Line 1451-2 - 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.
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Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
| 1451-2 Ham. O Ieptha Iudge of Israell, what a treasure had’st | thou? | |
|---|
1685 F4
F4
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] mF4TCC (c.1790) “ H.18.12 links Hamlet’s Jephta and Christopherson’s [?] Tragedy of Jeptha, dedicated to Henry VIII c. 1546”
1773 v1773
v1773
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] Steevens (ed. 1773): “The old song from which these are quotations are taken [this line and TLN 1462], is printed in the 2d edit. of Dr. Percy’s Reliques of ancient English Poetry.”
1774 capn
capn
1451-1464 O Ieptha. . . pious chanson] Capell (1774), 1: 133): “Among the songs in a late publication, is one of seven long stanza’s, titl’d (as may be thought) by the publisher,– ‘Jephtah Judge of Israel;’ it’s first is as follows:– ‘Have you not heard these many years ago, | Jeptha was judge of Israel? | He had one only daughter and no mo, | The which he loved passing well: | And, as by lott, | God wot, | It so came to pass | As Gods will was, | That great wars there should be, | And none should be chosen chief but he.’ Possibly, it might be one of an ancient Collection of bible histories made into songs, whose general title was– ‘Pious Chansons; ‘ and if so, we see the origin of the Poet’s first reading in l. 12, (p. 51.) which they who choose may consult. From the same publication will be taken, in the course of these notes, parcels of a few other songs, such as are connected with Shakespeare, or partially found in him: when any such quotations occur, and no authority vouch’d for them, the reader will be pleas’d to refer them to the publication aforesaid.”
1843- Collier
Collier
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] Collier (ms. notes, ed. 1843) annotates his own note #10: “these are quotations from the first stanza of the ballad of ‘Jephthah, Judge of Israel.’ in Percy’s Reliques vol i. p. 193. edit. 1812.”
“See Evans’s Old Ballads I. 7 (last edit) for a perfect copy --in Percy it is imperfectly given.”
-1845 mhun1
mhun1
1453 What...Lord?] Hunter (-1845, f. 243r): “An error of the first printer has been copied by all succeeding printers & Editors. It should be What treasure had he my Lord?— I suspect that What a treasure had to them, is as much a quotation as O Jephtha judge of Israel. & should be printed as such.”
1847 verp
verp
1451-2 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell, what a treasure had’st thou?]
Verplanck (ed. 1847): “In Percy’s ‘RELIQUES,’ there is an imperfect copy of the old ballad to which Hamlet here refers. It has been since entirely recovered, and is printed entire in Evans’s ‘COLLECTIONS OF OLD BALLADS,’ (1810.) The first stanza comprises the various quotations in the text:” Quotes first stanza.
1872 cln1
cln1
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “The ballad from which Hamlet makes his quotations was communicated to Percy by Steevens and inserted in the second and following editions of the Reliques. The first ’row’ or stanza of the ’pious chanson’ is as follows: ’Have you not heard these many years ago, Jephtha was a judge of Israel? He had only one daughter and no mo, The which he loved passing well : And, as by lott, God wott, It so came to pass, As Gods will was, That great wars there should be, And none should be chosen chief but he.’ "
1877 clns
clns
1451 Ieptha] Neil (ed. 1877): “There is an old ballad on this topic by William Petowe. In the Stationers’ Registers, 1567, there is an entry to Alexander Lacy of ‘A ballett intituled the Songe of Jesphas daughter at his death.’ There was a Tragedy of Jephthah taken from Judges xi, written both in Latin and Greek, by a learned divine, John Christopherson, 1546; George Buchanan produced a tragedy on the same subject in 1554; and in 1587 an Italian tragedy was composed by Benedict Capuano, a monk of Casino. In Percy’s Reliques of Ancient Poetry, 1844, vol. i, a copy of this ballad is given as ‘it was retrieved from utter oblivion by a lady who wrote it down from memory as she had heard it sung by her father. I am indebted for it,’ says Percy, ‘to the friendship of Mr Steevens. It has been said that the original ballad, in black letter, is among Antonyà Wood’s collections in the Ashmolean Museum. But upon application, lately made, the volume which contained this song was missing, so that I can only now give it in the former edition.’ Read Judges xi, 30-39, and xii, 7.”
1890 irv
irv
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] Symons (in Irving & Marshall ed. 1890): “Jephtah was a popular subject for both tragedies and ballads. In the Stationers’ Register there are two entries of ballads, or of the same ballad: the first is in 1567-68 –’ a ballad intituled the songe of Jesphas Dowgather at his death’ –the second, Dec. 14, 1624, ‘Jeffa Judge of Israel.’ This ballad was communicated to Percy by Steevens, and inserted in the second edition of the Reliques, 1757. Halliwell gives a facsimile of A proper new ballad, intituled, Jepha Judge of Israel, of which the first stanza is as follows:’I read that many years agoe, When Jepha Judge of Israel,Had one fair Daughter and no more, Whom he loved so passing well.And as by lot God wot, It came to passe most like it was,Great warrs there should be,And who should be the chiefe, but he, but he’.”
1899 ard1
ard1
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Steevens communicated the ‘pious chansen’ to Percy; a reprint from a blackletter copy will be found in Child’s English and Scottish Ballads. Hamlet quotes from the first stanza. Jephthah sacrificed his daughter; before her death she went into the wilderness to bewail her virginity. So with Ophelia. In lines 444, 445 Hamlet says ‘the first row of the pious chanson will show you more,’-perhaps he refers to the line ‘Great wars there should be.’”
1934a cam3
cam3
1451-2 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] Wilson (ed. 1934): “If the repertory satirised in the previous speech be that of the Admiral’s men, Ham.’s change of subject is not so abrupt as it seems, since a play called Jepthah by Deker and Munday was being acted by them in July 1601 (v. Chambers, Eis. Stage, ii. 179). The play is lost, but the ‘pieous chanson’ survives, and the first ‘row,’ or stanza, runs (according to Hallliwell): I read that many yeare agoe,| When Jepha Judge of Israil |Had one fair Daughter and no more, | whom ge loved so passing well. | And as by lot God wot, | It came to passe most like it was,| Grat warrs there shoulld be, | and who should be the chiefe, but he. Dramatically ‘ Jepthah,’ who sacrificed his daughter, harks back to [(1196)]. The reference to ‘warrs’ is omotted as beside the point, but ‘as by lot... like it was’ was intended, I think, to recall [(1222-3)]. Cf. 3 Henr. VI [5.1.90-1. (2773-4)] , and Book of Homilies, 1574 (‘ A dermon against swearing nad perjury ‘), ed. 1850, p. 75.”
1982 ard2
ard2
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] Jenkins (ed. 1982): "The story of Jephthah was one of the most famous of all Bible stories. As well as being several times balladized, Jephthah figured as a cautionary example in the Homily ’against Swearing and Perjury’ (Book of Homilies, 1850 edn, p. 75), as also in 3H6 V.i. 91. He had been a favourite subject for the academic drama ; Buchanan’s Latin tragedy was especially celebrated. (See W.O. Sypherd, Jephthah and his Daughter, 1948.) The popular stage would see a Jephthah play by Dekker and Munday (which Henslowe’s Diary records) in 1602.
“The ballad, apparently much reprinted, is extant in a 17th-century text among the Roxburghe collection (III. 201 ; reprinted in The Roxburghe Ballads, vi. 685-6) and with a few variants in the Shirburn MS (no. 41 ; ed. Clark, pp. 174-6). It may also be found in Evans’s Old Ballads, 1810 edn, i. 7-10 and Child’s English and Scottish Ballads, 189, viii. 198-201. A corrupt version was included by Percy in his Reliques. I give the Roxburghe text with three emendations and Shirburn. "
2007 Groves
Groves: Dekker
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israel] ] Groves (2007, p. 17) says that plays like Jephtha by Dekker (see ARD2) show that the theatregoing public was enthusiastic about watching biblical subjects on their stage, and in some cases also indicate the audience’s familiarity with such stories.
Ed. note: Access to bibles in English was a Protestant project. Polonius, evidently not a bible reader, playgoer (except when he was an actor), or reader of ballads, is unfamiliar with the Jephtha story and sees no relevance to his own condition [1453].
Groves: Black
1451 O Ieptha Iudge of Israell] ] Groves (2007, p. 24): Though the reference to Jephthah "is clearly a condemnation of Polonius’s treatment of Ophelia, . . . James Black [’Hamlet’s Vows,’ Renaissance and Reformation 2/1 (1978): 40-1] has argued that the allusionto Jephthah indicates that Hamlet is still subconsciously turning over his promise to his father’s ghost [796]."