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.

1774 capn

capn

2487 tardy] Capell (1774, 1:1: glossary, tardy): “to slacken the Pace of a Thing, make tardy.”

1840- mlet

mlet: Kyd analogue

2487 your . . . chide] Lettsom (ms. note in F1, 1807 facsimile, DYCE LF 8937): “Spanish Tragedy, Dodsby, 1825. vol. III. p. 176 “—thou then a fury art Lent . . . . To plague Hieronimo that is remiss, / And seeks not vengeance for Horatio’s death.”

1891 dtn

dtn

2487 Deighton (ed. 1891): “you surely must have come to chide, etc.”

1953 Joseph

Joseph

2487 lemma] Joseph (1953, p. 160): “The perfect place has been chosen to bring the apparition in again: it first appeared to start the action . . .; then [when it spoke to Hamlet] to spur Hamlet on . . . ; now it comes when his failure is heavily underlined, to barb him and us with the full bitterness of frustration in recalling delay, the missed opportunity and the terrible mistake.”

1982 ard2

ard2: Grose

2487-8 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “‘If, after the first appearance, the persons employed neglect, or are prevented from, performing the message or business committed to their management, the Ghost appears continually to them’ (Grose, Provincial Glossary).”

1991 Yonglin

Yonglin: Jenkins, Hussy, Abbott

2487 you . . . your] Yonglin (1991, Language in Society 20: 252): (p.252> “One of the possible reasons for Hamlet’s change of his pronoun to the Ghost in the closet scene is that his long-lasting doubt about the Ghost’s veracity not only results in his delay of revenge, but also gives rise to his ubiquitous use of thou forms to it on their first encounter4 Explicit acknowledgement of the Ghost’s real identity brings about an abrupt change of Hamlet’s pronoun usage.” </p.252>

<p.252><n.> “4To account for Hamlet’s delay, ‘eighteen different reasons’ were put forward in as early as 1898 (Jenkins 1779:21 [in K. Muir et al. (eds.). Aspects of Hamlet. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 16-27]). The discussion here offers another possible reason for his delay, that is, on their first encounter, when Hamlet cnnot be sure that the Ghost is his father, Old Hamlet, he addresses the Ghost with exclusive thou-forms. However, the Ghost’s second visit in the closet scene and the performance in the play-within-the-play scene sweep away Hamlet’s doubts. Therefore, his pronominal change from thou to you just indicates his consciousness of the real identity of the Ghost (Hussy 1982:122 [in The Literary Language of Shakespeare. London: Longaman]. In addition to Abbott’s description of the pronominal usage between fathers and sons ([1870] 1972:154 [in A Shakespearian grammar. Revised and enlarged edition. New York: Haskell House], Sh’s adherence to this usage was also found in [several other] examples [cites from MV. 2H4, and Err. ].”</n.></p.252>

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: Greenblatt

2487-9 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “’What can this question, asked by one who has only a moment before killed the man he thought was his uncle, possibly mean?’ (Greenblatt, Purgatory, 223). Hamlet’s treatment of the two murdered fathers present onstage in this scene could hardly be more different.”

ard3q2

2487 tardy] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “late, i.e. procrastinating.”