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Line 247 - Commentary Note (CN)

Commentary notes (CN):

1. SMALL CAPS Indicate editions. Notes for each commentator are divided into three parts:

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

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

247 Ham. Not so {much} my Lord, I am too much {in the sonne} <i’th’Sun>.	1.2.67

1540 Palsgrave d. 1554

Palsgrave, Acolastus, ed. Carver; orig. STC 19166

247 Palsgrave (ed. Carver, Pamphagus in Acolastus 2.1, p. 61, lines 14-17): “But it is a passynge foule thinge, to make a skyppe ouer from the oxen to the asses . . . to leappe out of the halle, into the kytchyn, or out of Chrystis blessynge in to a warm sonne.”

(Acolastus in Acolastus 4.7, p. 153, lines 13-18): “I folowe (the or I come after the} Propt, or alas, from the horses to the asses . . . from the halle in to the kitchin, or out of christes blessing in to a warme sonne (now I am well promoted). Thou mayst no more beleue the cou[n]tena[n]ce of fortune, then the mouable wynde . . . .”

1562 Heywood

Hewood

247 in the sonne] Heywood (1562, 2: 5: 67): “Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun.”

1670 Ray

Ray

247 Ray (1670, p. 377): Under G8, in section on Proverbial Phrases: “Out of Gods blessing into the warm sun,” with a note in Latin: “ab equis ad asinos [from horses to asses].”

Ed. note: See Carver, 1930. See also Reed, re Francis Bacon as source for Sh.

1723- mtby2

mtby2: See note at 244

247 in the sonne]

1765 john1

john1

247 too much in the sonne] Johnson (ed. 1765): “He perhaps alludes to the proverb Out of heaven’s blessing into the warm sun.”

Ed. note:Johnson seems not to recognize the pun; see 1772 below.

1765- mDavies

mDavies

247 Not . . . sonne] Davies (1765-) paraphrases: “I am so far my Lord from being obscured in the shade that I am scorched with the burning rays of the Sun—your royal Splendor quite dazzles me.”

1772 Short

Short: contra john

247 too much in the sonne] Short (St. James’s Chr. no. 1736 [4-7 Apr. 1772]: 4): “Dr. Johnson explains this Line by a far-fetched Proverb: ‘Out of Heaven’s Blessing into the warm Sun.’ Whereas, I apprehend Hamlet plays upon the Word Sun, and covertly insinuates, that the King thought him a Son too much.”

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1 +

247 too much in the sonne] Steevens (ed. 1773): “Meaning probably his being sent for from his studies to be exposed at his uncle’s marriage as his chiefest courtier, &c.”

v1773 ≈ Short without attribution

247 too much in the sonne] Farmer (in Steevens ed. 1773, 10: Qq5r): “I question whether a quibble between sun and son be not here intended.”

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773

247 too much in the sonne]

1780 mals1

mals1 ≈ john without attribution

247 too much in the sonne] Steevens (apud Malone, 1780, 2: 110 n. 3) on Per. 2.3.40: Ham. 247 is probably the line Steevens means when he says “There is indeed a proverbial phrase alluded to in Hamlet, and introduced in [Lr. 2.2.161 (1239)]: —‘out of heaven’s benediction into the warm sun.’ ”

1784 ays1

ays1 = Farmer

247 too much in the sonne]

1784 Davies

Davies ≈ mDavies

247 too much in the sonne] Davies (1784, 3: 10): “ ‘I am so far from being obscured with shadows, that I am scorched with the rays of your sunshine.’”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

247 too much in the sonne]

1787 ann

ann = v1785

247 too much in the sonne]

1790 mal

mal = v1785 minus Steevens v1773

247 too much in the sonne]

1791- rann

rann ≈ Davies

247 too much in the sonne] Rann (ed. 1791): “I am quite scorched by being too much exposed to your sunshine; mix more than suits my turn with the splendour of your court.”

Ed. note: mix may be a typo in rann.

1793 v1793

v1793 = v1785

247 too much in the sonne]

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

247 too much in the sonne]

1805 esch

esch ≈ Steevens; ≈ Farmer

247 too much in the sonne] Eschenburg (ed. 1805): “Steevens bezieht dieß darauf, daß man den jungen Hamlet von seinem Studiren abgerufen hatte, um seines Oheims Vermählung mit anzusehen, und dabei den ersten hofkavalier vorzustellen.—Dr. Farmer hingegegen ahndet hier ein Wortspiel mit Sun und Son, Sonne und Sohn; dann wäre der Sinn: ‘Ich bin hier zu sehr Sohn.’”

1805 Seymour

Seymour

247-66 too much . . . showe] Seymour (1805, 2:144): “Too directly in the radiance of your majestic presence. Hamlet is here impatient, fretful, and sarcastic; every reply is a contradiction of what is said to him. The king calls him cousin and son; Hamlet at once disclaims both distinctions—he is more than a cousin and less than a son. The queen then remarks, ‘thou know’st ’tis common,’ meaning only, that mortality is common. Hamlet reproachfully and perversely answers, ‘Ay, madam, it is common, adverting to her indecent forgetfulness of his father: ‘if it be so,’ adds she, why seems it so particular with thee?’ here again he distorts the queens words from their obvious meaning; she only asked why he was particular? but the Prince lays hold of the word seems, and sarcastically infers from it, his mother’s hypocrisy. ‘Seems! madam!’ he exclaims, with indignation, ‘nay, it is—I know not seems.’

The actor who would exhibit Hamlet in this scene as meek, gentle, and pathetic, appear to misconceive the character. It is not till he comes to these words, “But I have that within which passeth shew,’ that he is actuated by tender sentiment.”

1810 Anon.

Anon [Croft?]

247 too much in the sonne] Anon. (1810, p. 21): “i.e. in splendor or the shine of the court; the sun formerly an emblem of Majesty.”

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

247 too much in the sonne]

1819 Jackson

Jackson ≈ Farmer without attribution

247 too much in the sonne] Jackson (1819, p. 343): “Here Hamlet answers him, and plays on the word sun,— ‘Not so, my lord, I am too much i’ the sun.’ When the King calls him son, in his former speech, Hamlet answers, aside, I am less than kind (son). But now he lets him take what meaning he pleases out of his words: his own being, I am too much of the son, in paying respect to a mother who disgraces Nature by sharing an incestuous bed.”

1819 cald1

cald1: Farmer +

247 too much in the sonne] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “By a quibble, as Dr. Farmer ingeniously has suggested, between sun and son, it must mean, it is conceived, ‘I have too much about me of the character of expectancy, at the same time that I am prematurely torn from my sorrows, and thrown into the broad glare of the sun and day: have too much of the son and successor and public staging, without possession of my rights, and without a due interval to assuage my grief.’ ”

1819- mcald (BL 11766.k.20)

mcald: Farmer; john without attribution

247 too much in the sonne] Caldecott (1819-): “One part of Dr. Farmer’s conjecture is right. Hamlet means, that he has not prosession of his right: but there is no quibble between Sun and son: the allusion, I think, is to the saying “out of God’s blessing into the warm sun; which means to be out of soule and home, or at least to be in a warm temporal condition there, [. . .] or should be. Hamlet thought he was deprived of his right; vir[. . .] .” *

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813 +

247 sonne] Boswell (ed. 1821): “In the quarto the word is spelt sonne.”

1822 Nares

Nares ≈ john + Ray

247 too much in the sonne] “‘To go out of God’s blessing into the warm sun,’ was a proverbial phrase for quitting a better for a worse situation. Ray has it, among proverbial phrases . . . . [Hamlet means] I am unfortunate, unblessed, out of God’s blessing.”

1826 sing1

sing1 ≈ Farmer without attribution; ≈ Boswell without attribution

247 too much in the sonne] Singer (ed. 1826): “It is probable that a quibble is intended between sun and son. The old spelling is sonne.”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1; Boswell without attribution; john without attribution; Farmer analogues

247 too much in the sonne] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “But a closer observer here says, ‘One part of Dr. Farmer’s conjecture is right. Hamlet means, that he has not possession of his rights; but there is no quibble between Sun (in the quartos spelt Sonne} and Son: the allusion is to the saying ‘Out of God’s blessing into the warm Sun;’ which means, ‘to be out of house and home;’ or, at least, to be in a worse temporal condition than a man was, or should be. We have in [Lr. 2.2.161 (1239)] Kent. ‘Thou out of heaven’s benediction com’st To the warm sun.’

“And so ‘In very dede they were brought from the good to the bad and from Goddes blessyng (as the proverbe is) in to a warm sonne, Preface to Edmund Grindal’s Profitable Doctrine, 4to. 1555. 2. Phil. and Mary. And again, ‘For the supplanting of Taurinus he used more finesse. By such art he thought to have removed him, as we say, out of God’s blessing into the warm sun.’ Ralegh’s Hist. of the World. Fo. 1677. p. 776. His being deprived of his right, i.e. his succession to the kingdom, Hamlet therefore might call ‘being too much i’ the sun.”

1839 knt1

knt1: Farmer; cald2 without attribution; : Grindal; : Raleigh

247 too much in the sonne] Knight (ed. 1839): “Farmer thinks that a quibble was intended between sun and son. Surely not. Hamlet says he is too much in the sun for clouds to hang over him; and his meaning is at once explained by an old proverb. In Grindal’s ‘Profitable Discourse,’ 1555, we find this proverb; and the context clearly gives its meaning: ‘In very deed they were brought from the good to the bad, and from God’s blessing, as the proverbe is, into a warm sunne.’ Raleigh has the same expression in his History of the World.”

1845 Hunter

Hunter ≈ john without attribution; cald and others on proverb without attribution; ≈ mal on Lr. without attribution

247 Hunter (1845, 1: 250), after discussing Ado 2.1.139 (546) and Lr. 2.2.161 (1239), glosses the proverb in Hamlet’s speech: “I have lost father and mother: you heap upon me the terms ‘cousin’ and ‘son,’ but I find myself forlorn, with none of the comforts remaining which arise out of the charities of kindred.”

1854 del2

del2 = Hunter without attribution + in magenta underlined

247 too much in the sonne] Delius (ed. 1854): “Das Sprichwort out of God’s blessing into the warm sun erläutert die Antwort, die Hamlet dem Könige giebt, hinlänglich, ohne dass, wie Einige wollen, ein Wortspiel zwischen sun und son hier beabsichtigt wäre. Dass die Qs, sonne schreiben, kann nicht befremden, denn ebenso steht in Grindall’s Profitable Discourse 1555: they were brought from the good to the bad, and from God’s blessing, as the proverb is, into a warm sonne.” [The proverb out of God’s blessing into the warm sun explains the answer that Hamlet gives the King sufficiently without, as some would have it, a wordplay between sun and son here. That the Qs. have sonne can not change this, for it is just this way in Crindall’s Profitable Discourse 1555: they were brought from good to bad, and from God’s blessing—in the proverb—into a warm sonne.

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1; Hunter (2: 216) with attribution in Ado note [in magenta underlined]

247 too much in the sonne] Singer (ed. 1856): “i.e. deprived of the charities of kindred. See note on [Ado 2.1.319 (546)] note 22. It is probable that a quibble is intended between sun and son. The old spelling is sonne.”

sing2 Ado 2.1.139 (546) ≈ Hunter on Grindal

247 too much in the sonne] Singer (ed. 1856, 2: 116, n. 22): “Every one goes to the world but I, and I am sunburned, i.e. every one is likely to be married but I, and I am left a solitary woman. To go to the world, is an old familiar way of expressing to get married, to enter upon the cares and duties of married life. To be sunburned, to be in the sun, or the warm sun, was to remain sole, or single, to be destitute of the comforts of domestic life. There is an old proverb, ‘Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun,’ referring to any one getting into a state of discomfort. The latter phrase has been happily and amply illustrated by Mr. Hunter, in his New Illustrations of Shakespeare, Vol. i, p. 248, et seq.”

Ed. note: This example shows that del2 uses knt1 because he has both of the pts: the proverb and the absence of pun. But del2 also shows that sonne meant sun.

1856 hud1

hud1 : standard

247 too much in the sonne] Hudson (ed. 1856): “This is commonly thought to be a sarcastic play upon the words sun and son; as the being called son by his uncle naturally reminds Hamlet of his mother’s incest. Perhaps, however, the true meaning is best explained by the following, from Grindal’s Profitable Discourse, 1555: ‘In very deed they were brought from the good to the bad, and from God’s blessing, as the proverbe is, into a warm sunne.’ See [Lr. 2.2.161 (1239)] note 27. H.”

1860 stau

stau

247 too much in the sonne] Staunton (ed. 1860): “By this, Hamlet may mean, I am too much in the way; a mote in the royal eye: but his reply is purposely enigmatical.”

1865 hal

hal = cald2

247 too much in the sonne]

1867 Nicholson

Nicholson

247 Nicholson (N&Q 23 May 1867, apud Furness (ed. 1877) paraphrases: “‘Ham. turns off the King’s query with an apparently courtly compliment,—Nay, my lord, I am too much in the sunshine of your favour, where I show but as a shadow (too much am I in the sunshine which I detest); deposed by you as heir and successor to the throne on which by God’s providence I was pleased, I am now gone to the world; instead of being in clouds and rain, amid sorrow and tears for my dead father and king, I find myself in the midst of marriage festivities and carousings.”

1868 c&mc

c&mc: standard

247 Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868): “There is a triple allusion in this sentence. Hamlet means that he is too much in the glare of his uncle’s nuptial festivities so soon after his father’s death: he makes figurative reference to an old proverb, ‘Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun,’ which signifies exchanging a righteous condition for a corrupt one; and he deplores (by a play upon the word) that he has become the son as well as nephew to the usurping king, by the hateful marriage of the latter.”

1870 rug1

rug1 ≈ cald (ref. to Lr., proverb)

247

1872 cln1

cln1 : Farmer

247

1872 hud2

hud2 ≈ Farmer without attribution; ≈ Nicholson without attribution + in magenta underlined

247 Hudson (ed. 1872): “A sarcastic quibble is probably intended here between sun and son. Hamlet does not like to be called son by that man. And perhaps there is the further meaning implied that he finds too much sunshine of jollity in the Court, considering what has lately happened. While he is all sadness within, around him all ‘goes merrily as a marriage bell.’”

Ed. note: While the ideas are not innovative, his wording is.

1873 rug2

rug2 = rug1 (minus ref. to cald); +

247 Moberly (ed. 1873): “Swift, in his Polite Conversation, treats the proverb as nonsensical: it may have meant that a person loses all special advantages, and is reduced to light and sunshine, which are the common inheritance of all.”

1875 N&Q

Furnivall: Hunter; : Cotgrave

247 Furnivall (1875, p. 223): “Being in the sun—Hamlet [247], [Lr. 2.2.161 (1239)] &c.,—Mr. Joseph Hunter’s capital explanation of the phrase as ‘being abandoned,’ forlorn, or ‘turned out of house and home’ (Lear), is confirmed by Cotgrave’s ‘Je l’envoyeray bien grater le cul au soleil. I will send him packing, turne him out a grazing, make him goe shake his eares abroad.’ F. J. Furnivall.”

1875 Marshall

Marshall

247 Marshall (1875, p. 17): “Hamlet only once addresses the King during this first scene, and that in the sarcastic answer to” the king’s question.

1875 Schmidt

Schmidt

247 Schmidt (1875): “I am more careless and idle than I ought to be.”

1877 v1877

v1877: john, Farmer, cald, knt, stau, dyce, Ray’s Proverbs, hud, Hunter, Nicholson, rug2

247 Furness (ed. 1877): “Ray gives as its equivalent, Ab equis ad asinos [from horse to ass]—Proverbs p. 192, ed. 1768.”

1878 Stearns

Stearns

247 too much in the sonne] Stearns (1878, p. 356): “ . . . he is in the midst of too much court splendor and pomp, which was discordant to the then state of his own feelings.”

1879 Clarke & Clarke

Clarke & Clarke = c&mc

247 Clarke & Clarke (1879, p. 800)

1880 Tanger

Tanger

247 much . . . much] Tanger (1880, p. 122): “probably owing to the negligence, inattention, or criticism of the compositor.” “The second much rang beforehand in the compositor’s ear.”

1880 meik

meik: standard; = Hudson

247 Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “Mr Hunter suggests that Hamlet thought ‘the court pervaded by too much of the sunshine of jollity, considering the recent death of his father.’”

1881 Gould

Gould: proverb +

247 Gould (1881, p. 5): “This is supposed to refer to the proverb of going from God’s blessing to a warm sun, which may be further explained by a passage in the [MV 2.2.150 (710-11)]: ‘You have the grace of God, sir, and he hath enough’, which seems to show that the ‘warm sun’ meant worldly prosperity.”

1881 hud3

hud3 : proverb + in magenta underlined

247 Hudson (ed. 1881): “Hamlet seems to have a twofold meaning here. First he intends a sort of antithesis to the King’s, ‘How is it that the clouds still hang on you?’ Second, he probably alludes to the old proverbial phrase of being in the sun, or in the warm sun, which used to signify the state of being without charities of home and kindred,—exposed to the social inclemencies of the world. Hamlet regards himself as exiled from these charities, as having lost both father and mother. See vol. iv. page 182, note 29.”

1883 wh2

wh2 ≈ john without attribution + in magenta underlined

247 in the sonne] White (ed. 1883): “leading an easy, aimless life, like one who suns himself; and with an allusion to the old proverb, ‘Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun.’”

1885 macd

macd: standard + analogues

247 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “A word-play may be here intended between sun and son: a little more than kin—too much i’ th’ Son. So George Herbert: ‘For when he sees my ways I die; But I have got his Son, and he hath none’; and Dr. Donne: ‘at my death thy Son Shall shine, as he shines now and heretofore.’”

1885 mull

mull ≈ Stearns without attribution; stau with attribution

247 Mull (ed. 1885): “That is, court life, banquetting, and revelling, so discordant and repugnant to his feelings, while the time of mourning, to him, was so fresh and bitter. But the reply no doubt is enigmatical. Staunton says it may mean, ‘O am too much in the way; a mote in the royal eye.’”

1898 Brandes

Brandes

247 Brandes (1898, rpt. 1920, p. xv): “ He has so much presence of mind that he is never at a loss for the aptest retort [. . . ].”

1899 ard1

ard1: john, Schmidt; standard +

247 Dowden (ed. 1899): “ . . . . He is too much in the sunshine of the court, and too much in the relation of son—son to a dead father, son to an incestuous mother, son to an uncle-father. . . . ”

1902 Reed

Reed: Bacon Promus notebook before Sh.

247 Reed (1902, § 839): “ Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun.”

1926 Tilley

Tilley 287 ≈ john without attribution on proverb; Euphues 181; Petite Pallace 2, 146; Florio; Drake 366, 52; and many others

247 too , , , sonne] Tilley (1926): “Out of God’s blessing into the warm sun.”

1930 Granville-Barker

Granville-Barker

247 Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 51): “King, Queen and Court, the whole gaudy gathering [are] lashed alike by the bitter jest.”

1930 MLR

Carver: Palsgrave’s (trans. of Acolastus

247 Carver “‘Out of Heaven’s Benediction to the Warm Sun.’” (25 MLR [1930]: 478-81) discusses the line in Lr. 2.2.161 (1239): <p. 478-9> He covers the usual explanations, which may be summed up as “Out of the frying pan into the fire.” </p.478-9 ><p. 479> He mentions Ray, whose proverb Ab equis ad asinos [from horse to ass] Furness cited without explaining, and Carver declares that Acolastus 4.7.? gives this proverb point. Palsgrave translates the proverb saying that it means humiliated, going unwillingly from a high to low status. In Acolastus 2.2 the idea of descent to a low status is explicitly connected to the proverb “out of Chrystes blessynge into a warme sonne.” </p. 479> <p. 480> This has nothing to do with frying pans into fire, but a reader may choose between the two possibilities, the fire with its immediate synonymy with Regan, the horse into ass with its deeper meaning for the play as a whole. “The choice between these possible interpretations may be influenced by a line in Hamlet which lends itself to comparison with the passage in King Lear.” Carver discusses Johnson’s reference to the warm sun proverb, and others have followed, but from pot to fire does not fit the situation. </p.480> <p. 481> The line could express Hamlet’s bitterness at being excluded from the throne. If Sh. got his idea from Acolastus, he must have known a little Latin. </p.181>

<p. 479> Palsgrave translates Acolastus 2.2 as follows: “But it is a passynge foule thing, to make a skippe over from the oxen to the asses . . . . to leappe out of the halle, into the kytchyn, or out of Chrystis blessynge into a warme sonne.” </p.479>

1934 MLR

Carver: Erasmus; Wilson’s Arte of Rhetorique (1553)

247 Carver, “‘Out of Heaven’s Benediction to the Warm Sun.’” (29 MLR [1934]: 173-5) <p. 173> believes the original of the proverb he mentioned in his previous article on Hamlet’s supposed reference in 247 to the proverb of Carver’s title is Erasmus’s “Ex umbra in solem,” </p.173> <p. 174> a very common adage in Latin writers.

“In Wilson’s Arte of Rhetorique (1553) we find these words:

So that he [[the lawyer]] gaineth alwaies, . . . wheras the other get a warme sonne often tymes, and a flappe with a foxe taile for al that euer thei haue spent.

“Wilson is, as a rule, remarkable for the clarity of his style, and when he makes ‘a warme sonne’ equivalent to ‘a flappe with a foxe taile’ we may be sure that that was the meaning commonly understood in his time. There can be no serious doubt that the allusion is to the ‘warm sun’ in opposition to ‘God’s blessing,’ for Wilson acknowledges his obligations to </p.174><p. 175> Heywood’s Proverbs, which he strongly recommends . . . .” </p. 175>

Ed. note: This Erasmus adage does not appear to be in Taverner’s translations of 1539 and 1569.

1934 Dover Wilson

Wilson MSH

247 so much] Wilson (1934, p. 55) considers the possibility that the compositor anticipated the much in the second part of the line. He finds only one other instance of this kind of misprint in Q2, in 1581, but finds six in F1, which he believes were scribal rather than compositorial.

1935 Wilson

WHH: Carver

247 too , , , sonne] Wilson (1935, p. 33) believes that P. L. Carver (MLR 25: 478-81), in his paraphrase:, has uncovered the true sense of the proverb: “‘From an exalted, or honourable, state or occupation to a low or ignoble one [. . . ] .’” Carver thought Ham. meant to express his “‘bitterness‘” about being cheated of the throne. Wilson also notes that this line is Ham.’s sole direct address to the king.

1938 parc

parc

247 sonne] Parrott & Craig (ed. 1938): “(1) in the glamour of the court. (2) son.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

247-8 Kittredge (ed. 1939): "The clouds do not hang on me. I am only too much in the sun—more in the position of a son than I wish I were! Thus Hamlet bitterly refuses the title which the King has emphasized. Before Claudius can reply, the Queen interposes and thus gives him a chance to ignore Hamlet’s taunt. He is glad to let it pass, for he is determined, for her sake, to be on friendly terms with his nephew."

Ed. note: For his own sake also.

1950 Tilley

Tilley

247 Tilley (1950) does not list “out of the warm sun,”

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

247 sonne] Farnham (ed. 1957): “sunshine of the king’s undesired favor (with the punning additional meaning of ’place of a son’).”

1958 fol1

fol1: standard

247 in the sonne] i’ the sun Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “a pun on sun/son, betraying Hamlet’s resentment at his new relationship with Claudius.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

247 sonne] sun Farnham (ed. 1970): “sunshine of the king’s undesired favor (with the punning additional meaning of ’place of a son’)”

1980 pen2

pen2

247 too . . . sonne] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Another cryptic pun: presumably Hamlet refers to Claudius’s my son (line 64) as well as to his being in the sunshine of court favour. He insinuates his resentment at having been deprived of the succession and at his new position of Claudius’s stepson.”

1982 ard2

ard2: Schmidt; cald; etc.

247 in the sonne] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “with a pun on son. (1) Although to Schmidt sunshine suggests ’careless idleness’ (’I am more careless and idle than I ought to be’), the obvious meaning of the metaphor is that Hamlet, with the melancholic’s characteristic preference for the shade, objects to the brightness into which he is brought, whether it be the glare of public notice (cf. Caldecott, ’I am torn prematurely from my sorrows, and thrown into the broad glare of the sun’), the gaiety of the Court, or, more pointedly, the sunshine of the King’s favour. (2) Reinforcing this, is an unmistakable glancing at the sun as a royal emblem (cf. 1H4 [1.2.190]: Hamlet hints that he is too much in the King’s presence. Cf. the similar word-play at [1222]: ’walk i’th’ sun’, come into the prince’s presence. (3) There is an obvious pun on son, supported, as Dover Wilson notes, by the Q2 spelling. Cf. R3 [1.1.2] ’this sun of York’ (Q1 sonne, F Son). Hamlet finds this relationship ’too much’ for him and Claudius is making ’too much’ of it (making him more his ’son’ than he really is). ’Hamlet bitterly refuses the title which the King has emphasized’ (Kittredge), and the King’s further persuasions [290-1] are rejected in advance. An echo of the proverb ’Out of heaven’s blessing into the warm sun’ (cf. Lr [2.2.156-7], first heard by Johnson, is surely somewhat faint. For the use and interpretation of the proverb see Tilley, Elizabethan Proverb Lore (no. 287); P. L. Carver, MLR, 25: 478-81. From its implication of passing from good to worse a host of commentators have extorted a reference to Hamlet’s present degradation, and in particular to his having been turned out from the place Heaven gave him and deprived of the throne. But Hamlet’s wit is less recondite than theirs. The curious may consult the 43 meanings extracted from the phrase in E. Le Comte, Poets’ Riddles, ch. 1.”

1985 cam4

cam4

247 Not so much my Lord, I am too much in the sonne] Not so my lord, I am too much i’th’sun. Edwards (ed. 1985): "So F. Modern editors reject Q2’s first ’much’ but keep Q2’s expanded form ’in the sun’. The Q2 compositors regularly expand contractions and syncopes which seem genuinely Shakespearean. In this case, the contraction is not only necessary for the metre, but also helps the quibble (i’th’sun; o’th’son). How can he be in the clouds when he has so much ’son’?."

1987 oxf4

oxf4: standard; R3 //

247 in the sonne] Hibbard (ed. 1987): rejects being taken as this king’s son. R3 1.1.1-2 (3-4) similarly has the sarcastic tone.

1984 chal

chal

247 sonne] sun Wilkes (ed. 1984): “the Q spelling ’sonne’ makes the pun clearer”

1987 Mercer

Mercer

247 Mercer (1987, p. 142): Like Hamlet’s first line, “the complex pun . . . works dramatically even if we fail to grasp its various possibilities of meaning. It refuses contact, holds the King off with bitter jokes, mocks his concern while remaining sufficiently obscure for safety.”

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

247 the sonne] Bevington (ed. 1988): “i.e., the sunshine of the King’s royal favor (with pun on son).”

1990 OED

OED

247 sonne] OED does not show sun for son around Sh’s time; in the early part of the 16th c it seems that sun could be spelled sonne. Visually, then, it seems that modern sun is the more likely meaning, whatever the spelling, but aurally either will do.

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

247 in the sonne] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “a pun on sun/son”

1993 Lupton&Reinhard

Lupton&Reinhard: Lacan

247 sonne] Lupton & Reinhard (1993, pp. 74-5): <p. 74> “ . . . in Lacan’s reading, we </p. 74><p. 75> might say, Hamlet is ‘too much in the mother.’” </p. 75>

son already contains the idea of “in the mother.”

Lupton&Reinhar: Eliot; Seneca

247 sonne] Lupton & Reinhard (1993, p. 112): “Shakespeare, Eliot writes, ‘attempted to represent the inexpressibly horrible,’ suggesting that the theme, far from being capable of existing ‘in the sunlight,’ is already and irrevocably too much in the sun—the clouded sun of Senecan melancholy” [“Hamlet and his Problems” 102].

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: analogue

247 sonne] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Eastward Ho (1605) by George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston, which contains several allusions to Ham., includes ’son/sun’ puns at [1983-7]. See [368-9 CN] and intro. pp. 57-8.”