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Line 769 - 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."

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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.

769 But {howsomeuer} <howsoeuer> thou {pursues} <pursuest> this act,	1.5.84

769-73 Ed. summary: The ghost makes two contradictory demands: to avenge his death and to leave Gertrude to her conscience. Rolfe (ed. 1903) believes Hamlet takes the latter demand very seriously. Hamlet does rouse her conscience, possibly temporarily 2464-7. But for the ghost, as the Hamlet, the sexuality and incest of the new pair are uppermost and it is uncertain whether she remains alone in bed.

769-73 But . . . her] Stubbs (1736, p. 24) believes that the ghost’s “caution to his Son concerning his Mother, is very fine, and shews great Delicacy in our Author.” Griffith (1777, 2:284) thinks the tenderness of the ghost surpasses anything in the classic writers. Clarke (1863, pp. 74-5) praises Sh. for the “harmony and consistency” of the Ghost’s affection for his wife. Leo (1885, p. 101) says that these lines prove the ghost can not be demonic.

769 howsomeuer] In the sense “in whatever way,” howsomever and howsoever are important, because they leave up to Hamlet the execution of the ghost’s command not to allow “the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest.” He is also to “bear it not” (766) that is, the it could point back to his father’s murder while he was in a state of sin (764-5). Or the it could look forward to the “royal bed of Denmark” (767). Howsomever, which was becoming antequated by Sh.’s time, might suggest to an audience King Hamlet’s age. “Howsomever” meaning “in whatever way” should be distinguished from the vulgar meaning, “however.”

1736 Stubbs

Stubbs

769-73 But . . . her] Stubbs (1736, p. 24): “His caution to his Son concerning his Mother, is very fine, and shews great Delicacy in our Author; as has been observ’d by a great Writer of our Nation.

1777 Griffith

Griffith

769-73 But . . . her] Griffith (1777, 2:284): “There is something extremely remarkable and pleasing in the following part of the Ghost’s speech to Hamlet, here.”

1777 Griffith

Griffith

2792-5 But . . . Hamlet] Griffith (1777, 2:284-5): <p.184> “He repeats the same fond caution to him again . . .

“No Eastern sentiment, inspired by the first beams of the Sun, and refined by the sublimest morality of Confucius, ever rose to so high a pitch, as the tenderness expressed in these two passages [this and 769-73] toward his wife—even after her crimes. Have either the </p.284> <p.285> Greek or Latin masters of the Epic afforded us so beautiful an instance of forgiveness, and of love subsisting even beyond the grave? They have both of them presented us with scenes after death; but compare the behaviour of Dido, upon meeting Æneas in the Elysian fields, with this, as being the most parallel passage I can recollect. He had not been any thing near so culpable towards her, as this queen had been to her husband; and yet, the utmost temper that the heathen Poet could bring his Ghost to, upon that occasion, was, merely to be silent, an [sic] not upbraid, in speech; though he makes her sufficiently mark her resentment, by her looks and behaviour.” </p.285>

1859 Werder

Werder

769 Werder (1859, trans. 1907, pp. 46-7): <p. 46> this line shows that the Ghost is in no hurry </p. 46><p. 47> and that he does not envision an abrupt murder of the king. </p. 47>

1863 Clarke

Clarke

769-73 Clarke (1863, pp.74-5) <p.74 > “It was just like the divine humanity in our poet to foster </p. 74><p. 75> the idea of love in that life beyond life, still hovering with angelic tenderness and pardon over his weak and repentant partner in the flesh. And how beautifully this little touch of yearning emotion on the part of the spirit harmonizes with the previous character given of him by his son: [quotes 324-6, so . . . roughly]. It is the verifying these points of harmony and consistency of this wonderful genius, that makes the study of his productions a constant source of astonishment as well as delight.” </p. 75>

1872 Hudson

Hudson ≈ Werder

769-70 But . . . minde] Hudson (1872, pp. 275- ) <p. 275> counts on the F1 punctuation, attaching taint not thy mind to the ghost’s injunction to revenge the murder. “Thus time and manner are left to Hamlet’s own judgment; only he must not, he must not [sic] corrupt himself with any wicked or dishonorable course of action. He is solemnly warned against pursuing revenge by any methods involving self-defilement; and is to proceed as ever bearing in mind that </p. 275><p. 276> ‘Him, and only him the shield of Jove defends, Whose means are fair and spotless as his ends.’ He might take off Claudius as secretly, and in some such way, as Claudius has taken off his father; but this would be to stain himself with the with the most abominable guilt and baseness. Whatever he does, he must be ready to avow it in the face of all Denmark, and to stand responsible for it. . . . Observe, then, what a dreadful dilemma he is placed in: he must punish, it is his most sacred duty to punish, a crime which it is not possible for him to prove, and which must not be punished till it has been proved. All this may well fill him, as indeed it does, with the most excruciating and inevitable agony; and, whiloe he thus lives in torture, his mighty suffering, even because he is so strong, arouses all his faculties, and permits not a particle of the intellectual man to be lost.” </p.276>

1881 hud3

hud3 ≈ Hudson (1872, p. 275)

769-70 howsomeuer . . . minde] Hudson (ed. 1881): “This part of the injunction is well worth noting: time and manner are left to Hamlet; only he is to keep himself clean from crime and from dishonour: his revenge must be righteous, and according to the demands of justice, not merely personal.”

1882 Bowman

Bowman

769-73 But howsomeuer . . . sting her] Bowman (1882 in Thom 1883, p. 108): “The crime for which her conscience was ’to prick and sting her’ was, we believe, her indecent and unwomanly inconstancy—nothing more.” Ed. note: And yet when faced with the player queen’s fervent declaration of constancy, Gertrude overtly sees no relevance to her own lack of constancy. In performance, however, she may show uneasiness—or not.

1885 Leo

Leo contra Halliwell-Phillipps

769-73 Leo (1885, pp. 100-1): Sh. <p. 100>“made the ghost say what was necessary to reduce his objection [Hamlet’s in 1638-40] to nothing: [quotes 769-83]. </p. 100> <p. 101>

“There is some internal resemblance between those critics [who justify Hamlet’s delay] and Hamlet himself; both like to misunderstand the ghost—Hamlet from want of moral courage, the critics from their passion for being by no means natural in their feeling, but being as sagacious and subtle as possible! The ghost, being a devil, could have cursed the woman too without risk of awakening Hamlet’s suspicion; if he does not do so—nay, if he protects her, he proves by this fact that his home is in heaven and only the old and new aesthetic Hamlets can be in any doubt about it!” </p. 101>

1903 rlf3

rlf3

769-73 But . . . her] Rolfe (ed. 1903): <p. 334> “Hamlet does not appear to regard this as merely a warning not to kill his mother. The reference to her conscience seems to have suggested—unless his filial affection prompted it—that he must make her see her guilt, and wean her affection from Claudius, before he strikes at him. This is the keynote of the remarkable scene [3.4[ in which he sets her sin before her with such terrible force, until her conscience is awakened, and her eyes, turned into her </p. 334><p. 335> very soul, see [quotes 2466-7]. </p. 335>

1935 Wilson

Wilson WHH

769-71 Wilson (1935, p. 43): the ghost does not tell Ham. how to do the task of cleansing Denmark, but he lays on Ham. a strong prohibition: to leave the queen to heaven. How can he attack the king without injuring her?

1982 ard2

ard2:

769 howsomeuer] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Cf. whatsomever, 449.”

ard2:

769 pursues] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Q2 pursues, which F corrects, may conceivably be Shakespearean. Cf. Revisits, 638. But the loss of t in the 2nd pers. sing. Is commoner when the verb-stem itself ends in t.”

1985 cam4

cam4; Franz

769 thou pursues this] Edwards (ed. 1985): "-es rather than -est before a following th- (see Franz, Die Sprache Shakespeares, §152, p. 154)."

1987 oxf4

oxf4

770 Tain’t . . . minde] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "don’t allow your mind to be corrupted (by contact with the wickedness of Claudius). Compare [Cym. 5.4.63-6 (3104-6)], ‘Why did you suffer Iachimo, Slight thing of Italy, To taint his nobler heart and brain With needless jealousy’. The quality of Hamlet’s mind that is insisted on throughout the play is its nobility. What the Ghost says is in effect: ‘Take revenge on Claudius, but on no account stoop to his ignoble methods.’ He thus presents the hero with the dilemma that is at the heart of revenge tragedy: how is the nobility of the successful avenger to be preserved?"

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: xref

769 howsomeuer] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “howsoever (see [449 CN])”

ard3q2: standard; xref

769 pursues] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “F’s ’pursuest’ is strictly grammatical but pursues is easier to say (see Revisits at [638and CN]).”