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Line 636 - 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.

636 To cast thee vp againe? what may this meane	1.4.51

1805 Seymour

Seymour

636-41 what . . . soules] Seymour (1805, 2:157): “It is not easy to reconcile this passage, as it stands, to any thing like just construction:—at first it will appear to involve only one of those careless errors, whereby the accusative case is often put into the place of the nominative, and vice versa, and that here, if we should read ‘us,’ instead of ‘we,’ all would be right; but this will not do, for it should then appear that ‘our dispositions were shaken by ourselves.’ ‘We fools of nature’ is, perhaps, merely a parenthetic apostrophe, (O fools of nature that we are); and then it remains to reconcile the conjunction at once to the participial and the infinitive modes, ‘making night hideous, and {making it) to shake our souls,’ &c. ”

1854 del2

del2

636 cast thee vp againe] Delius (ed. 1854): “Das Grab ist hier als ein Raubthier gedacht, das seinen Rachen öffnet und das Verschlungene wieder won sich gibt.” [The grave is here thought of as an animal that opens its jaws and regurgitates what it has swallowed.]

1870 rug1

rug1 n. 639

636-41 what . . . soules] Moberly (ed. 187): “‘What may it mean that we with our blind nature (are made) so horribly to shake our composure of spirit with thoughts beyond the reach of our souls?’ This random connexion of the clause suits well with the headlong impetuosity of the speech.”

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1

636-41 what . . . soules]

1877 v1877

v1877 n. 639 = rug2

636-41 what . . . soules]

1885 macd

macd

636-40 what . . . disposition] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Even if Shakspere cared more about grammar than he does, a man in Hamlet’s perturbation he might well present as making a breach in it; but we are not reduced even to justification. . . . The construction of the passage is, ‘What may this mean, that thou revisitest thus the glimpses of the moon, and that we so horridly to-shake our disposition?’”

1939 kit2

kit2

636 may] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "can."

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2

636 cast thee vp] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The tomb is personified (animalified?) as vomiting the Ghost from its mouth; perhaps a remote allusion to the story of Jonah and the whale.”