Line 544 - Commentary Note (CN) 
Commentary notes (CN):
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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.”
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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman
| 544 And it must followe as the night the day | 1.3.79 |
|---|
1747 warb
warb
544 as the night the day] Warburton (ed. 1747): “The sense here requires, that the similitude should give the image not of two effects of different natures, that follow one another alternately, but of a cause and effect, where the effect follows the cause by a physical necessity. For the assertion is, Be true to thyself, and then thou must necessarily be true to others. Truth to himself then was the cause, truth to others, the effect. To illustrate this necessity, the speaker employs a similitude: But no similitude can illustrate it but what presents an image of a cause and effect; and such a cause as that, where the effect follows by a physical, not a moral necessity: for if only, by a moral necessity, the thing illustrating would not be more certain than the thing illustrated; which would be a great absurdity. This being premised, let us see what the text says, ‘And it must follow as the night the Day.’ In this we are so far from being presented with an effect following a cause by a physical necessity, that there is no cause at all: but only two different effects, proceeding from two different causes, and succeeding one another alternately. Shakespear, therefore, without question wrote, ‘And it must follow as the light the Day. As much as to say, Truth to thy self, and truth to others, are inseparable, the latter depending naturally on the former, as light depends upon the day! where it is to be observed, that day is used figuratively for the Sun. The ignorance of which, I suppose, contributed to mislead the editors.”
1747- mBrowne BL Ms 0.12.575
mBrowne: warb +
544 as the night the day] Browne (1747-): “i.e. as sure as—a vulgarism characteristically given to Polonius—Warb. reads, as of light the Day—”
1765 Heath
Heath: warb
544 as the night the day]
Heath (1765, pp. 526-7): <p. 526> “ ‘
And it must follow, as the light the day.’ This is an emendation of Mr. Warburton’s. who, in his note on this passage, hath suffered himself to be puzzled and confounded in the subtilty of his own philosophy. The common reading was,
‘And it must follow, as the night
the day. The truth intended to be illustrated by this similitude is, as Mr. Warburton himself states it, this: ‘Truth to others, and truth to thyself, are inseparable, the former depending necessarily on the latter.’ The similitude which is to illustrate it is drawn from the constant regular succession of night to day. I would ask therefore, in the first place, whether the succession of night is not inseparable from the precedence of day? That it is so, may be inferred with the utmost certainty from an universal experience, which hath never failed in any one instance. In the next place, whether this connection of succession be not a connection physically necessary? </p. 526> <p. 527> And this too may be inferred with equal certainty, as well from the same universal experience, which is the truest guide, and perhaps the only one to be depended on, in matters of this kind, and from what we know of the nature of the thing itself, the diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis, which is the common cause both of the night and the day, and of their regular succession to each other. But Mr. Warburton is not content with two appearances, both of them effects of the same cause, both connected in an invariable order of succession by a physical necessity. He insists upon it, that it is of the essence of the similitude and illustration, that one of the two appearances should be the cause, and the other the effect. Why so? Is that the case with the thing to be illustrated? No. Truth to others doth not follow from truth to ourselves, as an effect from a cause; but both follow as effects from the same common principle, which, exerting its efficacy in one instance, cannot fail doing it equally in the other. In short the sentiment illustrated is no other than this; Be sure to be true to thyself; do not suffer thyself to be deceived by tempting appearances into a conduct thou wilt find reason to repent of; if thou canst once attain to this mastery over thy passions, the same principle of self-command will effectively secure thee from being false to any one else.” </p. 527>
1765 john1
john1 = warb
544 as the night the day]
n/c except does not change night to light—which is in itself a comment.
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1 +
544 as the night the day] Steevens (ed. 1773): “This note is very acute, but the common succession of night to day was, I believe, all that our author meant to make Polonius think of, on the present occasion.”
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773 +
544 as the night the day] Steevens (ed. 1778): “So, in the [Son. 145.10-11]: ‘That follow’d it as gentle day Doth follow night, &c.’ ”
BWK: Malone repeats this in reverse in MALSI. Might this “borrowing” annoy Steevens?
1780 mals1
mals1 ≈ Steevens v1778 without attribution
544 as the night the day] Malone (1780, 1:699 n. 1) connects Son. 145.10-11 “That follow’d it as gentle day Doth follow night, ” with Ham.: “So, in Hamlet [quotes 544-5]. Malone.”
1790 mal
mal = mals1
544 as the night the day]
1790- Wesley
Wesley: warb +
544 as the night the day] Wesley (ms. notes 1790-, p. 44): “What does Dr. Warburton say to a dark, foggy day? Night must succeed day, but not light necessarily.”
1791- rann
rann = Steevens // Poems, p. 649.
544 as the night the day]
I don’t know which ref this is. note placed in check original ed. doc.
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
544 as the night the day]
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
544 as the night the day]
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
544 as the night the day]
1819 cald1
cald1 = v1813 without attribution +
544 as the night the day] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “ ’Tis part of Burnet’s character of Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, ‘that he was true to nothing, for he was not true to himself.’ Hist. of his own Times, fo.1.100. [Then ref. to Son. 145].”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
544 as the night the day]
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1
544 as the night the day]
1848 Hudson
Hudson
544-5 Hudson (1848, 2:120): “This precept, indeed, has sometimes been urged as redeeming the author from the utter baseness and selfishness which the rest of his conduct so plainly indicates: but to me it seems rather to confirm the view I have taken of him; for it must obviously mean one of two things: either, be true to thine own heart, which is perhaps the best morality; or, be true to thine own interest, which is the worst morality: and all the rest of the character seems to warrant, if not require, the latter construction.”
more in Polonius doc.
1856 Ramsay
Ramsay: Hudson without attribution +
544-5 Ramsay (1856, pp. 121-3): <p. 121>“ Polonius is a maxim-monger, and the universal character of his maxims is selfishness . . . . [H]is precepts are exactly those of Lord Chesterfield and of Rochefoucault . . . . ” </p. 121>
1877 v1877
v1877 ≈ warb +
544 night]
Furness (ed. 1877): “It is needless to add that his [Warburton’s] reasoning has convinced no one up to this present.
Ed.]
1881 hud3
hud3 ≈ Hudson
544-5 Hudson (ed. 1881): “This is regarded by many as a very high strain of morality. I cannot see it so, though, to be sure, it is as high as Polonius can go: it is the height of worldly wisdom,—a rule of being wisely selfish. In the same sense, ‘honesty is the best policy’ but no truly honest man ever acts on that principle. A passion for rectitude is the only thing that will serve, It is indeed true that we have duties, indispensable duties, to ourselves; that a man ought to be wise for himself. But that the being wise for one’s self is the first and highest duty, I do not believe, And the man who makes that the first principle of morality never will and never can be truly wise for himself Such, however, is the first principle of Polonius’s morality; and it is in perfect keeping with the whole of his thoroughly selfish and sinister mind. But he just loses himself by acting upon it. Aiming first of all to be true to himself, he has been utterly false to himself and to his family. Faith, or allegiance, to stand secure, must needs fasten upon something out of and above self. If Polonius had said, ‘Be true to God, to your country, or to your kind, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false unto thyself,’ he would have uttered a just and noble thing; but then it would have been quite out of character, and in discord with the whole tenour of his speech. And the old wire-puller, with his double-refined ethics of selfishness, has nothing venerable above him; while the baseness of Laertes seems to me the legitimate outcome of such moral teaching as these entertained so pithily in his father’s benediction.”
1885 macd
macd ≈ hud3 without attribution
544-5 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Certainly a man cannot be true to himself without being true to others; neither can he be true to others without being true to himself; but if a man make himself the centre for the birth of action, it will follow, ‘as the night the day,’ that he will be true neither to himself nor to any other man. In this regard note the history of Laertes, developed in the play.”
1950 Tilley
Tilley
544 Tilley (1950, N 164): “After Night comes the day [. . . ] 1509 A. Barclay Ship Fools, II 319: After the day cometh the nyght So after pleasour oft comys payne.”
544