Line 268 - 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
| 268-9 King. Tis sweete and commendable | in your nature Hamlet, | 1.2.87 |
|---|
1723- mtby2
mtby2
269 Hamlet] Thirlby (1723-): “I am persuaded Mr Pope left this word out [Hamlet] without any authority, notwithstanding wt he says in his preface, only to help the verse, which was well enough before & better than it is now.”
1733- mtby3
mtby3 = mtby2
269 Hamlet]
1747- mtby4
mtby4 = mtby3
269 Hamlet]
mtby4
268-88a Thirlby (1747-), about the king’s admonitory speech, perhaps responding to Warburton’s designation of this as a shining passage, comments: “fitter for sermon than a stage play.”
1773 gent
gent
268-99 Gentleman (ed. 1773), having cut 276b-288a, 292-8, says, “Here again, as written, the King was unpardonably prolix.”
1805 Seymour
Seymour
268-9, 272 Seymour (1805, 1:6-7): <p. 6>“It is plain that the hypermeter in the </p. 6><p. 7> first and fourth lines has been impertinently or carelessly obtruded, and that the verse ran thus:(b) ‘’Tis sweet and commendable in you, Hamlet, . . . That father his, and the survivor bound,’ &c.
“The last of these lines, indeed, Pope very properly corrected. But let us proceed, and see if we can rationally associate such crudities with the mellow harmony of what follows [quotes 272b - 288a].”
<n.b, 1:19> Lofft (1805, 1:19): “It is not improbable that the poet himself might have introduced the word which is here rejected; and that the line, at first, stood thus: ‘’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature.’
“But when, upon revisal, he judged it fitting to insert “Hamlet,” it was, doubtless, to follow that the word ‘Nature,’ with the possessive termination of the pronoun, was to be expunged.’ C. Lofft.” </n.b, 1:19>
1805 Seymour
Seymour
268-9 Seymour (1805, 2:145): “The hypermeter here was probably occasioned by the poet’s having altered the expression, without expunging what he meant to omit; or else by the transcriber’s resolution to retain the old word, while he inserted the new; the line at first might have been—‘‘Tis commendable in your nature, Hamlet.’
“The desire of more animation, perhaps, suggested the epithet ‘sweet,’ and, what the author undoubtedly would have expunged, might, by haste or ignorance, have been retained . . . .”
1854 del2
del2
268 commendable] Delius (ed. 1854): “Sh. kennt das Wort in doppelter Accentuation: cómmendable und comméndable.” [Sh could accent the word in two ways, either cómmendable or comméndable.]
1868 tsch
tsch
269 Hamlet]
Tschischwitz (1868,
apud Furness, ed. 1877): “The names of persons addressed are very frequently not counted in the number of feet in a verse.”
1870 Abbott
Abbott
268 commendable] Abbott (§ 490), in “Words in which the accent is nearer the end than with us,” states that the pronunciation of “comménd | able” in MV 1.1.111 (119) “shows how we must scan ‘’Tis swéet and | comménd | able ín | your ná | ture, Hamlet.’” See also § 497, “Apparent Alexandrines.”
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ del2 without attribution + //s
268 commendable] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “has the accent on the first syllable, as in [Cor. 4.7.51 (3142)]. It has the accent on the second in [MV 1. 1. 111 (119)].”
268 commendable]
Schmidt (1854) lists only
MV 1.1.111 (119) with “perhaps” an accent on the second syllable.
1877 v1877
v1877 = cln1; Abbott § 490
268 commendable]
v1877 = tsch
269 Hamlet]
1880 meik
meik
268-99 Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “Observe that the king, being in an artificial and self conscious state of mind all through the play, employs Latin words, a pompous diction, and elaborate phrases. Feeling that he was the cause of all this sorrow, it was simply impossible that he should be able to use the simple and natural words that would be fit for the occasion. This speech is full of words which S. has used only here—and once—in all his plays.”
meik has this note in 275 for condolement, but it is about the whole speech.
meik contra Abbott without attribution; = cln1 without attribution + in magenta underlined
268 commendable] Meikeljohn (ed. 1880): “with the accent on the first syllable. S. uses the word eight times, and only once with the accent on the second syllable.”
That once is presumably in MV cited above by Abbott.
1913 Trench
Trench
268-88 Trench (1913, p. 51) comments on the king’s astuteness in appealing to Ham.’s behavior in ethical and religious terms.
1929 trav
trav
268-9 Travers (ed. 1929), contrary to
Abbott (see above), says, “According to the usual mode of scansion the line is an Alexandrine, ending in something like suspense.“
1929 trav
trav
268 sweete]
Travers (ed. 1929) “(then more freely used than now . . .) lovable, as showing lovingness.”
1930 Granville-Barker
Granville-Barker
268-91 Granville-Barker (1930, rpt. 1946, 1: 51): The king, responding to Hamlet’s Seems speech [257-67], “expert at an argument, and still admirably calm and kindly, then delivers a veritable sermon, which both sets us questioning what sort of nature can be hidden beneath such banal piety, and shows—this is at once plain—that, clever as he may be, he quite misconstrues Hamlet, or he would not, surely, treat him in his sorrow to such frigidities as ’For what we know . . . . death of fathers’ [280-7 ] or, very certainly, ask him for consolation to ’think of us . . . throne . . .’ [289-91]. ”
1930 Knight
Knight contra Granville-Barker without attribution
268-90 Tis sweete . . . as of a father] Knight (1930, p.37): “Now throughout the first half of the play Claudius is the typical kindly uncle, besides being a good king. His advice to Hamlet about his exaggerated mourning for his father’s death is admirable common sense . . . .”
1939 kit2
kit2: standard
268 commendable] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Accented on the first syllable."
1950 van Lennep
van Lennep
268-99 van Lennep (1959, p. 11): creates a version of the king without a single redeeming feature. “The would-be-ingratiating-suave-and-gracious-king’s long effusion, his fatuous, unctuous grandiloquence, as pompous as it is unmoving, evokes no response.”
Ed. note: A sharp contrast to the views of Knight and Kittredge.
1980 pen2
pen2
268 commendable] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(accented on the first syllable).”
1982 ard2
ard2: standard
268 commendable] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “The stress on the first syllable was normal usage.”
1985 cam4
cam4
268 commendable] Edwards (ed. 1985): "The main accent falls on the first and not the second syllable."
1987 oxf4
oxf4: standard on accent
268 commendable] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "accented on the first syllable."
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: TN //
268-99 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The King’s speech against ’obstinate condolement’ is echoed in a different vein in Feste’s ’catechism’ of Olivia in TN 1.5.63-9.”
ard3q2: standard
268 commendable] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The stress is on the first syllable.”
268 269