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Line 3895, etc. - 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.

3895 For. Let foure Captaines 3895	5.2.395

3896 Beare Hamlet like a souldier to the stage,	5.2.396

1726 theon

theon

3896 to the stage] theobald (1726, pp. 130-1) : “off the stage]] As Errors made their Appearance very early in this Play, so they keep thier Ground to the very Close of it. Why bear Hamlet OFF the Stage? I meet with this Reding no where but in the fourth Folio Edition; and in the Duodecimo publish’d by Mr. tonson , which does not much out-do the Other in Correctness. Surely, Fortinbras cannot be supposed to consider either himself, or Hamlet, here, as Actors before an Audience; and upon the Stage of a Theatre. The Poet must very strangely forget himself, to be guilty of such an Absurdity: But I dare say, he may be clear’d from a Suspicion of it. In short, the Case is This: Hamlet, upon the Point of Death, conjures Horatio, who was desirous to have poison’d himself, to relinquish those Thoughts, and to live, and by a true Representation of Occurrences, rescue his Character and Memory from Scandal.”

Theobald argues that Horatio’s desire that Hamlet be placed on a “publick stage,” governs this reading, which should be Bear Hamlet like a Soldier TO the Stage”. POPE2 provides variant off the stage as footnote, a reading it accepted in its first edition.

1845 Hunter

Hunter

3895ff] Hunter (1845, 2:266): <p. 266>“As may be seen in the monument in Westminister Abbey of Sir Francis Vere, a soldier, who died in 1608. This was no doubt at that time the accustomed mode of burial of a soldier of rank.

“It is a remarkable peculiarity of Hamlet, that whoever approaches these plays with the intention of commenting upon them, whatever may be the leading character of annotations, finds more passages on which to remark in this than in any other.” </p. 266>

1854 del2

del2

3896 to the stage] Delius (ed. 1854) : das Schaugerüste, auf dem die Leichen ausgestellt werden sollen.” [“the dramatic stage, on which the bodies shall be placed.”]

1855 Wade

Wade

3895-6 Wade (1855, p. 35): <p. 35> “All the then diplomatic world, we may add, seems to have been aware of the character of the dreamy Hamlet. ‘Let four captains,’ orders the straightforward man of action, Fortinbras, ‘Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage’— the stage from whence Horatio is to speak of all that has chanced—’For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royally.’ Ay, ‘had he been put on;’ but the undecided, undeciding Hamlet could never have been ‘put on’—had he even lived to be a Danish Methuselah. He was ‘flesh’ thought-’fishified:’ and, in this moving, restless world, most miserably out of his nature’s element. Yet, ‘take him for all in all,’ in the Prince of Denmark was much of a free, generous and exalted disposition—at the worst, he was a Thinker out of his place: and when he dies, we feel with Horatio, ‘There cracks a noble heart!’ and with Horatio, too, are fain to exclaim—’—Good night, sweet prince! And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!’” </p. 35>

1856 Halliwell

Halliwell

3896 Beare Hamlet like a souldier to the stage ] Halliwell (1856, p. 1308): <p.1308>"A few copies of the last leaf of the newly-discovered copy of the ’Hamlet’ of 1603 having been issued without my sanction, and being thus prevented from indulging in the perhaps, somewhat too selfish gratification of producing a complete copy for the first time in my own edition of the Poet’s works, I have the pleasure of offering a correct transcript of the missing page for more extended circulation to the readers of The Athenaeum. They will thus have an opportunity of comparing it with the corresponding portion of the enlarged tragedy, and of judging how far the former may be of value in the determining of the vexed question of the exact character of the edition of 1603, beyond its more obvious importance in set-reprinted copy. It seems to be on the whole of more interest than would have been thought probable by any one well acquainted with the reprint, and certainly of greater importance than I had fancied possible before I had taken a copy and examined it. Thus the new reading ’Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to his grave,’ which would obviously be altogether incorrect to substitute in the amended play, agrees with the context of this original, where there is no hint ’that view,’ but that a scaffold was merely raised for the convenience of the narrator of the ’sad story.’ Had the quarto of 1603 been, as Mr. Collier supposes, a garbled, imperfect version of the tragedy as exhibited in the edition of 1604, it seems at least unlikely that the context in such a line should be made to correspond with an accidental omission. Again, the two lines, ’If aught of woe," &c., appear very unlike a shorthand writer’s version of the speech commencing, ’What is it, you would see?’—and the same remark will apply to the next speech of Fortinbras, and indeed to most of the remainder of the dialogue. On the whole, it is likely that the publication of this single leaf will strengthen the opinion, that we possess in the edition of 1603, though it may be in a corrupted form, the tragedy as originally composed by the great dramatist; but the subject is worthy of much closer attention that has hitheto been bestowed upon it. It may now be merely necessary to add a copy of the long missing page.” </p. 1308>

1870 Miles

Miles

3895-3906 Miles (1870, pp. 87-8): <p. 87>“In the sad, soldierly orders and martial praise of Fortinbras the play finds its perfect consummation. [cites 3895-3906]

“This is the only play of Shakespeare’s in which our interest in the central figure is compelled to extend itself beyond the grave. When Lear, Macbeth, or Othello die, our connection with them is dissolved: their mortality is the only thing that concerns us. Whereas in Hamlet, we find ourselves gazing after him into that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns, uniting in Horatio’s exquisite adieu, [cites 3849-50] Hamlet is not directly on trial for his soul, but the question of eternal loss or gain is constantly suggested. It is the management of this deep shadow of the world to come; this complicated war between conscience and passion; this sharp contrast between providence and fate; this final appeal from time to eternity, that gives the drama such universal, indestructible interest. Its felicities of diction, miracles of invention, exhaustless variety of character; its splendor of imagery, constructive symmetry, and pre-eminent glory of thought, would abundantly account for the critical admiration it inspires; but the critical awe and popular love it never fails to awaken can only be attributed to that rare but sovereign charm with which the highest human genius can sometimes invest a religious mystery. There is a poetic compulsion that after the fatal defeat of so blameless a youth, after a career of such unex-</p.87> <p. 88>ampled, unprovoked agony, there should be in distinct perspective the ineffable amends of the hereafter. In Hamlet, Shakespeare has not only created a character, but a soul. The deep spirituality of the part not only fills the play itself, but, acting as a centre of light, diffuses an ethereal lustre over all his works, and supplies the most imperishable element of his immortality. Strike any other single play from the list, and though the loss would be irreparable, yet the main characteristics of the entire fabric would remain radically the same. Strike out Hamlet and the aspect of the whole structure is hopelessly altered.”</p. 88>

1872 del4

del4 = del2

3896 to the stage]

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ Hunter (minus “It is a remarkable . . . in any other.”)

3896 to the stage]

1877 neil

neil ≈ Hunter w/o attribution

3895-96

1927 trav

trav

3896 like a souldier] Travers (ed. 1929): “That martial honours were rendered to the hero at the end of the old Hamlet, is most likely.--Nor could the sight and the sound of them here be other than welcome to the audience. not be laid on a couple of lines of funeral praise, at the close of a long and psychologically complex tragedy, or on this form of homage from a warlike prince at the head of his army, they still count among the reasons for examining how far even the Hamlet of this play has shown himself (in a phrase of Hazlitt’s that might be Coleridge’s) a mere "prince of philosophical speculators ".

1934 rid1

rid1 : standard

3896 stage] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):

1934 cam3

cam3

3895-3901 Wilson (ed. 1934): “Cf. [Cor. 5.6.149-52 (3821-30)]: ‘Take him up. Help, three o’th’ chiefest soldiers; I’ll be one. Beat thou the drum, that it speak mournfully Trail your steel pikes.’ The Eliz. stage being without a drop-curtain, it was necessary to remove the ‘dead’ in some such way as this; cf. 3.4.217 S.D.[2585].”

1939 kit2

kit2

3895-3907 Kittredge (ed. 1936): “In Elizabethan tragedy, the person of highest rank among the survivors regularly makes the speech which brings the play to a formal close. This necessity, indeed, accounts for the presence of Fortinbras in Hamlet. But for him, there would be no one left of sufficient rank to fulfil this office.”

1937 pen1a

pen1a : standard (perhaps KIT2)

3895-3907

1947 cln2

cln2 ≈ Granville-Barker

3896 Granville-Barker (apud Rylands, ed. 1947, Notes): “It is not by mere convention that Shakspeare allots him a hero’s end.”

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ cam3 w/o attribution

3895-3901

ard2

3896 to the stage] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “See [3873] above.”

2000 Edelman

Edelman

3895 Edelman (2000): “Fortinbras pointedly awards Hamlet a high honour in his rite of war by having ‘four captains [3895], not just any soldiers, take up his body. This is confirmed by reference to [Cor. 5.6.149 (0000)] where Aufidius needs only three captains [in addition to himself] for the body of his great foe [quotes].”

See below 3900, 3904, 3906