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Line 974 - 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.

974 Lord Hamlet with his doublet all vnbrac’d,	2.1.75

1604 Scoloker, ed. Grosart

Scoloker

974-6 doublet . . . ancle] Scoloker (1604, sig. E4r) <sig. E4r><p. 35> describes lunacy in his lover—touching on many conventional features not relevant to Hamlet’s behavior; </p. 35> </sig. E4r ><p. 36> <sig. E4v> these continue. Scoloker alludes to “mad-Hamlet” (Grosart, p. 36, st. 2, line 6). In st. 3, lines 5-6, Daiphantus “Puts off his cloathes; his shirt he onely weares, Much like mad-Hamlet; thus as Passion teares.” In the 4th stanza, Daiphantus uses the words “reuenge” and “make the ghosts to reake.” </p.36> </sig. E4v>

Grosart sees the reference to the clothes (shirt-sleeves, his gloss for “shirt he onely weares”), and the description of Hamlet as mad a persuasive recollection of Ham. and an allusion to the acting of Burbage.

1872 cln1

cln1

974 vnbrac’d] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “unfastened. Compare [JC 1.3.48 (486]: ‘And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see, Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone.’ And in the same play, [2.2.261 (902)]: ‘Is it physical To walk unbraced and suck up the humours Of the dank morning?’”

1872 hud2

hud2 ≈ cln1 without attribution (minus quotations)

974 vnbrac’d] Hudson (ed. 1872): “the same as our unbuttoned. So used twice in [JC].”

1877 v1877

v1877 = cln1 minus quotations from JC

974 vnbrac’d] Furness (ed. 1877): “Clarendon: Unfastened. Compare [JC 1.3.48 (0000] and [2.2.262 (0000)].”

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2 minus //

974 vnbrac’d]

1885 macd

macd: standard

974 vnbrac’d] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “loose; undone.”

1896 Boas

Boas

974-80 Boas (1896, p. 398) questions Hamlet’s sincerity in Hamlet’s appearance in Ophelia’s closet. Even if Hamlet is honestly groping for her support, his method is poor indeed and “seems deliberately arranged for the purpose of startling the timid girl out of her wits.”

1904 ver

ver

974 doublet] Verity (ed. 1904): “the ordinary Elizabethan name for a jacket. Literally a ‘double,’ i.e. inner garment, as compared with the overcoat or outer garment. Shakespeare makes his characters (e.g. Julius Caesar) wear ‘doublets,’ whatever their period or country.”

ver = cln1 gloss without attribution

974 vnbrac’d] Verity (ed. 1904): “Unfastened.”

1913 Trench

Trench

974 Trench (1913, p. 92) thinks that Hamlet goes to Ophelia dressed as he is to try her, to see if “undeterred by his exaggerated strangeness. she could extend to him the support of her loving sympathy . . . . ” If so, he would not feel so isolated. But “without a word spoken on either hand he learned that there was no hope for him there.”

1935 Wilson

Wilson WHH: Bradley

974-80 Wilson (1935, pp. 111, 210), contrary to most other commentators (except Bradley), regards the description of Hamlet as showing mental instability rather than love-sickness. < p. 111> < p. 210> He further suggests that the lapse of time, frequently overlooked in performances that eliminate Reynaldo, is another important indication that Ham. has been overwrought for a long time. </p. 210>

1939 kit2

kit2: standard

974 doublet all vnbrac’d] Kittredge (ed. 1939): "A close-fitting jacket. Doublet and hose (breeches) were the regular essentials of masculine attire, like leaving one’s waistcoat unbuttoned now-a-days. Cf. Marston, What you Will, i, 1, 21 (ed. Halliwell, I, 226), where Jacomo, in love, enters ’unbraced, and careles drest,’ "

1950 van Lennep

van Lennep

974-80; 984-97 as I was . . .light on me.] van Lennep (1950, p. 20): Ophelia’s jilting “drives [Hamlet] to the astounding pantomime with the frightened, distracted and puzzled girl, that Shakespeare decided we should not witness, but which we can visualize thanks to Ophelia’s vivid description. Apparently semi-demented, Hamlet stands before her [quotes 974-7]. As if awakened from a stupor, Hamlet stands, dishevelled, unkempt, holding her hard, to hurt her a little, perhaps; he stares at her, screening his eyes, loath, unable to withdraw his gaze; her features are as lovely as ever . . .[but] something is missing, something he had a right to expect: her faith.”

1957 pel1

pel1: standard

974 doublet] Farnham (ed. 1957): “jacket.”

pel1: standard

974 vnbrac’d] Farnham (ed. 1957): “unlaced.”

1957 pen1b

pen1b: // AYL

974-80 Lord Hamlet . . . before me] Harrison (ed. 1957): “Hamlet thus shows all the signs of a lover who has fallen into extremes of love melancholy, the outward signs of which, as Rosalind told Orlando, are:-- a lean cheek, a blue eye and sunken, an unquestionable spirit, a beard neglected, ’then your hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unbanded, your sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe untied, and everything about you demonstrating a careless desolation’ (As You Like It, III.ii.400).”

pen1b

974 doublet all vnbrac’d] Harrison (ed. 1957): “the doublet (short close-fitting jacket) was attached to the hose (breeches) with laces. When a man was careless of his appearance, he ’unbraced’ i.e. loosed the laces.”

1970 pel2

pel2 = pel1

974 doublet] Farnham (ed. 1970): “jacket”

pel2 = pel1

974 vnbrac’d] Farnham (ed. 1970): “unlaced”

1980 pen2

pen2 standard

974-6 his . . . ancle] Spencer (ed. 1980): “Hamlet’s disordered clothing, presumably deliberately assumed, and the rest of his behaviour here, resemble the usual symptoms of love-sickness as described in As You Like It, 3.2.363-6.”

pen2: standard

974 doublet] Spencer (ed. 1980): “close-fitting jacket with short skirt.”

pen2: standard

974 vnbrac’d] Spencer (ed. 1980): “not laced up or fastened.”

1982 ard2

ard2: standard gloss; xref; analogue

974 vnbrac’d] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “unfastened. Cf. JC 1.3.48, 2.1.262. The doublet was fastened with buttons all down the front. To appear with it undone was very unseemly. Cf. Rowley, A Match at Midnight, 4 (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, 13: 79), ’Widow. You will not be so uncivil to unbrace you here?’ ”

1985 cam4

cam4

974 vnbrac’d] Edwards (ed. 1985): "unfastened."

1987 oxf4

oxf4: // = cln1 without attribution

974 vnbrac’d] Hibbard (ed. 1987): "unfastened, unbuttoned. Compare [JC 1.3.48-9 (486-7)], ‘And, thus unbracèd, Casca, as you see, Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone.’ "

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

974 doublet] Bevington (ed. 1988): “close-fitting jacket.”

bev2: standard

974 vnbrac’d] Bevington (ed. 1988): “unfastened.”

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

974 doublet] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “close-fitting jacket”

fol2: standard

974 vnbrac’d] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “unfastened”

1999 Dessen&Thomson

Dessen&Thomson

974 vnbrac’d] Dessen & Thomson(1999): In SDs “describes a man’s entrance with his clothes unfastened, hence unready, in haste, or disturbed . . . .”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: AYL // = pen2 without attribution

974-6 doublet . . . ancle] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “See Rosalind’s taunting of Orlando on how a genuine lover should appear: ’your hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unbanded, your sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe untied, and every thing about you demonstrating a careless desolation’ (AYL 3.2.369-72).”

ard3q2: //

974 doublet] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “jacket. Shakespeare here as elsewhere imagines his characters as being dressed in English Elizabethan clothes; see, for example, Caska’s description of Caesar’s action: ’he pluck’d me ope his doublet and offer’d them his throat to cut’ (JC 1.2.260-2).”

ard3q2: //

974 vnbrac’d] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “unfastened, expressing vulnerability as well as carelessness (see Cassius’ claim to have ’thus unbraced . . . bared my bosom to the thunder-stone’, JC 1.3.48-9)”