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Line 1904-05 - 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.

1904 Ham. Horatio, thou art een as iust a man	3.2.54

1905 As ere my conuersation copt withall.	3.2.55

1710 Gildon

Gildon

1904-25 Horatio . . . do thee] Gildon (1710, p. 403): Hamlet’s “Speech to Horatio p. 2414. has many good Lines.”

1736 Stubbs

Stubbs

1904-05 Stubbs (1736, pp. 38-9): “HAMLET’s Expression of his Friendship for Horatio, has great Beauties; it is with Simplicity and Strength, and the Diction has all the Graces of Poetry. It was well imagin’d, that he should let his Friend know the Secret of his Father’s Murder, because, thus his Request to </p. 38> <p. 39> him, to observe the King’s Behaviour at the Play, is very naturally introduc’d as a prudent Desire of the Prince’s.”

1784 davies

davies

1904-05 Davies (1784, p. 89): "The warm and pathetic address of Hamlet to his friend is, I think, not unlike that of Orestes to Pylades in the Electra of Euripides:’Thee, o my Pylades, I deem the first/Of men for thy fidelity and friendship,/And my unsever’d comrade!’[notes that this is Wodhull’s Translation}."

1784 richardson

richardson

1904-05 Richardson (1780, p. 126): “Hamlet knew the sanctity of friendship, its uses, and its importance. His friend was not merely the partner of his amusements, to be his associate in his pleasures, and to cherish his vanity by adulation: he was a friend to counsel and assist him in doubtful emergencies, to improve his heart, and correct his judgment. The qualities that distinguish Horatio, and render him worthy of the esteem of Hamlet, are not affluence, nor pageantry, nor gay accomplishments, nor vivacity, nor even wit, and uncommon genius, too often allied to an impetuous temper; he is distinguished by that equanimity and independence of soul which arise from governed and corrected passions, from a sound and discerning judgment.”

1791- rann

rann

1905 As ere my conuersation copt withal] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—As ever I encountered, met with.”

1872 cln1

cln1

1905 conuersation] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “converse, intercourse.”

copt withal] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “encountered with. In Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 412, ’to cope’ means ’to reward.’ "

1882 elze

elze

1905 ere my conuersation copt wihal] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Nat. Field, A Woman is a Weathercock (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, XI, 99): One-and-thirty good morrows to the fairest, wisest, richest widow that ever conversation coped withal.”

1885 macd

macd

1904 -7 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “To know a man, there is scarce a readier way than to hear him talk of his friend—why he loves, admires, chooses him. The Poet here gives us a wide window into Hamlet. So genuine is his respect for being, so indifferent is he to having, that he does not shrink, in argument for his own truth, from reminding his friend to his face that, being a poor man, nothing is to be gained from him—nay, from telling him that it is through his poverty he has learned to admire him, as a man of courage, temper, contentment, and independence, with nothing but his good spirits for and income—a man whose manhood is dominant both over his senses and over his fortune—a true Stoic. He describes an ideal man, then clasps the ideal to his bosom as his own in the person of his friend. Only a great man could so worship another, choosing him for such qualities; and hereby Shakspere shows us his Hamlet—a brave, noble, wise, pure man, beset by circumstances the most adverse conceivable.

“That Hamlet had not misapprehended Horatio becomes evident in the last scene of all. 272”

1899 ard1

ard1

1904. iust] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Hamlet, at this moment, needs before all else a man of sound judgement, unswayed by passion. The eulogy that follows has here a dramatic proprierty.

copt withal] Dowden (ed. 1899): “as ever my intercourse with men encountered. So copest in Winter’s Tale, IV. Iv. 435.”