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.

1736 Stubbs

Stubbs: Theobald 618 +

619-621+22 But . . . scandle] Stubbs (1736, p. 21). “ . . . although, indeed, I must think that the Prince’s Speech would not be much worth preserving But for That Reason: [if not for the need for some time to elapse till the ghost appears] for expressed and amended, according to the best that can be made of it, (as Mr. Theobalds has done it) it is but of very obscure Diction, and is much too long; for a very short Moral is to be drawn from it.”

1867 Rushton (Sh. Illus)

Rushton

619-20 natiue . . . borne] Rushton (1867, 1: 46-8): <p. 46> About the year 1554, Henry the Eighth manumitted two of his villeins in these words: </p. 46><p. 47> ‘Whereas God created all men free, but afterwards the laws and customs of nations subjected some under the yoke of servitude, we think it pious and meritorious with God to manumit Henry Knight, a taylor, and John Herle, a husbandman, our natives, as being born within the manor of Stoke Clymmysland, in our County of Cornwall, together with all their goods, lands, and chattels acquired or to be acquired, so as the said persons and their issue shall be from henceforth by us be free, and of free condition.’—Barr. Stats. 276.

“The reader will perceive that Hamlet says: ‘I am native here, And to the manner born;’ and also that in this form of enfranchisement the King manumits ‘Henry Knight and John Herle, our natives, as being born within the manor of Stoke Clymmysland.’

“Hamlet may speak of Denmark or Elsinore as the manor, himself as nativus, to the manor born, and the ‘heavy-headed revel’ [621+1] as a custom incident to the manor. In this passage Shakespeare probably uses the word manor in a double sense, as in [LLL 1.1.206 (217)], where it is contrasted with the word manner, and played upon: ‘Clown. I was seene with her in the mannor -house, sitting with her upon the forme, and taken following her into the parke: which put together is in manner and form following.” </p. 47> <p. 48>

“If it should be considered probable that Hamlet uses the word manner in a double sense, it will then be of little consequence whether the word is spelt with ‘e’ or ‘o,’ because the mention of the one word would be intended to suggest to the mind the other word, which is idems somans, but different in meaning.”

A rather round-about way to say that Ham may be punning.

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ Rushton

619-20 natiue . . . borne]

1880 Tanger

Tanger

619 But] Tanger (1880, p. 125): F1 variant “probably owing to the negligence, inattention, or criticism of the compositor. . . . The next line [in F1] begins with And.”

1957 pen1b

pen1b

619 But to my minde . . .] Harrison (ed. 1957): “This speech is cut in the Folio; either it was too long, or with the coming of James’s Queen Anne (who was a Dane) to England it was considered tactless.”

1997 Ross

Ross

619 though] Ross (1997, pp. 107-9) <p. 107> says that the concessive though suggests that “Hamlet opposes even that custom he has witnessed, when not in Wittenburg, during the thirty years of his life—the time of his father’s reign. [Otherwise, h]e should say, ‘But to my mind, and I am a native here /And to the manner born,’ we don’t usually do this sort of thing. . . . A copulative would serve, but it </p. 107> <p.108 > would also provide a definite statement of what the custom had been.

“Such precision the plays abounds here and everywhere. . . . ” Sh. does not clarify what exactly Hamlet objects to: excessive drinking, nighttime drinking, drinking accompanied by loud music and braying of ordnance, Claudius drinking and making his drinking into a public occasion “to ingratiate himself with the people. . . .

“The anxieties of a culture caught in a moment of painful transition shape the patterns of customary behavior in Hamlet that form and unform before our eyes.” To Ross, “the play is </p.108 > <p. 109> about our struggle to make sense of patterns, codes, and ideals of conduct that have suddenly become important to a man living through a social transition.” </p. 109>

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: F1; xref

619 But] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “perhaps more emphatic than F’s ’And’ which could be a mistaken anticipation of [620].”