Line 47 - 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 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 47 When yond same starre thats weastward from the pole, | 1.1.36 |
|---|
-1761 Rochester?
Rochester?
47 yond] Rochester? (-1761, p. 192) conjectures yon’.
Ed. note: See Browne; Rochester in alphabib.
1857 fieb
fieb: Walker (Pronouncing Dict)
47 yond] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Yon or Yonder, being at a distance within view. Mr. Walker, in his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, has observed, that there is a vulgar pronunciation of this word in London, as if written yonder, which cannot be too carefully avoided.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc
47-50 Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “How poetically, and with what dramatic fitness, has Shakespeare introduced this touch to mark time and place! Nothing more natural than for a sentinel to watch the course of a particular star while on his lonely midnight watch; and what a radiance of poetry is shed upon the passage by the casual allusion! See Note 52, Act iii, [
MND].”
1872 cln1
cln1
47 yond] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “This word, used as an adjective or adverb, is spelt indifferently in either sense, ‘yond’ or ‘yon.’”
1872 hud2
hud2
47 starre . . . pole] Hudson (ed. 1872): “Of course the polar star, or north star, is meant, which appears to stand still, while the other stars in its neighborhood seem to revolve around it.”
1877 v1877
v1877: hud2, Clarke minus 1st sentence and //
47 starre. . . pole]
1880 meik
meik = c&mc without attribution
47 pole]
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
47 starre . . . pole]
1891 dtn1
dtn1
47-9 When . . . burnes] Deighton (ed. 1891): “when that very star which you see to the west of the pole had travelled along its path to light up that part of the heavens in which it is now shining, i.e. almost at this very time last night.”
1891 dtn1
dtn1 contra cln1 without attribution
47 yond] Deighton (ed. 1891): “properly an adverb, yon being the adjective.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3: standard
47 starre . . . pole]
1931 crg1
crg1
47 yond same starre] Craig (ed. 1931): “probably part of the constellation of the Great Bear, since this was used to tell time by.”
1935 Schücking
Schücking
47 Schücking (1935, trans.1937, p. 70 n. 1) refers to the dramatic effect of the line and again when the ghost reappears—of calling attention away from the ghost’s entrance so that it can appear to materialize suddenly.
1936 cam3b
cam3b: Schücking
47 Wilson (ed. 1936, rpt. 1954, additional notes) refers to Schücking but incorrectly says that “Bernardo’s words draw the audience’s attention to the spot at which the Ghost will appear.”
1947 cln2
cln2
47 weastward from the pole] Rylands (ed. 1947): “a planet west of the Polar star.”
1957 pel1
pel1: standard
47 pole] Farnham (ed. 1957): “polestar.”
1970 Spevack
Spevack Complete Concordance
47 yond] Spevack (1970) has yon 22 verse 0 prose, frequency .0024; yond is .0045 frequency 35 verse and 10 prose; yonder is 70 freq, 40 v 30 p. There are also yonder’s 6, with 3 v and 3 p, and yond’s, 1 freq, v.
1970 pel2
pel2: standard
47 pole] Farnham (ed. 1970): “polestar”
1980 pen2
pen2:
47 Spencer (ed. 1980) comments on the technique of diverting the audience’s attention from the ghost’s entrance. He adds that Sh. throughout the scene “gives the impression of a clear, frosty, startlit sky.”
pen2
47-9 Spencer (ed. 1980) believes that the words illume and burns indicate the star is a planet.
1982 ard2
ard2: N&Q ccviii, 412-13
47 yond same starre] Jenkins (ed. 1982), though acknowledging that no actual star need be meant, suggests “Capella, which would appear in the winter sky ‘westward from the pole.’” The Great Bear would not so appear.
1992 fol2
fol2 ≈ v1877 without attribution
47 pole] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “Polaris, the North Star“
1993 OED
OED
47 yond] OED: Under Yon: “See also YOND, YONDER. In OE. the only members of this family of words for which evidence is forthcoming are geon adj. and geond, geondan YOND prep. (? orig. adv. like Goth. jaind), together with bigeonan (-ginan, -genan) `trans’, begeondan (Northumb. bigeanda, bigienda) BEYOND adv. and prep. From these the various parallel uses of yon, yond, and yonder have arisen through the extension to other members of applications originally appropriated to one of them.The 17-18th cent. spelling of the word with an apostrophe (yon’) indicates that it was regarded as short for yond.]
A. adj. 1. A demonstrative word used in concord with a sb. to indicate a thing or person as (literally, or sometimes mentally) pointed out: cf. THAT dem. adj. 1. Formerly often, as still in some dialects, simply equivalent to that (those); but chiefly, and in later literary use almost always, referring to a visible object at a distance but within view: = `that (those)...over there’ 1621 G. SANDYS* Ovid’s Met. VIII. (1626) 165 What place Is yon’, and of what name, that stands alone? This from Sandys is a 17thc example of yon’ as yond.
2002 Blake
Blake ≈ OED without attribution
47 yond] Blake (§3.3.4.5): yon, yond, and yonder point to something distant from but visible to both speaker and listener; replaced in ModE by that.
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
47 yond same starre] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Astronomers have recently argued that, if Shakespeare had a specific star in mind, he might be alluding to the supernova in Cassiopeia which was first seen in Wittenberg in 1572 and also discovered independently by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe: See Olsen et al.; for a further possible link between Hamlet and Brahe, see [their note for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, p. 143; their names are connected to Brahe’s]. ”
ard3q2 ≈ hud3 without attribution; crg1 without attribution; contra ard2 without attribution + in magenta underlined
47 pole] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “pole-star or northern star: the star in the constellation Ursa Minor (Latin: Little Bear) which lies so close on the northern pole of the of the heavens that it seems to remain still in the sky while the other stars revolve around it.”