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

1392-1398 What...Succession.] Theobald (ed.1726, pp.67-8): “The Pointing of the latter Part of this Speech is so very faulty, that the Sense of it is but barely intelligible. Restore it, as Mr. Hughs’s Edition partly leads the way; ‘Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common/ Players, (as it most like, if their Means are not better;) their Writers do them /wrong to make them exclaim against their own Succession?’

“I cannot help observing, that the Beginning of this Speech contains one of those Passages in which the Poet may be said to overshoot himself; and be guilty of an Absurdity, by making his Actor say what he cannot be supposed to know in Character: Which is confounding the Person of the Drama with a Poeta loquitur. Hamlet, replying to Rosencraus concerning these young Players, asks, —What, are they Children? who maintains them? how are they escoted? These Questions argue him a Stranger to them, and their Quality: Yet, without any Information, he immediately after cries, Will they pursue the Quality no longer than they can sing? — which is intimating tacitly, as I take it, that, he knew them to be the Singing-Boys of the King’s Chappel: a Knowledge, no ways to be accounted for, as I can imagine, unless the Poet had given his Hamlet a Portion of Sir John Fallstaffe’s Instinct. I must own, Shakesepare is not without some more Samples of these Self-Contradictions; and one Great one, that has been generally imputed to him, will fall under Consideration in the next Act. But of That in its own Place.”

1784 Davies

Davies

1392 What...maintains ‘em?] Davies (1784, p. 48): "Heywood, in his apology for actors, complains, that the poets of his time employed children to vent their malicious scandal and utter abuse against private characters. He insisted, at the same time, that the established theatres never encouraged such infamous practices."

1791- rann

rann

1391 goose-quills,] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—the lampoons of the children’s patrons.”

-1845 mhun1

mhun1

1392-98 What...Succession.] Hunter (-1845, f. 232r-232v)): <f. 233r>“In illustration of the view here taken of the passage Mr. B. H. Bight has sent me the following from a scarce volume of which he does not name either the Author or the Title. It is dedicated to Charles II when an hefast & to his sourwife Mary Countess of Dorset.</f. 232r><f. 232v>

“The Playes and Ballad-Mongers

“‘Our merry Ballads; and lascivious playes Are much alike: To common censure both Do stand or fall: Th’one sings, the other sayes; And both are fripperies of another froth: In short, they’re Priest and Clark or Belial’s Altar; T’one makes the Sermon, t’other tunes the Psalter.’

“Shakespeare himself oppurs them in M. Ado about N. II.1. If this singing answer your saying, by my faith you say honesty. Fi de le again. R. & J. IV.5. Gor. are the singer I will say [blurry]. f. 213.”</f. 232v>

1392-98 What...Succession.] Hunter (-1845, f. 242v-243r): <f. 242v>“I have taken the liberty to alter the printing. The children against whom this passage is directed were The Children of Pauls whose office was to sing or say their

“*If an authority was wanted in Shakspeare’s use of succession in the sense of that which sh[margin] comes after— There is one of Success in M. Ado about N. IV.1.Friar f. 117. See also IX. 368.

“‘Or to which again And I am in to the desert with thy sword If trembling I inhibit then, provest me The baby of a girl.’ If I now shift my plan through fear, as now I do in presence of thy sputre. Hurra! Aug. 30 1828.

“That it was not a familiar word appears from the printers having corrected it to one better known to them inhabit, both here & in Alls’ well that ends well. I. 1. where it occurs. Inhibited there & in Othello I.2 is equivalent to prohibited.

“‘A Proclamation for the Inhibition of Players’— Title of a Proclamation.’

</f. 242v><f. 243r>>part in the choir. Shakespeare alludes sarcastically to that. They sing now, when their voices are broken and they are no longer fit for the choir, by introducing them thus early to the stage they may acquire a little first and say, or speak in their natural voices as actors in general or for the pieces acted by these children theese were reproachful expressions against the regular drama & the performers in it. ‘the voyce upon stages’ Their writers little think that these singing children may come to be regular actors hereafter & the satire fall upon thmselves. Such at least is my present view of the passage.

“ than children than were reprocear put expressions against the regular drama when performers in it. ‘the common stages’. Their intem with Nioatl then these singing childrene may unt to be regular actors hereafter & the sation fall wichs Thrusion! Such at han is my present view of the passage.

“It is not known which pieces these children performed & what particular passane. Shakespeare aimed at.

“The passage as it is printed in all the Editions has it the but a very feeble sense.”</f. 243r>