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.

1580 Barrett

Barret

3279 massene] Barrett (1580, mazer, #206a): “or broad piece to drinke in. Pátera, ræ. kratr.”

1744 han1

han1

3279 massene] Hanmer (ed. 1744: Glossary, mazzard): “a jaw. Fr. Maschoire.”

1753 blair

blair ≈ han1 w/o attribution

3279 massene] Blair (ed. 1753, Glossary, mazzard)

1755 John

Johnd

3279 Sextens] Johnson (1755, sexton): “n.s. [corrupted from sacristan.] An under-officer of the church, whose business is to dig graves. ‘A stool and cushion for the sexton.’ Shake. ‘When any dies, then by tolling a bell, or bespeaking a grave of the sexton, the same is known to the searchers corresponding with the said sexton.’ Graunt.”

1760 John2

John2 : standard

3279 massene] Johnson (2nd ed. 1760, mazard): “s. [maschoire, French.] a jaw. Hudibras.”

3279 massene] Johnson (2nd ed. 1760, mazer): “s. [maeser, Dutch.] a maple cup. Spenser”

v1773 mSTV1

3279 massene] Steevens (ms. notes in ed. 1773) : “mazard]] jaw.”

1774-79? capn

1779-83 capn

3279 massene] Capell (1779-83 [1774]1:1:Glossary) : “mazzard]] a Head or Scull; Etymology uncertain: perhaps, from—Maschoire, a Jaw; Pars pro toto.[“part for all”]”

1791- rann

rann:

3279 massene] Rann (ed. 1791) : “the jaws.”

1819 cald1

cald1 :

3280 tricke] Caldecott (ed. 1819) : “Knack, faculty.”

1822 Nares

Nares

3279 massene] Nares (1822; 1906): “Mazzard]] s. A head; usually derived, but with very little probability, from machoire, French, which means only a jaw. The very quotation from Shakespeare contradicts it, where the skull is said to be chopless (that is,without a jaw,) and yet to be knocked over the mazzard with a spade. Mr. Lemon, who always supposed our ancestors to have been great Grecians, derives it from mattuai , meaning the same as machoires; and, as it occurs only in Hesychius, was, to be sure, wonderfully ready for plain Englishmen to adopt! The fact is, that it has always been a burlesque word, and was as likely to be made from mazare, as anything else; comparing the head to a large goblet. The two words were often confounded. Sylvester uses mazor , for head, in serious language. Dubart. I.4. See Todd. It is not yet quite disused in burlesque or low conversation. [Hamlet citation] ‘Let me go, sir—or I’ll knock you o’er the mazzard ‘Oth 2.3.155(1271) ‘—Your brave acqaintance That gives you ale, so fortified your mazard, That there’s no talking to you.’ B&F Wit without Money, ii. p. 294. vol. ii.

“Here it is corrupted to mazer: ‘Break but his pate, or so; only his mazer, because I’ll have his head in a cloth as well as mine.’ Honest Wh. O.Pl. iii. 329. ‘But in thy amorous conquests, at the last, Some wound will slice your mazaer.’ All Fools, O.Pl. iv. 163.”

3279 massene] Nares (1822; 1906): “mazer [Q3-Q10]] s. A bowl, or goblet. It has usually been derived from maeser, which in Dutch means maple, or a knot of the maple wood; whence it has been concluded to have meant originally a wooden goblet, and to have been applied afterwards, less properly, to those of other and more valuable matter. But Du Cane gives a more curious account of it. According to him, it was in its origin the appellation for cups of value. The amount of what he says is, that murrhium or murreum, the ancient name for the most valuable kind of cups, made of a substance now unknown, continued in the darker ages to be applied to those of fine glass, which had been at first formed in imitation of the murrhine. This word, by various corruptions, became mardrinum, masdrinum, mazerinum., from which latter mazer was formed. The French word madre is supposed to have the same origin; and it is applied still to substances curiously variegated; but at first more particularly to the materials of fine goblets (see Dict. de Vieux Lang., T 2), as Hanap de madre, &c. Thus we find ‘scyphus pretiosi mazeris,’ and ‘cupa magna de mazero, ornata pede alto, duobus circulis, et pornellis argenteis.’ This mutter better accounts for the application of the term to cups ofvalue, which seems to always have been the prevalent use. We find, however, wooden mazer. Harl. Misc., vi, 166. ‘So golden mazor wont suspicion breed, Of deadly hemlocks poison’d potion. Hall’s Defiance to Envy, prefixed to his Satires. ‘A mighty mazer bowle of wine was sett, As if it had to him been sacrifide’ Spens. FQ, II, xii, 49.’ Yet Spenser seems to have adopted the derivation from maple, for he speaks of ‘A mazer ywrought of the maple ware. ‘Shep. Kal., August ,v.26 Great magnitude seems always one property attributed to them; as Spesner above, ‘a mighty mazer,’ and the following passages: so that a major bowl ight be no improbable conjecture, had we no other derivation established. ‘All that Hybla’s hives do yield Were into one broad mazer fill’d’ [B. Jons, v. 217] ‘The muses from their Heliconian spring Their brimful mazers to the feasting bring; When with deep draughts, out of those plenteous bowls, The jocund youth have swill’d their thirsty souls, &c. [Drayt. Nymph, iii, p. 1464] Johnson has given an instance of the word from Dryden. ‘†They toke away the sylver vessell, And all that they myght get, Peces, masars, and spones, Wole they non forgete. Robin Hood 1.32] ‘Ah, Tytirus, I would withall my heart, Even with the best of my carv’d mazers part, To hear him, as he us’d, divinely shew What ‘tis that paints the divers colourd bow.’ [Randolph’s Poems, 1643]”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

3280 tricke]

1857 elze1

elze1

3279 massene] Elze (ed. 1857): "mazzard]] ’Mazzard’ oder ’mazard’ ((ob aus masticardium? Eigentlich also Kinnbacken)) hängt mit ’to mash’, franz. Mâcher, machoire, lat. Masticare, deutsch: möschen, meischen zusammen, obwohl Naes gerade unsere Stelle zum Beweise gegen diese Ableitung anführt und es dagegen von ’mazaer’ ((=Maser; ein hölzerner Becher oder Kelch)) herleiten will. Er meint, Hamlet habe den Schädel eben ’chapless’ d.h. kinnbackenlos genannt. Allein die Etymologie eines Wortes pflegt häufig in Vergessenheit zu gerathen, und ’mazzard’ mag wol für einen Schädel überhaupt gebraucht worden sein; zudem bezieht sich ’chapless’nur auf die Unterkinnlade ((vgl. Chapfallen)), und man kann doch von dem Kinnbacken eines Schädels sprechen, selbst wenn ihm die untere Kinnlade fehlt. Neapolitanisch und Genuesisch ist ’masca"=Kiinnbacken, Wange. Diez etym. Wörterbuch 220 s. Masticare." ["Mazzard" or "mazard" ((if from masticardium? Properly also jawbone)) attaches to combine with "to mash", French . Mâcher, machoire, Lat. Masticare, German, möschen, meischen; although Nares cites directly our passage as proof against this derivation and derives it however from ’mazer’ ((=Maser; a wooden beaker or cup)). He means, Hamlet has called the skull just ’chapless,’ that is, without the jawbone. But the etymology of the word is frequently accustomed to sink into oblivion, and ’mazzard’ may be well used for a skull; to which it refers only, if at all, to the area below the jawbone (compare chapfallen)), and one can still speak of the jawbone of the skull if the area below the jawbone is absent from it. Neapolitan and Genuesisch {?] is ’masca’=jawbone, cheek. Diez. Etym. Wörterbuch 220 , see Masticare.]

1864 Bickers

Bickers : standard

3279 massene] Clarke (ed. 1864, Glossary, mazzard)

1868 c&mc

c&mc ≈ standard

3279 massene] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1864-68, rpt. 1874-78): “mazzard]] ‘The jaw.’ Old French, maschoire.”

1870 Abbott

Abbott

3281 the breeding] Abbott (§93): “The substantival use of the verbal with ‘the’ before it and ‘of’ after it seems to have been regarded as colloquial. Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Touchstone: ‘I remember the kissing of her batlet and . .. the wooding of a peascod instead of her’ [AYL 2.4.49-51 (830-33)] ‘Did these bones cost no more (in) the breeding?’ [Ham. 5.1.100 (3281)].”

1872 cln1

cln1 : standard +

3279 massene] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “Mazard]] skull. See [Oth. 2.3.155 (1271): ‘Let me go, sir, or I’ll knock you o’er the mazzard.’”

cln1

3280 tricke] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “acquired habit, or skill, or art. Compare [LLL 5.2.466 (2404-5)]: ‘That smiles his cheek in years and knows the trick To maky my lady laugh when she’s disposed.’”

1873 rug2

rug2 ≈ standard (C&MC?)

3279 massene] Moberly (ed. 1873): “mazzard]] This word is said to be derved from ‘machoire,’ a jaw.”

1874 Tyler

Tyler

3279-80, 3298, 3396-99] Tyler (1874, p. 20): <p. 20>And, in its material aspect, the future awaiting man is mean, humiliating, loathsome. the polished courtier may have his chapless skull ‘knocked about the mazzard with a sexton’s spade” [3279-80]. The lawyer’s subtlety and acute learning are unable to prevent his having ‘his fine pate full of fine dirt’ [3298]. The great conqueror, when laid in the earth, has the same repulsive appearance, the same foul smell, as the jester. The dust of Alexander or of Cæsar might have been used to patch a wall or stop a beer-barrel [3396-9].” </p. 20>

1877 v1877

v1877 : Nares ; Wedgewood (summarized)

3279 massene] Nares (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “A head, usually derived, but with very little probability, from machoire, French, which means only a jaw. The fact is, that it has always been a burlesque word, and was as likely to be made from mazer, a bowl, as from anything else; comparing the head to a large goblet.”

3279 massene] Furness (ed. 1877): “Wedgwood confirms Nares’s derivation. ‘In a similar way, Italian succa, properly a gourd, and thence a drinking cup, is used to signify a skull.’”

v1877 = cald2

3280 tricke]

v1877

3281 breeding] Furness (ed. 1877): “See [Mac. 1.4.8 (443)].”

1877 neil

Neil ≈ standard (v1877?)

3279 massene] Neil (ed. 1877, Notes, mazard): “from French machoire, the jaw.”

1882 elze2

elze2

3279 massene] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part I, IV, 2 (Middleton, ed. Dyce, III, 83): Break but his pate or so, only his mazer. Field, A Woman is a Weathercock (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, XI, 47): I may happen send a bullet through your mazzard. The Jests of George Peele (The Dramatic and Poetical Works of Rob. Grene and Geo. Peele, ed. Dyce, 1861, in 1 vol., p. 6154b): But Master Peele had another drift in his mazzard.”

1885 macd

macd ≈ standard

3279 massene] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “mazzard]]

1885 mull

mull ≈ standard

3280 tricke]

1889 Barnett

Barnett

3279 massene] Barnett (1889, p. 59): <p. 59>“mazzard]] might be derived from mƒchoire, the yaw.” </p. 59>

1890 irv2

irv2 : standard

3279 massene] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “mazzard]] skull.”

1891 oxf1

oxf1 : standard

3279 massene] Craig (ed. 1891: Glossary): “mazzard]] sub. a head, [Oth. 2.3.155 (1271)].”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ v1877 w/o attribution

3279 massene] Dowden (ed. 1899): “the head; a form of mazar, a bowl; the later Qq alter the misprint of Q2 massene to mazer.”

1905 rltr

rltr

3279 massene] Chambers (ed. 1905): “mazzard]] brain-pan.”

1906 nlsn

nlsn

3279 massene] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary, Mazzard)

1931 crg1

crg1 ≈ standard

3279 massene] mazzard]]

1934 rid1

rid1 : standard

3279 massene] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary, mazzard):

1934 cam3

cam3 : standard

3279 massene] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary, Mazzard):

cam3

3280 reuolution] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “alteration, change produced by time.”

1939 kit2

kit2 ≈ standard

3279 massene]

3279 massene] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary, mazzard):

kit2 ≈ standard

3279 fine] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary): “subtle.”

kit2 ≈ standard

3280 tricke]

3280 tricke] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):

VN: massene Q2√; mazer Q3-5√; Mazard F1√

1938 parc

parc ≈ standard

3279 massene] mazzard]]

1942 n&h

N&H ≈ standard

3279 massene]

1947 cln2

cln2 ≈ standard

3279 massene] mazzard]]

cln2 ≈ cam3 w/o attribution

3280 reuolution]

1951 alex

alex ≈ standard

3279 massene] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary, mazard)

alex ≈ standard

3280 reuolution] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary)

alex ≈ standard

3280 tricke] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary)

1951 crg2

crg2=crg1

3279 massene] mazzard]]

1954 sis

sis ≈ standard

3279 massene] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary, mazzard):

3280 reuolution] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary):

3280 tricke] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary): “knack.”

1957 pel1

pel1 : standard

3279 massene] mazzard]]

1970 pel2

pel2=pel1

3279 massene] mazzard]]

1974 evns1

evns1 ≈ standard

3279 massene]mazzard

3280 reuolution]

3280 tricke]

evns1

3281 did . . . cost] Evans (ed. 1974): “were . . . worth.”

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ standard

3279 massene]mazzard

3280 reuolution]

3280 tricke]

pen2

3281 did . . . cost] Spencer (ed. 1980): “cost so little to raise that men are willing.”

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ standard

3279 massene]mazzard

3280 reuolution]

3280 tricke]

1984 chal

chal : standard ; Q2 iVN

3279 massene]mazzard

1984 chal

chal : standard

3279 Sextens] Wilkes (ed. 1984): "bell-ringer and grave-digger."

3280 reuolution] Wilkes (ed. 1984): "a turn of Fortune’s wheel."

1985 cam4

cam4 ≈ standard

3279 massene]mazzard

3280 tricke]

cam4

3281-3 did . . . them] Edwards (ed. 1985): “Was the value of bringing up these people so slight that we may justifiably play skittles with their bones?”

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ standard

3279 massene]mazzard

3280 tricke]

oxf4 : OED (sb. 6)

3280 reuolution]

oxf4 ≈ cam4 w/o attribution

3281-3 did . . . them]

1992 fol2

fol2≈ standard

3279 massene]mazzard

1993 dent

dent ≈

3279 massene]mazzard Andrews (ed. 1989): “probably a variant of mazzard, head, and mazer, bowl or cup. The Folio prints mazard.”

3280-1 and . . . see’t] Andrews (ed. 1989): “if we had the skill to perceive it.”

1998 OED

OED

3279 Sextens] 1. A church officer having the care of the fabric of a church and its contents, and the duties of ringing the bells and digging graves. In early use often = the sacristan in a religious house, cathedral, etc., having charge of the vestments, sacred vessels, relics, and the like. In popular use from the 16th c. usually = bell-ringer and grave-digger.

OED ≈ standard

3280 reuolution]OED III. 6. a. Alteration, change, mutation. rare.