Line 374 - 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
| 374 Ham. In my mindes eye Horatio. | 1.2.185 |
|---|
1729 mtheo2
mtheo2
374 in my mindes eye] Theobald letter to Warburton (1 Jan. 1730, fol.4; Nichols, Illus., 2: 378) in a note on Lr. says, “The Scholiast upon the passages of AEschylus expounds [Greek] by these Terms [Greek]. I won’t venture to assert peremptorily yt our Author traded wth. this Note, but his—‘In my mind’s eye,’ in Haml. happens to be a literal Translation of it.”
1728- Walpole
Horace Walpole: ms. notes in pope2, BL 11761.b: 8, 217.
374 mindes eye] Walpole (1728-): “ ‘Quibus enim oculis animi intueri potuit vester Plato fabricam illam tanti operis?’ [Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 1.8].” [“What power of mental vision enabled your master Plato to descry the vast an elaborate architectural process . . . . (trans. H. Rackham, London: Heinemann, 1933, pp. 22-3”]
1773 jen
jen
374 mindes eye]
Jennens (ed. 1773): “ ‘[Emblepsomen tois ommasi tas psychas: We may look with the eyes of the soul. Romans 1.19]. ”
1773 gent
gent
374 mindes eye] Gentleman (ed. 1774): “This is a most natural and feeling introduction to the uncommon circumstance which Horatio and Marcellus have to relate; it saves them the trouble of an abrupt or painful mention of so delicate and interesting a point.”
1778 v1778
v1778
374 mindes eye] Steevens (ed. 1778): “This expression occurs again in our author’s [Luc.]: ‘—himself behind Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind.’ Ben Jonson has borrowed it in his Masque called Love’s Triumph through Callipolis: ‘As only by the mind’s eye may be seen.’ Telemachus lamenting the absence of Ulysses, is represented in like manner: [Ossomenos pater esthlon eni phresin; Seeing in his mind’s eye his noble father]. Steevens.”
Also Grk, from Odyss. L.I.115 where Telemachus laments the absence of Ullyses and he quotes the line in Greek. Hardin’s ttt. I am not sure where I got the L.I.115. Odyssey does not appear to be a ref. from Whalley. I did not see it there. It may be from Gifford or someone else, but I think I can let it go.
1783 mals2
mals2
374 mindes eye] Malone (1783, p. 55): “This expression occurs again in our author’s 113th Sonnet: ‘Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind.’” : ref v1778, x. 193n8.
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
374 mindes eye]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
374 mindes eye]
1790 mal
mal = v1778, mals2
374 mindes eye]
1791- Wesley
Wesley: on Steevens Grk quot.
374 mindes eye] Wesley (1790-, p. 44): “Of which the English is ‘Seeing a good father in the mind.’ It were to be wished that no Latin or Greek quotation should march unattended by English; for without this it is mere useless ostentation to three 4ths. of the readers.”
His trans. is lame. See above for better.
1791- rann
rann
374 mindes eye] Rann (ed. 1791-): “In those traces which the memory of him hath left upon my imagination.”
Rann appears to have a novel paraphrase.
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
374 mindes eye]
1793- mSteevens
mSteevens = v1803
374 Mind’s Eye] Steevens (ms. notes, ed. 1793): “Again in Chaucer’s Man of Lawes Tale: ‘But it were with thicke eyen of his minde, With which men mowen see whan they ben blinke.’”
mSteevens: Sidney
374 Mind’s Eye] Steevens (ms. notes, ed. 1793): “Again, in Sidney’s Arcadia, Lib. 3. p. 293, edit. 1633. ‘—as cruell a fight as eye did ever see.’”
mSteevens: John Davies
374 Mind’s Eye] Steevens (ms. notes, ed.1793): “Again in the Microcosmos of John Davies of Hereford, 4o. 1605. ‘and through their closed eies their mind’s eye peeps.’”
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793; mSteevens minus Sidney
374 mindes eye] Steevens (ed. 1803): “Again, in Chaucer’s Man of Lawes Tale: ‘But it were with thilke eyen of his mind, With which men mowen see when they ben blinde [454].’ . . . Again, in the Microcosmos of John Davies of Hereford, 4to. 1605: ‘And through their closed eies their mind’s eye peeps.’ ”
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
374 mindes eye]
1819 cald1
cald1 = v1813 +
374 mindes eye] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “And ‘with my mind’s eye,” we have in the preface to Melton’s Figure Caster, ‘The purblind ignorant, that only see with their corporal, and not intellectual eye.’ 4to. 1620.”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
374 mindes eye]
1826 sing1
sing1 = v1813 without attribution +
374 mindes eye] Singer (ed. 1826) adds another analogue: “Richard Rolle in his Speculum Vitæ, MS. speaking of Jacob’s Dream: —‘That Jacob saw with gostly eye.’ i.e. the eye of the mind or spirit.”
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1
374 mindes eye]
1853 Dyce
Dyce
374 mindes eye] Dyce (1853, p. 135): “So the Italians: — ‘E ch’ io punisca il traditor di Gano D’ un tradimento già, ch’ io scorto Con gli occhi de la mente in uno specchio,’ &c. Pulci,— Morg. Mag. c. xxiv. st. 4. ‘Ora a l’ occhio mentale è conceduto Di riveder eiè che tu hai veduto.’ Id., —ibid. c, xxv. st. 308.”
1856b sing2
sing2 = sing1
374 mindes eye]
1860 stau
stau = sing2 + new analogues
374 mindes eye] Staunton (ed. 1860): “The expression was not unusual: ‘Ah why were the Eyes of my Mynde so dymmed wyth the myste of fonde zeal, that I could not consyder the common Malyce of men now a dayes.’—Finton’s Tragicall Discourses, 4to. 1567. Again,— ‘Let us consider and behold with the eye of our soul his long suffering will.’ —Epistle of St. Clement, cap. 19.”
1868 c&mc
c&mc: standard on Chaucer ≈ sing2
374 mindes eye]
1877 v1877
v1877: jen, Steevens, mal
374 mindes eye]
1880 meik
meik: Chaucer + Ado 4.1.229 (1893) //
374 mindes eye]
1885 macd
macd
374 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “With a little surprise at Horatio’s question.”
1904 ver
ver: xref
374 mindes eye] Verity (ed. 1904): Horatio uses the same phrase in 124+5, a touch of irony.
1929 trav
trav
374 Travers (ed. 1929): “spoken without excitement,” purely meditatively. He refers to Q1’s “Why” of surprise as support for his interpretation that there is no hallucination.
1982 ard2
ard2: survey of analogues; xref, //s
374 my mindes eye] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “A traditional metaphor, going back to Plato (Republic, 7.533 D; cf. Sophist, 254 B). Cf. e.g. Aristotle, Nichomachian Ethics, 6.12 (1144a 30); Cicero, De Oratore, 3.163 (’mentis oculi’) and elsewhere; Chaucer, Man of Law’s Tale, 552; Sidney, Apology, 6th para.’ Ephesians 1.18 (Bishops’ Bible, ’the eyes of your minds’). See SQ, 7:351-4. For the phrase, cf. above, 124+5, Lucr. 1426; and for the expansion of the idea, Son. 27 and 113.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: xref
374 mindes eye] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “see [124+5 and CN] ”
2007 ShSt
Stegner
374 Stegner (2007, p. 115): “For Hamlet, his ’mind’s eye’ functions as an interior space over which he believes that he exercises dominion and controls access. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of his first soliloquy, ’But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue’ [343]. Hamlet reveals that inward and outward exist in a tension in which the heart desires to be revealed, but must be held in check by the tongue. Significantly, Hamlet most frequently identifies this resistant, sometimes volatile interiority with conscience and employs the term not only to refer to a set of divine moral imperatives (as in the case with the prohibition against suicide), but also to function as a semiotic passkey to that within which passes show [266].”
124+5 266 343 374