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.

1747 warb

warb

1872 Warburton (ed. 1747): “Pressure, for impression.”

1765 john1

john1

age and body] Johnson (ed. 1765): “The age of the time can hardly pass. May we not read, the face and body, or did the authour write, the page? The page suits well with form and pressure, but ill with body.”

his form and pressure] Johnson (ed. 1765): “Resemblance as in a print.”

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

1773 jen

jen

1871-72 the very...time] Jennens (ed. 1773): “J. says the age of the time can hardly pass; and therefore proposes, either face, or page, instead of age. But I believe nobody but himself would have any objection to the words as they stand.”

1778 v1778

v1778

Steevens (ed. v1778): “To exhibit the form and pressure of the age of the time, is, to represent the manners of the time suitable to the period that is treated of, according as it may be ancient, or modern. “

1784 davies

davies

Davies (1784, p. 84): "From acting, Hamlet is insensibly drawn into a partial description of dramatic fable. I think, with submission to Dr. Johnson and Mr. Steevens, that ’the age and body of the time’ means the particular vices and follies of the age we live in; to correct these is the business of the dramatic poet. In Aristophanes, and other ancient dramatists, the moral and political history of their times might have been partly traced. In Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Fletcher, and Massinger, well understood, we might find some actions portrayed of the age in which they lived."

1784 ays

ays

1872 forme and pressure] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “i.e. resemblance, as in a print.”

1785 mason

mason

1871-2 Mason (1785, p. 387): “I can neither think this passage right as it stands, or approve of either of the amendments suggested by Johnson.— There is one more simple than either that will remove every difficulty, instead of ‘the very age and body of time,’ from which it is hard to extract any meaning, I read, ‘Every age and body of the time;’ and then the sense will be this:— ‘Shew virtue, her own likeness; scorn her own image, and every stage of life, every profession or body of men, its form and resemblance.’ by every age, is meant the different stages of life ,—by every body, the various fraternities, sorts, and ranks of mankind.”

1790 mal

mal

Malone (ed. 1790): “Dr. Johnson says, ‘the age of the time can hardly pass.’ Mr. Steevens has endeavoured to explain it. But perhaps Shakspeare did not mean to connect these words. It is the end of playing, says Hamlet, to shew the age in which we live, and the body of the time, its form and pressure: to delineate exactly the manners of the age, and the particular humour of the day.”

1791- rann

rann

1871-2 and the very age and body of the time] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—and to exhibit a striking resemblance of the manners of the period it undertakes to treat of; to paint in lively colours the prevailing vices and follies, the characteristic qualities of the age we live in.—and every age and body of the time—and justly to represent every different stage of life, and the various orders or ranks among mankind.”

1793 v1793

M. Mason [V1793]: I can neither think this passage right as it stands, or approve of either of the ammendments suggested by Johnson.--There is one more simple than either, that will remove every difficulty. Indeed of “the very age and body of the time,” (from which it is hard to extract any meaning,) I read--”every age and body of the time;” and then the sense will be this:--“Show virtue her own likeness, and every stage of life, every profession or body of men, its form and resemblance.” By every age, is meant the different stages of life;--by every body, the various fraternities, forts, and ranks of mankind.

Malone [V1793]: Perhaps Shakspeare did not mean to connect these words. It is the end of the playing, says Hamlet, to show the age in which we live, and the body of the time, its form and pressure: to delineate exactly the manners of the age, and the particular humour of the day.

1805 seymour

seymour

Seymour (1805, pp. 176-7): <p. 176>“The ‘age of time,’ as objected to by Dr. Johnson, is not, I believe, implied in the construction; </p. 176><p. 177>it is ‘the age,’ simply, ‘to shew virtue,’ &c. and the very age—and the body of the time, its form, &c. to shew the age its form; i.e. to exhibit the manners of the age: by ‘body of the time,’ or rather ‘the body of the time,’ I believe is meant, the public body—the people in the aggregate.”

1815 becket

becket

1871-2 age...time] Becket (1815, pp. 47-48): “Johnson has rightly objected to ‘age and body of time;’ but the reading proposed by him, I do not well understand. I would alter the passage thus: ‘Show virtue her own feature; and the age, the very body of the time, &c.’ The meaning is ‘show the times’ [age,] as they really are. The words ‘very body of the time,’ are in fact superfluous, but used in order to impress the object on the attention: </p. 47><p. 48> or that the speaker may be thoroughly understood. Such redundance is frequent, not only in written language, but in ordinary discourse.” </p. 48>

1826 sing1

sing1

1871-2 Singer (ed. 1826): “Pressure is impression, resemblance.”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1 = sing1 (without attribution)

HUDSON (ed. 1856): "Pressure is impression, resemblance."

1866 bailey

bailey

1871-2 scorne her own...pressure] Bailey (1866, pp.7-9): <p.7> “A favorite passage, known as Hamlet’s Instructions to the Players, contains, besides some other disputable phrases to be hereafter considered, an expression about the genuineness of which the commentators differ, but which they seem inclined to explain rather than to alter. ‘The age of the time,’ says Dr. Johnson, ‘can hardly pass.’ He might have gone farther, and designated it, as it really is, destitute of meaning. Even if we take age not to be connected with time by the preposition of, we obtain only a weak and awkward pleonasm. The Doctor judiciously proposed to read ‘the very face and body of the time,’ which is a great improvement, and seems exposed </p.7><p.8>to no objections but the superfluousness of very, and the difficulty of perverting face into age. The emendation I have to suggest is at once equivalent to his import, and free from these objections. I propose to read ‘the visage and body of time.’ Visage and very age are so near in their component letters, that the transition from the first to the second is easily conceivable. If any one demur to the phrase visage of the time, which really forms an excellent counterpart to body, I must turn him over to Hotspur’s father, who, addressing his wife and daughter-in-law, says to them: ‘Put not you on the visage of the times.’ Henry IV. Part II. Act.ii.sc.3. Besides this very obvious error, there is further misprint, which is less manifest, and which indeed may not strike others as it does me. Why should Hamlet speak of the pressure of the body of the time? Dr. Johnson tells us that it signifies resemblance as in a print, but surely this is not a very felicitous meaning. If the word, moreover, were taken in this sense, it would include form (since the latter mainly constitutes the imprint of any object), and would thus create a pleonasm. The interpretation of the passage, according to Dr. Johnson, would really be ‘to show the face and body of the time (in the mirror), both its form and resemblance, as in spirit,’ just as if these were two distinct things. </p.8><p.9>

“We may obtain something better than this by substituting the word posture for pressure; and then we shall really have two distinct things, the shape and the attitude.

“Pressure is found in only one other passage; and supposing the word to be genuine in that passage, the instance would in some degree tell against my proposed change. It occurs in a former scene of the same tragedy, in which Hamlet is also the speaker: [quotes TLN 785]. But here also postures or some other word ought to be substituted for pressures, on the grounds already assigned: in addition to which it may be pointed out, that we cannot consistently speak of impressions on the mind being copied in the mind.”

1867 ktlyn

ktlyn = mason+

1871-2 Keightly (1867, p. 292): “As ‘age of time’ seems not to be a very correct expressonn, we might feel inclined to read world for ‘time,’ but no change is required; time is the age, world, and so ‘age of the time’ may signify period of the world, the then state of society.”

1872 cln1

cln1

1871 pressure] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "See i. 5. 100. So ’impressure’ is used in As You Like It, iii. 5. 23."

1881 hud2

hud2 = hud1 +

Hudson (ed. 1881): “...as when, in [1.5.99-100. (784-5)]: Hamlet says, ‘I’ll wipe away all forms, all pressures past.’”

1884 gould

Gould

Gould (1884, p. 39): “The word ‘pressure’ should certainly be ‘presence’. What is seen in the mirror is ‘THE TIME’ personified. 1, ‘age’, whether old, young, etc.; 2, ‘body’, whether large, small, etc.; 3, ‘form’, whether round, oval, square, etc.; 4, “presence’, whether presenting the appearance of a gentleman, rustic, etc. Lord Bacon, who was Shakespeare’s exact contemporary, uses the word in the same sense. As you Like It: ‘Three young men of excellent growth and presence.’ In Troilus and Cressida we have ‘I will put on his presence’.—There are also examples in King John and elsewhere.”

1885 macd

macd

1871-2 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “impression, as on wax. Some would persuade us that Shakespere’s own plays do not do this; but such critics take the accidents or circumstances of a time for the body of it—the clothes for the person. Human nature is ‘Nature,’ however dressed. There should be a comma after ‘Age’.”

1899 ard1

ard1

very age] Dowden (ed. 1899): “actual generation. Bailey proposes ‘visage,’ comparing 2 Henry IV. II. Iii. 3: ‘Visage of the times.’”

pressure] Dowden (ed. 1899): “impress. Compare I.v.100.”

1988 Greenblatt

Greenblatt

1870-2 Mirrour . . . pressure] Greenblatt (1988, p. 8) discusses the excuse of simply reflecting what is there that could be offered in an age of repression and censorship. But mirrors then also emanated “strangeness and magic.” an “impression, as with a seal or signet ring. . . . ”