Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2105-6 Ham. The Mousetrap, mary how tropically, | this play is the Image | |
|---|
| 2106-7 of a murther doone in Vienna, {Gonzago} <Gon-| zago>is the Dukes name, his wife | |
|---|
| 2107-8 Baptista, you shall see | anon, tis a knauish peece of worke, but what {of} | |
|---|
| 2108-10 {that} <o’that>? | your Maiestie, and wee that haue free soules, it touches | vs not, | |
|---|
1723- mtby2
mtby2
2105 mary how] Thirlby (1723-) proposes giving this phrase to the King.
Transcribed by BWK, who adds: “mtby2 is not clear about where the King‘s speech should end; he does not provide another SP for Hamlet, which would be necessary. His conj. is marked Fsq—presumably weak.”
1726 theon
theon: contra pope1
2105 tropically] Theobald (1726, p. 88): “topically]] “False Printing. Correct it, as it ought to be.”
1747-53 mtby4
mtby4 = mtby3
1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson Dict.
2105 tropically] Johnson (1755): “rhetorically changed from the original meaning.”
2106 image ] Johnson (1755): 1.“any corporeal representation, generally used of statues; a statue; a picture.”
2. “an idol; a false god.”
3. “a copy; representation; likeness.”
1765 john1/john2
john1
2107 Baptista] JOHNSON (ed. 1765): “Baptista is, I think, in Italian, the name always of a man.”
1773- mstv1
mstv1 = john1 +
2105 tropically] Steevens (ms. notes in Steevens, ed. 1773): “tropically, in a figurative or metaphorical sense.”
1774 capn
capn
2105 tropically] Capell (1774, 1:1: glossary, tropically): “(H. 72, 4.) by a Trope, figuratively.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = john1
2105 Mousetrap] Steevens (ed. 1778): “He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is—the thing In which he’ll catch the conscience of the king. STEEVENS.
“It is notable that the murdered figure who is named Gonzago in the source story is a duke (2107). In [3.2.244 (2112)], Hamlet identifies Lucianus as nephew to the duke. In the Mousetrap play, the murdered figure is systematically identified as P. King. ”
v1778 = john1 for Baptista (2107)
1783 Ritson
Ritson: [john1]
2107 Baptista] Ritson (1783, p. 203): “Mr. ——— thinks that Baptista is, in Italian, the name always of a man. He is certainly right: Baptista, Battista, or Giam-battista, means no more or less than John the Baptist.”
1784 ays1
ays1=v1778 for Mousetrap (2105)
1790 mal
mal = v1785 +
2107 Gonzago is the Dukes name] Malone (ed. 1790): “Thus all the old copies: yet in the stage-direction for the dumb shew, and the subsequent entrance, we have ‘Enter a king and queen,’ &c. and in the latter part of this speech both the quarto and folio read ‘—Lucianus, nephew to the king.’ This seeming inconsistency however may be reconciled. Though the interlude is the image of the murder of a duke of Vienna, or in other words founded upon that story, the poet might make the principal person of his fable a king. MALONE.”
1791- rann
rann ≈ capn
2105 tropically] Rann (ed. 1791-): “Figuratively.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal for Gonzago is the Dukes name (2107)
v1793 = v1785 for Baptista (2107)
v1793 ≈ Riston + magenta underlined
2107 Baptista] Ritson (apud Steevens, ed. 1793): “I believe Battista is never used singly by the Italians, being uniformly compounded with Giam (for Giovanni,) and meaning of course, John the Baptist. Nothing more was therefore necessary to detect the forgery of Shebbeare’s Letters on the English Nation, than his ascribing them to Battista Angeloni. RITSON.”
1819 cald1
cald1
2105 tropically] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Figuratively, by a turn we give things, ‘We use the word mouton, that is, sheepe, tropically, not so much to signifie a sot, as a simple soule, who suffers himself to be led by the nose, as we say.’ R.C. Stephens’s Apology for Herodotus, fo. 1608, p. 26.”
cald1:1H4, Lr.//s; xref.
2106 image] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “The lively portraiture, or representation, as well in picture as in sculpture. ‘No counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed.’ 1h4 [5.4.119 (3084)]. ‘Image of that horror.’ Lr. [5.3.264 (3226)]. and Ham. [5.2.77 (3581)].”
cald1:Shr //
2107 Baptista] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Signior Baptista is a character in the Taming of the Shrew.”
1826 sing1
sing1: v1821
2105 Mousetrap] Singer (ed. 1826): “i.e.—the thing in which he’ll catch the conscience of the king.“
sing1 ≈ v1793, without attribution +
2105 tropically] Singer (ed. 1826): “First quarto—trapically. It is evident that a pun was intended.”
sing1≈ v1793 without attribution
2107 Dukes . . . Baptista] Singer (ed. 1826): “all the old copies read thus. Yet in the dumb shew we have, ‘Enter a King and Queen,’ and at the end of this speech, ‘Lucianus, nephew to the king.’ This seeming inconsistency, however, may be reconciled. Though the interlude is the image of the murder of the duke of Vienna, or in other words founded upon that story, the poet might make the principal person of his fable a king. Baptista is never used singly by the Italians, being uniformly compounded with Giam and Giovanni. It is needless to remark that it is always the name of a man. I think, in Italian, the name always of a man.”
All but one of the notes are slightly altered and unattributed versions of earlier commentaries as gathered in v1821: Mousetrap (introd. by Steevens, ed. 1778; Dukes (introd. by Malone, ed. 1790); Baptista (introd. by Ritson, ed. 1793).
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 + I.B. analogue
2105 tropically] Caldecott (ed. 1832): ‘Light is either taken literally or tropically. Literally two waies.’ Metaphorically it is applied many waies.’ I.B.’s Joy of the upright Man. A Sermon at Grayes Inne. 4to. 1619, p.2.”
1841 knt1 (nd)
knt1: standard
2105 tropically] Knight (ed. [1839] nd): “figuratively.”
1843 col1
col1
2106-7 This play . . . name] Collier (ed. 1843): “In the quarto, 1603, the scene of the play within a play is laid in Guiana, (the short-hand writer having, perhaps, mis-heard the name) and the two provincial characters are called Duke and Duchess in one place, and King and Queen in another: in the prefixes they are Duke and Duchess. The same confusion of rank prevails in the other quarto editions, excepting that Gonzago and Baptista are styled in the prefixes King and Queen.”
1845 Hunter
Hunter ≈ cald (Shr. //)
2105-7 The Mousetrap . . . Baptista] Hunter (1845, 2:252): “Hamlet calls the play The Mouse-trap, with reference to the design with which it was performed. It was to catch the conscience of the King. Tropically is trapically in the earliest quarto, an idle, unmeaning word, except that we may see a faint shade of meaning in the play being a figurative representation of an actual deed, and this, combined with the opportunity of playing on the word trap, is the true reason that we meet with this word thus oddly introduced. Gonzago is here a duke, but everywhere else he is a king. How is this? The original quarto explains it. The character was a duke throughout as the play was originally written, and when king was to be substituted for duke this passage remained by some accident uncorrected. Shakespeare has been censured for giving the name Baptista to a woman. I have seen few instances in which the name was borne by women in England. Shakespeare was not solicitous about it. It had a feminine termination; that was enough. He has given it to a man in The Taming of the Shrew.”
1847 verp
verp: capn without attribution
2105 tropically]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “Tropically, i.e. in a trope, or figuratively, referring to his own ideas of the play, as the thing, in which he’ll ‘catch the conscience of the king’ [1645].”
1854 del2
del2
2105 tropically] Delius (ed. 1854): “ ‘Die Mausfalle" heisst das Stück nur figürlich (tropically), insofern das Gewissen des Königs gefangen werden soll, wie Hamlet am Schluss des 2. Acts dies in seinem Monolog aussprach.” [The play is called The Mousetrap only metaphorically (tropically), because the king’s conscience is to be caught in it, as Hamlet has said in his monologue at the end of the second act.]
del2
2107 Gonzago . . . Baptista] Delius (ed. 1854): “Das ursprüngliche Drama, wie die italienische Novelle, der es entlehnt ist, handelte von dem Herzog Gonzago, und darauf bezieht sich Hamlet hier, wenn er the duke’s name sagt. Um es dem Zwecke seiner Aufführung näher zu bringen, machte Hamlet aus dem Herzog einen Köhig. In Q. A. treten noch Duke and Dutchess für King and Queen auf.” [The original play, like the Italian novella, from which it is borrowed, is about Duke Gonzago, and that is what Hamlet refers to here when he says the duke’s name. To bring the performance closer in line with his purpose, Hamlet has changed the duke into a king. In Q1 the Duke and Dutchess still appear instead of the King and Queen.]
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1 ≈ sing1 for Dukes . . . Baptista without attribution +
2107 Dukes . . . Baptista] Hudson (ed. 1851-6): “Baptista is always the name of a man.”
Hudson adds remark that Singer found “needless.”
1856b sing2
sing2 ≈ sing1 minus “This seeming inconsistency . . . his fable a king.” + magenta underlined
2107 Dukes . . . Baptista] Singer (ed. 1856): “All the old copies read thus. Yet in the dumb shew we have, ‘Enter a King and Queen,’ and at the end of this speech, ‘Lucianus, nephew to the king.’ In the quarto, 1603, the character is a duke throughout the play, and when king was to be substituted for duke, this passage escaped correction. Baptista is never used singly by the Italians, being uniformly compounded with Giam and Giovanni. It is needless to remark that it is always the name of a man.” I think, in Italian, the name always of a man.”
1857 fieb
fieb
2105 tropically] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “figuratively, corresponding to what he has said at the end of the second act: ‘The play’s the thing, Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.’”
fieb ≈ mal
2106 Dukes name] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “In the stage-direction for the dumb show, and the subsequent entrance, we have ‘Enter a king and queen,’ etc. and in the latter part of this speech Lucianus is called ‘nephew to the king.’ This seeming inconsistency, however, may be reconciled. Though the interlude, says Malone, is the image of the murder of a duke of Vienna, or in other words, founded upon that story, the poet might make the principal person of his fable a king.”
fieb
2109 free] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “viz. from reproach, guiltless.”
1860 stau
stau: standard
2105 tropically] Staunton (ed. 1860): “Figuratively.”
1861 wh1
wh1: standard
2105 tropically] White (ed. 1861): “i.e. figuratively; by way of trope.”
1864a glo
glo
2106 Image] Clark & Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9: glossary, Image): “sb. representation.”
1865 hal
hal = Hunter (Halliwell attributes this note to Douce, but note does not appear in 1807)
1868 c&mc
c&mc: LLL //
2107 Gonzago is the Dukes name]
Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “The title of “duke” was sometimes, in Shakespeare’s time, used synonymously with that of ‘king.’ See Note 5,
LLL [2.2.38 (529)].”
1869 tsch
tsch
2105 tropically] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Die Lesart der Q1 trapically verdient wohl kaum Beachtung. Man hat Anspielung auf trap, ital. trapola darin vermuthet.” [The version of Q1 trapically is hardly worth attention. It was imagined to refer to trap, Italian trapola.]
tsch
2106 Gonzago] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Ueber Albertus d. Q1 für Gonzago ist oben p. 105 gesprochen. Baptista is nur Männername. Die falsche Anwendung sieht wie eine List des Prinzen aus.” [The use of Albertus for Gonzago in Q1 is discussed above on p. 105. Baptista is only a man’s name. The false use looks like a trick of the prince.]
tsch: Genesis analogue
2109 and wee] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Häufig tritt im Englischen ein pronominaler Nominativ in der Apposition zu einem obliquen Casus, wie hier: It touches us not, your majensty and we, that etc. Cf. Gen. 31, 44. Let us make a covenant, I and thou. M. II. 9.” [In English a pronominal nominative often appears in apposition to an oblique case as here: It touches us not, your majesty and we, that etc. Cf. Gen. 31. 44: Let us make a covenant, I and thou. M. II. 9.]
1870 rug1
rug1: standard for tropically (2105)
rug1 ≈ cald + magenta underlined
2107 Baptista] Moberley (ed. 1870): “is ordinarily a man’s name, as in the Taming of the Shrew. If it occurs alone it is short for Gianbattista.”
1870 Abbott
Abbott
2109 and wee] Abbott (1870, §216): “After a conjunction and before an infinitive we often find I, thou, &c., where in Latin we should have ‘me,’ ‘te,’ &c. The conjunction seems to be regarded as introducing a new sentence, instead of connecting one clause with another. Hence the pronoun is put in the nominative, and a verb is, perhaps, to be supplied from the context.
“I, thou, and he, are also used for me, thee, and him, when they stand quasi-independently at some distance from the governing verb of preposition. ‘But what o’ that? Your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not.’ – Ham. [3.2.241-3 (2108-10)].”
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ sing2
2105 tropically] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “figuratively. The quarto of 1603 reads ‘trapically’ as if a pun were intended, which indeed may be the case.”
cln1: xref.
2109 free] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “See [2.2.564 (1604)].”
1875 Marshall
Marshall
2105-12 The Mousetrap . . . King] Marshall (1875, p. 160): “I have heard this speech spoken with far too manifest intention; it seems to me that Hamlet is anxious rather to remove any suspicion of his real purpose in causing this play to be represented: it is with great difficulty that he restrains himself, but he does do so, remembering that the representation of his father’s murder, on which he mainly relied in his attempt to make the occulted guilt of Claudius unkennel itself, was yet to come.”
1876 Browne
Browne
2106-7 Gonzago] Browne (apud Neil in Athenæum, July 29, 1876): “The story of the play is certainly taken from the murder of the Duke of Urbano by Luigi Gonzago, in 1538, who was poisoned by means of a lotion poured into his ears. This new way of poisoning caused great horror throughout Europe, and we often meet with allusions to it. It is worth noting also that the wife of the duke was a Gonzago. Some of the commentators have absurdly objected to Battista as a female Christian name. It was not only a common female name at this period, but especially connected with Mantua and the Gonzagos.”
1877 v1877
v1877: mstv1
2105 Mousetrap]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Steevens: In reference to [3.2.237 (2105)].”
v1877 ≈ cald1, Hunter
2105 tropically]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Caldecott: Figuratively, by a
trope or
turn we give things.
Hunter (ii, 282):
Trapically of Q1 is an unmeaning word, except that we may see a faint shade of meaning in the play being a
figurative representation of an actual deed, and this, combined with the opportunity of playing on the word
trap, is the true reason that we meet with this word thus oddly introduced.”
v1877: Mac. //
2106 Image]
Furness (ed. 1877): “See
Mac. [2.3.78 (833)].”
v1877 ≈ col1
2106 Vienna]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Collier: The
Guiana of Q1 perhaps arose from the shorthandwriter having misheard the name.”
v1877 ≈ Hunter, Walker
2107 Dukes]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Hunter (ii, 252): Q1 explains why everywhere else he is a
king. The character was a
duke throughout, as the play was originally written, and when
king was to be substituted for
duke, this passage remained by some accident uncorrected.
Walker (Crit. ii,
281) shows by many instances that
king, duke, and
count were confounded in sense, and that to the poet they were one and the same, all involving alike the idea of sovereign power; and thus might easily be confounded with each other in the memory.”
v1877 ≈ john, Riston, Hunter
2107 Baptista]
Furness (ed. 1877): “
Johnson: In Italian, I think, the name always of a man.
Ritson: I believe it is never used singly, but compounded with
Gian (for
Giaovanni), and meaning, of course,
John the Baptist.
Hunter (ii, 252): I have seen a few instances in which the name was borne by women in England. Sh. was not solicitous about it. It had a feminine termination; that was enough.”
v1877: xref.
2109 wee]
Furness (ed. 1877): “See [1.4.54 (639)].”
v1877 ≈ cln1
2109 free]
Furness (ed. 1877): “See [2.2.564 (1604)].”
1877 neil
neil = Hunter (1845) minus “Gonzago . . . . Shrew” for Mousetrap . . . tropically (2105)
1878 rlf1
rlf1: standard
2105 tropically] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “By a trope, or ‘a figure of rhetoric’ (AYL [5.1.41 (2383)]); used by S. nowhere else.”
rlf1: Walker; LLL, TN //s
2107 Dukes] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Elsewhere he is a king. Walker shows that king, duke, and count were often confused in sense. In the mouths of Dull, Armando, and Dogberry, duke may have been intended as a blunder, but hardly so in the case of the princess in LLL [2.1.38 (529)]. Cf. Viola’s use of count in TN [5.1.256 (2422)] with Id. [1.2.25 (75)].”
1881 hud2
hud2: standard
2105 tropically] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Tropically is figuratively, or in the way of trope.”
hud2
2107 Dukes name] Hudson (ed. 1881): “King’s name] Here, instead of King, the old copies have Duke. But in the stage-directions for the dumb-show the same person is repeatedly called King, as he also is a little after: ‘This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.’ Probably the error crept in somehow from the first quarto, where the King and Queen of the interlude are called Duke and Duchess.”
1882 elze2
elze2 ≈ sing1 for tropically without attribution
2105 tropically] Elze (ed. 1882): “as if a pun on the word Mouse-trap had been intended.”
elze2: Gorbuduc analogue
2106-7 Gonzago is the Dukes name] Elze (ed. 1882): “Albertus Was the Dukes name. In the stage-direction in § 123 as well as in the prefixes he is called a King. Compare the Argument and the Names of the Speakers prefixed to the tragedy of Gorboduc, where Gorboduc is styled kynge of Brittayne and kynge of great Brittayne, whereas in ‘The Order of the doome shewe before the firste Acte’ we read: As befell upon Duke Gorboduc deuidinge his Lande to his two Sonnes &c.”
elze2: Reumont, Elze (Essays, 1874)
2107 Baptista] Elze (ed. 1882): “It has been pointed out by A. von Reumont (Allgemeine Zeitung, Oct. 21, 1870), that in Italy Baptista occurs indeed as the Christian name of a woman; and the instances given by him even admit of augmentation. The charge of ignorance brought against Shakespeare on this score, is thus turned into its opposite, and becomes a proof of the thoroughness of his knowledge. See my Essays on Shakespeare (London, 1874) p. 295. Abhandlungen zu Shakespeare, S. 319.”
1883 wh2
wh2 = wh1
2105 tropically] White (ed. 1883): “by trope, figure of speech.”
wh2: contra v1793
2107 Baptista] White (ed. 1883): “This name is borne by men in Italy, but it had a feminine ending which misled S.”
1885 macd
macd: standard
2105 tropically] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Figuratively: from trope.”
macd
2106-10 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Here Hamlet endangers himself to force the king to self-betrayal.”
1885 mull
mull
2105 Mull (ed. 1885): “It would be more appropriate if this reply were distributed in the following manner, ‘Ham. The Mouse-trap. King. Marry, how? Ham. Tropically.’”
1888 mulls
mulls: xref.
2105 The Mousetrap]
Mull (1888, p. 12): <p.12>“See [3.4.183 (2559)], ‘call you his mouse.’ The significance of the titel of the play-scene given to it by Hamlet is obvious, if the whole colloquy preceding [3.4.179-217 (2555-84)] be noted.” </p.12>
1889 Barnett
Barnett: standard
2105 tropically] Barnett (1889, p. 48): “with tropes, i.e. figuratively.”
Barnett ≈ cln1
2109 free] Barnett (1889, p. 48): “innocent. Cf. [2.2.564 (1604)]—‘Make mad . . . and appall the free.’ “
1890 irv2
irv2 ≈ Elze, Walker (LLL, TN, TGV, Tit. //s)
2106-7 Gonzago is the Dukes name] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Elze points out a similar confusion of duke and king in the tragedy of Gorbuduc: in the argument and the names of the speakers Gorbuduc is styled Kynge of Brittayne and Kynge of great Brittayne, whereas in ‘The Order of the dome shewe before the firste Acte’ we read: ‘As befell vpon Duke Gorbuduc deuidinge his Lande to his two Sonnes.’ Walker, Crit, Exam. ii. 280-282, Article CIV. points out that in Love’s Labour’s Lost the King is sometimes styled Duke; in Twelfth Night, Orsino is sometimes Duke, sometimes count; in Two Gent. of Verona, Duke and Emperor are confounded; in Titus Antronicus, Emperor and King; in Beaumont and Fletcher, Cupid’s Revenge, the Duke and his consort are styled Duke and Queen, and the heir to a dukedom talks of becoming a king; in Sidney’s Arcadia, Basilius is sometimes called King, sometimes Duke. He winds up with: ‘king, count, and duke, were one and the same to the poet, all involving alike the idea of sovereign power; and thus might easily be confounded with each other in the memory.’”
1891 dtn
dtn: standard
2105 tropically] Deighton (ed. 1891): “figuratively.”
dtn
2106 Image] Deighton (ed. 1891): “exact representation.”
dtn
2108 a knauish peece of worke] Deighton (ed. 1891): “sc. the murder. ”
dtn
2108 but what of that] Deighton (ed. 1891): “but that matters nothing.”
dtn ≈ Barnett
2110 free] Deighton (ed. 1891): “innocent of all crime.”
1899 ard1
ard1: standard
2105 tropically] Dowden (ed. 1899): “called the Mousetrap (catching the conscience of the king) by wayof a trope or figure. The ‘trapically’ of Q1 suggests that a pun is intended.”
ard1: Elze, Walker + magenta underlined
2106-7 Gonzago is the Dukes name] Dowden (ed. 1899): “In 1538 the Duke of Urbano, married to a Gonzaga, was murdered by Luigi Gonzaga, who dropped poison into his ear. Shakespeare, it is suggested, might have found this writ in choice Italian, might have transferred the name Gonzaga to the murdered man, and formed ‘Lucianus’ from Luigi. ‘The duke’ seems to be an oversight. In Q1 the murdered man and his wife are Duke and Dutchesse throughout, except in the dumb-show, where they are King and Queen; in the altered form perhaps ‘duke’ was here erroneously retained. It is, however, true, as Walker and Elze point out, that ‘Duke’ and ‘King’ are not always differentiated by Elizabethan writers. . . . See Sh. Jahrbuch, xxxi. 169, for another Gonzaga-murder.”
ard1: Hunter; Reumont analogue
2107 Baptista] Dowden (ed. 1899): “As to the name ‘Baptista, Hunter says he has seen a few instances of the name as borne by women in England. ‘It had a feminine termination; that was enough. Shakespeare has given it to a man in The Taming of the Shrew.’ It has been shown by A. von Reumont (Allgemeine Zeitung, October 21, 1870) that Baptista was used in Italy as the Christian name of a woman.”
ard1: xref.
2109 free] Dowden (ed. 1899): “see [2.2.564 (1604)].”
Ref. is to “Make made the guilty, and apale the free,” where Dowden’s gloss is “innocent.”
1900 ev1
ev1: Sarrazin
2106-7 Gonzago is the Dukes name] Hereford (ed. 1900): “Gonzago was the family name of the dukes of Mantua. There are several slight indications of Shakespeare’s acquaintance with Mantuan affairs (cf. Sarrazin, J.B. xxix. xxx. 249f.).”
1903 rlf3
rlf3=rlf1 minus attribution to Walker for comment on Dukes
1904 ver
ver: MM, //; Q1 xref.
2106 Vienna] Verity (ed. 1904): “Shakespeare makes Vienna the scene of his tragi-comedy of unpleasant love-intrigue, MM (probably written just after Hamlet and closely linked to it in several ways). The 1st Quarto has Guyana (an echo, some think, of mariners’ stories of Eldorado and the New World).”
ver ≈ ard1, ev1
2107 Gonzago] Verity (ed. 1904): “”In 1538 the Duke of Urbino, married to a Gonzaga, was murdered by Luigi Gonzaga, who dropped poison into his ear. Shakespeare, it is suggested, might have found this writ in choice Italian, might have transferred the name Gonzaga to the murdered man, and formed ‘Lucianus’ from Luigi” – Dowden.
“Herford notes that “Gonzago was the family name of the dukes of Mantua. There are several slight indications of Shakespeare’s acquaintance with Mantuan affairs.”
1905 rltr
rltr: standard
2105 tropically] Chambers (ed. 1905): “metaphorically.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn: standard
2105 tropically] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “figuratively.”
1907 Werder
Werder
2105-32 Werder (1907; rpt. 1977, pp. 139-140): <p.139>“ The murder, however, is discovered! Murder is cried out aloud throughout the play. Hamlet insinuates that it is a ‘mouse-trap,’ that it is a cunningly contrived artifice. The mur- </p.139> <p. 140> derer is a young relative of the aged duke; the crime happens in a garden by poisoning, only it is a man that does the deed instead of a snake; and—after this action the King starts up and runs away.” </p.140>
1909 subb
subb: standard (hist. analogue)
2106 Gonzago] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “Shakespeare has purposely changed the name of the Duke in the Italian tale: Luigi Gonzaga, the murderer (who correspond to Claudius) figures here as the murdered (Gonzaga) and the murderer (Lucianus), who is nephew, not brother, to the murdered. The appropriateness lies in the fact that Claudius has by his wicked deed paved the way for his own death through the instrumentality of his nephew, Hamlet.”
1913 tut2
tut2
2107 the Dukes name] Goggin (ed. 1913): “the titles duke, king, and count are not always carefully differentiated in Shakespeare. It is said that ‘in 1538 a Duke of Urbino, who was married to a Gonzaga, was murdered by one Luigi Gonzage, who dropped poison into his ear.’ Shakespeare, it is thought, was likely to have read this story (see [3.2.262-4 (2132-5)]).”
1916 TLS
H. L.: xref "Mouse" 2559
2105 Mousetrap] Anon. [H. L.] (“Hamlet’s ’Mousetrap,’ ” TLS [1916]: 381): Since Hamlet alludes to the term of endearment for man or woman in 2559, perhaps in the name he gives the play he meant to suggest the trap he was setting for the two lovers.
1929 trav
trav: MM //
2107 Duke]
Travers (ed. 1929): “
King and
duke, and even
count, are, in Elizabethan plays, occasionally thus interchanged, in the case of rulers in such far off lands.—As regards the Italian names, cp. in
MM, [Dramatis Personae (2941-42)] Vincentio, the Duke, Angelo, his deputy, etc. and p. 2 n. 8.”
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ ard1
2105 tropically] Craig (ed. 1931): “figuratively. The Q1 reading, trapically, suggests a pun on trap in Mouse-trap.”
crg1 ≈ dtn
2106 Image] Craig (ed. 1931): “representation.”
crg1: standard (hist. anal.)
2106 Gonzago] Craig (ed. 1931): “In 1538 Luigi Gonzago murdered the Duke of Urbino by pouring poisoned lotion in his ears.”
1934 cam3
cam3: OED
2105 The Mousetrap] Wilson (ed. 1934): “N.E.D. [OED] quotes many instances of this in the ‘tropical’ sense of ‘a device for enticing a person to his destruction or defeat.’”
cam3: Wiv. //
2105 mary how tropically] Wilson (ed. 1934): Marry, how?—tropically] “(F1) Q2 ‘mary how tropically,’ Q1 ‘mary how trapically.’ Q1 suggests a quibble on ‘trap,’ perhaps in reference to ‘marry trap’ (= ‘an exclamation of insult when a man is caught in his own stratagem,’ Dr Johnson), cf. Wiv. [1.1.167 (155)] ‘I will say ‘marry trap’ with you,’ i.e. I will give you tit for tat. v. G ‘tropically.’”
cam3: Sh. Jahrbuch
Gonzago]
Wilson (ed. 1934): “v.
Introd. p. xxiii.”
Reference is to ard1 claim that the inset play has historical foundation in the poisoning of Luigi Gonzago by the Dude of Urbino (1538). Wilson faults Dowden for failing to provide authority for this comment, and cites G. Sarrazin for citing another Gonzaga murder in Italy on May 7, 1591 (Sh. Jahrbuch, 1895, p.169).
1934b rid1
rid1
2105 tropically] Ridley (ed. 1934): “figuratively (in the Eliz. pronunciation is a pun on ‘trap’).”
1937 pen1
pen1 ≈ crg1
2105-6 tropically] Harrison (ed. 1937): “figuratively; the First Quarto reads ‘trapically,’ thereby indicating the pun.”
1939 kit2
kit2: xref.
2105 The Mousetrap] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “the thing in which he’ll ‘catch the conscience of the King’ [1645] ”
kit2: standard
2105 tropically] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “by a trope; metaphorically.”
kit2 ≈ ev1 (Sarrazin)
2106 the Image] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “the exact representation. Sarrazin (Shakespeare Jahrbuch, XXXI [1895], 169) supposes the source to be an historical event, the murder of the Marchese Alfonso Gonzaga of Castelgoffredo in 1592, at his country house, by eight ruffians in the pay of his nephew.”
kit2: standard
2109 free] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “free from guilt, innocent.”
1947 cln2
cln2 ≈ ard1 (“In 1538 . . . Luigi.’) + magenta underlined
2106 Gonzago ] Rylands (ed. 1947): “The story has not been found in any of the Italian collections of novelle. But there were numerous translations sold in the sixteenth century.”
1957 pel1
pel1 ≈ dtn
2109 free] Farnham (ed. 1957): “guiltless.”
mun: Willcock, Kökeritz
2105 tropically] Munro (ed. 1958): Tropically.“(=by trope, metaphorically). A pun intended with Mousetrap. J.D Willcock in Sh. Companion, 119, supposes that the actor pronounced the word as Trapically (See Kökeritz, 84, 223).”
mun: Kuhl
2106-7 Vienna, Gonzago . . . Baptista] Munro (ed. 1958): “E.P. Kuhl in TLS, 8 July, 1949, supports Guyana, which was linked with Sir Walter Raleigh, as a topical reference.”
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ crg1 + magenta underlined
2105 tropically] Evans (ed. 1974): “figuratively (with play on trapically—which is the reading of Q1—and probably with allusion to the children’s saying marry trap, meaning ‘now you’re caught’).”
evns1 = crg1
2106 image] Evans (ed. 1974): “representation.”
evns1: standard
2109 free soules] Evans (ed. 1974): “clear consciences.”
1980 pen2
pen2
2105 The Mousetrap] Spencer (ed. 1980): “The new name for the play seems to derive from Hamlet’s belief that he could catch the King’s conscience [2.2.605 (1645)].”
pen2 ≈ pen1
2105 tropically] Spencer (ed. 1980): “figuratively (like a ‘trope’, a rhetorical figure). There may be a pun on ‘trap’.”
pen2
2106 Image] Spencer (ed. 1980): “imitation of the reality.”
pen2
2108 knauish] Spencer (ed. 1980): “wicked.”
pen2
2109 free] Spencer (ed. 1980): “innocent.”
1982 ard2
ard2: Doebler
2105 Mousetrap] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “‘The play’s the thing Wherein I’ll catch . . .” [2.2.604-5 (1644-5)]. J. Doebler (SQ, XXIII,161 ff.) discusses the theological symbolism of the mousetrap, as in Augustine’s allusion to the cross of Christ as the mousetrap of the devil, who is trapped by his own corruption. The analogy with Claudius is pertinent; but we had better stop short of seeing Hamlet therefore as a Christ-figure.”
ard2 ≈ mun (Kokeritz); Wiv. //
2105 mary how tropically] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “tropically, by a trope, metaphorically. The Q1 spelling suggests pronunciation and brings out the pun (see Kokeritz, pp. 223-4). Eds. Always prefer F’s punctuation, but there is no point in thus making how a question and tropically the answer to it. Rather (as Q1, Q2 suggest) how tropically (trapically) is Hamlet’s delighted exclamation at his own conceit. Mary trap appears to have been an exclamation of derision when a man was successfully tricked or discomforted. Cf. Wiv. [1.1.167 (155)], ‘I will get my own back on you.”
ard2 ≈.crg1 without attribution (Duke of Urbino analogue)
2106-7 the Image of a murther . . . Baptista] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “LN. the image of a murder done in Vienna – Gonzago is the Duke’s name, his wife Baptista] It appears to be true that the play The Murder of Gonzago (an accordingly the death of King Hamlet) is based on an actual murder, that of the Duke of Urbino in 1538. Gonzago, however, was not the name of the Duke, but of his alleged murderer, Luigi Gonzago, a kinsman of the Duke’s wife, Leonora Gonzago. Cf. Intro., p. 102. Vienna might perhaps be a misreading of Urbino (U and V being interchangeable) or other wise suggested by it. The reference to the Duke’s name when the play is about to a King is presumably a slip due to the source. It was obviously the intention to translate the Duke and Duchess of the original into a King and Queen the better to image events in Denmark. Q2, apart from instance, consistently refers to King and Queen, as also does F except that the Queen is called Baptista in some speech-headings. It may be through this error in the dialogue that the reported text QI, after having a King and Queen in the dumb-show, transforms them into a Duke and Duchess in the stage-direction and speech-headings of the play which follows. All three texts read ‘King’ at i.239.”
ard2 ≈ ard1; xrefs.
2109 free] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “guiltless, as at [2.2.564 (1604)], [5.2.332 (3816)].”
1984 chal
chal: xref.
2105 mary] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “Marry [1.3.90 (556)].”
chal
2105 tropically] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “tropically in terms of a trope (a rhetorical figure) thus ‘figuratively’. The figurative meaning may involve a ) the play’s being a ‘trap’ for the king b) the pronunciation ‘trapically’ (the reading of Qr) c) the children’s phrase ‘marry trap’, meaning ‘now you’re caught’.”
chal
2109 free] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “free guiltless.”
1987 oxf4
oxf4
2105 mary how] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “This reading from F (Marry how?) makes good sense. Hamlet anticipates, and then answers, an imagined query from the King.”
oxf4: Cercignani
2105 tropically] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “as a trope, figuratively speaking. Cercignani (p.105) discounts ‘the dubious jingle mousetrap-tropically’, often thought to be reflected in Q1’s trapically.”
oxf4: Bullough (Nar. and Dr. Sources, MLR)
2106-07 a murther . . . Baptista] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “In October 1538 Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino died after an illness that had lasted some six weeks. It was rumoured that he had been murdered by his barber-surgeon, suborned to pour poison into his ears by two of the Duke’s enemies, Luigi Gonzaga, Marchese di Castelgoffredo, and Cesare Fregoso. Attempts were made to bring these two men to justice, but with no success. How Shakespeare picked up a muddled version of this story, in which the alleged murderer, Gonzaga, has been transformed into the victim, is not known. For details, see Bullough, vii. 28-34, 172-6, and his ‘The Murder of Gonzago’, MLR 30 (1935), 433-44.”
1993 dent
dent: xrefs.
2108 knauish] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Hamlet probably means ‘depicting knavery’. But knavish could also mean (a) crude, amateurish (because produced by a mere knave, a young page), and (b) villainous, wicked (the usual modern sense of the word). Piece of Work echoes [2.2.324 (1350)], (1896)].”
dent: xrefs.
2110 free soules] Andrews (ed. 1993): “souls free of guilt, with free consciences. Free recalls 1.3.93 [559], [2.2.291-92 (1322)], [2.2.564 (1604)], and [3.1.14 (1662)].”
1998 OED
OED
2105 tropically] OED (Sept. 7, 1998): “tropically (trpkl), adv. [f. as PREC. + -LY2.] In a tropical manner. 1. In the way of a trope; metaphorically, figuratively. 1564 J. RASTELL Confut. Jewell’s Serm. 140 The body of Christ is, onlye figuratiuelye,..tropicallie, imaginatiuelie, in the Sacrament. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. III. ii. 247 King. What do you call the Play? Ham. The Mouse-trap: Marry how? Tropically. 1646 SIR T. BROWNE Pseud. Ep. III. iii. 111 Spanish Mares, whose swiftnesse [is] tropically expressed from their generation by the wind. a 1703 BURKITT On N.T. Gal. v. 24 The work of mortification (called here tropically, a crucifixion). 1809 W. IRVING Knickerb. V. ix. (1849) 302 It is tropically observed by honest old Socrates, that heaven infuses into some men..a portion of intellectual gold. 1879 R. T. SMITH St. Basil 91 There are multitudes of expressions applied in Scripture to God, which we agree are to be tropically taken.”
OED
2106 Image] OED (Sept. 7, 1998) : “image (md), sb. Forms: 3-6 ymage, (4 ymag, 6 ymadge), 4- image. [a. F. image (13th c. in Littré), in 11th and 12th c. imagene = Pr. image, emage, It. im(m)agine, Sp. imagen, Pg. imagem, ad. L. imago, imagin-em imitation, copy, likeness, statue, picture, phantom; conception, thought, idea; similitude, semblance, appearance, shadow; app. containing the same root as im-itari to IMITATE.] . . . .
“4. b. A thing that represents or is taken to represent something else; a symbol, emblem, representation. (In mod. use scarcely distinguishable from prec.) c 1566 J. ALDAY tr. Boaystuau’s Theat. World E ij, Bloud..whiche is..the image and figure of sinne. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. III. ii. 248 This Play is the Image of a murder done in Vienna. 1613 PURCHAS Pilgrimage (1614) 13 The silent Moone..constant image of the worlds inconstancie. 1620 GRANGER Div. Logike 164 The name is a note, signe, image, or symboll noting, and representing the nature of the thing. 1804 W. TENNANT Ind. Recreat. (ed. 2) II. 248 This noisome dungeon..affords..an image of the gate of Tartarus, rather than the porch of Paradise.”
2003 SQ
Hirschfeld: 2438 xref
2105-06 Hirschfeld (2003, p. 441):
<441> “Into this repetition Hamlet himself enters in the figure of the second poisoner, Lucianus, nephew to the king. In introducing the nephew, Hamlet shifts the figurative alignments of the playlet (which he interprets ’tropically’ for Claudius [ll. 237-38]), insisting that the stage as well as the real audience reconfigure the allegorical identity of the Player King, who now seems to be more Claudius than Hamlet Senior, and reassess the threat of poison, which now seems a threat not of the past but of the future. In the character of Lucianus, then, Hamlet takes his place in a theological structure that perpetuates sex, sin, murder, and death as an inheritance shared by or through the family. That Hamlet’s assuming of this role is managed during a literal restaging of the primal scene--a couple’s embrace followed by a murder--further attests to the play’s traumatic logic, according to which a character’s place is realized only through the repetition of an earlier catastrophic moment. This same logic ensures that Hamlet will continue to repeat that moment. He does, of course, in Gertrude’s closet, where his berating her with portraits of husbands and siblings, ’The counterfeit presentment of two brothers’ (3.4.54 [2438]), becomes the prelude to the construction of yet another private viewing of father and mother as the Ghost enters her bedroom. If either Claudius or Gertrude was the ’mouse’ Hamlet was trying to trap, he has done so only by trapping himself in the very scenes of parental sexuality he hoped to erase or put to rest. ” </441>
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2 ≈ pen2: 1577-8 xref
2105 The Mousetrap] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Having previously asked the Players for The Murder of Gonzago (see 2.2.474 [1577-8]), Hamlet presumably invents this title with reference to his own intention of trapping the king.”
ard3q2 ≈ ard2
2105 Marry, how tropically] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. Yes indeed, by what an appropriate trope or play on words. Jenkins defends Q2’s punctuation (also found in Q1) against F’s (see t.n.); Q1’s ’trapically’ suggests a play on ’trap.’”
ard3q2: Bullough analogue
2106-7 Gonzago . . . name] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The play’s title taken alone could be ambiguous; Gonzago is clearly the victim of the crime in Q2 and F; in the putative source he is one of the murderers (see p. 61 and Bullough, 7. 172-3). Q1 has ’ Albertus’ as the victim’s name, while in Fratricide Punished (which lacks any equivalent of ’Aeneas’ talk to Dido’ in 2.2) Hamlet names the victim as ’King Pyrrhus’ (2.8; Bullough, 7.142). The use of duke here may relate to the putative source.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: ≈ ard1; TS //
2107 Baptista] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “used as a male name for the father of Katherina and Bianca in Shakespeare’s TS.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
2109 free] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. of guilt.”
2105 2106 2107 2108 2109 2110
