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Line 678 - 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.”

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Notes for lines 0-1017 ed. Bernice W. Kliman

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

678 Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmarke.	1.4.90

1859 Werder

Werder

678 Werder (1859, trans. 1907, p. 110): That the whole court is “sunk into an abnormal condition of degradation” is evident from “simple” Marcellus’s expression [quotes 678]. “When a man like Claudius sits upon the throne and reigns with the consent of all the realm, the state is in decadence . . . .”

1939 kit2

kit2

678 state] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "government, administration."

1993 ShSur

White: Marx

678 White (1993, p.92): “since it enables him to pinpoint state corruption: ’There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery, and increases crimes even more rapidly in numbers.’ ”

Ed. note: Marx extracts what has become an adage and detaches it from its meaning in the play.

1997 Kliman

Kliman

678 Kliman (1997): By having Marcellus say this line, as well as the decision of Marcellus and Bernardo to approach Horatio rather than someone close to the king, Sh. suggests that the rottenness has to do with the new regime."

2000 King

King

678 King (2000, 59): “ . . . two allusions to rot . . . bookend the play: in act one a frightened Marcellus states, ’something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ [678]. This first allusion to rot occurs in the homosocial all-male world of the guards and seemingly fixes the play’s conception of it: if something is rotten, it stands to reason that other things are not rotten. Indeed, much of the stage business of act one seems geared to make it appear that--on the surface level at least--the Danish court is running smoothly.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: standard

678 state] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “polity, kingdom (as opposed to ’condition’)”

2007 Wilson

Wilson: Mallin +

678 Wilson (2007, p. 237) asserts that this line would have had, if indeed Hamlet were the Christmas play for 1603, a chilling effect on the Danish relatives of the queen who were present. He likens the rule of the Stuarts to a rule by Fortinbras had he won the single combat against King Hamlet. "In fact, images of disease in Hamlet may reflect the plague which ’accompanied James to the throne and augured ill for his reign.’ " [quoted from Mallin, Eric. p. 107 in "Succession, Revenge, and History: The Political Hamlet." In Inscribing the Time: Shakepeare and the End of Elizabethan England. Berkeley: U of California P, 1995.]