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Line 1970 - 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.”

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Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen

For explanation of sigla, such as jen, see the editions bib.

1970 Ham. Doe you thinke I meant country matters?	3.2.116

1726 theon

theon

1970 country matters?] Theobald (1726, pp. 86-7): “Certainly, Hamlet’s Answer is more natural, and less abrupt, if we restore this Passage from the second folio Edition thus: Haml. Lady, shall I lie in your Lap? Ophel. No, my Lord. Haml. I mean, my Head upon your Lap? Ophel. Ay, my Lord. Haml. Do you think I meant Country Matters? But, indeed, if ever the Poet deserved Whipping for low and indecent Ribaldry, it was for this Passage; ill-tim’d in all its Circumstances, and unbefitting the Dignity of his Characters, as well as of his Audience.”

1736 stubbs

stubbs

1970 country matters?] [Stubbs] (1736, p. 39): “I might also justly find Fault with the want of Decency in his Discourses to Ophelia, without being thought too severe.”

1765 john1

john1

1970 Johnson (ed. 1765): “I think we must read, Do you think, I meant country manners?" Do you imagine that I meant to sit in your lap, with such rough gallantry as clowns use to their lasses?”

1773 v1773

v1773 = john1

1784 ays

ays: john1

1970 country matters] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “Dr. Johnson thinks we must read, Do you think I meant country manners? Do you imagine that I meant to sit in your lap, with such rough gallantry as clowns use to their lasses?”

1785 mason

mason

1970 Mason (1785, p, 388): “This is a vulgar expression still used in common life, and means, ‘Do you think I have an indecent allusion?’ The reason why it bears this sense cannot be so decently explained.”

1790 mal

mal: john

1970 Doe you thinke I meant country matters?] Malone (ed. 1790): “Dr. Johnson, from a casual inadvertence, proposed to read—country manners. The old reading is certainly right. What Shakspeare meant to allude to, must be too obvious to every reader, to require any explanation.”

1791- rann

rann

1970 country matters?] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—any thing indecent.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

1818-19 mclr2

mclr2: john1

1970 country matters] Coleridge (ms. notes 1819 in Ayscough, ed. 1807; rpt. Coleridge, 1998, 12.4:852): <p. 852>“I am afraid that a painfully gross play on syllables was intended.”</p. 852>

1826 sing1

SING1

1970 Singer (ed. 1826): “This is the reading of the quarto 1603. The quarto 1604 and the folio read country.”

1853 coln

coln

1970 country matters] Collier (1853, p. 425): <p. 425> “It may be considered a somewhat singular feature in the manuscript-corrections, of this drama in particular, that all passages of an indecent character are carefully erased. Such are portions of the dialogue between Hamlet and Ophelia, prior to and during the representation before the King and Queen, which Steevens seemed to think ‘were peculiar to the young and fashionable of the age of Shakespeare.’ It appears, however, that not very long after ‘the age of Shakespeare,’ they were struck out, either on account of their needless indelicacy, or for the sake of abbreviating the performance; perhaps both.” </p. 425>

1882 elze

elze

1970 country matters] Elze (ed. 1882): “Dr Johnson’s conjecture ‘manners’ seems to be countenanced by the following passage from Marston’s Malcontent, II, 3 (Works, ed. Halliwell, II, 229): — ‘Bea[ncha]. To bed, to bed. Mal[evole]. Doe your husbands lie with yee? Bea. That were country fashion, yfaith.’

Greene, Dorastus and Fawnia (Shakespeare’s Library, ed. Hazlitt, I, IV, 58): delighting as much to talke of Pan and his cuntrey prankes, as Ladies to tell of Venus and her wanton toyes.”

1885 macd

macd

1970 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Hamlet hints, proving her character—hoping her unable to understand. It is the festering soreness of his feeling concerning his mother, making him doubt with the haunting agony of a loathed possibility, that promp0ts, urged, forces from him his ugly speeches—nowise to be justified, only to be largely excused in his sickening consciousness of his mother’s presence. Such pain as Hamlet’s, the ferment of subverted love and reverence, may lightly bear the blame of hideous manners, seeing they spring from no wantonness, but from the writhing of tortured and helpless Purity. Good manners may be as impossible as out of place in the presence of shameless evil.”

1899 ard1

ard1

country matters] Dowden (ed. 1899): “rustic proceedings. Johnson conjectured country manners, as in King John, 1. I. 156. I suspect that that there is some indelicate suggestion in country. In Westward Hoe, v. i., I find: ‘Though we lie all night out of the city, they shall not find country wenches of us,’ meaning we will not wrong our husbands; and in Northward Hoe, III. I. (spoken of a harlot), ‘a good commonwealthes woman she was borne. For her country, and has bourne her country.’”

1934a cam3

cam3 = ard1 +

1970 Wilson (ed. 1934): “In Westward Hoe, 5.1. I find: ‘Though we lie all night out of the city, they [our husbands] shall not find country wenches of us.’”

1985 fisher

fisher

1970 Doe you thinke I meant country matters?] Fisher (1985, p. 5): “As it is today, ‘cuntery’ was doubtless used in Shakespeare’s day as a common word for a convent or a brothel. In this passage ‘country’ is meaningless, but all editors print it.”