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Line 1618 - 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.

1618 To make oppression bitter, or ere this	2.2.578

1853 coln

COLN

1618 oppression] Collier (1853, p. 424): <p. 424> “The same may be remarked of the next change that occurs in the folio, 1632: it is in Hamlet’s soliloquy, where he adverts to his own irresoluteness:— ‘For it cannot be, But I am pigeon-liver’d, and lack gall To make oppression bitter.’ It was not ‘oppression,’ but crime, that was to be punished by him; and to read ‘To make transgression bitter’ is so far an improvement: the similarity in the sound of the terminations of both words may have misled the copyist. ‘Oppression’ is, however, quite intelligible.” </p. 424>

1853 dyceN

dyceN=coln+

1618 Dyce (1853, A few Notes, p. 140): “This alteration is nothing less than villanous. Could the Manuscript-corrector be so obtuse as not to perceive that ‘lack gall to make oppression bitter,’ means ‘lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression?’”

1853 singer

1616-18 Singer (1853, p. 264): “To substitute transgression for ‘oppression’ is not to improve the language of the poet. We should probably read,-- ‘To make aggression bitter’--aggression might easily be mistaken for oppression. Aggression is defined in the old dictionaries ‘a setting upon, or entrance into an assault’.”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1

1617-1618 lack . . . bitter] Hudson (ed. 1856): “Of course the meaning is, ‘lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression.’ There were no need of saying this, but that Collier, on the strength of his second folio, would read transgression, and Singer, on the strength of nothing, aggression. Dyce justly pronounces the alteration ’nothing less than villainous.’ H.”

1857 dyce1

dyce1

1616-18 Dyce (ed. 1857):" Mr. Collier’s MS. Corrector substitutes "To make transgressions bitter," &c.; which Mr. Collier very inconsiderately calls "an improvement." I should have thought it almost impossible for any one not to perceive that "lack gall to make oppression bitter" means "lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression."

1858 COL3

COL3

1618 Collier (ed. 1858): “It is ‘to make transgression bitter’ in the corr. fo. 1632, but ‘opression’ is no doubt the proper reading: Hamlet is alluding to his own lack of gall and to ‘oppression’ being bitter to himself. The old annotator seems to have thought, that the hero was referring to transgression.”

1865 hal

hal

1618 Halliwell (ed. 1865): “In the Perkins MS., oppression is altered to transgression, but, observes Mr. Dyce, could the Manuscript-corrector be so obtuse as not to perceive that "lack gall to make oppression bitter," means "lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression?"

1881 hud2

hud2

1618 Hudson (ed. 1881): “‘Lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression’; or, perhaps, to make oppression bitter to the oppressor. ---The gentleness of doves and pigeons were supposed to proceed from their having no gall in them.”