Line 59 - 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.
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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 59 Hora. What art thou that vsurpst this time of night, | 1.1.46 |
|---|
1572 Lavater
Lavater
59 What art thou] Lavater (1572, 2.2:102-9, apud Hoy, ed. 1963): Hor.’s first question is what Lavater prescribes; but obviously, because of restrictions on stage productions, he cannot ask “by Jesus Christ,” as Lavater further prescribes.
1736 Stubbs
Stubbs
59-62 Stubbs (1736, p. 9): “Horatio’s Speeches to the Apparition are exceeding Natural, Awful, and Great, and well suited to the Occasion and his own Character.”
1805 Todd
Todd
59 thou] Todd (Fairy Queen 3.4.2, 4: 243 n): “Whether the poet [Spenser] was here tempted to alter [thou to you], in his second edition, as addressing the Queen more politely, may be a matter of discussion for those who are well versed in the Academics of Compliments! However, the second person singular and the name of Sir W. Raleigh require me to observe, by the way, that the expression, in Shakspeare’s Twelfth Night, ‘If thou thou’st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss,’which has been supposed to allude to the virulence with which Coke addressed Sir Walter at his trial, “Thou viper; I thou thee; thou traytor;’ is of much earlier date than the age of Shakspeare. And, although the commentators have noticed similar expressions in books subsequent to the time of the dramatick bard, they have not cited the following ancient illustration from Hyche-Scorner, Hawkins’s Eng. Drama, vol. 1. p. 101. ‘Aaunt, catyfe, doost thou thou me! I am come of good kynne, &c.’ Todd.”
1819 cald1
cald1
59 vsurpst] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Abuses, uses against right, and the order of things. ‘He but usurp’d his life;’ i.e., occupied it beyond, and out of its season. End of Lear.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1 + in magenta underlined
59 vsurpst] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Abuses, uses against right, and the order of things. ‘He but usurp’d his life;’ i.e., has occupied it beyond, and out of its season. End of Lear. Kent”
1862 cham
cham
59 vsurpst] Chambers (ed. 1862): “usest without right—applicable equally to the time of night and the appearance of the king.”
1863 Clarke
Clarke
59-62 Clarke (1863, p.71): “How solemn and how deprecatory is his adjuration!— [quotes 59-62].”
1870 rug1
rug1
59-62 vsurpst . . . march] Moberly (ed. 1870): “Zeugma: the Ghost invades the night and assumes the form of the king.”
1877 v1877
v1877: rug1
59-62 vsurpst . . . march]
1880 meik
meik = rug1 without attribution, variations in magenta
59-62 vsurpst . . . Together with] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “A daring zeugma. The Ghost usurps (= invades) the quiet night and also the fair form of the buried king.”
1883 macd
macd
59 vsurpst] MacDonald (ed. 1883): “It was intruding upon the realm of the embodied.”
1891 dtn1
dtn1 ≈ cham without attribution
59-60 Deighton (ed. 1891) glosses this as meaning Horatio challenges the ghost for, walking and for assuming the form of the dead king, both “without right.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3 ≈ rug1 without attribution
59-62
1909 subb
subb = cham
59 vsurpst]
1912 dtn3
dtn3 ≈ subb without attribution to cham
59-60 Deighton (ed. 1912) glosses this as meaning Horatio challenges the ghost for, walking and for assuming the form of the dead king, both “without right.”
1922 thur
thur ≈ dtn3 without attribution
59 vsurpst] Thurber (ed. 1922) “means ‘usest without right.’ The Ghost has taken for wrong usage both the night and the form of the King.”
1934 cam3
cam3
59 vsurpst] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Hor. implies that it is some impostor or an evil spirit, which has assumed the form of the dead King. No wonder ‘it is offended.’ [63] v, note [32] above and Introd. pp. l-liii.”
1936 Malleson
Malleson: contra J. D. Wilson’s argument re the king
59 vsurpst] Malleson (TLS 36 [1936]: 15): The play never uses the word usurper in reference to the king. He objects to J.D. Wilson’s assumption that the contemporary audience would have understood the situation as usurpation by the king of Hamlet’s rightful inheritance..
1938 parc
parc
58 Speake to] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938) says that the fact that Q1 and F1 agree proves that question “was the word spoken on Shakespeare’s stage. It was probably the word that he wrote; no actor or editor would be likely to change the natural phrase ‘Speak to’ into Question, whereas the printer of [Q2], having spoke to, just above, in his mind might very well unconsciously substitute Speake to for the Question of his copy.”
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ thur without attribution
59 vsurpst] Kermode (ed. 1974): “The ghost, a supernatural being, has invaded the realm of nature.”
1982 ard2
ard2 ≈ evns without attribution
59 vsurpst]
1987 oxf4
oxf4
59 Hibbard (ed. 1987) thinks that the word usurpst is what offends [63] the ghost, a victim of usurpation.
1991 Yang
Yang
59 thou] Yang (1991, p. 253): “Blake (N. F. Shakespeare’s Language: An Introduction. London: MacMillan, 1983. p. 7) claims that the Ghost is offended not by the word ‘usurp’st’ but by the abnormal use of the pronoun ‘thou,’ which ‘implies a mixture of both contempt and fear. . . .” While Blake thinks that thou is “reserved for inferiors or contemptible mortals,” his point, that the ghost “cannot throw off the trappings of royalty so easily,” does not negate Yang’s thesis that thou is the almost universal address to supernatural individuals in Sh.’s plays. The ghost cannot so easily accept itself as a supernatural being.
2001 Greenblatt
Greenblatt
59 What art thou]
Greenblatt (2001, pp.103, 210) says that ghosts had to submit to questions like those Horatio asks here and in his later encounter, 129-36:<p. 103> “
Quis? Quid? Quare? Cui? Qualiter? Unde? In another simplified version of this judicial ritual, there are three questions—
Nomen? Causas? Remedium? . . . ”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard + in magenta underlined
59-61 vsurpst . . . Denmarke] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “’misappropriates both the time of night and the appearance of the dead King.’ (ironic, since it transpires that it is the present king who is in effect the usurper). At this point Horatio concedes that the Ghost looks like the former King, but not that it is him.”
59