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Line 165 - 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.”

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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

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

165 But looke the morne in russet mantle clad	1.1.166

1602-1607 [?] author

Tomkis? ≈ Hamlet

165-6 Tomkis? ([Lingua,] 1602-1607?, sig. B2v apud Moore Smith in Ingleby et al. 1932, 1: 113 and 113n):

[Mendacio:] Now chast Diana grant my netts to hold.

[Tactus:] The blasting of Child-hood of the cheerful morne

Is almost growne a youth and ouer-climbes

Yonder gilt Easterne hills,—

Ingleby et al. call this a dubious allusion, “but the play contains other strange similarities to Shakspere.”

1733 theo1

theo1: Cym.

165-6 Theobald (ed. 1733, 6:371-2, n.13) glosses Cym. 2.2.49 (955-6) “Swift, swift, you Dragons of the Night! that Dawning May bear the raven’s eye”: the image “means that [the dawn] should rise, and shew that Colour [i.e. the color of the raven’s eye]. Now the Raven’s Eye is remarkably grey; and grey ey’d, ’tis known, is the Epithet universally join’d to the Morning. Nor has our Shakespeare forgot to allude to the Morning being grey in other Passages.”

Theobald quotes Ado, Tit., JC, Rom. and Ham. as proof that Sh. refers to the grey dawn. For Ham., he explains that “russet is dark brown, grey.” [Theobald misquotes Ham., for “But look” substituting “And see”; mtby3 corrects him.]

1752 Dodd

Dodd

165-6 Dodd (1752, 1: 216): “See [MND ] 1.8. and the note.”

Dodd

165-6 Dodd (1752, 1: 86 n.12, re MND 3.2.419 (1463)“Night’s swift dragons”): “The poets have all exerted themselves in their descriptions of the morning; perhaps Shakespear may claim the preference: however, the reader will see, in [Rom. 3.7.?] several passages selected from the best writers, and he may be not disagreeably amused by comparing them together.”

Dodd

165-6 Dodd (1752, 2: 212-14, re Rom. 3.5.19 [2051] ): <p. 212>“The poets in general seem to have exerted themselves in their description of the morning: the English may justly claim the preference over the Greeks and Romans, and Shakespear I think over all . . . .[quotes Homer, and from Lay Mionastery p. 229, Dryden’s Virgil, Ovid by Trap, Tasso by Fairfax, Spenser in F.Q., </p. 212><p. 213> Milton in PL. “There is something rather too puerile (I think) in this conceit of Milton’s.” He adds B&F near end of 4th act of Faithful Shepherdess, mentions that Taylor the Water-poet “boasts that he has exprest the rising of the sun, the morning, (I think) a thousand different ways.” Says Milton took hint from B&F for a passage in L’Allegro. </p. 214>

1773 gent

gent:

165-6 Gentleman (ed. 1773): “The former part of this speech, though founded on a superstitious opinion, we must be pleased with; the latter (165-6?) is beautifully poetical.”

1778 v1778

v1778 in 2H4 2.3.19 (977)

165 morne in russet mantle clad] Steevens (ed. 1778, 5:487 n. 5) re 2H4 2.3.19 (977) “grey vault of heaven”: “So, in one of our author’s poems to his mistress [Son. 132.6]: ‘And truly not the morning sun of heaven Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east, &c.’ Steevens.”

1785 v1785

1785 = v1778

165 morne in russet mantle clad]

1790 mal

mal = v1785

165 morne in russet mantle clad]

1791- rann

165-6 Rann (ed. 1791-): “a grey cloud, streaked with black, and faintly tinged with red by the rising sun.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal +

165 morne in russet mantle clad]

1801 Todd/Milton

Todd/ Milton

165 russet mantle] Todd (1801, 3:37) for P.L. 7.373 “the gray Dawn,]] It is a singular coincidence, that the same phrase occurs , with the same collocation, in Carew’s Poems, 1642. See a Pastoral Dialogue; the Nymph to the Shepherd; ‘The yellow planets, and the gray Dawn, shall attend thee on thy way.’ ”

Ed. note: In his 1809 ed., 3:383, Todd signs this note.

Todd/ Milton

165 morne] Todd (1801, 4:303-4) for P. R. 4.426 “—till Morning fair Came forth, with pilgrim steps, in amice gray;]] See the notes on Lycidas, ver. 187. Comus, ver. 188, and [P. L. 7.374].

“The morrow gray, as Mr. Dunster observes, was a common expression with our early poets for the break of day; and he cites the following lines frin Sackville’s beautiful Induction, st. 40. ‘The morrowe grey no sooner hath begun To spread his light euen peeing in our eyes, Than he is vp and to his work yron.’

“I will add a passage, which seems to prove this point exactly, from Hawe’s Pastime of Pleasure, 1554. chap. i. —‘the night was well nere past, And fayre golden Phebus,in the morow graye, with clowdes redde, began to break the daye.’ ”

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

165 morne in russet mantle clad]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

165 morne in russet mantle clad]

1819 cald1

cald1: Steevens on time

165 morne] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Doubtless the almost momentary appearance of the Ghost, and the short conversation preceding and subsequent to it, could not have filled up the long interval of a winter’s night in Denmark, from twelve till morning. But, indifferent as was Shakespeare to all dramatic rules and laws, there was no other license so large as that which he took with Time. In whatever direction and eherever he sped, ‘Still panting Time toil’d after him in vain.’

“With the interesting topic he has contrived to introduce at the close, and dazzled also as an audience would be by the splendor of his poetry, this irregularity would not in representation be generally detected at any time; and at this time it would neither be thought of or regarded: and when the age and the audience so little attended to it, as Mr. Steevens represents to be the case, the playwright was not likely to be very anxious about it. He tells us, in his notes upon Hamlet’s advice to the players, that ‘dumb shews sometimes supplied deficiencies, and in others filled up the space of time which was necessary to pass, while business was supposed to be transacted in foreign parts. With this method of preserving one of the unities, our ancestors seem to have been satisfied.’”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

165 morne in russet mantle clad]

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 +

165 morne] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “But in his Treatise of Church Government, Milton, when speaking of epic poetry, even in his manner of putting the question decides it: ‘Whether the rules of Aristotle are herein strictly to be kept, or nature to be followed: which in them, that know art and use judgment, is no transgression, but an enriching of art.’ Whether this be so or not in epic poetry, surely it may be asked, although the scene shifting drama, both as to time and place, and fidelibus oculis, presents a succession of impossibilities, yet if transported by that living scene, the imagination persuades itself, that which passes before it is real; if in the representation there is nothing revolting, how much less is it than nature? And, if she is no further overstepped, why is it, that we exclaim, and talk of forms or rules violated? Or, if we so do, why do we step within the walls of a theatre?

“No reasoning will allow that we can actually be one minute at Thebes and the next at Athens; or wherever the scene is laid, that we are at no other than at home. The only question to be entertained is, whether the mind, by its habit of cherishing these associations and delusions so fondly that they have become a second nature, is in any particular instance by want of skill or talent in the dramatical artificer outraged or disgusted?

“Unless by some deviation or relaxation of the severity of his rules our critic shall condescend to suffer himself so to sympathise and be transported, he can have no feeling for what passes, not even for the first scene any more than for the last; nor can he by any flight be carried further than the bench on which he seated himself as a spectator.”

Ed. note: Aristotle, as trans. by Heath, says: “Tragedy is an immitation of an action that is admirable, complete and possesses magnitude; in language made pleasurable, each of its species separated in different parts; performed by actors, not through narration; effecting through pity and fear the purification of such emotions.”

1839 knt1

knt1: cald2 +

165 morne] Knight (ed. 1839): “Caldecott, whose edition of Hamlet is greatly superior to any of its predecessors, sometimes falls into that fault-finding tone by which most Shaksperian critics assert their occasional superiority over their author: ‘The almost momentary appearance of the ghost, and the short conversations preceding and subsequent to it, could not have filled up the long interval of a winter’s night in Denmark, from twelve till morning.’ Such is Mr. Caldecott’s objection to this scene. But how does he know that it was a winter’s night? Francesco, indeed, says ‘ ’tis bitter cold;’ but even in the night of the early summer of the north of Europe, during the short interval between twilight and sunrise, ‘the air bites shrewdly.’ That this was the season intended by Shakspere is indicated by Ophelia’s flowers. Her pansies, her columbines and her daisies belong to the winter; and her ‘coronet weeds’ were the field-flowers of the latter spring, hung upon the willow in full foliage, ‘That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.’”

1843- mLewes

mLewes: cald; knt

165 morne] Lewes (ms. notes in Knight, ed. 1843) criticizes both: “Caldecott’s objection is absurd enough but Knight’s defense is worse. It surely does not make the scene a whit more probable, to prove that the night was a summer night; a few minutes may as well represent four hours as two, the demand on our belief is the same.”

-1845 mHunter

mHunter: Milton, Ovid analogue

165-6 Hunter (-1845, fol. 222-222v): <222r>“Russet and dewy had before been used by Ovid. [quotes] Amor. Lib.1. St. 13. </222r> <222v> The red appearance of the early morning is a [?] the attention of the Poets. Virgil [?] while he omits dewy, & gives as the principal circumstance belonging to the morning that it restores light [quotes] An. IV. 5 &6. How evidently inferior to either Shakspeare or Milton. [quotes something]!” </222v>

1845 Hunter

Hunter : Milton

165-6 Hunter (1845, 2:216): “It must have been in emulation of these lines that Milton wrote— ‘Now morn her rosy steps in th’ eastern clime Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearls.’ [P. L. 5.1]. We have the same characteristics of morning in both— “Russet ’— ‘rosy.’ ‘Eastern hill’ —‘eastern clime.’ ‘The dew’ —‘orient pearls.’ In Shakespeare, morning is the lusty husbandman brushing away the dew as he goes forth to work and his labour till the evening. Milton’s morning is Aurora herself, moving like a goddess lightly along. Milton’s is Corinthian, Shakespeare Doric; but both are works of a great master, and a critic would find a difficulty in deciding to which to give the preference.”

1853 Collier

Collier

165-6 Collier (1853, p. 419): “More passages than usual are crossed out in this play, owing to its extreme length; and wherever the person who abridged it thought that even two or three lines could be dispensed with, they are erased. Thus in Horatio’s speech, [165-6 and 171-2] are struck out . . . .”

1854 del2

del2

165 russet mantle] Delius (ed. 1854): “russet bezeichnet sowohl die braunrothe Farbe, als auch den so gefärbten Stoff, in den zu Sh.’s Zeit sich die Landleute zu kleiden plegten.” [russet means both the reddish-brown color and also the material thus colored in which, in Sh.’s time, peasants used to dress themselves.]

1860 stau

stau

165 russet mantle] Staunton (ed. 1860): “In the recapitulation of his labours at the conclusion of the Ænead, Gavin Douglas says,—‘Quhen pale Aurora with Face lamentabill Her Russet Mantill bordourit all with sabill.’

1863 Clarke

Clarke ≈ Stau

165-6 Clarke (1863, p.73) exclaims on the “poetry” of these last moments.

1865 wh1

wh1 ≈ Hudson comparing Milton and Sh without attribution +

165-6 White (ed. 1866, 1:ccxxi-ii): <p. ccxxi> Milton “is nearer, especially in the rosy steps [than he had been in another passage reminiscent of 165-6]; but still </p.ccxxi > <p. ccxxii> there is a severance between morn and the eastern clime, between morn and the pearl. Shakespeare, describing the same event, says, in his compact way,—[quotes 165-6]. This is the production of no acquired art, but of an inforn faculty. Shakespeare displayed the fulness of its strength in his earliest plays [and he quotes Rom and 3H6]. </p. ccxxii>

1877 v1877

v1877: cald, knt

165 morne]

v1877: Hunter (2.216) (minus all but 1st two sentences); Strachey , n. 96

165-6

1878 rlf1

rlf1 ≈ Hunter on Milton P.L.

165-6

1890 irv2

irv2: contra Hunter

165 russet] Marshall (ed. 1890): “For russet—not ‘rosy.’ as Hunter explains it, but ‘grey’—see [MND 3.2.419 (1463)], note 173. Everyone who has kept watch out of doors all through the night knows that grey light which is the first precursor of morning, after which comes, if it comes at all, the red and golden colour. Shakespeare refers to this characteristic of early dawn in [Ado 5.3.27 (2548), quotes] and in [Rom. 3.5.19 (2051) quotes].”

1903 rlf3

rlf3 = rlf1

165-6

1904 ver

ver: standard on grey

165 Verity (ed. 1904): “The picture is rather of the first grey streaks of dawn than of sunlight. [. . . ] Either ‘grey’ or ‘red, reddish’ suits russet in Elizabethan E. and here the context makes ‘grey’ the more likely, as indicating the earlier period.”

1909 subb

subb = cald +

165 Subbarau (ed. 1909): “Q. How do we pass from midnight to morning [10] and [165] with ‘the almost momentary appearance of the Ghost and the short conversations preceding and subsequent to it?’ Caldecott perceived this difficulty but not the solution, and, in attempting to explain it, erroneously concluded that the scene could not have taken place on a winter-night. The solution will be found in the Exposition.”

<pp. xii-xiii> subb claims that the ghost throws a hypnotic spell of a few hours over the men, of which they are unaware, but their frozen stares would, sub says, be effective on stage. </p. xiii>

<p. xiv> The Ghost had left the men to visit Hamlet each of the three nights, but he had not believed what he had seen. </p. xiv>

subb: standard on grey; cites Clark & Wright ; cham; Rom. // = Dodd without attribution; Ado //

165 russet] Subbarau (ed. 1909): “‘Grey, ash-coloured’ (Clark and Wright). ‘The earliest color of dawn is not red but grey (Chambers). Cf. [Ado 5.3.27 (2548)]: ‘the gentle day Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey.’ Also [Rom. 3.5.19 (2051)]: ‘I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye.’”

1912 dtn3

dtn3: contra grey; standard on Milton analogy

165-6 russet . . . Walkes] Deighton (ed. 1912): “dressed in roseate, or ruddy, hues; the personification of the morning is carried on in Walks, in the next line.”

1922 thur

thur ≈ ver without attribution

165-6 Thurber (ed. 1922): “‘Russet’ means gray; it is dawn, not sunrise.”

1929 trav

trav ≈ thur without attribution + in magenta underlined

165 russet mantle] Travers (ed. 1929): “was first the name of a kind of coarse homespun woolen cloth (reddish brown or grey, or of some neutral colour), worn by peasants. Reddish brown is the hue now generally meant . . . . Newton, however a hundred years after Hamlet still has, in a passage of his Optics, which Johnson quoted in his Dictionary (1755), ‘russet or dark grey. In [MND 3.2.21 (1043)] choughs, i.e. jackdaws . . . . are described as ‘russet-pated,’ which must refer to the ash-coloured parts of the jackdaw’s head; and it may well be that what is suggested here (together with homely, rustic associations) is those earliest grey streaks of dawn of which Romeo speaks in [Rom. 3.5.19 (2051)].”

1934 cam3

cam3: standard

165-6 Wilson (ed. 1934, p. xxxvi): “ . . . the word ‘russet,’ used to describe the indeterminate reddish-brown or grey of the sky at daybreak, recalls the coarse homespun cloth, which is its original sense, and so gives birth to the image as Dawn as a labourer mounting the hill to his work of the day, his mantle thrown across his shoulder.”

1939 kit2

kit2 ≈ rann without attribution; ≈ cam3 without attribution + in magenta underlined

165 Kittredge (ed. 1939): “The dawn is cloudy or misty. Russet was a kind of coarse homespun, either brown or grey in colour. Cf. [LLL 5.2.413 (2340)]; Peele, Essex his Welcome, l. 15 (ed. Bullen, II, 270): ‘thy rude tire and grey russet coat.’”

1944 Bethell

Bethell

165-6 dawn] Bethell ((1944, rpt. 1970, p. 83): “The matter-of-fact Horatio has a lyrical outburst upon the dawn: [quotes 165-6].” Bethel mentions this lyricism in support of his thesis that Sh. did not particularly strive to adapt characters’ speeches to their personalities. [Ed. Note: While Horatio employs a metaphor, his reference to the rough brown garment of the worker is not particularly lyrical. As for metaphor, his first speech is a metaphor: 28.]

1947 cln2

cln2

165-6 Rylands (ed. 1947, p. 27) considers this to be a lyrical verse form such as that found in Romeo and Juliet.

cln2 ≈ kit2 without attribution

165 russet] Rylands (ed. 1947): “homespun cloth, reddish or grey in colour.”

1951 Clemen

Clemen

165-7 Clemen (1951, p.46): In Hamlet, in contrast to plays written before Rom., the imagery of daylight is "woven . . . unobtrusively into the texture of the scene."

1973 Moore

Moore

165 Moore (1973, p. 23) uses Hamlet as an example to illustrate the changes Poel made on a Shakespearean stage: “Though there was no scenery, Poel did attempt effects with lighting; the first scene was in darkness, but at Horatio’s "in russet mantle clad" the gas lights were suddenly turned up, producing what must have been a ludicrous effect. The performance became important later because it was Poel’s first production, and marked the beginning of his attempt to restore Shakespeare to an Elizabethan stage.”

1974 evns1

evns1 ≈ cln2 without attribution

165 russet] Kermode (ed. 1974): “ coarse greyish-brown cloth”

1980 pen2

pen2

165-6 Spencer (ed. 1980) comments on the change of mood, from terror to “the contemplation of the health and grace of Christmas nights, and then to the dawn of the new day with a revival of courage and determination.”

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ Hunter without attribution

165-6

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

165 morne] Spencer (ed. 1980) notes the compression of time.

pen2: standard gloss +

165 russet] Spencer (ed. 1980) thinks that Sh. may have intended both grey and reddish. “The light and colour replace the darkness and shadow of the early part of this episode.”

1982 ard2

ard2 contra cam3 and others; Douglas; Spenser; // Rom.

165-6 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “A very literary description.” LN: He insists that this is a poetic image, associated other uses of the term russet mantle: “in Gavin Douglas (The Palace of Honour, Prol. l. 2) [it] had belonged to ‘Aurora’; while Spenser had associated the cock’s ‘note shrill’ (cf. [150]) with Phoebus’ car ‘climbing up the eastern hill’ (FQ, I. ii. 1). Shakespearean dawns include ‘the grey-ey’d morn . . . Checkering the eastern clouds’ in [Rom. 2.2.188-9 (Arden Text)], etc. The F eastern is perhaps a regularization, the Q2 eastward being unique in the Shakespearean texts.”

ard2: Hugh Hunt, Old Vic Prefaces, p. 51; M. Holmes (The Guns of Elsinore, p. 47); Dollerup (pp. 152-3)

165 hill] Jenkins (ed. 1982) reviews the perception that the hill is “a touch of local colour.” He says that regardless of the fact of the flat terrain at Elsinore, Old Vic Actors thought they saw there what Sh. meant, and Dollerup (pp. 152-3) thought the allusion was to a ridge “behind the port of Helsinborg seen in contemporary painting.”

1984 chal

chal: OED + in magenta underlined

165-6 Wilkes (ed. 1984): the image, “associated with countryfolk,” stresses “the wholesomeness of the dawn.”

1985 cam4

cam4 ≈ evns1 without attribution

165

cam4

165 the morne] Edwards (ed. 1985) notes, “In a few minutes of acting time, we have moved from deepest midnight to the dawn.”

1993 OED

OED

165 russet mantle] OED says for sb 1A “A coarse homespun woolen cloth of a reddish-brown, grey or neutral colour, formerly used for the dress of peasants and country-folk.” The “russet-mantle clad,” does suggest garments, rather than a color, as in Sb 2, “A reddish-brown colour; a shade of this.”

1993 Kliman

Kliman

165 morne in russet mantle] Kliman (1993, 45): Theobald’s argument about the emendation for Cym, from Warburton, is fantastic enough to merit Thirlby’s comment (1733-): “most monstrous. If S. wrote & meant as you think it must be reckon’d amongst his greatest faults.” Theobald’s parallels for the grey morning, however, are in a different category. Ado 5.3.27 (2548): “—and look, the gentle Day, Before the Wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples the drowsie East with Spots of grey”; Tit. 2.2.1 (701) “The Hunt is up; the Morn is bright and grey”; JC 2.1.103 (734), “O, pardon, Sir, it doth; and yon grey Lines, That frets the Clouds, are Messengers of Day.” Then he cites Hamlet 165 and explains “for russet is dark-brown, grey”; then Rom. 2.3.1 [1006] “The grey-ey’d Morn smiles on the frowning Night, Check’ring the Eastern Clouds with Streaks of Light”, . . . ”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: performance

165-6 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The cock has duly heralded the dawn which is visible 165 lines after the scene began around midnight. This would not have been a problem on the non-illusionist Elizabethan stage but raises questions for modern lighting designers. The movement from midnight to dawn is even swifter in Ado 5.3, where there are only nine lines between the appeal to ’Midnight’ to ’assist our moan’ (16) and the observation that ’the gentle day . . . Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey’ (25-7). These two lines were transferred to Horatio’s closing speech, after Hamlet’s death, in Peter Brook’s 2000 production.”