HW Home	Previous CN	View CN	View TNM	View TNI	Next CN

Line 743 - 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.

743 But soft, me thinkes I sent the {morning} <Mornings> ayre,	1.5.

1736 Stubbs

Stubbs

743 But . . . ayre] Stubbs (1736, p. 24): “The Ghost’s interrupting himself (but soft, methinks, I scent the Morning Air, &c.) has much Beauty in it, particularly, as it complys with the received Notions, that Spirits shun the Light, and continues the Attention of the Audience is no particular a Circumstance.”

1807 Douce

Douce:

743 But . . . ayre] Douce (1807, 2:224-5): <p.224> “It was a popular belief that ghosts could not endure the light, and consequently disappeared at the dawn of day. This superstition is derived from our northern ancestors, who held that the sun and every thing containing light or fire had the property of expelling demons and spirits of all kinds. With them it seems to have originated in the stories that are related in the Edda concerning the battles of Thor against the giants and evil demons, wherein he made use of his dreadful mallet of iron, which he hurled against them as Jupiter did his thunderbolts against the Titans. Many of the transparent precious stones were supposed to have the power of expelling evil spirits; and the flint and other stones found in </p.224> <p.225> the tombs of the northern nations, and from which fire might be extracted, were imagined, in like manner, to be efficacious in confining the manes [see OED note below] of the dead to their proper habitation. They were called Thor’s hammers.” </p.225>

1850 Grinfield

Grinfield

743 Grinfield (1850, p. 30): <p. 30>“This remarkably resembles what Virgil makes the ghost of Anchises say to his son Æneas: — ‘Jamque vale! torquet medios nox humida cursus, Et me sœvus equia Oriens adflavit anhelis.’ [AEniad 5: 738-9].” </p. 30>

Ed. note: Fairclough, Loeb ed., with some minor variations in the Latin, translates this as follows: “And now farewell; dewy Night wheels her midway course, and the cruel East has breathed on me with panting steeds” (1:494-5).

1859 stau

stau = Douce

743

Ed. note: stau has his note at 774.

1880 Tanger

Tanger

743 morning] Tanger (1880, p. 125) ascribes the variant in F1 as “probably due to the critical revision which the text received at the hands of H.C. [Heminge & Condell], when it was being woven together from the parts of the actors.”

1947 cln2

cln2

743 Rylands (ed. 1947, p. 28) cites this as one of the lines that in its direct effect within a single line contrasts with passages of extended reasoning.

1977 Teaching Sh.

Beckerman

743-76 Beckerman (1977, p. 312): Shakespeare artfully shapes "the action by alternating active reports or injunctions with revelations of reactive states. The final, specific charge to Hamlet thus comes at the culminating point of the preceding intensification and clearly encapsulates the paradoxic action that Hamlet will pursue throughout the rest of the play. . . . I would call the Ghost’s compulsion to tell his tale before dawn the ground of the primary movement. That movement itself lies in the alternation between telling the facts and revealing inner distress, with the latter action becoming increasingly dominant until Hamlet shares that distress in his climactic cry of ’O, horrible!’ [765] The subsequent setting of limits to the act of revenge is accompanied by a reduction of emotional intensification."

1992 fol2

fol2: standard [see CN 126]

743 soft] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “ ’enough,’ or ’wait a minute’ ”

1994 OED

OED

743 sent] sent is a common spelling: “The spelling scent (for this and the sb.) does not occur in our material until the 17th c.” Though OED places Ham quotation in the meaning v.1 “to smell out, 1c. also seems to apply: c. † c. In etymological sense: To discern, perceive. Obs. rare.”

OED: [relevant to the Douce CN above]

743 morning] OED: “manes (meniz, mnez), sb. pl. [L. manes pl. By some scholars supposed to be the pl. of OLatin manis good (cf. im-manis cruel).]1. The deified souls of departed ancestors (as beneficent spirits; opposed to larvae and lemures, the malevolent shades of the Lower World). Also, the spirit, `shade’ of a departed person, considered as an object of homage or reverence, or as demanding to be propitiated by vengeance.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2

743 soft] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “wait (see, listen). The Ghost interrupts himself, remembering the need for haste.”

ard3q2: xref

743 sent . . . ayre] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The assumption is that the Ghost must return to hell or purgatory at dawn; see [146-55].”