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Line 1470-1 - 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 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

1470-1 what my young Lady and mi\|stris, {by lady} <Byrlady> your Ladishippe is

1566 Rainolds (Reynolds)

Rainolds

1470-1 my young Lady and mistris] Rainolds (1549-1607) apud DNB in 1566 at Christ Church, Oxford, acted the part of Hippolyta in Richard Edward’s Palaemon and Arcyte—an instance of acting at the university and the part of a woman played by a man. Thirty years later, he inveighed passionately against cross-dressing in plays and against plays altogether in letters responding to William Gager and then Alberico Gentili. One of six sons with a Catholic father he became a staunch puritan, demonstrating that in those fraught times the religion of the father was not necessarily that of the son.

1773 jen

jen

1470 by lady] Jennens (ed. 1773): “The 1st and 2d qu’s read by lady; the 3d q. my lady; the 1st f. byrlady; all the other editions berlady, which last is a false contraction of by our lady.”

1784 Davies

Davies

1470 by lady] Davies (1784, p. 50): "Hamlet addresses himself to the young lad who acted the female character. Before the Restoration, the women’s parts, says Cibber, were acted by boys, and men with effeminate countenances. Hart and Mohun were apprentices to Robinson and another eminent comedian, and acted female characters. The voices of girls do not alter like those of boys, which generally, at a certain age, become rough and manly. However, the liberal language of Shakespeare, to use a phrase of his own, is well explained, by authorities adduced from Ben Jonson, by Mr. Steevens."

1791- rann

rann

1470 my young lady] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—to a boy, who then performed a woman’s part.”

1793 v1793

v1793

1470 beard me] Steevens (ed. 1793): “To beard, anciently signified to set at defiance [word unreadable]. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: ‘No man so potent breathes upon the ground, But I will beard him.’”

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

1872 hud2

hud2

1470-1 by lady] Hudson (ed. 1872): “By’r Lady is a contraction of by our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the Poet’s time, female parts were acted by boys; and Hamlet is addressing one whom as a boy he had seen playing some heroine.”

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

1470-1 by lady] Hudson (ed. 1881): “By’r Lady is a contraction of by our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the Poet’s time, female parts were acted by boys; and Hamlet is addressing one whom as a boy he had seen playing some heroine.”

1885 macd

macd

1470-1 by lady] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “A boy of course: no women had yet appeared on the stage.”

1889-90 mTaylor

mTaylor

1471 your Ladishippe . . . heauen] J. Taylor (ms. notes in PB 82, Shattuck 108): “The boy has grown several inches.”

1974 Binns

Binns: Rainolds [aka Reynolds], Gagar, Gentili

1471 your Ladishippe] Binns (1974) discusses arguments in the 1590s about the immorality of men playing women. Rainolds held that Deut. 25.2, which forbade transvestism, applied to both public and private stages. Gagar and Gentili held that exceptions could be made for University players who were not professionals. See p. 114 for a summary of the argument. Because the disputants were and continued to be greatly admired, their ideas could have affected the closing of the public theaters in 1642.

J.W. Binns, "Women or Transvestites on the Elizabethan Stage," Sixteenth Century Journal 5.2 (Oct. 1974): 95-120.