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Line 748 - 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.

748 And in the porches of {my} <mine> eares did poure	1.5.63

1832 cald2

cald2

748 eares] Caldecott (ed. 1832): “It has here however been observed by Dr. Sherwen, that, though neither physiology nor pathology know of any such effects produced by poison, poured into the ear, the medical profession of that day believed, that it might be so introduced into the system; and that the eminent surgeon, Ambrose Paré, our author’s contemporary, was suspected of having, when he dressed the ear of Francis II, infused poison into it.”

1917 MLR

Greg

748 porches of my eares] Greg (MLR 12 [1917]: 415) claims that the ghost gives Hamlet only one piece of information, the poisoning through the ear, and he infers that Hamlet hallucinated this unusual detail from the “The Murder of Gonzago,” a play he knew well.

1935 MLR

Bullough

748-9 Bullough (MLR, Oct. 1935, pp. ??, apud cam3b) suggests a source in the murder in 1538 of Francesca Maria, Duke of Urbino, by means of poison administered through the ears, supposedly by Luigi Gonzaga, the kinsman of his wife.”

1936 cam3b

cam3b: Bullough

748 Wilson (ed. 1936, rpt. 1954, add. notes): “p. xxiii (footnote) Add ‘Since this [i.e. his statement in his intro, p. xxiii, that there is no known source for the poisoning through the ears] was written Prof. Bullough has suggested a plausible source in the murder, by means of poison administered through the ears, of Francesca Maria, Duke of Urbino, by Luigi Gonzaga, the kinsman of his wife, in 1538; v. “The murder of Gonzago,” Modern Language Review, Oct. 1935.’ ”

1939 kit2

kit2: // and analogue

748 eares] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "Lightborn in Marlowe’s Edward II (ed. Dyce, II, 274-5) boasts that he learned various secret methods of murder in Naples—’to poison flowers,’ for example, ’Or, whilst one is asleep, to take a quill And blow a little powder in the ears.’ Iago uses a metaphor which recalls this passage in Hamlet: ’I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear’ [Oth. 2.3.356 (1482)]."

1951 Clemen

Clemen

748-58 Clemen (1951, p.113): “A real event described at the beginning of the drama has exercised a profound influence upon the whole imagery of the play. What is later metaphor, is here still reality. . . . [T]he individual occurrence is expanded into a symbol for the central problem of the play . . . , the corruption of land and people throughout Denmark. And furthermore, this poisoning reappears as a leitmotif in the action as well--as a poisoning in the ’dumb-show,’ and finally, as the poisoning of all the major characters in the last act.”

1973 Bullough

Bullough

748-9 Bullough (1973, 7, 172-3) records a letter from Luigi Gonzaga denying his role in the murder and from Pietro Aretino to Gonzaga apologizing for spreading rumors about the murder.

1975 Robson

Robson: Bullough 1936, Jones +

748 porches of my eares] Robson (1975, pp. 315-16): <p. 315> “. . . the poisoning through the ears . . . has always struck me as most peculiar. The incident, it has been shown [G. Bullough, MLR, 1935], is based on soemthing that really happened, an ’Italianate’ crime; yet I have sometimes wondered how it is possible to poison someone with intact tympana ion this way. . . . Medical considereations apart, the aesthetic poisoning through the ears is plain. The horrible passage of the Ghost’s speech which describes it is unforgettable [747-58]. It is no wonder that </p. 315> <p. 316> psychoanalysts have been interested in the ’latent’ significance of this method of murder. (Ernest Jones’s interpretation receives pre-Freudian support from a picture by Fuseli of the poisoning of King Hamlet, which is itself said to be based on a pederastic incident depicted on a Greek vase.)" But it’s the pecularity that makes it impossible for anyone who knew how the king was murdered to mistake the play-scene from anything for something other than the murder. Yet the king is completely silent about Hamlet’s knowledge.” </p. 316>

1980 pen2

pen2

748 porches . . . eares] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Poisoning through the ears was a legendary Italian method; but according to medical authority it could not be effective.”

1982 ard2

ard2: Bullough without attribution

748 in . . . poure] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Pliny speaks of this being done with henbane (see 747 CN). But Shakespeare probably took the idea from reports of the actual murder of the Duke of Urbino in 1538, allegedly by poison dropped in his ears. See Intro., p. 102.”

1985 cam4

cam4

748 the porches of my eares] Edwards (ed. 1985): "i.e. the ears as porches of the body. It was widely believed that drugs, therapeutic or toxic, could be administered via the ear. The auditory or eustachian tube which might allow a liquid in the ear to find its way to the pharynx and be swallowed, was known to the Greeks but not fully described until 1564, by Bartolommeo Eustachio. See New England Journal of Medicine 307 (1982), 259-61, 1531."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

748-55 And . . . blood] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "There is what looks like another debt to Marlowe here. In Edward II the professional assassin, Lightborn, describes some of his methods. They include these: ‘whilst one is asleep, to take a quill And blow a little powder in his ears: Or open his mouth and pour quicksilver down’ (5.4.34-6)."

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

748 porches . . . eares] Bevington (ed. 1988): “ears as a porch or entrance of the body.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2

748-55 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “The King’s body becomes first a house, then a town or city. Perhaps the sack of Troy is already present behind these lines.”

ard3q2: analogue

748 porches . . . eares] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “i.e. my ears, viewed as the porches of the house which is my head/body. Modern medicine tells us that such a method of poisoning would not actually be effective, but Bullough suggests that Shakespeare took the idea from accounts of the murder of the Duke of Urbino in 1538, allegedly done in this way (Bullough 7:29-33; see p. 61). Another source might be Marlowe’s villain Lightborn in Edward II (1592) who describes a method of killing he claims to have learned in Naples: ’whilst one is a sleepe, to take a quill, / And blowe a little powder in his eares’ (5.4.34-5).”