigen seinen Platz behaupten.’ Die Lesart der Fol. treble für tenable ist wohl nur Druckfehler.” [‘Let this face keep his place in your silence.’ The folio reading treble for tenable is merely a compositor error.] [‘Let this face keep his place further in your silence.’ The folio reading treble for tenable is probably merely a compositor error.]

1857 dyce1

dyce1 ≈ Dyce: knt1; cald1

448 tenable] Dyce (ed. 1857): “So all the quartos.—The folio has ‘Let it bee treble in your silence still,’ &c. , — a blunder which Caldecott retains (and Mr. Knight once retained),—as meaning ‘Let it impose a threefold obligation of silence’!”

1858 col3

col3 = col1 +

448 tenable] Collier (ed. 1858): “Treble is amended to ‘tenable’ in the corr. fo. 1632. In [3439] of this play, it will be seen that ‘treble’ is misprinted in the folio, 1623, terrible, and so it was continued till the time of Rowe: he did not, however, as he ought to have done, correct wooer there to ‘woe’: see his edit. 1709, [5: 2454].”

1860 Walker

Walker

448 tenable] Walker (1860, 1:185-6): <p. 185> “(Tenable or tenible in the passive sense, [448] [quotes]. In the Hamlet (so called) of 1603 it is written tenible; </p. 185><p. 186> perhaps this was Shakespeare’s spelling, for the folio has treble.” </p. 186>

Ed. note: see Baily’s ref. below.

1861 wh1

wh1

448 tenable] White (ed. 1861): “ . . . ‘treble’—[is] a misprint which we might have had some trouble in correcting had it not been for the 4tos.”

Nick says that White transcribed notes in Walker c.3, and he transcribed them for the Ham section.

1862 Baily

Baily; Walker; knt1 without attribution (but wordier)

448 tenable] Bailey (1862, 1: 50-4): <p. 50> “On the grounds that tenable does not carry out the manifest intention of the poet, and not only departs from consistency of thought but is unsupported as an expression by any antecedent or subsequent passage of his dramatic writings, I shall endeavor to show that it ought to be rejected and the rival phrase reinstated in the text.

“The passage occurs in Hamlet’s injunction to Horatio and his comrades, after they had divulged to him the awful intelligence that they had seen the ghost of his father, and he had announced to them his intention to join them in the watch: ‘I will watch to-night, Perchance ’twill walk again.’

“Horatio having replied, ‘I warrant you it will,’ the prince addresses his friendly informants as follows:— ‘If it assume my noble father’s person, I’ll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal’d this sight, </p. 50> <p. 51> Let it be treble in your silence still; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, Give it an understanding but no tongue.’ [444-50].

“This is the text of the text of the folio 1623. The old quarto of 1603 has tenible instead of treble, and that of 1604 has the same with a different spelling, tenable: ‘Let is be tenable in your silence still.’

“Whatever uncertainty may hang over the text, the intention of the passage which I have put in italics cannot be doubted. Hamlet obviously meant simply to say, ‘If you have all hitherto kept the matter secret, be all of you silent about it still;’ and the question to be decided is, which of the readings fulfills the requisite condition better than the other.

“Although tenable has been generally adopted by editors and annotators, and amongst the rest by the corrector of the Perkins folio, I cannot help regarding it as thoroughly objectionable, and as having nothing in its favour but priority of appearance in the earliest editions of the tragedy. My objections to it I will proceed to explain.

“First, the phrase tenable in silence is scarcely English, from the mere fact that it is never used; and its never being used is evidently the consequence of the further fact, that no ordinary combination of circumstances requires it. It would </p. 51><p. 52> need some ingenuity to devise a case in which it could be employed with propriety.

“Secondly, whether English or not, it does not here express the meaning intended. The injunction which Hamlet designs to convey is that the matter be held in silence, not holdable in silence, the latter being a common condition of all intelligence, not dependent on any mandate, and which no one in his senses would think of enjoining. The absurdity of such an injunction would be shown by varying the expression. Suppose Hamlet, instead of saying, ‘Let all of you hold it in silence,’ had said, ‘Let all of you be capable of holding it in silence,’ we should at once see the inanity of the speech.

“Thirdly, the word tenable is nowhere to be found in Shakespeare’s dramatic writings, although intenible occurs once; and singularly enough it is employed in an active sense, —incapable of holding, not incapable of being held * —a use of passive adjectives not uncommon in Shakespeare, and not confined to him.

“But, further, the word is exceptionable in this particular passage, not only for the reason assigned, but also on the ground, not hitherto remarked by any critic, as far as I can learn, that by excluding the right term it would destroy the point of the line. A slight consideration of the position of the </p. 52><p. 53> speaker and of his auditors will suffice to prove the truth of the last assertion, and lead to the conclusion, that treble is the right word, and peculiarly appropriate in its application. Hamlet is conversing with three companions, Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus; and, after hearing their joint account of the ghost which was seen by all three of them, he lays upon all three a solemn injunction: ‘I pray you all If you have hitherto conceal’d this sight Let it be treble in your silence still.’ i.e. let all three of you continue to preserve silence respecting it.

“But undoubtedly the word treble so placed, although charged with a peculiarly appropriate meaning, sounds somewhat harsh; and hence I am led to suspect that it has been transposed. Shakespeare probably wrote,—‘Let it be in your treble silence still.’ Let it continue in the silence of all three of you.

“It is easy to see that, when once treble had been converted into tenable, a transposition would be required; and on the restoration of the genuine text a re-adjustment necessarily follows. * </p. 53><p. 54>

“The following strikes me as a singularly analogous expression. Cymbeline (in the play of that name) is pouring forth a torrent of questions to Imogen, as well as to his newly recovered sons, and their putative father:—‘ . . . These And your three motives to the battle, . . . should be demanded.’ [Cym. 5.5.387 (3708)]. That is to say, the motives of you three, not your motives three in number.” </p. 54>

<n52> “* For this remark as to intenible I am indebted to Sidney Walker’s ‘Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare,’ vol. 1. p. 186.” </n52>

<n53> “* And yet tenable would be more unobjectionable before silence than before in, for reasons I have not room to state.” </n53>

1866 dyce2

dyce2 ≈ dyce1 modified by a revision in Knight

448 tenable] Dyce (ed. 1866): “So all the quartos.— The folio has “Let it bee treble in your silence still,’ &c.; a blunder which Caldecott retains (and Mr. Knight once retained),—as meaning, ‘Let it impose a threefold obligation of silence’!”

1866? mWright

mWright

448 tenable] Wright (ms. notes, fol. 154, TCC Add. MS b.58.154.): “I had once thought that the folio treble was a misprint for the after-thought ‘tabled.’ ‘If I had played the desk or table-book’ Pol. [1165] but on after consideration I prefer tenable.

1868 c&mc

c&mc: standard + //s

448 tenable] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “The Folio misprints ‘treble” for ‘tenable,’ which is the reading of the Quartos. ‘Tenable’ is here used for ‘held,’ or “kept;’ according to Shakespeare’s occasional practice when employing words ending in ‘ble.’ See [TN 4.3.21 (2135), n. 50; JC 4.1.12 (1866), n.4].”

1870 Abbott

Abbott: See TLN 72

448 tenable] Abbott (§3):

1872 cln1

cln1 ≈ clarke & Clarke; standard VN w/ dismissal of Ff, def. [nothing new]

448 tenable] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “So the quartos. That of 1603 spells it ‘tenible.’ The folio has ‘treble,’ a mere misprint. The sense is: ‘Regard it as a secret which ought to be kept’.”

1877 v1877

v1877: cald & knt1; ≈ wh; ≈ bailey (i, 51); cln1 (gloss only), Ref. Walker Crit. i. 183, Abbott §3

448 tenable] Furness (ed. 1877): “Caldecott and Knight (ed. i) defend the misprint of Ff. Both paraphrase it: ‘Impose a threefold obligation of silence;’ and in proof that this was a favorite scale or measure in Sh., Caldecott adds some examples, which Mrs Clarke’s Concordance will more than treble.”

Ed. note: See her Concordance in the site’s Interesting Texts.

1877 dyce3

dyce3 = dyce2

1880 Tanger

Tanger

448 tenable] Tanger (1880, p. 123): F1 variant “probably owing to the negligence, inattention, or criticism of the compositor.”

1880 Meikeljohn

Meikeljohn ≈ cln1 +

448 tenable] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “The only instance of the word. S. has the word intenible in [AWW 1.3.202 (533)]: ‘This captious and intenible sieve.’”

1881 hud3

hud3

448 tenable] Hudson (ed. 1881): “for retained. The Poet has many like instances of confusion of forms; as admired for admirable, that is, wonderful, in [Mac. 3.4.108 (1387)]: ‘Broke the good meeting with most admired disorder.’”

1885 macd

macd ≈ cald on treble without attribution; Baily on treble, Cym. without attribution

448 tenable] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “If treble be the right word, the actor in uttering it must point to each of the three, with distinct yet rapid motion. The phrase would be a strange one, but not unlike Shakspere. Compare Cym. [quotes as in Baily]. Perhaps, however, it is only the adjective for the adverb: ‘having concealed it hitherto, conceal it trebly now.’ But tenible [as in Q1] may be the word: ‘let it be a thing to be kept in your silence still.’”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ cald; macd; cln1

448 tenable]

1929 trav

trav

448 tenable] Travers (ed. 1929): “N. E. D. has a xviith century instance, in prose, of “tenable’ = capable of being held, as in French. The sense here is ‘prove that you are able to hold it back.’”

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH

448 tenable] Wilson (1934, p. 45) sees in the F1 variant treble the work of a scribe “very careless in the formation of the letter r, especially when written in conjunction with an e. Aside from 448, he mentions instances in 2033, 2449, 2535, 3439, 3616, all having the e and r connection.

1935 Wilson

Wilson WHH

448 Wilson (1935, p. 48), in defense of his idea that Hamlet must keep the king’s crime secret for the sake of the family, cites 448, 812, 837 ff.

1938 parc

parc

448 tenable] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “held.”

1939 kit2

kit2

325 Let it be tenable] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Regard it as something that must be held."

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

448 tenable in your silence] Rylands (ed. 1947): "kept secret."

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

448 tenable] Farnham (ed. 1957): “held firmly.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

448 tenable] Farnham (ed. 1970): “held firmly”

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

448 tenable . . . silence] Spencer (ed. 1980): “kept secret.”

1985 cam4

cam4

448 tenable] Edwards (ed. 1985): "something that can be held."

1987 oxf4: standard gloss + OED

oxf4

448 be . . . silence] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "i.e. remain a secret. OED cites no earlier example of tenable in this sense, and glosses it as ‘capable of being held’. Shakespeare does not use the word elsewhere."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

448 tenable] Bevington (ed. 1988): “held tightly.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

448 tenable] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “withheld, kept secret”

1997 OED

OED

448 tenable] OED: cites Ham.: That which can be "held in control."

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: cald; //; macd

448 tenable] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “capable of being held (maintained as a secret). This is Shakespeare’s only use of the word (though Helena mentions an ’intemible’ (F) or ’intenible’ (F2)—i.e. bottomless—sieve at AWW 1.3.199), but F’s ’treble’ is usually assumed to be an error, though it is defended by Caldecott—’a threefold obligation of silence’— and MacDonald, who suggests Hamlet points to each of the three men in turn and cites Cym., ’your three motives to the battle’ (5.5.389)—meaning ’the motives of you three’—as a comparable usage. ’Treble’ might also mean ’conceal it trebly’.”