Line 1978-79 - 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.
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Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
| 1978-9 Ham. O God your onely Iigge-maker, what should | a man do but | |
|---|
1778 v1778
v1778
1978 Iigge-maker] Steevens (ed. 1778): “There may have been some humour in this passage, the force of which is now diminished: ‘—many gentlemen / Are not, as in the days of understanding, / Now satisfied without a jig, which since / They cannot, with the honour, call for after / The play, they look to be serv’d up in the middle.’ Changes, or Love in a Maze, by Shirley, 1632.
“In the Hog has Lost his Pearl, 1614, one of the players comes to solicit a gentleman to write a jig for him. A jig was not in Shakespeare’s time a dance, but a ludicrous dialogue in meter, and of the lowest kind, like Hamlet’s conversation with Ophelia. Many of these jiggs are entered into the books of the Staioner’s Company: —“Philips his Jigg of the slyppers, 1595. Kempe’s Jigg of the Kitchen-stuff-woman, 1595.”
1780 mals
mals: v1778
1978 Iigge-maker] Malone (1780, p. 356): "To follow Steeven’s HAMLET. note1.—The following lines in the prologue to Fletcher’s——Love’s Pilgrimage confirm Mr. Steeven’s remark: ’——for approbation, A jig shall be clap’d at, and ev’ry rhyme Prais’d and applauded by a clamourous chime.’ a jig was not always in the form of a dialogue. Many historical ballads were formerly called jigs. Malone."
1783 ritson
1978 Iigge-maker] Ritson (1783, p. 202): “Mr. Steevens has clearly proved that jig in the authors time signifyed a ludicrous dialogue in metre, or a common vulgar ballad; but he is as clearly wrong in asserting that it did not, at that time, signify a dance. He may be satisfyed of the fact, by onely turning over the next leaf, from his own note:—tumbling dauncing of gigges.”
1785 v1785
v1785=mals+
1978 Iigge-maker] [Reed] (ed. 1787): “The author of THE REMARKS observes that a jig, though it certainly signified a ludicrous dialogue in metre, yet it also was used for a dance. In the extract from Stephen Gosson in the next page, we have, ‘—tumbling, dancing of gigges’.”
1785 mason
1978 Iigge-maker] Mason (1785, p. 388): “Steevens, in his note on these words, says that a jig in Shakespeare’s time was not a dance, but a ludicrous dialogue, Yet in the next page but one, in his note on the words, the hobby-horse is forgot, he quotes a passage from Gasson’s plays confuted, in which the author talks of vaulting, tumbling, and dancing jigs.
“And in the first act of Twelfth Night, Sir Toby says to Sir Andrew, who had boasted of his excellence in dancing, ‘Why dost thou not go to church in a galliard | And come home in a coranto? | My very walk should be a jig.’ [1.3.127-9 (235-237)].”
1790 mal
1978 Iigge-maker] Malone (ed. 1790); “A jig, as has been already observed, signified not only a dance, but also a ludicrous prose or metrical composition, which in our authour’s time was sometimes represented or sung after a play. So, in the prologue to Fletcher’s Fair Maid of the Inn: ‘—when for approbation / A jig shall be clapp’d at, and every rhime / Prais’d and applauded by a clamorous chime.’ See also p. 277, n.7. and The Historical Account of the old English theatres, Vol. I. P. II.”
1791- rann
rann
1978 Iigge-maker] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—composer of ludicrous ballads, or dialogues in metre.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785, mal
1807 pye
pye : v1778, mal, ritson
1978 Iigge-maker] Pye (1807, p. 319): “That Messrs. Steevens, Malone, and Ritson should think the very common word jig required a long and serious investigation is truly ridiculous. Mr. Malone has besides explained it before in the preceding act.”
1815 becket
1978 Iigge-maker] Becket (1815, p. 50): “An equivoque, I believe, is here intended. Hamlet may mean either jig-maker, or gig-maker. Gigge, in Chaucer, is an harlot, a strumpet.” </p. 50>
1826 sing1
1978-9 Singer (ed. 1826): “See note on [2.02.500. (1540)]. It may here be added that a jig sometimes signified a spritely dance, as at present. In addition to the examples before given, take the following from Ford’s Love’s Sacrifice:—-’O Giacopo! Petrarch was a dunce, Dante a jig-maker, Sannazar a goose, and Ariosto a puck-first to me.’— Act ii. Sc.2.”
1843 col1
1978 Iigge-maker] Collier (ed. 1843): “See [2.2.?. 9 (1540-1)] Some of the ‘jigs’ made by Tarlton are extant in manuscript, as well as the music to which they were sung by him.”
1858 col3
COL2=COL1+
1978 Iigge-maker] Collier (ed. 1858): “...other jigs were by Kemp, Phillips, and Singer, Tarlton’s successor. ‘Tarlton’s Medley’ was the name of a well—known tune.”
1861 wh1
1978 Iigge-maker] White (ed. 1861): “‘—-your only jig-maker’:—We should now say, ’only your jig-maker’.”
1870 abbott
abbott
1978 onely] Abbott (§58): “Only, i.e. on(e)ly, is used as an adjective. See But (130) and Transpositions (420). We have lost this adjectival use of only, except in the sense of ‘single,’ in such phrases as ‘an only child.’ Only, like ‘alone’ (18), used nearly in the sense of ‘above all,’ ‘surpassing.’”
1882 elze
1978 O God your onely Iigge-maker]
Elze (ed. 1882): “i.e. I am the only person worth the name of jig-maker, or there is no jig-maker like me;
your is of course used in that colloquial way explained by Dr Abbott, Sh. Gr., § 221. Compare Hamlet 165:
your worme is your onely Emperor for diet, i.e. the only creature that deserves the name of emperor with respect to diet. White (apud
Furness), in my opinion, misses the sense, when he remarks: We should now say
only your [
jig-maker].”
1978-9 what should a man do] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Webster, The White Devil; or, Vittoria Corombona, A. III (Works, ed. Dyce, in 1 vol., p. 26a): — ‘What a strange creature is a laughing fool! As if man were created to no use, But only to show his teeth’.”
1885 macd
macd
1977 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Ophelia bears with him for his own and his madness’ sake, and is less uneasy because of the presence of his mother. To account satisfactorily for Hamlet’s speeches to her , is not easy. The freer custom of the age, freer to an extent hardly credible in this, will not satisfy the lovers of Hamlet, although it must have some weight. The necessity for talking madly, because he is in the presence of his uncle, and perhaps, to that end, for uttering whatever comes to him, without pause for choice, might give us another hair’s-weight. Also he may be supposed confident that Ophelia would not understand him, while his uncle would naturally set such worse than improprieties down to wildest madness. But I suspect that here as before (123), Shakespere would show Hamlet’s soul full of bitterest, passionate loathing; his mother has compelled him t think of horrors and women together, so turning their preciousness into a disgust; and this feeling, his assumed madness allows him to indulge and partly relieve by utterance. Could he have provoked Ophelia to rebuke him with the severity he courted, such rebuke would have been joy to him. Perhaps yet a small addition of weight to the scale of his excuse may be found in his excitement about his play, and the necessity for keeping down that excitement. Suggestion is easier than judgement.”
1978 Iigge-maker] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “ ‘here’s for the jig-maker! He’s the right man!’ Or perhaps he is claiming the part as his own: ‘I am your only jig-maker!’”
1909 subbarau
subbarau
1978 O God your onely Iigge-maker] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “The true import of Hamlet’s words seems to be — ‘O God, the only jig-maker for the world’ — as much to say, in bitter irony, ‘Yes, of course, I am merry, and God has provided the mirth for me!’ Your is used ethically, as in III.ii. 3 [1851], ‘your players.’ See Abbott § 221. For the meaning of jig, see note on II. ii. 496.”
1978 1979