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Line 814 - 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.”

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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

814 Ham. There’s {neuer} <nere> a villaine,	1.5.123

814 Dwelling in all Denmarke	1.5.123

1805 Seymour

Seymour

814-15 Seymour (1805, 2:162): “Hamlet, I conceive, begins these words in the ardour of confidence and sincerity; but, suddenly alarmed at the magnitude of the disclosure, he was going to make, and considering that, not his friend Horatio only, but another person was present; he breaks off suddenly:—There’s ne’er a villain in all Denmark that can match (perhaps he would have said) my uncle in villainy; but recollecting the danger of such a declaration, he pauses for a moment, and then abruptly concludes: —but he’s an errant knave.”

1813 Coleridge

Coleridge

814-15 Coleridge (Lectures on Shakespeare and Education, Lecture 3, 1813, Coleridge’s notes, transcribed by Ernest Hartley Coleridge, VCL ms BT 8; rpt. Coleridge, 1987, 5.1:541): “Terror closely connected with the Ludicrous, the latter the common mode by which the mind tries to emancipate itself from Terror—The Laugh is rendered by nature itself the Language of Extremes—even as Tears are—Add too, Hamlet’s Wildness is but half-false—O that subtle trick to pretend to be acting only when we are very near being what we act—”

1852 N&Q

Brae ≈ Seymour without attribution +

814-5 A.E.B. [Brae] (1852, p. 242): “I do not know whether I am singular in the view I take of these two sentences [811-12, 814-15], but I understand them as inchoate disclosures, suddenly broken off through the irresolution of the speaker.

“For instance, I do not understand the last as Horatio understood it—‘There needs no ghost from the grave to tell us this;’ but I understand it as an intended revelation, began, withdrawn, and cleverly turned off by the substitution of a ridiculous termination. It is then, when Hamlet finally resolves to withhold the secret, at least from Marcellus (when or where Horatio afterwards acquired it, is not explained), that he seeks to conceal his overwrought feelings by assumed levity.”

Ed. note: Brae’s note is in the midst of one for 792.

1852 N&Q

Anon: A.E.B. [Brae]

814-15 Anon. [M.] (1852, p. 285): “In support of A. E. B. [Brae], with whose view I entirely concur, it may be added that villain and knave do not make the proposition such a truism as Horatio (who is not intended for a conjuror, much less a verbal critic) admits it to be. Alexander the Great has been called a villain and a robber, but never a knave or a thief. By the Rule of Three, villain: robber :: knave : thief. As a truism, intended by Hamlet before the first line was spoken, it is not good enough for Hamlet’s wit. But, supposing the second line invented, pro re natá, to cover the retreat of the disclosure which was advancing in the first line, it is just what might have suggested itself—for Hamlet’s uncle was both a villain and a knave.”

1870 rug1

rug1 ≈ Brae without attribution

814-15 Moberly (ed. 1873): “‘Who is like the king of Denmark’ appears to be in Hamlet’s mind; but he turns his words off into a strange and baffling jest, as a kind of refuge from the horror which would else overmaster him. In a something similar style were Cromwell’s strange and untimely jests at the moment of inducing Colonel Ingoldsby to sign the king’s sentence.”

1872 cln1

cln1: standard

814-60 Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “The levity displayed by Hamlet is at once the natural expression of a mind oppressed with horror (like the jests of dying men and hysterical laughter), and is also a cunning device to deceive his frineds as to the purport of his communication with the Ghost.”

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1 (minus Cromwell sentence) ; marked in green from Brae

814-15 Moberly (ed. 1873): “‘who is like the king of Denmark,’ appears to be in Hamlet’s mind; but he turns his words off into a strange and baffling jest, as a kind of refuge from the horror which would else overmaster him, with a feeling, at the same time, that this will be the best way to defeat enquiry.”

1875 Marshall

Marshall: Coleridge

814-15 Coleridge (apud Marshall, 1875, p. 22): “For you may perhaps observe that Hamlet’s wildness is but half false; he plays that subtle trick of pretending to act only when he is very near really being what he acts.”

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ Seymour; = rug2 (minus 1st sentence)

814-15 Furness (ed. 1877): “Seymour (ii, 162): Hamlet begins these words in the ardour of sincerity and confidence; but, suddenly alarmed at the magnitude of the disclosure he is going to make, not only to Horatio, but to another beside, he breaks off hastily: ‘There’s ne’er a villain in all Denmark’ that can match (perhaps he would have said) my uncle in villainy; and then recollecting the danger of such a declaration, he pauses for a moment, and then abruptly concludes: ‘but he’s an errant knave.’ Moberly: Hamlet turns his words off into a strange and baffling jest, as a kind of refuge from the horror which would else overmaster him, with a feeling, at the same time, that this will be the best way to defeat enquiry.”

1879 Clarke & Clarke

Clarke & Clarke: standard

814 neuer] Clarke & Clarke (1879, p. 338): “Shakespeare uses ‘ne’er’ and ‘never’ in an idiom which, when he wrote, was thought merely a familiarism and no vulgarism, as it is at present.” [quotes 814 and lines from other plays]

1899 ard1

ard1: Seymour; Irving

814-15 Dowden (ed. 1899): Henry Irving adopted Seymour’s interpretation, with a look at Marcellus to show that his presence prevented full disclosure.

1901 gol

gol ≈ ard1 without attribution

814 Gollancz (ed. 1901): Irving followed Seymour’s suggestion and broke off here, changing his mind about relating too much to Marcellus, at whom he glanced.

1904 ver

ver

814 Verity (ed. 1904): i.e. ‘like the King.’”

1929 trav

trav

814-15 Travers (ed. 1929): Hamlet would have lost “moral stature” if he had blurted the truth out so rashly.

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH

814 neuer] Wilson (1934, p.233) believes (selectively) that Q2’s compositor uncontracted some words, so he contracts this word as F1 does.

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ rug2 without attribution

814-15 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The disclosure which Hamlet was apparently about to make he suddenly turns into a jest.”