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.

1773 gent

gent

Gentlemen (ed. 1773): “If all the theatrical performers would adhere strictly to the rules here laid down, they would come nearer nature than they do, or perhaps ever have done; indeed some Hamlets deliver them, and the whole part, in such a manner, as to violate the intention almost through every sentence, which rather turns the instruction to ridicule, by telling what ought to be, and shewing us what ought not.”

1858 col3

col3

1892-3 Collier (ed. 1858): “Here the 4to, 1603, adds what may have been recited at the time the tragedy was first acted. It is curious because it seems levelled at William Kemp, who about this date quitted the company of players to which Shakespeare had always belonged. We quote the passage exactly as it is printed, and with various ignorant corruptions:—‘And then you have some agen, that keepes one sute | Of jeasts, as a man is knowne by one sute of | Apparell, and Gentlemen quotes his jeasts downe | In their tables before they come to the play; as thus: | Cannot you stay till I eate my porrige? and, you owe me | A quarters wages; and, my coate wants a cullison; | And, your beere is sowre: and, blabbering with his lips, | And thus keeping in his cinkapace of jeasts, | Unlesse by chance, as the blinde man catcheth a hare.’ There is no trace of all this in any other 4to, nor in the folios, and it is evident that it is mere prose, although chopped up into apparent verse. Perhaps, after Kemp rejoined the King’s Players, (before 1605) the passage was omitted or subdued. Upon this point we may be allowed to quote the following from ‘Memoirs of the Lives of the Actors in Shakespeare’s Plays,’ (printed by the Shakespeare Society in 1846) p. 105: ‘We are to bear in mind that ‘Hamlet’ was probably not composed until the winter of 1601, or the spring of 1602, and it was about this date, according to the quotation from Henslowe’s Diary, that Kemp went over from the Lord Chamberlain’s to Lord Nottingham’s Players, and of course did his best to promote the success of a competing association. It would, therefore, not be surprising if, besides laying down a general axiom as to the abuse introduced by the performers of the parts of clowns, Shakespeare had designed a particular allusion to Kemp.’”

1861 wh1

wh1

1891-2 White (ed. 1861): “Here the 4to. of 1603 has a remarkable passage, which is found in no other edition. It was probably an extemporaneous addition to the text by the actor of Hamlet, and had but a passing application: [Quotation]”

1865 hal

hal

1892 In the fool that uses it] Halliwell (ed. 1865): “After these words there is a very curious addition in ed. 1603, which I am inclined to think ought to be in the text,--"And then you have some again that keep one suit of jests, as a man is known by one suit of apparel; and gentlemen quote his jests down in their tables before they come to the play; as thus: Cannot you stay till I eat my porridge? and You owe me a quarter’s wages; and My coat wants a cullison; and Your beer is sour; and blabbering with his lips; and thus keeping in his cinque- pace of jests, when, God knows, the warm clown cannot make jest unless by chance as the blind man catcheth a hare."

1877 clns

clns

1892 ambition in the foole] Neil (ed. 1877): “Shakespeare evidently regarded this tendency of comic actors to gag, as ‘very tolerable and not to be endured.’ In the 1603 quarto, he extends this denunciation further thus: [quotes ten lines].

1882 elze

elze

1895 this peece of work] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare The Taming of the Shrew, I, 1, 258: ‘Tis a verie excellent peece of worke.”

1885 macd

macd

1892-3 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Here follow in the 1st Q. several specimens of such a clown’s foolish jests and behaviour.”

1934a cam3

cam3

1895 Wilson (ed. 1934): “piece of work i.e. masterpiece. Ham. speaks jocularly.”