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Line 729 - 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).

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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.

729 Ghost. I that incestuous, that adulterate beast, {D3}	1.5.42

1612 T. Wilson

T. Wilson apud Joseph (1953, p. 17)

729 adulterate] Wilson, Thomas (Christian Dictionary 1612) defines adultery: “all manner of uncleanness, about desire of sex, together with occasion, causes, and means thereof, as in the 7th Commandment.”

1616 Perkins

Perkins apud Joseph (1953, p. 17)

729 adulterate] Perkins (A Golden Chain in Works 1616, I. 58ff.): Joseph paraphrases and quotes: “to commit adultery means ’as much as to do anything, which way so ever,’ that stains out own chastity or that of our neighbours: and he includes under the general heading of adultery the sin of incest ’with such as be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity, prohibited in the word of God.’ ”

1623 Against Whoredom and Uncleanness

Against Whoredom and Uncleanness apud Joseph (1953, p. 17)

729 adulterate] Joseph (1953, p. 17): “All church-going Elizabethans must have heard many times in the homily Against Whoredom and Uncleanness [in Certain Sermons or Homilies I. 78] a passage which clearly shows that the term ’adulterate’ had a much wider application and could be used of a person who had committed incest:

Ye shall call to remembrance this commandment of God,

Thou shalt not commit adultery: by the which word adultery,

although it be properly understood of the unlawful com-

mixion or joining together of a married man with any woman

beside his wife, or a wife with any man beside her husband:

yet thereby is also signified all unlawful use of those parts,

which be ordained for generation.”

1650, 1651 Andrewes

Andrews apud Joseph (1953, p. 17)

729 adulterate] Andrewes, Lancelot (The Pattern of Catechistical Doctrine 1650, Works 1651, p. 436): “a man may commit adultery with his own wife.”

1730 Bailey

Bailey

729 adulterate] Bailey (1730): fr. Lat. adulteratus: “corrupted, marred, spoiled, counterfeit, made of a baser Alloy or Mixture.”

1748 Edwards

Edwards, sarcastically: warb with note on adulterate in R3 4.4.69 (2840): Canon II. “He has the right to alter any passage, which He does not understand.” Refers to warb VIII. 147

729 adulterate] Edwards (1748 [1st ed.], p. 15): “ ‘adulterate Shakespear uses for adulterous: but Mr. Warburton, because he would be correcting, alters it to adulterer; yet he left the word untouched in that line in [Ham. 729] ‘Aye, that incestuous, that adulterate beast’.”

1755- mmal4

mmal4

729 adulterate] Malone (ms. notes in Johnson, 1755): “‘To change the quality of a thing by admixture with another without injury or; by corrupting. I have observed many excellent forms of grafting, and adulterating plants to flowers with infinite such devices.’ Peacham’s Experience of his own times. 8o1638.”

Ed. note: Possibly Henry Peacham’s The Art of Drawing with the Pen. Series: The English Experience, its Record in early printed books published in facsimile STC 19500. Or it could be Peacham’s Emblem book:

STC 19511.

1765 john1

john1 = warb with note on adulterate in R3 4.4.69 (2840).

729 adulterate] Warburton (apud Johnson, ed. 1765, 5:325): “Th’ adulterate Hastings,—]] I believe Shakespeare wrote. ‘Th’ adulterer Hastings,— Warburton.”

1791- rann

rann

729 See 100 on emulous for emulate

1805 Seymour

Seymour

729 726-9] Seymour (2: 159): “There is disorder here that wants correction: “Now wears his crown. — O, my prophetic soul, | My uncle! —Incestuous, adulterate beats.’”

1819 cald1

cald1 = john without attribution +

729 adulterate] Caldecott (ed. 1820):“that adulterate beast] The use of this word here instead of adulterous, is made with his accustomed license, as it is in [R3 4.4.69 (2840)]] Marg. ‘The’ adulterate Hastings.”

cald1

729 adulterate] Caldecott (ed. 1819, Addenda): “We however find this to have been the language of the day. J. Heywood says of Mars and Venus: ‘The tel-tale sunne straight to the smith discovers Th’adulterate practise of this amorous payre.’ Britaines Troy. fo. 1609, p. 109.”

1819 Jackson

Jackson

729 I that . . . beast] Jackson (1819, p. 354): “It is, however, evident that the Queen had a criminal intercourse with the usurper before he murdered his brother. See [729] where the Ghost says,—’Ay, that incestuous—that adulterate beast:’ and this knowledge it is that fires the indignation of Hamlet and actuates him to use the cutting words—As kill a king! [2411] for, he considers that his mother, by her illicit connection, was the primary cause of his father’s death, and that ambition to ascend the throne was an after consideration of the usurper.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 ECN and Addendum (subst.) minus “is made with his accustomed license” + in magenta underlined

729 adulterate] Caldecott (ed. 1832): So in [R3 4.4.69 (2840)]] Marg. ‘The’ adulterate Hastings.” And such was the language of the day. ‘The tel-tale sunne straight to the smith discovers Th’adulterate practise of this amorous payre.’ Heywood’s Britaines Troy. fo. 1609, p. 109.” ‘A generous and heroicke spirit feares not the adulterate censure of a senseless multitude.’ E. G. Anthropophagus. A Sermon. 4to. 1624. p. 26.”

1860 Walker

Walker

729 I] Walker (1860, 3:262) suggests an arrangement of lines “Perhaps, ‘Mine uncle! Ay: | Ay, that incestuous,’ &c. See Art. lxxix.”

Art lxxix (2: 141-52). “Omissions of repeated Words”

Walker: See Ham. n.100

729 adulterate]

1872 cln1

cln1: standard gloss + (which is not original)

729 adulterate] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “like ‘emulate’ [100], for ‘emulous.’ See [LC 175.”

1877 v1877

v1877: Walker paraphrase, and ref. to his lxxix

729 adulterate]

1880 Teichmann

Teichmann

729 adulterate] Teichmann (1880, p. 6): “Geruthe had adulterous intercourse with her husband’s brother already during life-time of the former, according to Belleforest, [n. 5] while in Saxo’s tale [n. 6] Fengen gains her only after the death of Horvendile.”

[n. 5] fol 76 A. il avait incestueusementsouillé la couche fraternelle, abusant de la femme de celuy, d[?] il deoit autant pourchasser l’honneur, comme il en poursuivoit: et effectua la ruine.

[n. 6] p. 138.

1885 macd

macd

729-42 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “How can it be doubted that in this speech the Ghost accuses his wife and brother of adultery? Their marriage was not adultery. See how the ghostly revelation grows on Hamlet—his father in hell—murdered by his brother—dishonoured by his wife!”

1904 Bradley

Bradley

729 adulterate] Bradley (1904, p. 136): “She did not merely marry a second time with indecent haste; she was false to her first husband while he lived. This is surely the most natural interpretation of the words of the Ghost, coming as they do before his account of the murder. And against this testimony what force has the objection that the queen in the "Murder of Gonzago’ is not represented as an adulteress? Hamlet’s mark in arranging the play-scene was not his mother, whom besides he had been expressly ordered to spare [cites 770-1]. ”

1917 MLR

Greg

729 adulterate ] Greg (MLR [1917]: 396) believes that Claudius seduced Gertrude before he murdered his brother but provides no evidence.

1918 MLR

Wilson agrees with Greg and finds evidence in speech order

729-42 Wilson (MLR 13 [1918]: 140-1, 152): <p.140> Wilson declares that because the ghost relates to Hamlet the details of how Claudius won the queen before telling the details about the murder, the events of 730-42 took place before the murder [744-67]. He is telling Hamlet something new. Hamlet already knew that the marriage was incestuous. The words the ghost uses are not applicable to “Gertrude’s second marriage, which, though may-be uncanonical, indecently swift, and to Hamlet, </p. 140><p. 141> with his devotion for his father, shocking in the extreme” but it’s the fact of adultery that is devastating. The ghost does not accuse her of complicity in murder. </p. 141> <p. 152>Her adultery is the main new fact the ghost provides, aside from the murder and its method. But the play-within cannot depict the detail of adultery because of the ghost’s appeal to Hamlet to leave Gertrude to heaven. </p. 152>

1929 adams

Adams

Ck. Capture his CN directly; I own the book and need to continue beyond scene one.

1929 trav

trav

729 adulterate] Travers (ed. 1929): adultery, from Belleforest, is the extent of the queen’s crime.

1930 Granville-Barker

Granville-Barker

729 Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 216-17), <p. 216> writing of the king’s similarities to Macbeth, a figure more central in his play, argues that Claudius “must remain </p. 216> <p. 217> the ’incestuous, murderous, damned Dane’ [3807] at the end, whatever may be done with him in between,” </p. 217>

1930 Granville-Barker

Granville-Barker

729-32 I that incestuous . . . So to seduce] Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 223-4): <p. 223> The Ghost qualifies his most negative description of Claudius with his reference to ’gifts’—“which suggests, surely, good gifts turned to ill account, and a </p. 223> <p. 224> Gertrude fascinated by them, yet not too easily won.” </p. 224>

1934 cam3a

cam3a p. xvi

729 adulterate] Wilson (ed. 1934) claims that Sh. had the idea of the queen’s adultery from Belleforest, who added it to Saxo’s story.

1935 Wilson

Wilson WHH: Bradley

729-42 Wilson (pp. 44, 292-4) <p. 44> believes that Gertrude’s adultery is obvious. Knowing it is one of the burdens placed on Ham. </ p. 44> < p. > Wilson admits the speech is cryptic. </p. 292> <p. 293> Though some critics deny the adultery, the ghost’s speech cannot be about the speedy remarriage, about which Ham. already knows, but about disloyalty while he was alive. The ghost does not accuse her of murder. Though Ham. does not directly accuse her of adultery in the closet scene, he hints at it. See n. 2423-34.

1936 cam3b

cam3b = J. Q. Adams + in magenta underlined

729-76 Wilson (ed. 1936, rpt. 1954, add. notes): “Ham.’s silence during this long speech is noteworthy. ‘Until the Ghost began to speak of Gertrude’s sins, he was full of energy, constantly interrupting and quick to respond to his father’s every utterance. Now, however, he is too overcome to speak a single word.’ (Adams, p. 215).”

1938 parc

parc

729 adulterate] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “adulterous.”

1939 kit2

kit2

729 adulterate] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "adulterous. Hamlet had not suspected adultery. He had been shocked and grieved by the o’er-hasty marriage’ (which the Church regarded as incestuous), but what he now learns comes with all the horrow of an unsuspected enormity. Note especially [Hamlet’s comment in 790]."

1947 cln2

cln2

729 adulterate] Rylands (ed. 1947, p. 14) asserts that Claudius had seduced the queen while she was still married.

1948 de Madariaga

de Madariaga apud Joseph (1953, p. 19)

729 adulterate] de Madariaga (1948, p. 76): “that she had committed adultery before marrying we know from the scene between Hamlet and the Ghost.”

1953 joseph

Joseph contra Bradley

729 adulterate] Joseph (1953, pp. 16-17): <p. 16> “For Bradley this proves that Gertrude was the murderer’s mistress while her first husband lived. [That would be] the most natural interpretation of the word ’adulterate’ today . . . . But the word was not re- </p. 16> <p. 17> stricted to this single meaning in Shakespeare’s day: we have plenty of evidence that when he was writing Hamlet incest itself could be denounced as adultery; and a man like Claudius, himself unmarried, who committed incest with a woman who was unmarried or a widow, merited the epithet ’adulterate’ for the very reason that he was ’incestuous.’ [see above, Lancelot Andrewes (1650-1), Thomas Wilson (1612), Perkins (1616) and 1623 homily].” </p. 17>

1957 Heilbrun

Heilbrun: Bradley; Dover Wilson; Bertram Joseph

729 adulterate] Heilbrun (1957, rpt. 1990, pp. 16-17) argues that the word does not necessarily apply to Gertrude. Her fault is lust that led her to her speedy remarriage. Heilbrun’s argument is three-fold: first, the word did not mean in 1600 what it means now; second, the ghost uses the word because he still feels himself to be married to Gertrude and her swift marriage as a betrayal, just as Hamlet does; he never applies the word to Gertrude, but only to Claudius, and “he may well have considered the term a just description of Claudius’ entire sexual life.” Heilbrun considers Gertrude lustful, but not necessarily unfaithful. Ed. note: See Bertram Joseph on adultery as a term for incest.

1970 pel2

pel2: standard

729 adulterate] Farnham (ed. 1970): “adulterous”

1979 SQ

Ranald

729 Ranald (1979, p. 73): “Shakespeare’s use of the impediment of ’public honesty’ in Hamlet helps to intensify Hamlet’s disgust with the matrimonial situation of his mother and Claudius. According to English law, the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius would have been declared null and void ab initio on the basis of affinity, since Gertrude had previously been married to her husband’s brother. The Ghost’s description of Claudius as ’that incestuous, that adulterous beast’ thus effectively states the canonical view of such a marriage in the lifetime of the older Hamlet.”

1980 pen2

pen2

729 adulterate] Spencer (ed. 1980): “This word, and the whole passage 42-57, seem to imply that Claudius had seduced Gertrude before her husband’s death. But nothing else in the rest of the play supports this, except perhaps Hamlet’s whored my mother (5.2.64) and, conceivably, Horatio’s words carnal . . . acts (5.2.375). In the play of The Murder of Gonzago the wooing definitely takes place after the poisoning (3.2.144, stage direction, and 270-3).”

1982 ard2

ard2: Joseph; Belleforest; Bradley; Wilson

729 adulterate] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “There has been unnecessary quibbling over an epithet which applies aptly enough to one who is a suborner to and partner in adultery. On the one hand it is objected that only the married partner can commit adultery; on the other it has been shown that unchastity in general and incest in particular were often referred to as adultery. It is true then that from this word adulterate alone one could not infer a guilty relationship between Claudius and Gertrude before her husband’s death (cf. Joseph, Conscience and the King, pp. 16-18). But such a relationship explicit in Belleforest, and I agree with Bradley (p. 166) and Dover Wilson (WHH, pp. 292-4) that it is clearly implied in the account given here. To suppose otherwise is to strain the meaning of ’seeming-virtuous’ (733), lose the force of the implied contrast with love that was faithful to marriage-vows (736-7), and leave ll. 741-2 without point. Moreover, 790 suggests that Hamlet, who already knew about the incestuous marriage, had received from the Ghost some new revelation of his mother’s wickedness. Confirmation also comes from 2425 ff; 2450 ff.; 3568.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4

729 adulterate] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "adulterous (the invariable sense elsewhere in Shakespeare)."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

729 adulterate] Bevington (ed. 1988): “adulterous.”

1994 OED 2nd edition on Internet

OED:

729 adulterate] “adulterate (dltrt), ppl. a. [ad. L. adulterat-us, pa. pple. of adultera-re; see ADULTER v.]1. Defiled, or stained by adultery, either in origin or conduct; adulterous. 1590 SHAKS. Com. Err. II. ii. 142, I am possest with an adulterate blot, My bloud is mingled with the crime of lust. 1594 -- Rich. III, IV. iii. 69 Th’ adulterate Hastings. 1607 TOPSELL Four-footed Beasts (1673) 129 And so enjoyed the Adulterate woman for his wife. 1651 W. G. tr. Cowel’s Instit. 27 Adulterate Issue. 1755 SMOLLETT Don Quix. (1803) I. 103 Not..held as a legitimate member, but some adulterate brood. 1857 H. REED Lect. Brit. Poets viii. 272 The low tastes of a worthless and adulterate generation.

2. Of things: Spurious, counterfeit; of base origin, or corrupted by base intermixture. 1592 DANIELL Compl. Rosamond 20 Th’ adulterate Beauty of a falsed Cheek, Vile stain to Honour and to Women eke. 1599 THYNNE Animadv. (1875) 69 Yt wolde be good that Chaucers proper woorkes were distinguyshed from the adulterat. 1622 Rawleigh’s Ghost 237 Many false and adulterate miracles. 1634 HABINGTON in Shaks. Cent. Praise 200 That adult’rate wine Which makes the zeale of Amsterdam divine.

1995 F1 concordance

F1 Concordance

729 adulterate] Shakespeare’s First Folio Concordance Lines for ’adulterate’ (Exact Spelling)

4 matches, including Ham.:

1. The Comedie of Errors 2.2.140 (535-8).

I am possest with an adulterate blot:

My bloud is mingled with the crime of lust:

For if we two be one, and thou play flase,

I doe digest the poison of thy flesh, . . . .

2. The life and death of King John 2.2.56 (977)

Sh’adulterates hourely with thine Vnckle Iohn, . . . .

3. The Tragedie of Richard the Third. 4.4.69 (2840)

Th’ adulterate Hastings, Riuers, Vaughan, Gray, . . . .

1995 Kliman

Kliman: //, xref

729 adulterate] Kliman (1995): Adulterate occurs in Err. 2.2.140, where it does not mean guilty of adultery but stained a husband’s adultery; in R3 4.4.69 (2840), where it does mean adulterous; in Luc. 1645 where she is saying what Tarquin would have labeled her if she had not yielded patiently to him; in Son. 121.5, where the meaning is uncertain; and LC 175, where it refers to her lover’s desire, rather than his action (though since he had already prevailed upon other women and thus had already committed adultery— this example is a bit mixed).

If Hamlet designed the play-within to adhere to what he believes are the facts of his father’s death and mother’s remarriage, then he believed her crime was that she succumbed to her seducer after her husband’s death: "she seemes harsh awhile, but in the end accepts love." (2001-2).

However, since he has agreed to expose the king but to "leave her to heaven" (771), he may not have wanted to depict her as an adulteress before the royal court.

In her closet, he is more open: he accuses her of murder (2410), which may suggest that she was also an adulteress though he does not say so here when they are alone. And he quickly drops the subject, perhaps persuaded by her tone of voice when she responds (2411); tone, however, is not automatically built into her speech and thus depends on performance. Instead he accuses her of choosing a second husband very much inferior to her first husband (2437-51).

The question remains: Would the ghost have named his wife an adulteress to her son, thus calling into question that son’s lineage? What obligation, then, would Hamlet have to King Hamlet?

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: xref

729 incestuous] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “see [341 CN]”

ard3q2: xref

729 adulterate] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “literally, defiled or stained by adultery. The word can also mean ’corrupted’ in a more general way; Shakespeare uses it in its literal sense in Luc. 1645, Err. 2.2.139 and R3 4.4.69, and in a more general sense in Son 121.5 and LC 175. It is notoriously unclear whether the Ghost means to say that his wife embarked on an adulterous relationship with his brother before his death: the strength of his feeling in this speech seems to imply that she did, but his relative lenience towards her at [769-73] and at [2492-5] might indicate otherwise, as does the behaviour of the Queen in the dumbshow and The Murder of Gonzago in 3.2.”