HW Home	Previous CN	View CN	View TNM	View TNI	Next CN

Line 53 - 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

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

53 Bar. In the same figure like the King thats dead.	1.1.41

1891 dtn1

dtn1

53 In the same figure] Deighton (ed. 1891): “in the same shape and dress.”

1974 evns1

evns1

53 like] Kermode (ed. 1974): “in the likeness of.”

1980 pen2

pen2

53 like] Spencer (ed. 1980) believes that the frequent iteration of likeness makes the audience believe that the ghost “is really King Hamlet’s spirit, not a demon.”

1982 ard2

ard2

53 like the King] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Note the refraining fom accepting that it is in fact the King. Cf. below [55, 59-62, 98, 124+3, 390, 444]. Doubt as to the Ghost’s identity is present from the first.”

Ed. note: Like seems as likely to mean not like as the same as. See Goldberg.

1987 Mercer

Mercer

53 like the King] Mercer (1987, p. 124), continuing his analysis of the differences between the usual revenge tragedy and Hamlet: “In place of the revenge ghost, the stylised theatrical horror of Marston, what we have here is, as it were, a real ghost.”

1988 SQ

Goldberg contra Jenkins

53 In the same figure] Goldberg (1988, 313): “ . . . [F]rom the start the Ghost exists within a scriptive order, and not merely that of the Senecan tragedy in which his lines are written. For when Horatio offers to vouch for the Ghost, he tells Hamlet, ’I knew your father. These hands are not more like’ (402). The identity of the Ghost is confirmed by the identity of the hand. This is not surprising; the Ghost exists only within similitude, appearing ’in the same figure like the king that’s dead,’ [56] ’Most like,’ [55] ’Mark it, Horatio.’ And Horatio marks it by likening the likeness to the hand that marks.” Goldberg also discusses scriptive moments in TLN 780, 1872, 3061, and see also "Play as a Whole."

2001 Greenblatt

Greenblatt

53 like] Greenblatt (2001, pp. 210, 212) <p. 210> points out that the iteration of like (53, 55, 56, 74) “hammers away at the unnerving resemblance of the thing they are all witnessing to the king whose body they have seen interred.” </p. 210> <p. 212> But also the ghost is not like the buried or inurned king as he looks now, after more than a month of decay. </p. 212>

Greenblatt

53 like] Greenblatt (2001, p.216): “What buckles under the pressure of the apparition is the notion of likeness (and hence of difference) that underwrites Hamlet’s recollection of his father, or, rather, the ratio of likeness and difference threatens to collapse: ‘I knew your father,’ Horatio tells Hamlet, ‘These hands are not more like” [402-3].

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard + in magenta underlined

53 same figure] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “identical shape, appearance. Same could refer to the likeness to the King or to the previous appearances of the Ghost.”