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Line 441 - 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.

441 A sable siluer’d.	1.2.241

1780 mals1

mals1

441 a sable siluer’d] Steevens (apud Malone, 1780, 1:590 n.5), referring to Son. 12.4: “So in Hamlet: [quotes 440-1] .”

1790 mal

mal: mals1

441 a sable siluer’d] malone (ed. 1790): “So in our poet’s 12th sonnet: ‘And sable curls, all silver’d o’er with white.’ Malone.”

1793 v1793

v1793: mal

441 a sable siluer’d]

1803 v1803

v1803= v1793

441 a sable siluer’d]

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

441 a sable siluer’d]

1819 cald1

cald1 = mal + in magenta underlined

441 a sable siluer’d] Caldecott (1819): ‘See Comus, v. 222.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

441 a sable siluer’d]

1826 sing1

sing1 ≈ v1821 without attribution

441 a sable siluer’d]

1832 cald2

cald2 = cald1

441 a sable siluer’d]

1854 del2

del2

441 a sable siluer’d] Delius (ed. 1854): “sable, hier als Substantiv, zu dem silver’d gehört, bedeutet zunächst das Schwarz als Wappenfarbe, wird dann aber, namentlich adjectivisch, für scharz überhaupt gebraucht.” [sable, here a substantive to which silver’d belongs, signifies, first of all blackness, a heraldic color, but as an adjective simply means black.]

1856 sing2

sing2 = sing1

441 a sable siluer’d]

1858 col3

col3 = mal + in magenta underlined

441 Collier (ed. 1858): “Malone quotes the following line, very much in point, from Shakespeare’s Sonnet, xii.: — ‘And sable curls, all silver’d o’er with white.’ In the 4to. 1609, of the Sonnets, ‘all’ is misprinted or.”

1877 v1877

v1877

441 Furness (ed. 1877): “It is eminently characteristic of the precise Horatio (e’en the justest man Ham. had ever found) to draw a nice distinction between ‘grizzled’ and ‘sable silvered.” He had been most exact in his estimate of the time the Ghost stayed, and he would be equally exact as to the colour and texture of the beard. Ed.”

1883 wh2

wh2

441 White (ed. 1883): “This is mere assent with specification.”

1929 trav

trav ≈ del2 without attribution

441 a sable siluer’d] Travers (ed. 1929) detects “the language of heraldry . . . . almost and thus befits a king.”

1947 cln2

cln2: standard

325 a sable siluer’d] Rylands (ed. 1947): "dark fur streaked with silver."

1970 pel2

pel2: standard

441 sable siluer’d] Farnham (ed. 1970): “black mixed with white”

1980 pen2

pen2: standard

441 A sable siluer’d] Spencer (ed. 1980): “black streaked with white.”

pen2

441 watch] Spencer (ed. 1980): “keep the watch (with you). But the everyday meaning of watch was ’stay awake’.”

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

441 sable siluer’d] Bevington (ed. 1988): “black mixed with white.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard gloss; //; Q1

441 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “a mixture of black and silver-grey (see Son. 12.4, ’sable curls all silvered o’er with white’). Sable is literally a fur derived from the small animal of the same name. In Q1 Hamlet refers to his ’sable suit’ at the equivalent of [258], rather than to his inky cloak; later, during the play scene in all three texts, he says, ’let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables’, making the point that sable, while black, is also luxurious (see below [1983-4 and CN]”