Line 187 - 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
| 187 Th’imperiall ioyntresse {to} <of> this warlike state | 1.2.9 |
|---|
1822 Nares
Nares
187 ioyntresse] Nares (1822): “One who holds a jointure [quotes 187].”
1854 del2
del2
187 Th’imperiall ioyntresse] Delius (ed. 1854): “imperial = royal kommt auch sonst bei Sh. vor. —Jointress, eigenlich die Besitzerin eines Leibgedinges (jointure), heisst dier die Königen mit einer Andeutung ihres Anrechtes an den Dänischen Thron.” [Imperial means royal in Sh. Jointress, actually the possessor of a jointure, means here the queen, with a suggestion of her rights to the Danish throne.]
1857? elze
elze1
187 mentioned in CN 291
imediate]
Elze (
apud Furness, ed. 1877, CN 291): “It is not exactly consistent with this elective character that the queen should be called ‘the imperial jointress of this warlike state.’”
1859 Werder
Werder ≈ del2 without attribution
187 Werder (1859, trans. 1907, p. 44n. 1) goes to some length to point out that the Queen was the heir to the throne and Hamlet would have had to rule jointly with her as does the king.
Ed. note: Wilder, the translator, disagrees with Werder’s reasoning. She summarizes briefly rather than trans. his whole argument, which, she says, is based on a false understanding of the idea of inheritance.
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ del2 without attribution
187 ioyntresse] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "joint possessor.”
Ed. note: This gloss implies a compliment by the king, making her joint possessor with
him rather than his having the right to the throne through his marriage to her. But see
Schmidt; also Burton 2000
1872 hud2
hud2 ≈ del2 without attribution
187 ioyntresse] Hudson (ed. 1872): “the same as heiress, The Poet herein follows the history, which represents the former King to have come to the throne by marriage; so that whatever of hereditary claim Hamlet has to the crown is in right of his mother.”
187 ioyntresse]
Schmidt (1874): “a dowager.”
Ed. note: A dowager is a widow with property derived from her deceased husband.
1880 Tanger
Tanger
187 ioyntresse to] Tanger (1880, p. 122) ascribes the variant in F1 as “probably due to the critical revision which the text received at the hands of H.C. [Heminge & Condell], when it was being woven together from the parts of the actors.”
1880 meik
meik = cln1 without attribution +
187 ioyntresse] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “The only instance of the word in S.”
1881 hud3
hud3 = hud2
187 ioyntresse]
1883 wh2
wh2 ≈ hud3 without attribution
187 ioyntresse to] White (ed. 1883): “woman who had a jointure in.”
1906 Hufford
Hufford ≈ del
187 Hufford (1906, p. 243), in her redaction of Ham., asserts that in marrying him, Gertrude “elevated Claudius to the throne, for she had been joint ruler of Denmark [. . . ].”
1906 nlsn
nlsn: standard + marked in magenta
187 ioyntresse] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary): “dowager, or, perhaps, female partner, consort.”
Check OED to see if his claim has any merit.
1929 trav
trav
187 imperiall]
Travers (ed. 1929): “cp. notably ‘This realm of England is an Empire,’ the declaration made by the Parliament of 1532-1533 asserting both the independence of its ‘imperial’ sovereigns and their equality with the head of the Holy Roman Empire itself.”
trav
187 to]
Travers (ed. 1929) considers the F1 variant to be “less formal and emphatic . . . and inferior so far.”
1930 Granville-Barker
Granville-Barker: agrees with Dover Wilson
187 Th’imperiall ioyntresse] Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 49 n.4): The only excuse for the queen to attend the council meeting is thsi title. “This may not precisely mean that she is the Queen Mary to Claudius’ King William [Mary ruled Britain jointly from 1689 until her death in 1694], but the impression conveyed is certainly that she has a right to be present.”
1935 Wilson
Wilson WHH
187 ioyntresse] Wilson (1935, pp. 30-1) < p. 30> claims that Sh.’s audience would understand Claudius to be a usurper. He refers to 2478 and 3569. </p. 30>< p. 31> The point was so obvious that Sh. did not have to verbalize it. </ p. 31>
In 2478 Ham could easily be referring to Claudius’s usurpation of his brother’s position.
1935 Wilson
Wilson WHH
187 ioyntresse] Wilson (1935, p. 38) asserts that jointress does not mean co-ruler but “a widow who retains the jointure or life interest in the crown, and so points to the legal argument or quibble by means of which Hamlet was supplanted.”
1936 cam3b
cam3b ≈ WHH
187 Th’imperiall ioyntresse] Wilson (ed. 1936, rpt. 1954, additional notes): = royal widow who retains the jointure or life interest in the crown. An expression which points to the legal quibble by which Claudius ‘popped in between the election’ and Hamlet’s ‘hopes.’”
1939 kit2
kit2: standard
187 ioyntresse] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "a widow who has jointure, an estate that falls to her on the death of her husband."
1947 cln2
cln2 ≈ cam3b
187 ioyntresse] Rylands: "a widow who holds jointure or life interest, partner in."
1957 pel1
pel1: standard
187 ioyntresse] Farnham (ed. 1957): “a woman who has a jointure, or joint tenancy of an estate”
1958 fol1
fol1
187 ioyntresse] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “a widow how has inherited property rights, divided by a ’jointure,’ to be shared.”
1970 pel2
pel2 = pel1
187 ioyntresse] Farnham (ed. 1970): “a woman who has a jointure, or joint tenancy of an estate”
1980 pen2
pen2
187 ioyntresse] Spencer (ed. 1980): “joint heretrix. No explanation is given of how Claudius’s claim to the throne could be strengthened by his marriage to the late King’s widow. It is not mentioned again.”
pen2
187 this . . . state] Spencer (ed. 1980): “This reminds us of the condition of vigorous military preparedness initiated by King Claudius, already described [in scene 1].”
1982 ard2
ard2:
187 ioyntresse] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Not earlier recorded. Literally, a woman who is in joint possession, and hence sometimes explained as ’joint-ruler’. But nothing else in the play gives Gertrude that status and even here ’our’ queen’ seems to regard her as Claudius’s consort. The word may already have had its later sense of the holder of a jointure, i.e. an estate which is settled on a wife and passes on to her on her husband’s death.”
1985 cam4
cam4; Clarkson & Warren
187 ioyntresse] Edwards (ed. 1985): "A wife who shares property with her husband, and continues her rights in it after his death. It is not at all clear whether Claudius is referring to Gertrude’s share of the crown with her former husband or with himself. If he means the former, it sounds as though he sees himself inheriting her. It is more likely that the whole phrase is in apposition to ’now our queen’; i.e. ’and to rule this state with me’. The word is in any case used metaphorically, not in a proper legal sense. See Clarkson and Warren, The Law of Property in Shakespeare, 1942, pp. 81-4."
1987 oxf4
oxf4
187 ioyntresse] Hibbard (ed. 1987): OED (jointer 1) suggests that the king means "joint possessor," but nothing in the play explains the term.
Ed. note: See Century Dictionary. and Burton 2000.
1988 bev2
bev2: standard
187 ioyntresse] Bevington (ed. 1988): “woman possessing property with her husband.”
1992 fol2
fol2: standard
187 ioyntresse] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “a woman who owns property jointly with her husband“
2000 SNL
Burton
187 Th’imperiall ioyntresse] Burton (2000, p.78) Gertrude, who as a widow was entitled under Magna Carta to remain in possession of all her husband’s property for forty days (her widow’s “quarantine”) before selecting and moving to her dower portion, is shown to have remarried to the Danish king within that period. By judicial decision, her remarriage delivered possession of all that property to Claudius so long as Gertrude remained alive—popping in between the election and Hamlet’s hopes (3569). The decision so holding was that of Hales v. Petit, 1 Plowden 253, the very case burlesqued in the last act by the gravedigging clown at 3100-3209.
Ed. note: See Criticism section of website for complete essays by Burton.
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2
187 Th’imperiall ioyntresse] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006, p. 39): “The extent to which the present King’s marriage to the Queen has consolidated or even ensured his election’ is not made clear in the play . . . . ”
ard3q2
187 ioyntresse] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “legally, a widow who holds a jointure—a lifetime right in some property. This is not literally true here, but Gertrude was previously ’married to Denmark’ in the person of her former husband and the present King is consolidating his position by marrying his predecessor’s widow.”
ard3q2
187 warlike] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “See the warlike form of the deceased King at [60]. His successor is presumably alluding to the preparations for war described by Marcellus and Horatio at [86-124].”
187