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Line 1527-8 - 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.

1527 Doth rend the region, so after Pirrhus pause,	2.2.487

1528 A rowsed vengeance sets him new a worke,

1867 Keightley

Keightley

1527 region] Keightley (1867, pp. 419): “(R. and J. ii.2, Ham. ii.2), the air. The space between the lunar sphere and earth was divided into the region of the air and the region of fire; the air was the region par excellence, as nearest to the earth. See Element.”

1870 Abbott

Abbott

1528 a worke] Abbott (§24): “Adverbs with prefix a-: (I) Before nouns. In these adverbs the a-represents some preposition, as ‘ on,’ ‘on,’ ‘of,’ &c. contracted by rapidity of pronunciation. As might be expected, the contraction is mostly found in the prepositional phrases that are in most common use, and therefore most likely to be rapidly pronounced. Thus (Coriol. [3.1.261—2 (1990—1)]) Menenius says : ‘I would they were in Tiber,’ while the Patrician, ‘I would they were a-bed..’ Here a means ‘in,’ as in the following: ‘3d Fisherman. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea 1st Fisherman. Why, as men do a-land.’—P. of T. [2.1.26-8.(574-6)]. A- is also used where we should now use ‘at.’ Compare, however, O. E. ‘on work.’ ‘Sets him new a-work.’—Hamlet [1528]; Lear [3.2.8. (1978)].”

1872 cln1

cln1

1527 region] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872):"Originally a division of the sky marked out by the Roman augurs. In later times the atmosphere was divided into three regions, upper, middle, and lower. By Shakespeare the word is used to denote the air generally. Compare Sonnet xxxiii. 12, ’The region cloud’; and Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 21, ’The airy region’; and Milton, Paradise Lost, vii. 425: ’Part loosely wing the region.’ "

1528 a worke] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872):"We have the word again 2 Henry IV, iv. 3. 124: ’So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work.’ "

1881 hud2

hud2

1527 region] Hudson (ed. 1881): “Region, here, is sky, or the air. So in the last speech of this scene: ‘I should have fatted all the region kites,’ &c. [2.2.579. (1619)].”

1885 macd

macd

1527 region] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Who does not feel this passage, down to ‘Region,’ thoroughly Shaksperean!”

1890 irv

irv

Symons (in Irving & Marshall ed. 1890): “Boyer has: ‘The three Regions (or Parts) of the Air, Les trois regions de Vair.’ The word is used by Shakespeare in the general sense of the upper air in Son. xxxiii. 12: The region cloud hath mask’d him from me now; Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 20-22: her eyes in heaven Would through the airy region stream so bright That birds would sing and think it were not night. Compare, too, ii. 2. 606 below.”

1899 ard1

ard1: cln1

1527. region] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Calr. Press: ‘Originally a division of the sky marked out by the Roman augurs. In later times the atmosphere was divided into three regions-upper, middle, and lower.’ Used by Shakespeare for the space of air, as in Romeo and Juliet, II. ii. 21.

1982 ard2

ard2

1528 Aroused vengeance] Jenkins (ed. 1982): "The analogy between Pyrrhus and Hamlet is here made clear. But it is a mistaken criticism which says that Hamlet sees himself in Pyrrhus or which discovers in the renewal of vengeance after inaction a new resolution on Hamlet’s part. The analogy here (by contrast with that in Hamlet’s soliloquy which will follow) is not Hamlet’s but Shakespeare’s. Though the element of revenge is inherent in the story of Pyrrhus (his father Achilles had been slain by Priam’s son Paris), it receives little stress in Virgil or the medieval writers. It becomes conspicuous , however, in some of Shakespeare’s predecessors - momentarily in the Marlowe-Nashe Dido (II. i. 259-60) when Pyrrhus dips ’his father’s flag’ in Priam’s blood, more notably in Peele’s Tale of Troy, where ’Achilles’ son, the fierce unbridled Pyrrhus’, ’his father’s angry ghost enticing him’, kills in ’murdering rage’ (ll. 440-4)."