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.

-1853 mcol1

mcol1

617 Is it] The declarative of F2, It is, ending with a period in mcol1, suggests that Horatio seeks to mollify Hamlet’s anger. Hamlet agrees it is a custom [618] but deplores it nevertheless.

1777 Griffith

Griffith

617-621+6 Is . . . attribute] Griffith (1777, 2:283): “I shall here quote what Hamlet says against the vice of drinking, as it may suit the latitude of England, as well as that of Denmark.” <n> “As our natural bravery is often imputed to our pot-valiantry.” </n>

1877 v1877

v1877: cald (cn 612); Hunter 2:221

617

1904 ver

ver

617 Verity (ed. 1904): “It seems odd that a Dane should ask the question, and from Hamlet’s reply it would certainly be inferred that Horatio is not ‘native here.’ Cf. also [363]. Perhaps, however, some distinction between different parts of Denmark is intended.”

1913 Trench

Trench

617-621+22 Trench (1913, pp. 68-9): <p. 68> Hamlet soon turns the general conversation, “after his manner, to the moral issues of life and character.” His first concern is the excess in the court’s revelry. “He speedily forsakes concrete examples of depravity for a general and more abstract review of the harm entailed to ’particular men’ [621+7]. who are in other respects ’virtuous’ [621+17], by some ’defect’ in character [621+15].” Calling Hamlet a “philosopher,” and side-stepping the application of his remarks to his own nature (as later in Dover Wilson), Trench continues: “A defect, says this philosopher, may be due to heredity . . . which he says could suggest the distinction between ’original’ sin and ’guilt,’ since a man cannot be held responsible for congenital tendencies. Or, again, the defect may be due to a weakening, through one-sided development of the controlling power of ’reason’ [621+12] which may occur by . . . what may be described by ’fortune’s star’ [621+16]. Or, lastly, the defect may be due to a ’habit’ [621+13] resulting from affability or the endeavour after ’pleasing manners’ [621+14]; which last class is </p. 68> <p. 69> <p. 69> upon further reflection found to be really a sub-class of No. 2, so that, in the recapitulation which follows [’that these men . . . . scandle’ 621+14 - 621+22], the threefold classification is reduced to a twofold [’Natures liuery or Fortunes starre’ 621+16]. . . . Thus lost in thought, [Hamlet] lets himself wander on, until suddenly recalled from his abstraction by the ghost’s approach. ” </p. 69>

1939 kit2

kit2: standard + analogue; ver on Horatio without attribution; contra Wilson

617 Kittredge (ed. 1939): "The King was holding a drinking bout, of the sort for which all Germanic nations were once famous, and the Danes especially in Shakespeare’s day. Cf. Greene, Mourning Garment (ed. Grosart, IX, 136): ’Thou must bring home pride from Spaine, lasciuiousnesse from Italy, gluttony from England, and carowsing from the Danes.’ This custom is distasteful to Hamlet, both by nature and by education, and he does not like it any better for knowing that Claudius is drinking his health [307-311]. Horatio’s question seems rather odd, if he is a Dane [3826]. Possibly Hamlet’s father had given up the custome. At all events, one cannot agree with Wilson that Hamlet’s ’Ay, marry is’t,’ [618] indicates that his father ’had also indulged in heavy-headed revels.’ "

1997 Ross

Ross

617 custome] Ross (1997, p, 107): “Custom is mentioned more times in Hamlet than in any other Shakespeare play, and given a full range of meanings, but specific customs are often shrouded in mystery, making it difficult to project how Danes should behave. ” Ross wonders, “to what does Horatio refer? The king’s drinking, his excessive drinking, or his drinking late at night? The kettle-drum and trumpet ‘triumph’ that follows each draught? Or—perhaps more logically—the disconcerting discharge of artillery, about which Horatio first asks, ‘What does this mean, my lord? [611]’”

Ed. note: custom is mentioned 9 times.

1982 ard2

ard2: standard

617 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “That it was so in fact appears from an account by Wm. Segar, Garter King at Arms, cited in Stow’s Annals (1605) pp. 1433-7. Segar, who visited the Danish court in 1603 for the presentation of the Order of the Garter to Christian IV, says, ’It would make a man sick to hear of their drunken healths: use hath brought it into fashion, and fashion made it a habit’. He describes a banquet attended by King Christian on board the British ambassador’s ship at which ’every health reported six, eight, or ten shot of great Ordnance, so that during the King’s abode, the ship discharged 160 shot’. Jas. Howell (Familiar Letters, ed. Jacobs, p. 295) describes an occasion in 1632 when the King of Denmark ’from eleven of the clock till towards the evening . . . began thirty-five healths’ and ’was taken away at last in his chair’. See also 617 CN below. By making Claudius follow and Hamlet deplore this ’custom’ Shakespeare uses his knowledge of Danish ways not merely for local colour but in the moral structure of his tragedy. There is of course nothing in the play to justify the inference that what was customary must have been made so by Hamlet’s father. It is strange that Horatio, a Dane (124+18, 3826), should not know of the custom. The play shows Shakespeare in two minds about him. In scene one Horatio seemed at home in Denmark and well informed on Danish affairs. But in scene two Hamlet is surprised to see him in Elsinore and now speaks as though Horatio were not a ’native’. Cf. notes on 96, 375; and see Dover Wilson, cam3, p. xlviii; G. F. Bradby, Short Studies in Shakespeare, pp. 145 ff.

Ed. note: Like so many others, Jenkins does not believe that Horatio could be a student of Danish history without being a member of the court. See “Horatio, there when needed” in the About the Play section of the site.”