HW Home	Previous CN	View CN	View TNM	View TNI	Next CN

Line 1915 - 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.

1915 And could of men distinguish <,> her election{,}	3.2.64

1778 v1778

1915-16 Steevens (ed. 1778): “Thus the folio. The quarto thus: And could of men distinguish her election, Sh’ hath seal’d thee, &c.”

1783 ritson

ritson: v1778

1915-16 Ritson (1783, p. 202): “Though this be the reading of the two first folios, it is certainly much inferiour to the following, which mr. Steevens gives us from an old quarto: ‘And could of men distinguish her election, / Sh’hath seal’d thee, &c.’

Distinguish her election, is no more than make her election; Distinguish of men is exceeding harsh, to say the best of it.”

1785 v1785

v1785:Ritson

1915 [Reed] (ed. 1785): “The author of THE REMARKS prefers the reading of the quarto, and observes, that to distinguish her election, is no more than to make her election. Distinguish of men, he adds, is exceedingly harsh, to say the best of it.”

1790- Wesley

Wesley contra Ritson

1915 of men distinguish] Wesley (ms. notes 1790-, p.46): “ ‘Distinguish of men’ is not ‘exceeding harsh’; it is harsh in no degree. ‘Of’ is here ‘among’; ‘since my soul could distinguish the merit of one person from that of another.’ We say ‘A man of a thousand’ meaning a man among a thousand.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = v1785

1793 v1793

v1793 = Ritson

1915 Reed (ed.1793): “Mr. Ritson prefers the reading of the quarto, and observes, that to distinguish her election, is no more than to make her election. Distinguish of men, he adds, is exceedingly harsh, to say the best of it.”

1872 cln1

cln1

1915 of men distinguish] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "Compare a similar construction, 2 Henry VI, ii. 1. 130: ’Sight may distinguish of colours.’ "

1915-16 Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): "This is the reading and punctuation of the folios. The quartos read: ’distinguish her election, S’hath (i.e. she hath) seal’d,’ &c. In using the words ’election’ and ’sealed’ the author perhaps was unconsciously imitating the language of the New Testament. Compare John vi. 27."

1882 elze

1915 her election] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare B. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, I, 1: —‘I had thought you Had had more judgement to have made election Of your companions.’ Marston, The Malcontent, I, 6 (Works, ed. Halliwell, II, 220): O judgement, where have beene my eyes? what bewitched election made me dote on thee? what sorcery made me love thee?””