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Line 2014-15 - 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.

2014-5 Oph. You are naught, you are naught, Ile mark the \| play.

1733 theo1

Theobald (letter, p. 68 W.b.74) says that naught here means “little better than downright bawdy,” and he compares it to MND where he thinks “a thing of nought” should be “a thing of naught.”

1869 romdahl

romdahl

2014 naught] Romdahl (1869, p. 32): “Naught, as an adjective, for naughty, bad, is now-a-days uncommon. It is the same word as the indefinite pronoun naught (also written nought) and accordingly it properly meant, not any thing, worthless.”

1870 rushtonN

rushtonN

2014 naught] Rushton (1870, pp. 33): “The word naught, in the 19th Henry VII., cap. 6, evidently means ‘bad,’ or worthless, if we consider the context in the preamble, which recites ‘that persons used to make new vessels, and mix good metal and bad together, and made it naught, and sell them for good stuff, where indeed thestuff and metal therof is not woth the fourth part,’—and in this sense it is sometimes used by Shakespeare, as it seems to be by Claudio, Canterbury, the Nurse, Ophelia, and Cymbeline.”

1881 hud2

hud2

2014-5 Hudson (ed. 1881): “That is, naughty, bad; not nothing or nought.”

1885 macd

macd

2014-5 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “naughty: persons who do not behave well are treated as if they were not –are made nought of—are set at nought; hence our word naughty. ‘Be naught awhile” (As You Like it, [1.1.??. (38-39)]—‘take yourself away;’ ‘be nobody;’ ‘put yourself in the corner.’”

1899 ard1

ard1

naught] Dowden (ed. 1899): “improper, licentious, Bunyan in Grace Abounding declares that he never ‘so much as attempted to be naught with women.’ So Dekker, The Honest Whore (Pearson’s Dekker, ii. P. 54).”