Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 3-4 Bar. VVHose there? | 1.1.1 |
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3 4
1736 Stubbs
Stubbs
3 Stubbs (1736, p.7): “Nothing can be more conformable to Reason, than that the Beginning of all Dramatick Performances (and indeed of every other kind of Poesie) should be with the greatest Simplicity, that so our Passions may be work’d upon by Degrees. This Rule is very happily observ’d in this Play; and it has this Advantage over many others, that it has Majesty and Simplicity joined together. For this whole preparatory Discourse to the Ghost’s coming in, at the same time it is necessary towards laying open the Scheme of the Play, creates an Awe and Attention in the Spectators, such as very well fits them to receive the Appearance of a Messenger from the other World, with all the Terror and Seriousness necessary for the Occasion. And surely the Poet has manag’d the Whole in such a Manner, that it is all entirely Natural: and tho’ most Men are well enough arm’d against all Belief of the Appearance of Ghosts, yet they are forced, during the Representation of this Piece, entirely to suspend their most fixed Opinions, and believe that they do actually see a Phantom, and the whole Plot of the Play is justly and naturally founded upon the appearance of this Spectre.”
1770
Gentleman
Gentleman ≈ Stubbs without attribution, similarities in magenta
3-50 Gentleman (1770, 1:15): <p. 15> “The opening of the play is extremely well devised; the time of night, the place, the characters, and what they speak, all most naturally concur to raise an awful
preparatory apprehension for the appearance of the supernatural agent on whom the main action totally depends; and indeed so artfully has Shakespeare wrought upon his great patroness,
nature; so powerfully does he engage our
passions upon this occasional
that even those who laugh at the idea of ghosts, as old womens’ takes, cannot avoid lending an eye and ear of serious attention to this of Hamlet’s father.
“Introducing him previously to some of the inferior characters brings him with double force upon the principal one . . . . ”</p. 15>
1773 gent
gent ≈ Gentleman ≈ Stubbs without attribution
3 Gentleman (ed. 1773): “The opening of this tragedy, is happily preparative to the future incidents and subject.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour
3-174 Seymour (1805, 2:138): “This whole scene appears unnecessary to the design and conduct of the play; and might, I believe, with advantage, be omitted. The hand of Shakspeare is visible in it occasionally, but it is a part of that undigested plan which is manifest throughout the play.”
1819 mclr2
mclr2 ≈ gent without attribution
4-174 Coleridge (1819, Marginalia, 837-8): “Compare the easy language of common life, in which this drama opens, with the wild wayward lyric of the opening of Macbeth. The language is familiar: no poetic descriptions of night, no elaborate information conveyed by one speaker to another . . . . It is the language of sensation . . . . the armour, the dead silence, , the watchfulness that first interrupts it, the welcome relief of guard,, the cold—the broken expressions . . . all excellently accord with and prepare for the after gradual rise into tragedy.”
1819 Coleridge
Coleridge ≈ mclr2
4-174 Coleridge (1819,
Lectures, 2: 294-5): <p. 294>
“Compare the easy language of common life, in which this Drama opens, with the wild wayward Lyric of the opening of Macbeth. The Language is familiar: no poetic descriptions of Night, no elaborate information conveyed by one speaker to another of what both had before their immediate perceptions (such as the first Distich in Addison’s Cato, which is a translation into poetry of Past 4 o’clock, and a damp morning)— </p. 294><p. 295>yet nothing bordering on the comic on the one hand, and no striving of the Intellect on the other. It is the language of
sensation among Men who feared no charge of effeminacy for feeling what they felt no want of resolution to bear.—Yet the armour, the dead silence, the watchfulness that first interrupts it, the welcome relief of guard, the Cold—the broken expressions as of a man’s compelled attention to bodily feelings allowed no man, all excellently accord with and prepare for the after gradual rise into Tragedy—but above all into a Tragedy the interest of which is emi[n]ently ad et apud
intra —as Macbeth e contra is ad extra.”</p. 295>
Coleridge
4-6 Coleridge (1819,
apud Furness, ed. 1877): “That Shakespeare meant to put an effect in the actor’s power in these very first words is evident from the impatience expressed by the startled Francisco in the line that follows. A brave man is never so preemptory as when he fears he is afraid.”
Coleridge
4-6 Coleridge (1819, Lectures, 2:139):“That Shakespear supplied a beauty to the actor in the meant to put an effect in the Actor’s power in the very first words—Who’s there—is evident from the next words—Nay impatience expressed in the words that follow—
“Nay, answer me: stand and unfold yourself. A brave man is never so peremptory, as when he fears that he is afraid.”
-1823 Radcliffe
Radcliffe ≈ Coleridge without attribution
4-17 Radcliffe (
apud Verplanck, ed. 1844): “In nothing has Shakespeare been more successful, than in selecting circumstances of manners and appearance for his supernatural beings, which, though wild and remote, in the highest degree, from common apprehension, never shock the understanding by incompatibility with themselves; never compel us, for an instant, to recollect that he has a license for extravagance. Above every ideal being, is the Ghost of Hamlet, with all its attendant incidents of time and place. The dark watch upon the remote platform; the dreary aspect of the night; the very expression of the officer on guard, [quotes 604] * the recollection of the star [47], an unknown world, are all circumstances which excite forlorn, melancholy, and solemn feelings, and dispose us to welcome, with trembling curiosity, the awful being that draws near; and to indulge in that strange mixture of horror, pity, and indignation, produced by the tale it reveals. Every minute circumstance of the scene between those watching on the platform, and of that between them and Horatio, preceding the entrance of the apparition, contribute to excite some feeling of dreariness, or melancholy, or solemnity, or expectation, in unison with, and leading on towards that high curiosity and thrilling awe with which we witness the conclusion of the scene. So, the first question of Bernardo, and the words in reply [quotes 5]. But there is not a single circumstance om either dialogue, not even in this short one with which the play opens, that does not take its secret effect upon the imagination. It ends with Bernardo desiring his brother officer, after having asked whether he has had ‘quiet watch’ [sic], to hasten he guard if he should chance to meet them; and we immediately feel ourselves alone on this dreary ground.”
<n*>
Verplanck (ed. 1844): “There is a lapse of memory in the writer. The words here quoted are used by Hamlet at the commencement of Scene 4. The occasion, however, is similar.” </n*>
1839 knt1
knt1: Coleridge without attribution
4-174 Knight (ed. 1839, p. 169): “The opening of Hamlet is one of the most absorbing scenes in the Shaksperian drama. It produces its effect by the supernatural being brought into the most immediate contact with the real. The sentinels are prepared for the appearance of the ghost,—Horatio is incredulous,—but they are all surrounded with an atmosphere of common life. ‘Long live the King,’—‘Get thee to bed,’— ‘ ’Tis bitter cold,’—‘Not a mouse stirring,’—and the familiar pleasantry of Horatio, ‘a piece of him,”—exhibit to us minds under the ordinary state of human feelings. At the moment when the recollections of Bernardo arise into that imaginative power which belongs to the tale he is about to tell, the ghost appears. All that was doubtful in the narrative of the supernatural vision—what left upon Horatio’s mind the impression only of a ‘thing,’—becomes as real as the silence, the cold, and the midnight. The vision is then, ‘most like the King.’ ‘Such was the very armour he had on.’
“The ghost remains but an instant; and we are again amongst the realities of common life,—the preparations for war—the history of the quarrel that caused the preparation. The vision, in the mind of Horatio, is connected with the fates of his ‘climatures and countrymen.” When the ghost re-appears there is still a tinge of scepticism in the soldiers:—‘Shall I strike at it with my partisan?’ But their incredulity is at once subdued; and a resolution is taken by Horatio upon the conviction that what he once held as a ‘fantasy,’ is a dreaded thing of whose existence there can be no doubt:— . . . .” [continued in 168]
1844 verp
verp: Radcliffe (see above)
4-17
1845 Hunter
Hunter
4-887 Hunter (1845, 2: 205): “Nothing in dramatic art ever exceeded the skill with which the first act is throughout constructed. It is in the highest style of tragic grandeur, making only this one reasonable claim upon our indulgence, that we must lay aside our modern philosophy and look upon ourselves as belonging to a people who were firm believers in the reality of spectral appearances.”
1847 QR
Lewes [Anon.]
4-8 Anon [Lewes] (1847, pp. 318-19): <p. 318> Since Sh. “will not stoop to be his own expositor in violation of nature—we miss the spirit in which [his characters] speak unless we note accurately their particular position at the time. It is from the neglect of this precaution that the opening of Hamlet, which is alive with excitement, striking contrasts, and the most delicate touches of nature, seems to have been taken by the editors, old and new, for nothing more than an unimpassioned conversation between two sentinels. Twice had Bernardo been encountered on the platform by the Ghost of the King, and he is now for the third time advancing at midnight to the scene of the apparition, in the belief that he will again behold the dreaded spectre which had ‘almost distilled him to a jelly with the act of fear.’ In this state of mind he would be startled at every sight and sound—at the sighing of the wind, and the shadows cast by the moon. Thus alive to apprehension, he heard advancing footsteps and the question, ‘Who’s there?’ is to our ear, the sudden instinctive exclamation of uncontrollable alarm, and not the ordinary challenge between one sentinel and another. Fear, by concentrating the senses, endows them with a supernatural acuteness; and Shakespeare was not unmindful of the fact when he made the listening, breathless Bernardo to be first conscious of their mutual approach. Francisco, the sentinel on duty, not recognizing a comrade in the terrified voice which hails him, replies,— ‘—Nay, answer
me; stand and unfold
yourself.’ </p. 318> <p. 319> But the moment Bernardo, reassured at hearing him speak, calls out the watch-word, ‘Long live the king!’ in his habitual tones, the sentinel knows his fellow and greets him by name.” </p.319>
Ed. note: Documentation shows this note is by George Henry Lewes: see Lewes’s scrapbooks at the Folger Library.
1856 hud1
hud1: Coleridge
3-7 Hudson (ed. 1856): “ ‘Compare,’ says Coleridge, ‘the easy language of common life, in which this drama commences, with the direful music and wild wayward rhythm and abrupt lyrics of the opening of Macbeth. The tone is quite familiar: there is no poetic description of night, no elaborate information conveyed by one speaker to another of what both had immediately before their senses; and yet nothing bordering on the comic on the one hand, nor any striving of intellect on the other. It is precisely the language of sensation among men who feared no charge of effeminancy for feeling what they had to want of resolution to hear. Yet the armour, the dead silence, the watchfulness that first interrupts it, the welcome relief of the guard, the cold, the broken expressions of compelled attention to bodily feelings still under control,—all excellently accord with, and prepare for, the after gradual rise into tragedy; but, above all, into a tragedy, the interest of which is as eminently ad et apud intra, as that of Macbeth is directly ad extra. ’ H.”
1856 hud1
hud1 ≈ Stubbs without attribution; ≈ Coleridge without attribution
4-174 Hudson (ed. 1856, 10: 193): “Of its varied excellences, only a few of the less obvious need be specified. The platform scenes are singularly charged with picturesque effect. The chills of a northern winter midnight seem creeping on us, as the heart-sick sentinels pass in view, and, steeped in moonlight and drowsiness, exchange their meeting and parting salutations. The thoughts and images that rise in their minds are just such as the anticipation of preternatural visions would be likely to inspire. As the bitter cold stupifies their senses, an indescribable feeling of dread and awe steals over them, preparing the mind to realise its own superstitious imaginings.”
1862 cham
cham = Steevens on watchword without attribution, Lewes [Anon.] from “He hears” to “by name.” +
3-50 Carruthers & Chambers (ed. 1862): “The anonymous critic discusses at length this opening scene of Hamlet, which he justly considers to be alive with excitement, striking contrasts, and the most delicate touches of nature.”
1863 Clarke
Clarke
3-174 Clarke (1863, pp. 70, 73-4) <p. 70> discusses the skill with which Sh. handles the first scene. </p. 70> <p. 73> “In this introductory scene we are presented with all the chief characteristics of the sublime; and of which, not the least prevailing feature is the effect produced by the gigantic power of stillness. The quiet midnight; the cold and misty moon; the wondering under-breath of discourse of those who had assembled to witness that tremendous vision. The awful and unsubstantial form itself, in silent and majestic sorrow passing among, and about them, and yet not with them; present, and yet absent; cognisable, identical, and yet intangible. This all-absorbing, this mighty abstraction, congealed, as it were, into a stern reality, in dumb eloquence and thrilling </p. 73><p.74 > stillness announces to us the coming events of a heart-shaking tragedy. Great is the majesty of ‘Silence,’ says Thomas Carlyle; and I know of nothing comparable in grandeur with the still and silent course of the first introduction of the Ghost in Hamlet.” </p. 74>
1868 tsch
tsch
4 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Man beachte das psychologische Motiv, nach welchem der Dichter den auftretenden Bernardo allen milirärischen Brauch vergessen end den auf Posten stehenden Francsico zuerst anrufen lässt, Offenbar wandelt Bernardo die Furcht an, dem Geiste allein zu begegnen; es ist ihm unheimlich zu Muthe, deshalb giebt er dem abzichenden Francisco den Auftrag, wenn er aud Horatio und Marcellus stosse, sie zür Eile anzutreiben.”
Ed. note: See
Furness trans. below.
1870 Abbott
Abbott
3-4 Abbott (§512): “Interjectional line. Some irregularities [in meter] may be explained by the custom of placing ejaculations, appellations, &c. out of the regular verse . . . .”
1877 v1877
1877: Coleridge; tsch: Abbott; Seymour [TLN1]
3-4 Furness (ed. 1877): “
Tschischwitz finds a ‘psychological motive’ in thus representing Bernardo as so forgetful of all military use and wont as to challenge Francisco who is on guard. Evidently Bernardo is afraid to meet the Ghost all alone, and it is because he feels so unmanned that his last words to Francisco are to bid Horatio and Marcellus make haste.’ For other instances of irregularity in metre, which may be explained by the custom of placing ejaculations, appellations, &c. out of the regular verse, see
Abbott, § 512.
Ed.”
Furness quotes Seymour and adds: “Seymour finds the same fault in Macbeth and Lear.”
Ed.]
1878 rlf1
rlf1 = Coleridge; Abbott §512
3-4
1890 irv2
irv2: Coleridge; Marshall; tsch; jen without attribution
3-4 Marshall (ed. 1890) summarizes the views on the opening. He mentions Coleridge. Marshall notes that Q1 has the Francisco character challenge the other and suggests that the line, which spreads over two lines in F, could be Francisco’s; “if we imagine the scene a dark night, and that Francisco, pacing on his watch, sees the dim outline of a figure advancing, challenges it, pauses for an answer, then impatiently says, ‘Nay answer me, the ‘psychological motive’ is, perhaps, quite as intelligible.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 = rlf1(minus Abbott)
3-4
1913 Trench
Trench ≈ Lewes without attribution
3-4 Trench (1913, p.45): Bernardo may suspect that he is seeing the ghost. Ed. Note: Since Trench refers repeatedly to v1877, he could have read Lewes’s anonymous essay there.
1918 MLR
Wilson
3-4 Wilson (MLR 13 [1918], p. 135)
<n.1><p. 135> “ . . . how did Horatio see the Ghost’s face if the night was so dark that the soldiers could barely see each other? The reply is, of course, that in Shakespeare’s theatre
Hamlet would be performed in daylight and the audience would notice nothing inconsistent between the darkness, which is in the verse alone, and the visibility of the Ghost whose face, moreover, was probably in some way made luminous.” </p.135> </.n.1>
Ed. note: Wilson in this essay contra Greg 1917 begins his theory about what happens in the play scene. See CN 426, 748, 845 and "play as a whole."
1934 cam3
cam3: standard
4 Wilson (ed. 1934): “The question and the dialogue that follows emphasise the darkness of the night and he jumpiness of the guards. It was for Fran., on guard, to give the challenge.”
1936 Spencer
Spencer
3-174 Spencer (1936, p. 184) discusses Sh.’s and others’ use of a funeral procession to start a play with something startling enough to silence the audience. In Ham. Sh. might have begun with the old king’s funeral but instead saved a funeral for the last act, where it is even more effective in preparing for the tragic conclusion. Spencer asserts that beginning with “the suggestion of darkness . .. is just as effective as a coffin would be, if not more so.”
1937 Schücking
Schücking
3-175 Schücking (1937, p.42): “There is the racy, soldierly exchange of words between those on guard at night on the terrace at Elsinore—dispensing with all ornament [ . . .].”
1939 kit2
kit2
4 Kittredge (ed. 1939) thinks that Bernardo “instinctively uses the sentinel’s formula.”
1947 cln2
cln2 ≈ cam3 without attribution
3-4 Rylands (ed. 1947) notes that each character is differentiated in this first scene. He infers that “Bernardo is on edge; he gives the challenge instead of Francisco, the sentinel on guard, and he is anxious not to be left alone.”
1962 mCraig
mCraig ≈ tsch without attribution
3-4 Craig (Stephens College lecture 1962-63, ms. Huntington Library Box 3, ƒ B5, p. 79), the 7th of nine lectures, prepared for publication but not published): Since the sentry is the one who should challenge the person arriving, “this might suggest that for some reason Bernardo is at least extremely nervous.” Craig identifies Barnardo and Francisco as common soldiers. See also TLN 12-13, 16-17.
1974 evns1
evns1
3-174 Kermode (ed. 1974, p. 1138) < p. 1138> remarks on the “unusual obliquity of the opening [. . . ]” which nevertheless “is as economical in the creation of atmosphere as Macbeth.” </ p. 1138 >
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ Trench without attribution
4 Spencer (ed. 1980) suggests that Barnardo may think he sees the ghost.
1982 ard2
ard2: McKerrow, Prolegomena, pp. 45-6; Coleridge
3-39 Jenkins (ed. 1982) explains that short lines like these, reflecting ordinary speech, can not be arranged as regular iambic verse. Thus he does not stagger until 40.
1985 Hawkes
Hawkes
4 Hawkes (1985, pp. 310-11) imagines the play as performed, with Bernardo pointing his partisan at Francisco, challenging the sentry he is relieving physically as well as verbally.
He notes that the play begins and ends without words and with misconceptions and mis-statements ("Long live the king" [TLN 7] is inappropriate in a kingdom where the king had died abruptly) and ends with simplifications (by Horatio [3875-81]) and either purposeful or ignorant mis-statements (by Fortinbras [3897-904]).
1987 oxf4
oxf4 ≈ cam3 without attribution
3-4 Hibbard (ed. 1987) says that Barnardo’s question shows the audience that it is nighttime and also that “Barnardo is jittery.”
1987 Mercer
Mercer
3-13 Mercer (1987, p. 123): “The solders exchanging watch quickly impress us with their own reality . . . ” Though there is also portentousness, the language remains “firmly embedded in the normal; Francisco challenges by the book and genuinely welcomes the punctuality of his relief.” Mercer continues to emphasize the naturalistic characterizations of the speakers, so at odds with the ordinary atmosphere of a revenge play.
1993 dent
dent: standard + marked in magenta underlined
4-6 Andrews (ed. 1993) asserts that both challenges [4 and 7] signal tension, since normally a sentry coming on duty would not challenge someone already there, nor would a sentry being relieved challenge someone entering at the expected time for the relief to arrive [10].
2000 Edelman
Edelman
3-7 Edelman (2000) on word or watchword: “When Barnardo and Francisco meet in the opening moments of Hamlet, each challenges the other, but only Francisco demands the word with ‘Stand and unfold yourself [6].” Barnardo, obviously a sentinel trustworthy enough to know the watchword answers appropriately.
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
4 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006) point out that Peter Brook used this famous opening “for his 1996 Hamlet-derived play in French Qui est lá. His 2000 adaptation ended with it.”
2007 New Yorker
Lahr
3-4
Lahr (2007, p. 190): "A good playwright always signals his theme, if only obliquely, in the first exchanges of a play. In the opening scene of Shakespeare’s "Hamlet," for instance, a sentinel on the parapets in the dark cries out, "Who’s there?" The question lies behind all of Hamlet’s subsequent antic behavior: is anyone who he seems?"
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