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Line 3400 - 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. 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.

Notes for lines 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

3400 {Imperious} <Imperiall> Cæsar dead, and turn’d to Clay, 3400	5.1.213

1790 mal

mal

3400 Imperious Caesar ] Malone (ed. 1790) : “Thus the quarto, 1604. The editor of the folio substituted imperial , not knowing that imperious was used in the same sense. See Vol. VIII. p. 264, n. * and p. 412, n. *. There are other instances in the folio of a familar term being substituted in the room of a more ancient word. See p. 395, note 9. [see TLN 3421 and Malone’s note there] MALONE”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

3400 Imperious Caesar ]

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

3400 Imperious Caesar ]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

3400 Imperious Caesar ]

1819 cald1

cald1

3400 Imperious Caesar ] Caldecott (ed. 1819) : “ The quartos read imperious ; which Shakespeare (see [Cym. 4.3.35 (2288)] Imog. and [Tro. 4.5.172(2739)] Hect.) and his contemporaries use for imperial : and it was so used down to at least the middle of the next century. Drayton his Muse’s Elysium has: ‘Or Jove’s emperious Queene.” Nimph. 1. And, ‘In the proud power of his emperious hand.’ Moses his Birth, b. l. 4to. 1630

“Without some historical reference, such as that subjoined, the reader would scarce believe that the text gives no very unfaithful picture of the general state of the habitations of our countrymen, at a period as late as the reign of Elizabeth. ‘In the sonny countries and northern parts, unto this day, for lack of wood they are enforced to continue the ancient manner of building (houses set up with a few posts and many raddles), so in the open and champain countries, they are enforced, for want of stuff, to use no studs at all, but only frank-posts, and such principals, with here and there a girding , whereunto they fasten their splints or raddles, and then cast it all over with thick clay, to keep out the wind . Certes this rude kind of building made the Spaniards in Q. Mary’s day to wonder, and say, ‘these English have their houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the king.’ Harrison’s Description of England, prefixed to Hollingsh. p. 187. ellis’s Specimen of Engl. Poets, 1811, l. 322. Hume, in his Hist. vol. V. note P.P. states Harrison’s work to have been printed 1577.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = mal

3400 Imperious Caesar ]

1826 sing1

sing1 : v1821

3400 Imperious Caesar] Singer (ed. 1826) : “Imperial is substituted in the folio. Vide [Tro. 4.5.172 (2739)] p. 425, note 27.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

3400-03 Imperious]

1833 valpy

valpy ≈ standard

3400 Imperious] Valpy (ed. 1833): “Imperial.”

1843 col11

col1

3400-03 Imperious] Collier (ed. 1843) : “So the folio [Imperial]: the quartos, imperious : the words were often used indifferently. See Vol. vi. p. 283.”

1844 verp

verp = col1

3400-03 Imperious]

1853 Col

Col

3400-03 Imperious Caesar . . . flaw] Collier (1853, p. 430): <p. 430>“P. 329 [of COL1] The four lines in rhyme which follow Hamlet’s prose introduction,—’Imperial Cæsar, dead, and turn’d to clay,’ &c., are distinguished in the folio, 1632, as a quotation in the usual way [the Perkins’ Folio underlines these lines]: and they seem to have occurred to the speaker, as extremely apposite to what he had himself just said respecting the ‘dust of Alexander.’ We have no notion from whence the passage was taken.” </p. 430>

1853 Colb

Colb = Col

3400-03 Imperious Caesar . . . flaw]

1853 Dyce2

Dyce2 : Col

3400 Imperious] DYCE (1853, p. 144) : <p. 144> “So the quartos. The folio, ‘imperial;’ which Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight adopt. Malone observes; ‘The editor of the folio substituted imperial, not knowing that imperious was used in the same sense . . . There are other instances in the folio of a familar term being substituted in the room of a more ancient word.’

“The right reading, whether the passage be or be not a quotation (see Collier’s Notes and Emendations, &c. p. 430), is, in all probability, ‘imperious;’ which in Shakespeare’s time was the usual form of the word. So in the Countess of Pembroke’s Tragedie of Antonie (translated from the French), 1595,—’The scepters promis’d of imperious Rome.’ Sig. G 3.

“Even in Fletcher’s Prophetess, written long after Hamlet, we have,—’tis imperious Rome, Rome, the great mistress of the conquer’d world.’ Act ii. sc.3.” </p. 144>

1854 del2

del2

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Delius (ed. 1854) : “Imperiall Cæsar ]] So die Fol. Die Qs. lesen imperious, das Sh. allerdings bisweilen=imperial gebraucht.” [So the Folio. The Qq read imperious, which Shakespeare sometimes indeed uses [for] imperial .]

1855 mHunter

mHunter

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Hunter (-1855, p. 229) : <p. 229> “So it stands in Mr. Malone’s Edition [ “Imperious Caesar”], though Imperial is found in all Editions since the first folio inclusion. Mr. Malone takes it from the quartos—he is in such an instance at this he preferred the readings of the quartos, he ought in all cases (when it was not absolute nonsense) to have adhered to them: and even then the question would have arisen. Which of the quartos?” </p.

229>

Ed: Prolegomena and Notes on Shakespeare [BL ADD. MS. 24495 ] : pp. 219-46) also includes a note on this phrase

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1 : sing1 ; col1

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Hudson (ed. 1856) : “Imperial Caesar]] So the folio; the quartos, ‘Imperious Caesar.’ The two words were sometimes used indifferently. See [Tro. 4.5.? (2739)], note 17.”

1856b sing2

sing2 = sing1

3400 Imperious C æsar]

1857 dyce1

dyce1: dyce2 ; mal

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Dyce (ed. 1857) : “All the quartos have ‘Imperious Caesar,’ &c.—Malone says ‘the editor of the folio substituted imperial, not knowing that imperious was used in the same sense:’ and such perhaps was the case (see my Few Notes, &c. p. 144). We find, indeed, ‘The imperial Cæsar,’ &c. in [Cym. 5.5.1 (2288)]: but then that play comes to us only through the folio.—Qy. are these four lines a quotation?”

1857 elze1

elze1: mcol1 ; Collier N&E

3400 Imperious] Elze (ed. 1857): "So lesen QA and FA; QB folgg.: Imperial Caesar. Beide Wörter wurden zu Shakespeare’s Zeit untermischt gegraucht. —MC bezeichnet diese Stelle durch Unterstreichen als eine entlehnte. Collier Notes and Emendat.. 430." [So reads Q1 and F1; Q2ff Imperial Caesar. Both words were used interchangeably in Sh’s time—mCOL1 marks this section with a strike out as a borrowed [section] Collier Notes and Emendations 430."

1859 stau

stau : mal

3400 Imperious] Staunton (ed. 1859) : “Imperiall ]]‘not knowing,’ perhaps, as Malone observes, ‘that imperious was used in the same sense.’”

1864b ktly

ktly : standard

3400 Imperious] Keightley (ed. 1864 [1866]: Glossary):”sometimes used for imperial.”

1865 hal

hal : Dyce2

3400 Imperious] Dyce (apud Halliwell, ed. 1865) : “So the quartos. The folio, ‘imperial;’ which Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight adopt. Malone observes; ‘The editor of the folio substituted imperial, not knowing that imperious was used in the same sense . . . There are other instances in the folio of a familar term being substituted in the room of a more ancient word.’ The right reading, whether the passage be or be not a quotation (see Collier’s Notes and Emendations, &c. p. 430), is, in all probability, ‘imperious;’ which in Shakespeare’s time was the usual form of the word. So in the Countss of Pembroke’s Tragedie of Antonie (translated from the French), 1595,—’The scepters promis’d of imperious Rome.’ Sig. G 3.

“Even in Fletcher’s Prophetess, written long after Hamlet, we have,—’tis imperious Rome, Rome, the great mistress of the conquer’d world.’ Act ii. sc.3.—A. Dyce.”

1866a dyce2

dyce2 : Dyce2

3400 Imperious] Malone (apud Dyce, ed. 1866) : “Thus the quarto 1604 [and the other quartos]. The editor of the folio substituted imperial, not knowing that imperious was used in the same sense.” Malone

dyce2 : Dyce2

3400 Imperious] Dyce (ed. 1866) : “Compare ‘The scepters promis’d of imperious Rome.’ The Tragedie of Antonie (translated by the Countess of Pembroke), 1595, sig. G 3. ‘tis imperious Rome, Rome, the great mistress of the conquer’d world.’ Fletcher’s Prophetess, Act ii. sc.3.— We find , indeed, ‘imperial Cæsar’ in [Cym. 5.5.l (2288)]: but then that play comes to us only through the folio.—Qy, are these four lines a quotation? I believe not.”

1868 c&mc

c&mc

3400 Imperious] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “The Folio gives ‘imperiall,’ while the Quartos give ‘imperious;’ but ‘imperial’ and ‘imperious’ were formerly used the one for the other. See Note 58, Act iv, [Tro.]. It has been suggested that possibly here, and in the two passages referred to in Notes 99 and 100 of Act iii [2153, 2156] Hamlet may be quoting from some ancient ballad; but we think that he is in both instances merely putting into rhyming form the fancy that for the moment passes through his mind. Shakespeare has made this a marked chacteristic with Hamlet—a tendency to doggerelise, when he is speaking lightly or excitedly; witness (in that same scene, Act iii, sc. 2)—’For if the king like not the comedy, Why then, belike,—he likes it not, perdy.’ [2165-66]. And again, at the close of the present scene—’Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day;’ where it is not so much a couplet that conventionally closes a scene of exit, as it is a fleer extemporaneously put into rhyme, by what of a light turning off from serious thought and remonstrance to a manner that shall favour the belief in his madness.”

1869 tsch

tsch

3400 Imperious] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Imperial oder Imperious? Es scheint mir, dass Sh. der Unterschied zwischen beiden adjectiven besser bekannt war, als manchem seiner neuern Kritiker, und dass er nicht ‘kaiserlich’ sondern ‘gebieterisch,’ folglich mperious (it. imperioso) habe schreiben wollen.” [“Imperial or Imperious? It seems to me that Sh. knew better the distinction between both adjectives, and, as many of his new critics, that he wouldn’t have written ‘kaiserlich [[imperial]]’; on the contrary, ‘gebieterisch [[imperious]],’ hence imperious (It. imperioso).”]]

1872 del4

del4

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Delius (ed. 1872) : “So Q.A. und die Qs; die Fol. hat imperial.” [So Q.A. [Q1] and the Qs; the folio has imperial.”]

Ed:Delius redesigns his note now that he opts for the Qq. reading over the Fol. reading, which he had adopted in DEL2.

1874 Corson

Corson

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Corson (1874, p. 32): “Imperial Cæsar F. Imperious Cæsar.”

1872 cln1

cln1 : standard

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “imperial. compare [Tro. 4.5.172 (2739)]: ‘I thank thee, most imperious Agamemmon.’”

1877 v1877

v1877 : ≈ dyce1(only are . . . quotation?) ; ≈ Col; dyce2 (condensed by FURNESS) ; CLARKE

3400-03 Imperious . . . flaw] Furness (ed. 1877): “Dyce (ed. 2) repeats his query, and answers: ‘I believe not.’”

3400-03 Imperious . . . flaw] Clarke (apud Furness, ed. 1877): “Ham. is merely putting into rhyming form the fancy that for the moment passes through his mind. Sh. has made this a marked characteristic with Ham.—a tendency to doggerelize when he is speaking lightly or excitedly; thus 3.2.281-2 [2145-46]. Again at the close of the present scene, where it is not so much a couplet that conventionally closes a scene as it is a fleer extemporaneously put into rhyme, by way of light turning off from serious thought and remonstrance to a maner that shall savor the belief in his madness.”

v1877 : ≈ mal (FURNESS provides [Tro.4.5.172 (2739)] and [Cym. 4.2.35 (2288)]) ; ≈ Dyce2 (minus So the quartos . . . word) ; cald2 (only it was so used . . . Queene) ; dyce1 (only We find . . . the folio)

3400 Imperious]

1885 macd

macd ≈ v1877

3400-03 Imperious . . . flaw] see n. 3403.

1885 mull

mull ≈ standard

3400 Imperious

1889 Barnett

Barnett : standard

3400 Imperious] Barnett (1889, p. 60): <p. 60> “imperial.” </p. 60>

Barnett : standard

3400-03 Imperious . . . flaw] Barnett (1889, p. 68): <p. 68> “Hamlet’s four lines on Cæsar in [5.1.213-15 (3400-02)] are in rimed heroics. [cites 3400-03]” </p. 68>

1890 irv2

irv 2: standard

3400 Imperious] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “imperial.”

irv 2: dyce2

3400 Imperious Cæsar] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “This is the reading of Qq; Ff have Imperiall, which is of course the sense of the word. The former was quite as customary in Shakespeare’s time, and is used by him six or seven times. Dyce compares Fletcher’s Prophetess, ii.3: ‘The imperious Rome.’”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ v1877 (Tro. //)

3400 Imperious Cæsar]

1931 crg1

crg1 ≈ standard

3400 Imperious]

1934a cam3

cam3

3400 Imperious] Wilson (ed. 1934): “v. G.[lossary].”

1939 kit2

kit2

3400 Imperious]

kit2

3400 Imperious] Kittredge (ed. 1939, Glossary):

Kit2

3400-03 Kittredge (ed. 1939): “An impromptu bit of versification by Hamlet. Cf. [3.2.282-85, 292-95 (2143-46, 2153-56)]."

1947 cln2

cln2 ≈ standard

3400 Imperious]

1951 crg2

crg2=crg1

3400 Imperious]

1957 pel1

pel1 : standard

3400 Imperious]

1970 pel2

pel2=pel1

3400 Imperious]

1974 evns1

evns1 ≈ standard

3400 Imperious]

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ standard

3400 Imperious]

pen2 ≈ kit2 w/o attribution ?

3400-3 Spencer (ed. 1980): “Perhaps this impromptu verse-epigram (a characteristic specimen of its kind) serves, like the love poem to Ophelia (II.2.115-18), to identify Hamlet as a ‘university wit’.”

1982 ard2

ard2 : kit1 w/o attribution

3400-3 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The citation of Caesar along with Alexander was tradiitional, but the burst of rhyme must be taken to be one of Hamlet’s impromptus. Cf. [3.2.265ff].”

ard2 ≈ v1877 (mal )

3400 Imperious]

1985 cam4

cam4 ≈ standard

3400 Imperious]

1987 oxf4

oxf4

3400-03 Imperious . . . flaw] Hibbard (ed. 1987):“Hamlet’s shift into verse at this point is reminiscent of his similar shift from prose to verse after Claudius has made his abrupt exit in the play scene. Here he sums up what he has learned form his exchanges with the Grave-digger—the vanity of human ambition.”

oxf4

3402 that earth] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “i.e. Caesar’s body, which Antony calls ‘thou bleeding piece of earth’ in [JC 3.1.255 (1480)].”

1992 fol2

fol2≈ standard

3400 Imperious]

1993 dent

dent

3400 Imperious] Andrews (ed. 1989): “Here Imperious means both ((a)) imperial ((possesing the power and attributes of an emperior)), and ((b)) haughty. Hamlet is probably referring to Julius Caesar ((100-44 B.C.)), but he may also be thinking of Octavia Caesar ((63 B.C-A.D. 14)), who assumed the title Caesar Augustus after he became Emperor in 27 B.C. After Augustus every Roman emperior was known as Caesar, and the name became synonmous with monarch. Hamlet may well be meditating on that as he plots to undo an ‘Imperious Caesar’ who keeps ‘the World in Awe’ in his own time.”