13 Hunter (-1845, fol.221v): “No particular reason appears for Francisco’s melancholy: and I suppose it is introduced for the purpose of giving a tone to the mind of the spectator suitable to the tragic scenes which were soon to be presented. It is not in the play as originally published. Yet it might be that the thought of the Ghost made him melancholy.”

13 Hunter (1845, 2:212-13): <p. 212>“As no particular reason appears for the melancholy of this insignificant personage, it is probable that the Poet meant by this little artifice to prepare the minds of the spectators for a tragical story. Such a remark at the opening of a play disposed their minds, unconsciously perhaps to themselves, to the solemnity of thought and feeling which suited the awful scenes soon to be unfolded. We find the same ex- </p.212 ><p. 213> cusable artifice at the opening of [MV] and of [Rom.].” </p. 213>

13 Strachey (1848, p. 24): “ [. . . ] we are made to feel that to him as well as to Hamlet, this is a harsh world in which men draw their breath with pain; while his avowal that he is sick at heart, (for he is not ashamed to avow that which he feels—while he feels also that he can bear it,) corresponds with Hamlet’s experience . . . . The key-note of the tragedy is struck in the simple preludings of this common sentry’s midnight guard, to sound afterwards in ever-spreading vibrations through the complicated, though harmonious strains of Hamlet’s own watch through a darker and colder night than the senses can feel.”

13 sick at hart.] Delius (ed. 1854): “drücht ein allgemeines, unbestimmtes Uebelbefinden aus.” [Francisco’s speech impresses one with an overall, uneasy, inexpressible feeling of dread.]

13 sick at hart.] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “So [Mac. 5.3.19 (2236)], ‘I am sick at heart.’ We have also in [LLL 2.1.185 (682)], ‘sick at the heart,’ and [Rom. 3.3.72 (1879)], ‘heart-sick groans’.”

13 sick at hart.]

13 MacDonald (ed. 1883): ”The key-note in the play—as in Macbeth: ‘Fair is foul and foul is far.’ The whole nation is troubled by late events at court.”

13 sick at heart] Deighton (ed. 1891): “heartily weary, thoroughly exhausted, with watching in such weather.”

13 And] Van Dam (ed. 1924, pp. 73-110) believes that Sh’s verse is regular and credits himself for adjusting it appropriately to reflect its regularity. One feature of that project is bolding “interpolations,” words (like this and) he considers added by actors and stage managers.

13 sick at hart] Travers (ed. 1929): “oppressed with apprehensive faintness.”

13 Wilson (ed. 1934): “The solitary figure of Fran. with his heart-sickness foreshadows Ham.”

13-887 Wilson (1935, p. 206) regards the tone of the whole first act as “one of despondency and failure, starting with Fran.’s line of heart-sickness.”

13 sick at heart] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "depressed, in low spirits."

13 sick at hart.] Craig (1962-3, Box 3, ƒ B5, p. 79) says that Francisco betrays an uneasiness similar to Barnardo’s and that from his experience “it is not customary for the man relieved to thank his substitute and to say he is ‘sick at heart.’”

13 sick at hart.] Kermode (ed. 1974): “in low spirits.”

13 Barton (ed. 1980, p. 11) mentions the “uncanny resemblance between the opening of Hamlet and of the Agamemnon (458 BC)” by Aeschylus. “In both, an apprehensive and mysteriously dispirited sentinel, a watchman on the roof of a royal place in which there is something obscurely but terribly wrong . . . .”

13 sick at hart.] Spencer (ed. 1980), like others, says that Francisco’s malaise “contributes to the emotional atmosphere and prepares for the Prince’s heart-sickness at [313-343]. It oddly contrasts with the disciplined military scene.”

13 Jenkins (ed. 1982):

13 sick at hart.] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “thoroughly wretched,” or as in Mac. “‘filled with forebodings.’ It is, in any case, the first of the play’s many references to sickness.”

13 sick at hart.] Kliman (1996): Shakespeare may be demonstrating that the Danes were not used to standing guard, or at least that the guards he presents were not: Barnardo challenges when he should be challenged, Francisco says the wrong thing, and a visitor comes along who also stands watch. All very unmilitary. But to make a point out of Sh’s predilection to put dramatic purpose before fidelity to realism is to misunderstand his work.