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Line 248 - 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.

248 Queene. Good Hamlet cast thy {nighted} <nightly> colour off	1.2.68

1587/1980 re Sidney

re Sidney:

248 nighted colour off] Elegies for Sir Philip Sidney (1587, facs. rpt 1980, Intro. by A. J. Colaianne and W. L. Godshalk, pp. vii-viii): < p. vii> “The pseudonymous author ‘Philophillippos’ [who relates the news of Sidney’s death and funeral] noted: . . . It was accounted a sin for any Gentleman of qualities, for many months after [a funeral], to appear at Court or City, </p. vii><p. viii> in any light or gaudy apparel.” </ p. viii>

1777 Griffith

Griffith

248-53; 268-88 Good . . . so] Griffith (1777, 2:279): “If reasoning could control our grief, the King and Queen offer sufficient argument to Hamlet in this Scene to moderate his.”

1819 cald1

cald1

248 nighted colour] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Black, night-like; as presently he says, ‘inky cloak:’ and in [Lr. 4.5.13 (2399)] Regan speaks of the ‘nighted life,’ of ‘the dark and blinded Gloster.’ ”

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1 minus ref. to inky cloak + VN in magenta underlined

248 nighted colour] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “‘nightly colour ]] The quartos read nighted: and in [Lr. 4.5.13 (2399)] Regan speaks of the ‘nighted life,’ of ‘the dark and blinded Gloster.’ ”

1839 knt1

knt1

248 nighted] Knight (ed. 1839, p. 99), after citing reference to royalty and scarlet, comments: <p. 99>“It thus happens, curiously enough, that the objections of the queen and Claudius to the appearance of Hamlet in black, are authorized, not only on the well-known custom of the early Danes, never to mourn for their nearest and dearest relatives or friends, but also by the fact that, although black was at least their favourite, † if not, indeed, their national colour, Hamlet, as a prince of the blood, should have been attired in the royal scarlet.”

<n.†> “Black bordered with red is to this day common amongst the northern peasantry.” </n. †> </p. 99>

1843 col1

col1

248 nighted] Collier (ed. 1843): “The quarto, 1603, has no corresponding passage, and all the other quartos have ‘nighted,’ which the folio, 1623, injuriously, alters to nightly.”

1853 coln

coln: cald without attribution

248 nighted] Collier (1853, p. 419): “When the Queen reproaches her son for continuing to wear his mourning, as the line is presented in the quartos, she says,— ‘Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off:’ the folios have nightly for ‘nighted,’ which the corrector of the folio, 1632, alters to nightlike, which is certainly better than nightly, but is not countenanced by any known edition. Perhaps such was the word he had heard upon the stage, and therefore inserted it.”

Ed. note: Collier is widely held to be the fabricator of the ms. annotations (mcol1) he discusses.

1853 Singer Vindication

Singer ≈ col2, p. 419

248 nighted] Singer (1753, p.261): “The substitution of night-like for ‘nighted’ in the line . . . is certainly no improvement, but as the folios have nightly, it may have suggested it.”

1853- mEliot

mEliot

248 nighted] Eliot (1853-): “Grief all in sable sorrowlly clad Yet being wily being more than seeming sad. F. Q. III.12.”

1854 del2

del2 = cald2 +

248 nighted] Delius (ed. 1854): “So [nightly] die Fol. Die Qs haben nighted, was nicht eine ‘nächtliche’ sondern ‘in Nacht verlorene’ Farbe bedeutet, wie in K. Lear nighted life vorkommt.” [Thus [nightly] the folio. The 4tos have nighted which does not mean night-like but has a coloring lost-in-night, as in Lr. nighted life.]

1870 Abbott

Abbott

248 nighted] Abbott (1870, §294): “A participle formed from an adjective means ‘made (the adjective),’ and derived from a noun means ‘endowed with (the noun).’ . . . i.e. ‘thy night-like colour.’”

1872 cln1

cln1: cald without attribution; del2 without attribution

248 nighted] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “dark as night. In [Lr. 4.5.13 (2399)], ‘his nighted life’ is applied to the blinded Gloster.”

1877 v1877

v1877: Abbott § 294

248 nighted]

1880 Tanger

Tanger

248 nighted]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.” He points that that in other instancesm F1 has a -y or -ly ending where Q2 has an -ed ending: see 439, 703.

1885 macd

macd: //

248 nighted] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘Wintred garments’—AYL 3.2.105 [1303].”

macd

248 nighted colour off] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “He is the only one who has not for the wedding put off his mourning.”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ cald without attribution, gloss and Lr. //

248 nighted]

1929 trav

trav: standard +

248 nighted] Travers (ed. 1929): it seems that the queen refers first to dress.

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

248 nighted] Rylands (ed. 1947): "black, gloomy,"

1957 Heilbrun

Heilbrun

248-53 Heilbrun (1957, rpt. 1990, p. 12): The queen “is, in short, asking him not to give way to the passion of grief, a passion of whose force and dangers the Elizabethans are aware, as Miss Campbell has shown [n.5. Lilly B. Campbell. Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1952), pp. 112-13].”

1958 fol1

fol1: standard

248 nighted] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “dark.”

1978 SQ

Beckerman

248 nighted] Beckerman (1978, p. 139): “Being aware of visual elements is exceptionally important. . . . We can see this most obviously in Hamlet where the black suit of the prince shares stage with the wedding garments of the festive court. The visual contrast between prince and court embodies a lurking yet muted challenge by the prince to the court, one which the court at first chooses not to recognize. When Gertrude and Claudius eventually do face Hamlet’s implied accusation, they do so with immense finesse, which accentuates all the more the awkwardness of the exchange between son and mother, nephew and uncle.”

1980 pen2

pen2

248 nighted colour] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(his black mourning garments and his melancholy.”

1982 ard2

ard2: standard; Abbott

248 nighted] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “night-like. Cf. Abbott 294”

1985 cam4

cam4

248 nighted colour] Edwards (ed. 1985): "i.e. the darkness of both clothes and mood."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

248 nighted colour] Hibbard (ed. 1987): The queen also puns: Hamlet’s mourning clothes and mournful demeanor.

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

248 nighted colour] Bevington (ed. 1988): “(1) mourning garments of black (2) dark melancholy.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

248 nighted colour] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “i.e., black (mourning) clothing”

2005 Shakespeare. Journal of the British Shakespeare Association

Holderness

248-51 Holderness (2005, pp. 163-4): <p. 163> “Hamlet’s eyes, bent on vacancy, are ’vailed,’ lidded, downcast in grief. The ’nighted’ or nightly colour [248] noted by Gertrude is not just what he wears or displays, but what he sees: the vision of partially-sealed eyelids, looking directly onto their own darkness, seeing beneath the fringe of the veil only the dust of the ground. </p. 163> . . . <p. 164> ’Vailed’ eyes are also veiled . . . against the scrutiny of others: the veiled face cannot be read or deciphered.” </p. 164>

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: macd; cam4; oxf4, //s; F1;

248 nighted colour] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “(1) black (mourning) clothes (see ’Winter’d garments’ in AYL 3.2.102), (2) mournful behaviour. F’s ’nightly’ could equally well mean ’night-like’, but is rejected by most editors apart from MacDonald and Hibbard (whose commitment to F is greater than that of Edwards).”