Line 3268-69 - 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 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand
| 3268-9 knaue iowles it to the ground, as if {twere} <it | were> Caines iawbone, that did the | 5.1.77 |
|---|
1774-79? capn
capn
3268 iowles] Capell (1779-83 [1774]:1:1:Glossary) : (AWW 1.3.58 [383]) knock together, properly,—Heads: also,—to knock or put a Thing down by the Hand and with Violence.
1845 gents
Mitford
3268 iowles it to the ground]
Mitford (1845, p. 584): <p. 584> “Fletcher’s Scornfull Lady, p. 17, 4to. 1839 ‘
Wel.—’Whose head do you carry upon your shoulders, that you
jowl it so against the post?’” </p. 584>
1848 Strachey
Strachey
3269-71 Strachey (1848, p. 89): <p. 89> “What depth, as well as accuracy and force, there is in his description of the Politician, the Courtier, and the Lawyer! That of the Politician in particular has a profoundness which the events of the last few months enable us to appreciate the better:—’ It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass o’er-offices; one that could circumvent God, might it not?’ God’s government of the world had become a fiction to us, we saw it everywhere superseded by the state systems and state craft of kings, ministers, and diplomatists, who were far too prudent in their own eyes to regard the designs of God’s providence, and far too flrm in their own strength to care for the indications of His will. They seemed to us—if we confessed the truth to have been not only willing, but able to ‘circumvent God,’ and to appropriate to their own selfish or philosophic uses, the men and nations whom God had formed for His glory:—but the wisdom of the wise has been turned into folly ; they are ’o’er- officed by asses;’ and the only prospect of a restoration from the anarchy is derived from the faith, that the old fiction of the government of the world by a Personal, though invisible, Lord, will again assert itself to be a fact.” </p. 89>
1855 Wade
Wade
3267-3308 Wade (1855, p. 20) : <p. 20> “After this accidentally sudden return of Hamlet to Denmark, we first see him, with Horatio, on his way to the palace, we may presume, in a church-yard beside the grave which a Clown is digging for the reception of the mortal remains of ‘the fair Ophelia,’ whom Hamlet’s neglect and ill-usage, and his mountebank murder of her father, had driven into madness and incident death. Here, his ever-present sense of his own and other men’s mortality is fearfully evidenced; and bitter is his gibing over the relics of man’s visible nature, as the Grave-digger throws up skeleton human skulls and bones out of the church-yard earth:— [cites 3267-3308].” </p. 20>
1865 hal
hal
3269 Caines iawbone] Halliwell (ed. 1865) : “This is supposed by some to be a curious allusion to the art of the Shakesperian era, when Cain was commonly represented as using the jawbone of the animal which had been the sacrifice, to murder his brother, as represented in the annexed engraving [illustration] copied from one in the first English translation of the old Testment by Miles Coverdale printed in 1535. There can, however, I think be little doubt but that the passage in the text merely refers to the jawbone of Cain, that did the first murder.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc
3268 iowles]
Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “If proof were wanted of the exquisite propriety and force of effect with which Shakespeare uses words, and words of even homely fashion, there could hardly be a more pointed instance cited than the mode in which he employs the verb ‘jowls’ here. What strength it gives to the impression of the head and cheek-bone smiting against the earth; and how it makes the imagination feel the bruise in sympathy! The poet himself so evidently put his whole intense sensitiveness into the passage as he wrote it, that he soon afterwards makes his hero exclaim, ‘Mine ache to think on’t.’”
1869 Romdahl
Romdahl
3268 iowles]
Romdahl (1869, p. 41): <p.41>“clashes.
Jowl is the same word as
jolle, an obsolete verb (used by Sh. also in
[AWW 1.3.58 (383)], signifying, to beat, or more properly, to beat the head against something. The substantive from which the verb is formed,
jowl, or
jole (face, or cheek; head of a fish), is most likely derived, through Fr.
gueule, O.Fr.
gole, from Lat.
gula.” </p. 41>
1870 Abbott
Abbott
3269 that] Abbott (§262): “That is sometimes, but seldom, separated from the antecedent, like who. (See 263) [cites 3269]
“It is perhaps not uncommon after the possessive case of nouns and pronouns. (See §218). The antecedent pronoun is probably to be repeated immediately before the relative: ‘Cain’s jawbone, (him) that did.’”
1872 cln1
cln1
3268 iowles] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “knocks. The word occurs in [AWW 1.3.58 (383)]: ‘They may jowl horns together, like any deer I’ the herd.’”
1877 v1877
v1877: clarke
3268 iowles]
Clarke (
apud Furness, ed. 1877): “If proof were wanted of the exquisite propriety and force of effect with which Sh. uses words, and words of even homely fashion, there could hardly be a more pointed instance than the verb ‘jowls’ here. What strength it gives to the impression of the head and cheek-bone smiting against the earth! and how it makes the imagination feel the bruise in sympathy!”
v1877 : ≈Abbott only “The antecedent . . . ‘(him) that did.’”)
3269 that]
1881 N&Q
Pengelly
3269 Caines iawbone]
Pengelly (1881, 245): <p. 245> “Here is a still earlier instance of the expression than that mentioned by R.R.:—’A[g]en abel he roos in strif Wi[th] murthere brou[g]t him of his lif Wi[th] a cheke boon of an asse Men sayn abel slayn wasse.’
Cursor Mundi (fourteenth cent.), E.E.T.S. No. 57, p. 71, ll. 1071-4.
Wm. Pengelly”
1882 elze2
elze2
3269 Caines iawbone] Elze (ed. 1882): “Prof. Skeat (in N & Q, Aug. 21, 1880, p. 143) has pointed out that that ass’s jawbone is meant with which Cain slew his brother abel according to the old legend. Prof. Skeat quotes Solomon and Saturn, ed. kemble,p. 186. Compare N & Q, 6th S., II, 162 and III, 4. The following passage from Cursor Mundi (ed. Morris for theEearly English Text Society, Part I, p. 71, ll. 1071-4) is quoted in N & Q, Sept. 24, 1881, p. 245:—’A[g]eyn abel he roos in strif Wi[th] murthere brou[g]t him of his life Wi[th] a cheke boon of an asse Men sayn abel slayn wasse.’”
1885 mull
mull ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
1889 Barnett
Barnett
3268 iowles]
Barnett (1889, p. 59): <p. 59>“
knocks, jerks. The word is connected with
jowl, the check. A.S.
joll, to
knock the
head. The word here is apporpriately applied to
the skull. Cf. [
AYL 1.3.39 (383)]. ‘They may
joll horns together.’ i.e.
knock heads.
Jolts is from the same root.” </p. 59>
1891 oxf1
oxf1
3268 iowles] Craig (ed. 1891: Glossary): “v.t. to knock, to dash [AWW 1.3.58 (383)].”
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈oxf1
3268 iowles] Dowden (ed. 1899): “knocks (used specialy of the head), as in [AWW I1.3.58 (383)].”
ard1
3269 Caines iawbone] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Prof. Skeat (Notes and Queries, Aug. 21, 1880) showed that Cain, according to the legend, slew Abel with an ass’s jawbone. This is mentioned in Cursor Mundi, I, p. 71, lines 1071-74 (Early Eng. Text. Soc.).”
1905 rltr
Rltr
3268 iowles] Chambers (ed. 1905): “hurls.”
1906 nlsn
nlsn: standard
3268 iowles] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ standard (with ard1’s help?) : Onions’ Glossary
3268 iowles]
1934 cam3
cam3 : standard
3268 iowles] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary)
cam3 ≈ ard1 w/o attribution
3269 Caines iawbone] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Ham. implies that it is now the ass’s turn to ‘o’er-reach’ Cain, v. next note [3271].”
1938 parc
parc ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
3269 Caines iawbone]
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
3268 iowles] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):
kit2 ≈ ard1 w/o attribution
3269 that] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “The antecedent is Cain’s: ‘the jawbone of Cain, who,’ etc. Skeat, however, thinks that jawbone is the antecedent and reports an old tradition that Cain’s weapon was the jawbone of an ass (6 Notes and Queries, II [1880], 143; Academy, October 26, 1895, p. 343).”
1947 cln2
cln2 ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
3269 Caines iawbone]
1951 alex
alex ≈ standard
3268 iowles] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary)
1951 crg2
bev1= crg1
3268 iowles]
1954 sis
sis ≈ standard
3268 iowles] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary):
1957 pel1
pel1 : standard
3268 iowles]
1970 pel2
pel2=pel1
3268 iowles]
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ standard +
3268 iowles] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(presumbly with a play upon jawbone).”
3269 Caines iawbone] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Hamlet’s mind reverts to fratricide, as does the King’s (III.3.37-8).”
pen2 ≈ standard
3270 pollitician]
1982 ard2
ard2 ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
ard2 : ard1 w/o attribution ; kit2 w/o attribution +
3269 Caines iawbone] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “ . . . but it does not follow that the jawbone here is the ass’s and not Cain’s own. What does is the justice of Cain’s being in his turn jowled by an ass [3270].”
1984 chal
chal : standard
3268 iowles]
1985 cam4
cam4 ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
cam4 : kit2 (Skeat) ; PMLA v. 39
3269 Caines iawbone] Edwards (ed. 1985): “the jawbone of Cain, who did . . . . A further reminder of the story of Cain and Abel ((see Introduction, p. 41)). There is a curious English medieval tradition that Cain killed Abel with the jawbone of an ass ((see the Old English Solomon and Saturn, ed. J.E. Cross and T.D. Hil, 1982, pp. 101-3)). Since Skeat referred to this tradition in 1880 ((N&Q, 21 Aug.)) it has often been supposed that the ass’s jawbone is meant here, but of course it is Cain’s skull—so contemptuously dropped—that Hamlet means. In view of the widespread appearance of the legend in medieval drama and iconography ((see J.K. Bonnell, PMLA 39 ((1924)), 140-6)) it seems certain that it was in Shakespeare’s mind as he wrote, because of the ‘ass’ in [3270]. Both Samson and ((it was thought)) Cain wielded an ass’s jawbone; now an ass wields a human jawbone.”
3269 Caines iawbone]
Edwards (ed. 1985, Introduction, 41): <p. 41>“The story of Cain and Abel is brought into the play during this scene (([287])) and appears again twice ((3.3.38 and 5.1.65)). 1 That first murder shattered the human family; it resulted from and betokened man’s falling away from God. The identification of Claudius and Cain—which he himself makes—gives us the context in which we should put the ‘unreasonable’ bitterness of Hamlet, though as yet he knows nothing about any murder.”
<n>“1See Rosalie L. Colie, Shakespeare’s Living Art, 1974, p. 230, and Honor Matthews, The Primal Curse: The Myth of Cain and Abel in the Theatre, 1967.”</n>
1987 oxf4
oxf4 ≈ pen2 w/o attribution
3268 iowles]
oxf4 : Abbott ; ard2 ; refers to The Wakefield Pageants for the Cain and Abel story (ed. Cawley)
3269 Caines iawbone]
1992 fol2
fol2≈ standard
3268 iowles]
1993 dent
dent ≈ standard
3268 iowles]
3269 Caines iawbone]
3268 3269