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.

1874 Corson

Corson: F1, cam1 +

40-1 Corson (1874, p. 9): “The meaning is, Sit down and let us etc.”

1891 dtn1

dtn1

40 a while] Deighton (ed. 1891): “for a time; originally two words, A. S. áne hwile, (for) a while.”

1955 Alexander

Alexander

40 P. Alexander (1955, p. 27): clearly the men sit down so that they can leap to their feet when the ghost appears.

1980 pen2

pen2

40, 44 sit] Spencer (ed. 1980): only Marcellus and Horatio sit because Barnardo is on duty.

Ed. note: But since they all describe themselves as guards, why would Barnardo ask the others to sit while he stands?

1984 Klein

Klein: xref

40 a while] a-while Klein (ed. 1984): “the difference between Q2 and F1 may be purely orthographic, the early prints use both fairly loosely. Yet awhile seems preferable here as more strongly than a while expressing Bernardo’s conviction that the ghost will return. Cf. 3404 and 3411 (5.1.217 and 222) where in Q2 both spellings are juxtaposed.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: pen2 without attribution; Gurr and Ichikawa; staging possibilities

40 Sit] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Editors have worried that this behaviour is improper for sentries (the request is repeated at [44, 86], and it also occurs three times in both Q1 and F1). It is possible that only Barnardo and Horatio sit, Marcellus remaining sentry-like. On stage, it raises the question of whether there is something for them to sit on or whether they just sit on the ground; in their study of the earliest staging of the play, Gurr and Ichikawa suggest that they ’hunch down’ (126); a bench was used at the reconstructed London Globe in 2000. The words are deleted in the earliest promptbooks we have of Hamlet, those of John Wood dating from the 1740s (see Thompson, ’Ward,’ 144).”

Ed. note: See Alexander 1953, CN 44. Sitting provides an opportunity for jumping up when the ghost appears. The published texts of John Wilkes’s productions [wilk as early as 1718] may be considered published promptbooks; reproduced repeatedly throughout the 18th century they eliminate references to sitting.