Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 621+1 {This heauy headed reueale east and west} | 1.4.17 |
|---|
51 125 310 621+1 1605 Stow
Stow
621+1-621+5 Stow (1605, p. 1436), speaking of Danish excess in drinking [see 310], writes, “To be briefe, it were superfluous to tell you of all superfluities that were vsed and it would make a man sick to heare of their drunken healths: use hath brought it into a fashion, & fashion made it a habit, which ill beseemes our natio[n ] to imitate.”
1723 pope1
pope1
621+1- 621+20a This . . . fault] Pope (ed. 1723): “These 21 lines following are in the first edition, but since left out, perhaps as being thought too verbose.”
1726 theon
theon = pope +
621+1- 621+20a This . . . fault] Theobald (1726, p. 29): “We come now to a degraded Passage. as Mr. Pope stiles it; that is, One not receiv’d into the Text, but plac’d (as suspected, and too bad to belong to Shakespeare;) at the Bottom of his Page. I must transcribe the whole Passage, tho’ long, before I attempt to set it right; because it happens to labour under false Spelling, false Pointing, false Reading, false Concord, and flat Nonsense. Mr. Pope introduces the Verses with this short Note. [quotes] Since left out? —I have a Quarto Edition, which, I suppose, Mr. Pope never saw; (printed by R. Young and John Smethwicke, in the year 1637.) where they are not left out; but inserted with an Addition, which, tho’ very corruptly printed, when amended, I doubt not will appear to be of our Author’s own Writing: And they are again inserted in the other Quarto Edition publish’d in 1703, and in the Hamlet revised by Mr. Hughs [Wilks ed. 1723]. So that they have not been left out, altogether, from the Time of the first Publication. But to the Lines; —
“Hamlet, holding the Watch with Horatio, in Order to see his Father’s Apparition, a Noise of Warlike Musick is heard: Which Horatio desirous to know the Meaning of, Hamlet tells him, that the King sat up to drink, and whenever he took his Draught, the Kettle-Drum and Trumpet proclaim’d the Triumph of his Pledge. Horatio asking, whether it was a Custom; Hamlet replies, Yes; but one that, in his Opinion, it were better to break, then observe: And then falls into the following Reflexion, how the Danes were reproach’d for Drunkenness and what a Blot that Character was in Their Escutcheons.”
1728 pope2
pope2
621+1 Pope (ed. 1728, Appendix Aa4v) claims that Theobald’s conjectures are “founded on no Authority of Copies.”
pope2 = pope1; + in magenta underlined (reaction to theon)
621+1-621+20a This. . . fault] Pope (ed. 1728): “These 21 lines following are in the first edition, but since left out, perhaps as being thought too verbose, but certainly Shakespear’s.”
1733 theo1
theo1: theon, pope2 appendix +
621+1- 621+22 Theobald (ed. 1733): “This whole speech of Hamlet, to the entrance of the ghost, I set right in Shakespeare restor’d, so shall not trouble the Readers again with a Repetition of those Corrections, or Justification of them. Mr. Pope admits I have given the Whole a Glimmering of Sense, but it is purely conjectural, and founded on no Authority of Copies. But is this any Objection against Conjecture in Shakespeare’s Case. where no Original Manuscript is subsisting, and the Printed Copies have successively blunder’s after one another? And is not even a Glimmering of Sense, so it be not arbitrarily impos’d, preferable to flat and glaring Nonsense? If not, there is a total End at least to this Branch of Criticism: and Nonsense may plead Title and Prescription from Time, because there is no direct Authority for dispossessing it.”
Ed. note: The publisher dropped this note in issues of theo in 1740, 1752, and 1757.
1744 han1
han1 = pope1 without attribution with variant in magenta underlined
621+1- 621+20a This . . . fault] Hanmer (ed. 1743): “These 20 lines following are in the first edition, but since left out, perhaps as being thought too verbose.”
1747 warb
warb
621+1 Warburton (ed. 1747): “This reveling that observes no hours, but continues from morning to night, &c.”
1747- mtby4
mtby4: warb
621+1 Thirlby (1747-): “most ridiculous.”
1747-60 mBrowne
mBrown = warb +
621+1 Browne (1747-60, fol.?): “The comma at the end of the first line should be remov’d, and therefore seems to be, makes us traduc’d East and West, i.e. all the world over—Warb. explains it ‘This Reveling that observes no hours, but continues from Morning to Night’—I thought Reveling that observ’d no hours, more usually continued from night to morning—Mr. W’s reveling observes no Hours indeed. To continue from Morning to Night as well as from Night to Morning.”
1750 Edwards
Edwards = warb +
621+1 Edwards (1750 [3rd ed.], p.90): “This heavy-headed revel makes us traduced through the world, but Mr. Warburton says, ‘ . . . i.e. this revelling, which observes no hours, but continues from morning to night,’ &c. Warb.
“Had this been the meaning, it should have been from west to east; or from evening till morning. But common sense, and common English will not serve Mr. Warburton’s turn, without refining away the meaning of his author, which is from one end of the world to another.”
mTHEO3FOLc.1: from East to West Not much here to record
1765 Heath
Heath: Edwards +
621+1 Heath (1765, p. 529): “That is, throughout the world from east to west; a very proper expression in a kingdom that lay almost in the extremity of the north. See [Edwards] Canons of Criticism, p. 117.”
1765 john1
john1 = warb +
621+1 Johnson (ed. 1765): “I should not have suspected this passage of ambiguity or obscurity [a little irony here?], had I not found my opinion of it differing from that of the learned critic [warb, whom he quotes]. I construe it thus, This heavy-headed revel makes us traduced east and west, and taxed of other nations.”
1771 han3
han3 = han1
621+1- 621+20a
1773 v1773
v1773: warb, then john1.
621+1
1774 capn
capn
621+1-621+22 This . . . scandle] Capell (1774, 1:1:125): “And as small reason have we to question [the authentickness] of the 21 lines, that begin at ‘heavy-headed revel’ in this page and end with ‘scandal’ on that which comes next: the folio’s (it is true) have omitted them, and so have two of the moderns; but the fable is injur’d by’t, the collection and coolness of Hamlet is less apparent without them, and the Ghost’s entry makes a weaker impression. The lines themselves are not easy, nor will be presently enter’d into even by those who have made the Poet their study; and were much corrupted besides. . . .”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773
621+1
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
621+1
1790 mal
mal minus warb = john1 minus ref. to warb = Edwards minus Edwards’s ref to WARB (from Heath or independently?)
621+1 Malone (ed. 1790): “By east and west, as Mr. Edwards has observed, is meant, throughout the world; from one end of it to the other—This and the following twenty one lines have been restored from the quarto. Malone.”
Malone says in a letter to Percy that he saw no reason to continue quoting WARB (Percy Letters X, Sept. 28, 1786, I, 30-36, especially 34.
With the passive voice, he could be implying that HE restored the 4to lines, totally untrue, of course. malone (ed. 1790) approves of Edward’s definition; I mention this because he does not often refer to predecessors—and by doing so sometimes he implies he is doing it all the time.
1790- Wesley
Wesley
621+1 east and west] Wesley (ms. notes 1790-, p. 44): “I think that no one but Dr. Warburton would have blundered in this place.”
1791- rann
rann = Edwards minus 2nd half without attribution
621+1 Rann (ed. 1791-): “throughout the world.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
621+1
Note that Ste quite consistently seems to use MAL when he in v1773 and v1778 had had something different. Is this flattery or plagiarism? or simply the way one did things?
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
621+1
1807 Pye
Pye: Edwards, john1, mal
621+1 Pye (1807, p. 311): “Here Messrs. Edwards, Johnson, and Malone, combine their efforts to explain what no explanation can make clearer than it is.”
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
621+1
1819 Jackson
Jackson
621+1 Jackson (1819, p. 346): “If Heavy-headed revel, east and west, means from one end of the world to the other, why should the words—other nations be introduced? Do not the words—‘throughout the world,’ include all nations? In my opinion, Hamlet simply means the disgraceful appearance of a drunkard, who, when top-heavy, staggers from side to side ; and which state he humourously terms, east and west. It is but another figure for the inebriety which Enobarbus, in Antony and Cleopatra, calls the reels.”
1819 cald1
cald1: standard
621+1 Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Every where: from the rising to the setting sun.”
1819 mclr2
mclr2:
621+1-43 Coleridge (ms. notes 1819 in
Ayscough, ed
. 1807; rpt.
Coleridge, 1998, 12.4:844-5):<p.844>“—In addition to the other excellencies of Hamlet’s Speech concerning the
Wassel Music, so finely revealing the predominant idealism, <the ratiocinative meditativeness,> of his character, it has the advantage of giving nature and probability to the impassioned continuity of the Speech instantly directed to the Ghost. The momentum had been given to the his mental Activity—the full current of the thoughts & words had set in—and the very forgetfulness, in the fervor of his Argumentation, of the purpose for which he was there, aided in preventing the Appearance from benumming the mind—Consequently, it acted as a new impulse, a sudden Stroke which increased the velocity of the body already in motion while it altered the direction.— The co-presence of Horatio, Marcel- </p. 844><p. 845> lus and Bernardo is most judiciously contrived—for it renders the courage of Hamlet and his impetuous eloquence perfectly intelligible/. The knowledge, the
unthought-of consciousness, the
Sensation, of human Auditors, of Flesh and Blood Sympathists, as acts as a support, a stimulation
a tergo, while the
front of the Mind, the whole Consciousness of the Speaker, is filled by the solemn Apparition. Add too, that the Apparition itself has by its frequent previous appearances been brought nearer to a Thing of this World. This accrescence of Objectivity in a Ghost that yet retains all its ghostly attributes & fearful Subjectivity, is truly wonderful.”</p.845>
1821 v1821
v1821 = ? I assume v1813. Ck
621+1
1826 sing1
sing1
621+1 Singer (ed. 1726): “They [the Q2-only lines] had probably been omitted in representation, lest they should give offence to Anne of Denmark.”
1832 cald3
cald2 = cald1
621+1
1839 knt1
knt1: Mason in 621 +3 [Howell], cald2 in 612 [Harrington], sing [Queen Anne] + in magenta underlined (I hope, if I have this right)
621+1-621+22 This . . . scandle] Knight (ed. 1839): “In the augmented edition of 1604, we find added, the twenty-two lines beginning—‘This heavy-headed revel, east and west, Makes us traduc’d, and tax’d of other nations.’ The drunkenness thus attributed to the Danes in the original passage is qualified in the additional lines. It takes from ‘achievement;’ it is the ‘one defect’—the dram of ill.’ This circumstance, which we not seen noticed, is to our minds singularly indicative of Shakspere’s character. James I, came to the English throne in 1603; his queen was Anne of Denmark. The intemperance of the Danish court was well known to all Europe. Howell, who visited Denmark at the beginning of the seventeenth century, thus describes the ‘rouse’ and the ‘wassels,’ in his letters:—‘I made a Latin speech to the king of Denmark’ (Christian IV., uncle of Anne, queer of James) ‘on the embassy of my lord of Leicester, who attended him at Rheynsburg, in Holsteinland. The king feasted my lord once, and it lasted from eleven of the clock till towards the evening, during which time the king began thirty-five healths: the first to the emperor, the second to his nephew of England; and so went over all the kings and queens of Christendom, but he never remembered the Prince of Palsgrave’s health, or his niece’s, all the while. The king was taken away at last in his chair.’ This same kingly lover of the ‘heavy-headed revel’ visited England soon after James’ accession to throne; and the effects of his visit upon the national manners are thus described in a letter of Sir John Harrington, 1606:—‘From the day the Danish king came, until this hour, I have been well nigh overwhelmed with carousal, and sports of all kinds. . . . [sic] I think the Dane hath strangely wrought on our good English nobles; for those whom I never could get to taste good liquor, now follow the fashion, and wallow in beastly delights. The ladies abandon their sobriety, and are seen to roll about in intoxication. I do often say (but not aloud) that the Danes have again conquered the Britains; for I see no man, or woman either, that can now command himself or herself.’ Sir John Harrington, it seems, did not venture to say aloud what he thought of these habits; and for the same reason Shakspere’s strong description of the custom ‘More honour’d in the breach than the observance’—might have given offence to the court of the new monarch. But he did not suppress the description. It made it only less severe by a tolerant exposition of the mode in which one ill quality destroys the lustre of many good ones. It is remarkable that this additional passage was omitted in the folio of 1623, published after the death of Anne of Denmark.”
1843 col1
col1: knt1 without attribution on James I + in magenta underlined
621+1-621+22 This . . . scandle] Collier (ed. 1843):“Possibly they never formed part of the acted play, as James I, was married to a Danish Princess and the King of Denmark twice visited this country early in the reign of the successor of Elizabeth. Mr. Barron Field thinks that ‘the disquisition is too long and calm for the awful occasion, and that Shakespeare may have desired it to be left out by the performer on this account.’ Both reasons may have had their influence.”
-1845 mHunter
mHunter 24,497:
621+1 “This heavy-headed revel East and West” is followed by a note reading “So in McMan’s [?] F27 story of the King of Denmark falling with ... in his hand when proposing to drink the King of England’s health ...”
1856 hud1
hud1 = sing1 (subst.) without attribution
621+1
hud1 = Coleridge
621+1-621+22 the dram . . . scandle] Coleridge (apud Hudson [ed. 1856]): “In addition to the other excellences of Hamlet’s speech concerning the wassel-music, — so finely revealing predominant idealism, the ratiocinative meditativeness, of his character. —it has the advantage of giving nature and probability to the impassioned continuity of the speech instantly directed to the ghost. The momentum had been given to his mental activity; the full current of the thoughts and words had set in; and the very forgetfulness, in the fervour of his argumentation, of the purpose for which he was there, aided in preventing the appearance from benumbing the mind. Consequently, it acted as a new impulse, —a sudden stroke which increased the velocity of the body already in motion whilst it altered the direction. The co-presence of Horatio and Marcellus, and Bernardo is most judiciously contrived; for it renders the courage of Hamlet, and his impetuous eloquence, perfectly intelligible. The knowledge—the unthought of consciousness, the sensation—of human auditors, of flesh and blood sympathists, acts as a support, a stimulation, a tergo, while the front of the mind, the whole consciousness of the speaker, is filled; yea, absorbed by the solemn apparition. Add, too, that the apparition itself has, by its frequent previous appearances, been brought nearer to a thing of this world. This accrescence of objectivity in a ghost that yet retains all its ghostly attributes & fearful subjectivity, is truly wonderful.—Coleridge. H.”
1856 sing2
sing2 = sing1
621+1
1858 col3
col3 = col1 minus what was new in col1. The last sentence then is somewhat diff. in col3:
621+1-621+22 This . . . scandle] Collier (ed. 1858): “The lines mau have been struck out to avoid offence.”
1866- mWright2
mWright2
621+1-621+22 This . . . scandle] Wright (ms. notes, 1866-, fol. 154): “The lines from—This heavy-headed [revel?]—were probably struck out of the acting copies, and omitted in the folio as too pointedly applicable to the drunken habits of James. This is the line likely as according to Dr Beaumont writing in 1604. The comedians of the metropolis has brought James on the steps, and the loose Venice Duke in Marston’s What You Will (published 1607) is almost unmistakably his whom scandal called Riggio’s son.”
1867 Keightley
Keightley
621+1-621+22 This . . . scandle] Keightley (1867, p. 288): “. . . it should also be recollected that the langauge of the whole of the speech is involvedm as if the speaker was thinking of something else, and merely talking against time.”
1870 rug1
rug1 ≈ hud without attribution + in magenta underlined
621+1-621+22 Moberly (ed. 1870): “Coleridge remarks on this speech that it stirs Hamlet’s mind with a certain degree of emotion to serve as a starting-point for his horror at the apparition. This would be an actor’s instinct in Shakspere; as an unprepared burst of vehement passion runs the risk of exciting ridicule. The speech is also the first instance of the remarkably reflective and generalizing spirit which marks Hamlet’s character throughout, to the ruin of his active energies.”
This note occurs with his comments on 621+20-22, and I will also include it there.
1872 cln1
cln1
621+1 Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “In [Oth. 2. 3. 77 (1189)], the Dane is mentioned as a deep drinker with the German and the Hollander. In the present passage there is probably an indirect reflection on the drinking habits of the English, which are directly censured in the same scene of Othello. Compare Beaumont and Fletcher, the Captain, iii. 2: ‘Lod. Are the Englishmen Such stubborn drinkers? Pizo. Not a leak at sea Can suck more liquor: you shall have their children Christen’d in mull’d sack, and at five years old Able to knock a Dane down.’ˆ
1872 hud2
hud2 = hud1 (minus speculation about why F1 omitted the Q2 lines; i.e. the uniquely sing part)
621+1
1873 rug2
rug2 = rug1
621+1 - 621+22
1877 v1887
v1877: mal, knt (minus), ‡Elze
621+1- 621+22 Furness (ed. 1877): “As these lines are not in Q1,
Malone supposes that they were omitted out of deference to Anne of Denmark, the queen of James I.
Knight, on the other hand, ingeniously conjectures that they were added in Q2 in order to qualify the harsh description of royal riot in lines [612-16]. A trait of Shakespeare’s character may be herein indicated: he would not suppress the lines offensive to royalty, because the description given in them was true; he only made it less severe by adding a tolerant exposition of the mode in which one ill quality destroys the lustre of many good ones. After the queen’s death the passage was omitted in the Ff.
Else believes that they were erased by Sh. but restored by the printer of Q2 in order to justify his title page, wherein it was stated that the play was ‘enlarged to as much again as it was,’ and is inclined to believe them spurious.”
v1877 = john contra warb
621+1 east and west]
Furness may have gone back to john to find the Warb. which he adds because v1821,
Furness’s usual source, om. Warb.
1881 hud3
hud3 : standard
621+1 east and west] Hudson (ed. 1881): “The sense of east and west goes with what follows, not what precedes.”
1883 wh2
wh2
621+1 east and west] White (ed. 1883): “as if, far and wide.”
1884 Feis
Feis
621+1 - 621+22 Feis (1884, rpt. 1970, p. 69, p. 71), <p. 69> commenting on this passage’s absence in Q1, sees in it Sh.’s effort to make Hamlet express Montaigne’s pernicious idea that Nature is not to be trusted. <p. 69> <p.71> “With such a mode of thought it is not to be wondered at that he should welcome the first occasion when the task of his life may be revealed to him by a heavenly messenger.” </p. 71>
1885 macd
macd: standard
621+1-621+22 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “The Quarto surely came too early for this passage to have been suggested by the shameful habits which invaded the court through the example of Anne of Denmark! Perhaps Shakspere cancelled it both because he would not have it supposed he had meant to reflect on the queen, and because he came to think it too diffuse.”
1904 ver
ver
621+1-621+22 Verity (ed. 1904): “Later we see how applicable Hamlet’s words are to himself and his ‘stamp of one defect,’ i.e. over-reflectiveness.”
ver
621+1-621+22 Verity (ed. 1904): “Hamlet does not say that the bad element will usually corrupt and pervert all the good element ; he means throughout [621+1- 621+22] that the ‘defect’ will cause a man to lose the credit really due to him for his good qualities. Not how many words imply ‘credit’ or ‘discredit,’ ‘good reputation’ or ‘scandal.’”
1905 TLS
Anon.
621+1-621+22 Anon. (TLS, 7 April 1905, p. 114), in a review of Bradley’s book, criticizes Coleridge for justifying Hamlet’s speech on the grounds of psychological realism: there is, the reviewer states, no psychology because there is only dramatic manipulation.
1929 TLS
Campbell, A. Y. contra J. D. Wilson as reported in TLS 1929, p. 681
621+1-621+22 Campbell (1929, p. 704) declares that the purpose of supposedly extraneous speeches such as this Q2-only passage serve the purpose of creating a lulling atmosphere into which the ghost’s entrance can shock and surprise. Wilson, below, came around to Campbell’s opinion.
1934 Wilson
Wilson MSH: standard
124+1-124+18; 621+1-621+22 Wilson (1934, p. 25) notes that both segments omitted in F1 precede the entrance of the ghost. Though these Q2-only lines may seem digressive, they serve the purpose of distracting audience attention with lines in a “minor key [...] to lull the minds of his audience to rest and so startle them the more with his apparition.”
Wilson MSH
621+1 reueale] Wilson (1934, p. 105) blames the compositor for interpreting what may have been revele into the wrong one of the two possibilities the word presented to him.
1939 kit2
kit2: standard
621+1 - 621+22 Kittredge (ed. 1939): "The dramatic purpose of the long speech that follows is to make the coming of the Ghost a surprise, both to Hamlet and to the audience. There is a similar device before [51 and 125]."
kit2: standard gloss; F1 VN
621+1 east and west] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "far and wide; everywhere. The phrase modifies ’traduc’d and tax’d.’ "
1953 Joseph
Joseph: contra Wilson without attribution +
621+1 - 621+22 Joseph (1953, pp. 14-16): <p. 14> “The passage . . . has been taken out of its context as a sign that the Prince has been imagined by the poet as aware of his defective nature, even before the test which is going to reveal the flaw. But Hamlet says no more than that drunkenness will cancel out the good qualities of his countrymen in the estimation of their neighbours; and he proceeds to supply a number of examples from ordinary life in which one failing could spoil the effect of the whole. He starts with the assertion [quotes 621+1- 621+6]. And next he adds, by way of illustration, the passage which is not really understood if we read without considering its implications for Elizabethan minds: [quotes 621+7 - 621+10]. Hamlet is not contemplating how a man can be brought </p. 14> <p. 15> to his downfall by a defect in his nature, but how one flaw in what he presents to the world leads to an evaluation in which all his virtues count as nothing. . . . Hamlet is not insisting that one defect of character makes a man fail, but that any defect in what is regarded by the world as witness to character leads to a total destruction of reputation despite every proof of many good qualities. He continues with other examples: . . . an abnormal predominance of one humour; . . . one [flawed] habit of gesture . . . . </p. 15> <p. 16> Hamlet now recapitulates . . . [quotes 621+15 - 621+20a]” Hamlet returns at the end to drinking. Joseph interprets
eale as
ale in 620+20b to make this final point, concluding: “when we realize that [Hamlet’s words] deal not with character but with reputation, it seems far more likely that they were written for a purpose within their immediate context; and there they would remind renaissance listeners of commonplace observations on appearance and reputation in general, rather than on the nature of the tragic hero in particular.” </p. 16>
Ed. note: A point in Joseph’s favor: would F1 have eliminated the lines if they had held a vital key to Hamlet’s character? An unanswerable question. See further CN for sections within the whole passage.
1962 mCraig
mCraig
621+1-624+22 Craig (1962-63, Box 3, ƒ B5, pp. 81-2) <p. 81> cites this speech as the first of many that shows that “Hamlet thinks on high levels.”</p. 81> <p. 82> The king’s revelry “fills his ears, and his higher mind passes judgment on it for what it is. </p. 82>
Craig (unpublished Stephens Lectures, p. 82)
-1972 [1999] Berryman
Berryman
621+1-621+22 Berryman (-1972 [1999], pp. 120-4): <p. 120>“The essential condition of the tragic substance, I think, is the Displacement of the King. This is the actual condition under which the whole of
Hamlet takes place, and accounts for the intolerable burden falling upon the Prince—that of himself displacing the new King. . . . .</p. 120><p. 121> . . . . It is on the light of this condition, rather than of the so-called tragic flaw, that I want to examine Hamlet’s meditation on the tragic flaw. He is on the parapet with Horatio and Marcellus, waiting for the apparition, when they hear the ordnance for the King’s brawl: [quotes 621+1-621+22]. This last clause is almost certainly corrupt, but the meaning is fairly clear: the tiny evil works the man’s whole ‘noble substance’ to his undoing. Here we seem to be presented by Shakespeare himself with a formula for the tragic hero: Hamlet. with his excess of reflectiveness; Othello, with his excess of trust (I am reporting standard critical opinion, not mine); Lear, with his irascibility; Macbeth, with his ambition or—better—imagination. The quality of habit would be the tragic </p. 121><p.122 >
accident of the ‘noble substance’ [621+21]. But this view may seem itself a little accidental in appearance, and perhaps it neither conforms exactly to what Hamlet says nor at all represents the genuine substance of the tragedies. Hamlet
set off from the Danes’ drunkenness, which is destructive of their whole reputation; that is a
habit [621+13]; but he moves far, beginning well
behind any habit, with
birth [621+9], and passing beyond it to ‘Fortune’s star’ [621+16] or
Fate. Birth is, for men capable of being conceived as tragic heroes, birth
into a predicament, and Fate is the
imposition of a predicament. Observe that it is at this exact moment, as this speech ends, that the Ghost appears, the Displaced King, and his predicament is in fact imposed upon Prince Hamlet. Fortune’s star suddenly and horribly shines, and only in its light is the hero born.
“We are far, here, from merely a ‘tragic flaw,’ and perhaps the tragic substance can now be formulated in a way that will not neglect psychoanalytic and anthropological claims any more than ethical and literary. Let us regard it as the conflict between loyalty and necessity, its condition being regularly, the Displacement of the King.
“Loyalty is the attribute of the ‘noble substance’ lamented by Hamlet as subject to necessity: ‘Being Natures liuery, or Fortunes starre.” The necessity is invariably a product of Nature and Fortune, character and fate. . . . Hamlet’s necessity—the duty of revenge—is laid upon him against his loyalty to Claudius, not only as kinsman, but as King. But in Hamlet everything is handy-dandy, to anticipate Lear’s great term. Hamlet’s loyalty, on the other hand, to his father is in conflict with psychological necessity—the moral impossibility (not understood) of killing his uncle before his mother is dead, inaccessible. The highest natures, only, feel loyalty so fully that necessity can make them heroes. . . . ” </p. 124>
1980 pen2
pen2: F1
621+1-621+22 Spencer (ed. 1980): “This passage about the drunkenness of the Danes is not in F. Probably it seemed tactless after the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne, with his Danish consort, Anne.” Ed. note: On the other hand, by the time Q2 was written, the ascension of James VI was considered probable.
1982 ard2
ard2:
621+1-621+22 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The omission in F (and Q1) of this discursive passage before the appearance of the Ghost corresponds to the similar cut at 124+1-124+18. It cannot therefore be attributed, as is often suggested, to the fear of offending James I’s Danish Queen. Though evidently cut as being ’undramatic’, the passage boh prolongs expectancy and at the same time gives to the Ghost’s appearance the dramatic effect of a sudden interruption. Cf. 51, 125. See Dover Wilson, MSH, p. 25.”
ard2: standard
621+1- 621+4 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “It is a fact that the Danes had not merely the custom just described but, in common with the Dutch and the Germans, the reputation of drunkenness. Cf. Oth. 2.3.72 ff. Fynes Moryson says, ’The Danes pass (if it be possible) their neighbour Saxons in the excess of their drinking’ (Itinerary, 1907-8 ed, 4: 67). Many other allusions include Greene’s Mourning Garment, ’Bring home pride from Spain . . . gluttony from England, and carousing from the Danes’ (Greene, 9: 136); Marston, Jack Drum’s Entertainment, ’a Dane-like barbarous sot’ (Act 4); Rowlands, Look to it, for I’ll stab ye, ’The Dane, that would carouse out of his boot’ (Hunterian Club, p. 21). But though the matter itself was common knowledge, Shakespeare seems to have been particularly influenced here, as later in this speech, by Nashe’s Pierce Penniless, which, describing the Danes as ’bursten-bellied sots’, tells how ’the quick-witted Italians . . . detest this surly swinish generation’ (Nashe, 1:180). Presently, inveighing against contemporary customs of excessive drinking, Nashe says they would formerly have led a man to be called ’foul drunken swine’ (1: 205), and he goes on to the passage cited in 621+7-621+22 CN below. His types of drunkard include ’swine drunk, heavy, lumpish, and sleepy’ (1: 207), while ’the heavy-headed gluttonous house-dove’ (the reveller at home in contrast to the reveller abroad) is cited as a type of sloth (1: 210). See ard2 Intro., pp. 104-5.”
ard2:
621+1 heauy headed] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Transferred epithet. The revelers are lumpish, their wits dulled with drink. This echoes Nashe (above).”
ard2:
621+1 east and west] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Not, of course, describing revel but modifying traduc’d.”
1985 cam4
cam4
621+1 east and west] Edwards (ed. 1985): "everywhere (i.e. by other nations everywhere)."
1987 oxf4
oxf4
621+1 heauy . . . reueale] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "i.e. revelling that makes men thick-headed."
1988 bev2
bev2: standard
621+1 east and west] Bevington (ed. 1988): “i.e., everywhere.”
2002 Srigley
Srigley
621+1-621+22 Srigley (2002, pp. 168-70) claims that the lines aree more an apologia than a condemnation. Hamlet stresses the Danes’s good qualities, which people overlook in condemning their one fault, tipling. He explains the addition of these lines in Q2 to a desire to compliment Christian IV, whose sister Anne had married James c. 1890 , and who was expected on a state visit in 1606. The explanation for the om. of the lines in F1—as politically dangerous—does not explain why they were added when relations between the two monarchs were at their height.
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: cam4; oxf4, elze; RP; xref; //
621+1-621+22 This . . . scandle] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “These 22 lines on Danish drunkenness are unique to Q2. It was formerly argued that they might have been deemed offensive after 1603 when James I acceded to the throne, since his wife was Anne of Denmark, but this would make for rather inconsistent expurgation, because it is only in F that Hamlet calls Denmark a prison. Recent editors (e.g. Edwards, Hibbard) argue that the lines were omitted from both Q1 and F as ’undramatic’ ones that ’slow the action down’. The syntax is complex, but Elze claims this is deliberate to show Hamlet ’absorbed in thought . . . He is continually losing the thread of his speech and does not finish a single sentence. ’ Richard Proudfoot points out an analogy with a similarly convoluted speech about motivation and personality in Cor. [3048-62]. The cut (if it is one) is comparable to that in 1.1 where Horatio’s leisurely analogy of ’the most high and palmy state of Rome’ is similarly interrupted by the appearance of the Ghost (see [124+1-124+18 and CN]). Again the effect of the longer version may be to increase the impact.”
ard3q2: standard
621+1 This . . . reueale] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “this drunken revealing”
ard3q2: standard
621+1 east and west] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. universally (modifying traduced and taxed)”
