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.

1726 theon

theon

1125-1126 That...true,] Theobald (1726, pp. 64-65): “‘That He is mad ‘tis true; ‘tis true, ‘tis pity;And pity, it is true:’ Thus, indeed, several of the Editions read this Place; but they don’t seem to enter entirely into the Poet’s Humour. Polonius, (an officious, impertinent, old Courtier,) priding himself in the Discovery which he supposes he has made of the Cause of Hamlet’s Madness, is so full of the Merit of it, that he can’t content himself to deliver it in a plain and easy Manner; but falls into an affected jingling Sort of Oratory, as he fancies; and ringing the Chimes, backwards and forwards, upon the same Words. No Body can read this Speech without observing, that these Figures and Flowers of Rhetorick are not only sprinkled, but poured out, through the whole. They are Strokes of low Humour, thrown in purposely, ad captandum populum; or, to use the Poet’s own Phrase, to set on some Quantity of barren Spectators to laugh at. I think, therefore, it should be wrote, as three of my Editions have it; and as I know it is constantly pronounc’d on the Stage: ‘That he is mad, ‘tis true; ‘tis true, ‘tis Pity; And Pity ‘tis, ‘tis true.’”

1810-13 mclr1

mclr1: warb

1113-22,1124-35 Coleridge (ms. notes 1813 in THEOBALD, ed. 1773; rpt. Coleridge, 1998, 12.4:742): <p. 742>“I have (and that most carefully) read Dr Donne’s Sermons—and find none of these Jingles. The great art of an Orator, to make whatever he talks of appear of importance, this indeed Donne has effected with consummate Skill.”</p.742>

1877 clns

clns

1126 a foolish figure] Neil (ed. 1877): “anadiplosis or redoubling.”

1882 elze

elze

1125-26 tis true...true,] Elze (ed. 1882): “The comma both after true and after tis in the following line should be struck out; the latter passage stands thus in FA: And pittie it is true.”

1885 macd

macd : delius

1126 a foolish figure] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “It is no figure at all. It is hardly even a play with the words.

1899 ard1

ard1

1124 art] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Delius suggests that Polonius in replying to the Queen understands ‘art’ as opposed to truth and nature.”

1126 figure] Dowden (ed. 1899): “a figure in rhetoric.”