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.

1777 Pilon

Pilon

3746 Pilon (1777, pp. 23-24): <p. 23> “When Ostrick cries a hit, a very palpable hit; Laertes’ point is at Hamlet’s breast, owing to Mr. Henderson’s ignorance of the sword. Fencing is an accomplishment, not to be dispensed with in an actor; and nothing so much promotes grace-</p. 23> <P. 24>fulness of deportment.” </p. 24>

1882 elze2

elze2

3746 A hit, a very palpable hit] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, II, 2: ‘Nimblewrist: Oh Lord, sir! he did not touch me not in the least, sir; the foil was crzcked, a palpable crack! (Blood runs down his face). Club: A very palpable crack, truly! Your skull is only cracked, palpably cracked, that’s all.”

elze2

3746 Drum, trumpets and shot] Elze (ed. 1882): om. [Q1] and [F1]. Immediately below [Q2] repeats the same stage-direction in a different wording [3747]: Florish, a peece goes off. It seems evident that only one (if either) of these two wordings can have come from the poet’s pen. The modern editors have substituted the ususal Flourish, although Drum, Trumpets, and Shot is much more in accordance with the text, especially if compared to §40 [616], where the King’s pledge is accompanied with kettledrum, trumpet, and shot, which, as we learn from Gfrörer, was the fashion with the northern nations (see note on §40: His pledge). It may, however, be submitted, whether we are not justified in considering, at the same time, the King’s fondness for noisy music and the fireing of ordnance as a characteristic feature in the royal murderer. May not Shakespeare, who everywhere shows sucha miraculous insight into the very deepest recesses of a criminal’s mind, have known or divined, that criminals try to deafen the reproaches of their conscience by means of noise? I recollect a murderer being executed some forty years ago, who, after the perpetration of his crime, had proceeded to a dancing saloon, and given the drummer there a fee (out of the money taken from his victim), on condition that he should bat his drum with the least possible intermission. Similar instances may no doubt be found in the criminal annals of all countries.”

1980 pen2

pen2

3746-7 Drum . . . off] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Presumably the King or an official gives the order.”

3747 peece] Spencer (ed. 1980): “piece of ordnance, cannon.”

1993 dent

dent ≈ pen2

3747 peece

1999 Dessen & Thomson

Dessen & Thomson

176 Florish] Dessen & Thomson(1999): “A widely used signal (over 500 examples) for . . . a fanfare usually played within on a trumpet or cornet, primarily when important figures enter and exit but also at such events as the reading of proclamations and the start of entertainments. . . . theatrical fanfares were likely the same patterned sounds as those used in the real world and probably varied little from play to play. . . .” In Q2 only, for first formal entrance of king. See also Q2 only, for Exeunt (311); Q2 only, offsstage for the king’s celebration (610); Q2 only, for second entrance of king (1019), Q2 and F1, for the Players (1415), Q2 only, for Hamlet’s first hit (3747).

Dessen & Thomson

611 peeces goes of] Dessen & Thomson(1999): “ . . . the sound of a cannon or gun fired offstage.” See also 3747

3746 shot] Edelman (2000), discussing chamber: “As most students of Shakespeare know, on 29 June 1613, the Globe burned to the ground when, as Sir Henry Wotton wrote to his friend, ‘King Henry making a masque at the Cardinal Wolsey’s house, and certain chambers being shot off at his entry, some of the paper, or other stuff wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch.’ Chambers discharged from this attic space could serve” for the shots within in the last act.