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Line 1886-87 - 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.

1886-7 Ham. O reforme it altogether, and let those that \| play your clownes

1887-8 speake no more then is set downe for | them, for there be of them that

1729 roberts

roberts

1887 Roberts (1729, pp. 23-4): “I don’t believe there can by any such Example produc’d, where the Player speaks in propria Persona, otherwise than the Poet has set down for him, even among those who play’d your Clowns: And ‘tis plain, that when ‘twas practis’d by some in the Time of Action, ‘twas utterly condemn’d and exploded, as ‘tis observable by Shakespear’s Complaint of the same, which our Prefaces has quoted from Hamlet, but was never prevalent enough to be inserted into his written Parts or Plays, for then we should havbe some Examples of this Fault in the Folio Edition of his Works, whereas there is not one Instance of the like throughout that Volume, tho’ it was printed by the Players long after his Death, and, as Mr. Pope assures us, from piecemeal written Parts and Interpolated Copies. </p. 23><p. 24> What Shakespeare’s Reproof in Hamlet aim’d at, was only an occasional Vice in those concern’d in the Characters of low Life; to which Class of Performers there have been, from Age to Age, frequent Indulgences given, by the Spectators, to their Favourite Comedians; tho’ such have never been encourag’d and establish’d so far, to be grafted into the Productions of the Press.”

1845 hunter

hunter

1886-88 and...them] Hunter (1845, p. 246-47): <p. 246>“It is well shewn in the notes that in the infancy of the the [sic] English drama, that is, before the time of Shakespeare, Jonson, Chapman, and perhaps Lyly and Marlowe, the clowns were accustomed to extemporize, and particularly Tarleton, whose fame as a clown has never been surpassed. Thus in Gabriel Harvey’s Pierce’s Supplication we have— ‘Tarleton to extemporize.’ When the plays were written with more care and fullness, the author would not approve of this liberty in the actor, whence Shakespeare here reprehends it. There is a remarkable addition at this place in the quarto of 1603, which is not without marks of the hand </p. 246><p. 247>of Shakespeare— ‘And then you have some again that keep one suit of jests, as a man is known by one suit of apparel; and gentlemen quote his jests down in their tables before they come to the play; as thus: Cannot you stay till I eat my porridge? and You owe me a quarter’s wages; and My coat wants a cullison; and Your beer is sour; and blabbering with his lips; and then keeping in his cinque-pace of jests, when, God knows, the warm clown cannot make a jest unless by chance as the blind man catcheth the hare.’ Phrases such as these continued to be the stock wit of the clowns who appeared on the stage of the mountebanks, who seem silently to have withdrawn themselves about the close of the last century.”</p. 247>

1872 cln1

cln1

1886 Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "In the infancy of the English Drama the clown made fun for the audience by extemporized buffoonery, of which the quarto of 1603 gives some specimens in the passage corresponding to this. Tarleton was an actor who enjoyed a great reputation for this kind of wit."

1887 there be of them] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "For this partitive use of the preposition, see Leviticus iv. 16: ’The priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock’s blood.’ "

1885 macd

macd

1887-8 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Shakespere must have himself suffered from such clowns: Coleridge thinks some of their gag has crept into his print.”

1899 ard1

ard1

1887 clowns] Dowden (ed. 1899): “The ‘extemporall wit’ of Wilson and of Tarlton is praised by Stowe. In Q 1 examples of the clown’s jests are given by Hamlet. Collier supposed that the passage in Q 1 might have been levelled at Kemp, ‘who about the date quitted the company of players to which Shakespeare had always belonged.’ See p. 232.”

1934 cam3

cam3

1887 Wilson (ed. 1934): “No clown appears in the Gonzago play, so that these words seem directed against a real clown recognisable by Sh.’s audience. This is supported by an extension of the passage in Hamlet, 1603 (QI) . Whatever be its source, this addition must be a personal attack upon a particular clown , who is accused of using very stale material, since two of the ‘cinqpace jests’ occurs in Talton’s Jests (pub. c. 1600), v. ed. Shak. Soc. 1844, pp. 5, 12. Collier suggested that the Clown was William Kempe, who left Sh.’s company in 1599.

2008 Weimann and Bruster

Weimann and Bruster

1886-92 let those . . . vses it] Weimann and Bruster (2008, p. 100): “The Prince of Denmark’s view of what is ’necessary’ is too much that of a courtly humanist for him to be more balanced in his censure .. . .When Hamlet goes out of his way to warn the First Player [to stick to the text], the Prince holds most abusive the direct, extratextual bond between comedians and spectators. . . . For clowns to laugh in this way is for ’themselves’ to authorize, not closure but disclosure . . . . These comedians are predisposed to pursue a way of entertaining that elicits the visible pleasure of onlookers and confirms the player in his pains. What counts, for him, is to have the audience with him, participating and involved in the fun of the game . . . . ” The clown’s laughter joining with that of his audience validates his art. “Such laughter rings with a . . . communal sense of gratification and relief at being one of them and yet having the skill to cater for an occasion that pays.”