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.

1817 Drake

Drake

1738-42 And thus . . . Action] Drake (1817, 2: 392): “ . . . Shakspeare had a clear and definite idea of [the play] throughout all its seeming inconsistencies . . . . [Quotes 1738-42.] Now this pale cast of thought and its consequences, which had not Hamlet been interrupted by the entrance of Ophelia, he would have himself applied to his singular situation, form the very essence, and give rise to the prominent defects of his character..”

-1845 mhun1

mhun1

1738 natiue hiew of resolution] Hunter (-1845, f. 225v): “I suppose we shall find in the writers on Complexions, of which there were many besides the author of the old Shepherd’s Kalendar that there was a peculiar hue, probably ruddy, which indicated a modest, determined spirit.”

1845 hunter

hunter

1738-9 And...thought] Hunter (1845, p. 242-4): <p. 242>“thought is melancholy, whose hue was pale. ‘Turn melancholy forth to funerals; The pale complexion is not for our pomp.’ A Mids. N. D. I. 1. ‘The native hue of Resolution’ was no doubt red. The following passage from Bishop Earle seems to throw some light on the use of Resolution in this peculiar manner. ‘To whom, that is the world’s wise man, murders are but resolute acts, and treason a business of great consequence.’

“Having shewn that the Poet’s original intention was that Hamlet should give utterance to the sentiments in this celebrated soliloquy immediately on having perused a certain book, it becomes a point of reasonable curiosity to inquire whether Shakespeare had more particularly in his mind any one book, and, if so, what book it was. The passage would lose something of its effect if we supposed that the whole was merely artificial, that there was no one book thought of, but the mind was thrown upon a confused heap of writers of all ages who may have touched upon these awful topics. This would lead to the conclusion that there was some one book more particularly in his mind, and it may I think be determined what particular book it was. </p. 242>

<p. 243> “Mr. Douce has noticed the resemblance between the expression ‘To die,—to sleep,— No more?’ and the following passage: ‘In the Holy Scripture, death is not accounted otherwise than sleep, and to die is said to sleep.’ (Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 238.) This passage occurs in a book entitled Cardanus’ Comforte, and this seems to be the book which Shakespeare placed in the hands of Hamlet.

“It was one of the many treatises written by one of the most extraordinary persons of the sixteenth century, Jerome Cardan, best known in our times as the inventor of the rule for solving equations of three dimensions in a particular case. The treatise written by him entitled Comfort attracted the attention of Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, who was much abroad, and who caused an English translation of it to be published in 1573. The translation was made by Thomas Bedingfield, one of the Gentlemen Pensioners of Queen Elizabeth, and there are prefixed to it commendatory verses by Thomas Churchyard, who says of it— ‘This book bewrays what wretched wrack belongs to life of man, What burthens bore he on his back since first this world began.’ Here we have the ‘who would fardels bear’ of the monologue.

“The treatise is divided into three books. In the first we have an enumeration and description of various calamities to which man is subject. In the second the author treats of the alleviation of them, and comes to the conclusion that Death is the object most worthy the desire of man. In the third he illustrates the vain desires of men, and shews how their own faults and whims are the chief cause of their misfortunes.

“The whole of the first and second books thus bear we per-</p. 243><p. 244>ceive a close resemblance to the subject of this soliloquizing; but the following passages seem to approach so near to the thoughts of Hamlet that we can hardly doubt that they were in the Poet’s mind when he put this speech into the mouth of his hero: ‘How much were it better to follow the counsel of Agathius, who right well commended death, saying, that it did not only remove sickness and all other grief, but also, when all other discommodities of life did happen to man often, it never would come more than once.’ Book ii.

‘“Seeing therefore with such ease men die, what should we account of death to be resembled to anything better than sleep, etc.’ Ibid.

“‘Moste assured it is that such sleeps are most sweet as be most sound, for those are the best where in like unto dead men we dream nothing. The broken sleeps, the slumber, and dreams full of visions, are commonly in them that have weak and sickly bodies.’ Ibid.

“Cardan died in 1575, and it is supposed was the voluntary cause of his own death.”</p. 244>

1872 cln1

cln1

1738 natiue hiew] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “natural colour. Compare Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv. 3. 263: ’For native blood is counted painting now.’ "

1885 macd

macd

1738 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—such as was his when he vowed vengeance.”