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Line 638 - 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.

638 Reuisites thus the glimses of the Moone,	1.4.53

-1845 mHunter

mHunter

638 glimses of the Moone] Hunter (1845): “Glimpse has nearly lost its original meaning of a flash of light.”

Ed. note: He changes this idea in his published work: not flashes of but interrupted light. See BL shelf no. 24,497

1845 Hunter

Hunter ≈ mHunter +

638 glimses of the Moone] Hunter (1845, 2:222-3): <p. 222>“Glimpse is lost, or nearly so, in the sense in which Shakespeare here uses it. The following passage in Harington’s Ariosto contains the word in the same sense: ‘Until it was his fortune toward night To come fast by a mountain, in whose side Forth of a cave he saw a glims of light.—Canto xii. St. 64.’ The Poet makes the scene thus more picturesque, by in- </p. 222> <p. 223> troducing the moon sending forth her beams on the platform, through interstices of dark clouds floating in the heavens, or, what is more probable, through the openings among the battlements.” </p. 223>

1860 Walker

Walker

638 Reuisites] Walker (1860, 2:128-9): <p. 128>“Quære, . . .in cases where st would produce extreme harshness, and where at the same time the old copies have s, whether we ought not to write the latter. (In the North of England, and in Scotland (see, for example Burns passim), s for st in the second person seems to be the rule.) . . . . </p. 128><p. 129> [Ham. 638 one of his examples, citing also Q1 Reuissets.] </p. 129>

1870 Abbott

Abbott

638 Reuisites] Abbott (§ 340) cites Ham. reuisites among other examples to illustrate that "verbs ending with ’-t, -test final in the second person sing. often becomes -ts for euphony."

1872 cln1

cln1

638 glimses of the Moone] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “The glimmering light of the moon struggling through the clouds.”

1877 v1877

v1877 = Walker (1st sentence only) +

638 Reuisites] Furness (ed. 1877): “The text which I have adopted is my answer. Ed.”

1877 = Hudson (minus all but last sentence, and passive rather than active)

638 glimses of the Moone]

1880 Furness

Furness Lr.: Walker; Furness Ham.

638 Reuisites] Furness (ed. 1880. rpt. 1965, pp. 282-3n.): re. Lr. 4.6.162 (2605), lust or lust’st: “This is an instance cited by Walker (Crit. ii, 128) of the substitution in the F of s for st in the second person singular of the verb. ‘Quaere’ asks Walker, ‘ in cases where st would produce extreme harshness, and where at the same time the old copies have s, whether we ought not to write the latter. (In the north of England, and in Scotland (see, for example, Burns, passim), s for st in the second person seems to be the rule.)’ [[To return to the usage of QqFf in this instance is hardly more violent than to adopt it in place of its. Can harshness farther go than in ‘hotly lust’st to’? I regret that I did not soften a line correspondingly harsh in modern editions, and print in Ham. [638]: ‘Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon’—Ed.]]”

Ed. note: R. Knowles sent this reference from his NV Lear, re 4.6.160-

1934 Wilson

Wilson MSH ≈ Furness Lr.

638 Reuisites] Wilson (1934, p.291) says that the word as emended is unpronounceable on stage; Sh. frequently, for “euphony,” omits the final t of the second person singular.”

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

638 Reuisites] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "A good Elizabethan form of the second person."

kit2 ≈ cln1 without attribution

638 glimses of the Moone] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "This suggests that the sky was broken by strips of cloud, so that the moon appeared only at intervals."

1980 pen2

pen2

638 the . . . Moone] Spencer (ed. 1980): “the earth illuminated by the uncertain light of the moon.”

1982 ard2

ard2: Abbott

638 Reuisites] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “In the 2nd pers. Sing. The final t is often dropped for the sake of euphony, especially when the verb-stem itself ends in t. See Abbott 340.”

ard2: standard

638 glimses . . . Moone] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “fitful moonlight.”

1985 cam4

cam4

638 glimses] Edwards (ed. 1985): "pale gleams."

1987 oxf4

oxf4 = Abbott §340

638 Reuisites]

oxf4

638 glimses . . . Moone] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "flickering gleams of moonlight."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

638 glimpses . . . Moone] Bevington (ed. 1988): “pale and uncertain moonlight.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: Blake; Hope

638 Reuisites] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “This should strictly read ’revisitest’ or ’revisit’st’, but the final ’t’ of the second person form could be dropped when the verb ended in ’t’ (see Blake, 4.2.2b, and Hope, 2.1.8a).”

ard3q2: ard2; oxf4; Wharton; Q1

638 glimses] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “pale or perhaps fitful gleams. The line seems to alleviate the horror with a more romantic touch. (The Glimpses of the Moon was used by Edith Wharton as the title of her 1922 novel which otherwise has nothing to do with Hamlet.) (Jenkins and Hibbard see in the shared spelling ’glimses’ evidence of Q2 following Q1.)”