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.

1723- mtby2

mtby2

717 sweepe] Thirlby (1723-): “swoop sed. v. Glossary at the end of Gawin Douglas’s Virgil in v. Swipper [?] v. V. 583.32. ”

mtby2

717 my] Thirlby (1723-): “Fsql [very low probability conj.] shy [?]nnm. ?7.3. Prompted to my revenge by heav’n & hell. Laertes p. 465 23, 4, 5 [3697-9] I’m satisfied in nature . . . . my revenge. Id 439.18, 9, [2883] I’ll be revenged most throughly . . . . ”

1726 theon

theon

717 sweepe] Theobald (1726, pp. 50-2) <p.50> “Hamlet makes use of the Metaphor here of a Bird using it’s Wings swiftly, to express the Speed in the pursuit of his Revenge. ’Tis true, to sweep may carry the sense of gliding smoothly, and swiftly along; (generally, along the Surface of any thing;) but I don’t remember the Word ever employ’d to signify the Action of a Bird in the Circumstances of pursuing its Prey: that is, of moving its Wings impetuously for that Purpose.” In Falconry, a Hawk is said to sweep, when she wipes her Beak after she has fed. But I observe that our Poet, for the most Part, uses the Word in the plain and natural Sense, of clearing, brushing away, or trailing on the Earth. So, [quotes 2H6, H8, Ant.] </p.50> <p. 51> [quotes Mac., 3H6] But in none of these Places, or elsewhere that I know, is it connected with the Metaphor of Wings, or introduced to denote the swift and furious Descent of any Fowl at its Prey, or Enemy. [He refers to the change in Q10 and wilk to fly]. There is another Word, indeed, so very near it in Sound and Writing, and so peculiar to the Business of a Bird falling on its Prey, that perhaps, the Poet may have wrote: . . .swoop . . . . I entirely submit this Conjecture to Judgment; but I am sure it is the very Phrase of our Poet upon an Occasion of the like kind. Macbeth having murdered the Wife and Children of Macduff, the latter, upon Notice of it, falls into these mixt Exclamations of Tenderness and Resentment. [4.3. 216 (2065)] <p. 52> [quotes] And to swoop, among Fowlers, is to fly down hastily, and catch up with the Talons, as Birds of Prey do: An Action which, I humbly conceive, our Author intended to allude to, in the vehement Resentment and Desire of Revenge, with which he inflames his Hamlet.” </p.52>

1728 pope

pope

717 sweep] Pope (ed. 1728, Appendix, Aa4v), Theobald: “. . . guesses should be . . . May swoop to my Revenge.”

17? mtby3

mtby3

717 sweep] Thirlby (1733-): “M [meaning copied from the pope1 that he loaned Theobald]: f swoop sed. v. the glossary at the end of Gawen Douglas’s Virgil in v. Swipper. v. V.456, 6,7. Hoc ibi”

Ed. note: mtby4 demotes swoop to fsql.

1765 Heath

Heath : theon

717 sweepe] Heath (1765, p. 533): Mr. Theobald conjectures that the poet wrote swoop; but I believe both words are used with equal propriety to express the rapid flight of a bird of prey towards his quarry.”

1885 macd

macd

717 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Now, for the moment, he has no doubt, and vengeance is his first thought.”

1986 Warner

Warner

717 sweepe] Warner (1986, p. 302): calls this is a “moment of mastery” that is “countered by the emergence of limits . . . that ‘drag’ of a resistant social and linguistic medium that invitiates a swift revenge.”

1999 Belsey

Belsey

717 sweepe to my reuenge] Belsey (1999, rpt. 2001, pp. 158-61, quoted by Griffiths, p. 155): “In the intensity of the moment, Hamlet responds eagerly to the Ghost’s seduction and undertakes to ’sweep’ to the act of vengeance which risks his own death.” But in the rest of the play, “Hamlet hangs back after all, resists his own seduction, fears the death he also embraces.”