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Line 175 - 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.

175 <Scena Secunda.>	..

Ed. note: Editors often place the second scene in a castle or palace. According to the Century Dictionary, castle implies fortification, often a larger unit than one building, while palace implies an individual large and grand residence, a royal dwelling.

1980 pen2

pen2

175 Spencer (ed. 1980): “It is not stated when exactly the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude, and their coronation, took place. This scene seems to be the first formal gathering after these events. We are perhaps given the impression that the Ghost began to walk three nights before, at the same time as the festivities commenced.”

2000 SQ

Holland

175 Scena Secunda Holland (SQ 2000, p. 28), speaking of the variants between the 1708 trial sheets of Tmp. and the 1709 version, asserts: “Nothing better epitomizes the direction Rowe was beginning to move in with the presentation of the Shakespearean text than the first words to appear beneath the play’s half-title. Where in 1708 Rowe followed F2 and printed ‘Actus Primus. Scaena Prima.,’ in 1709 the play opens with the kind of heading standard in any Restoration play quarto, including those of Rowe’s own plays: ‘act I. Scene I.’ This emphatic removal of the play from the classical model, itself no doubt part of the influence on F1 of the 1616 Ben Jonson Folio, repositions Shakespeare as a contemporary dramatist, no different in this respect at least, from, say, William Congreve, whose collected works Tonson would publish the following year.”