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Line 1850-51 - 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.

1850-1 pingly on the tongue, but if you mouth it\| as many of {our} <your> Players do,

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1

1850 your players] Hudson (ed. 1856): "Thus the folio and the first quarto; the other quartos have our instead of your.--For, ’I had as lief the town crier spoke,’ the first quarto reads, ’I had rather hear a town bull bellow.’—’This dialogue of Hamlet with the players,’ says Coleridge, ’is one of the happiest instances of Shakespeare’s power of diversifying the scene while he is carrying on the plot.’ H."

1858 col3

col3

1850 Collier (ed. 1858): “So the 4to, 1603, and the folio,1623; later 4tos our. Just afterwards the folio reads, ‘had sopke my lines’ for ‘spoke my lines’ of the 4tos, 1604, &c. The 4to, 1603, gives it’ I had rather hear a town bull below,’— scarcely what Shakespeare wrote.”

1870 abbott

abbott

1850-1 Abbott (§221): “Your, like ‘me’ above (Latin, iste), is used to appropriate an object to a person addressed. So: ‘I would teach these nineteen the special rules, as your punto, your reverso, your stoccata, your imbroccato, your passada, your montanto.’—Bobadil, in B. J. E. in &c. iv. 5. Hence the apparent rudeness of Hamlet is explained when he says to the palyer: ‘But if you mouth it as many of your players do.’ i.e. ‘the players whom you and everybody know.’”