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Line 2049 - 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 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary

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

2049 <Ham. Wormwood, Wormwood.>	3.2.181

1843 col1

col1

2049 Collier (ed. 1843): “We follow the folio here: the earliest quarto reads, ‘O! wormwood.’ The other quartos, ‘That’s wormwood;’ and it is placed in the margin, as if at first it had been accidentally omitted. The object might be to save room in the printing.”

1850 Braybrooke

Braybrooke

2049 wormwood Braybrooke (N&Q, 1st series, II, 48, May-Dec. 1850, p. 286): <p.286> “Singer supposes, ‘Eisell was absynthites, or wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use,’ Pepys’ friends must have had a very singular taste, for he records, on the 24th November, 1660,—’Creed and Shepley, and I, to the Rhenish wine house, and there I did give them two quarts of wormwood wine.’

“Perhaps the beverage was doctored for the English market, and rendered more palatable than it had been in the days of Stuckius.”

1858 col3

col3 = col1 minus “The object . . . printing.”

1890 irv2

irv2

2049 Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “Qq. have, in the margin, That’s Wormwood, which seems just as good a reading as that of the Ff. given in the text, and adopted by almost all the editors.”

1891 dtn

dtn: Skeat

2049 wormwood Deighton (ed. 1891): “a very bitter plant still used in France in the manufacture of ‘absinthe,’ and ‘vermuth.’ The word had really nothing to do with either worm or wood, but is from the A.S. wermód, which, according to Skeat, is equivalent to ‘mind-preserving,’ from A.S. werian, to protect, and A.S mód, thus pointing back ‘to some primitive belief as to the curative properties of the plant in mental afflictions.”

1980 pen2

pen2

20349 wormwood] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(a plant of bitter taste, and so ‘something bitter to a person’s feelings’).”

1984 chal

chal

2049 wormwood] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “wormwood plant noted for its bitter taste.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ c hal

2049 wormwood Hibbard (ed. 1987): “(literally, the plant Artemisia Absinthium, proverbial for its bitter taste, but used figuratively here).”

1993 dent

dent: Rom. //

2049 wormwood] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Hamlet refers to a herb whose extract was a bitter-tasting oil. The Nurse says that she applied it to her dug to wean the infant Juliet (Rom. 1.3.26,30 [379, 384]). Hamlet probably means either (a) ‘that’s so much wormwood’ or (b) ‘that’s the bitter truth’.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2 ≈ col1

2049 Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “In Q2 both the SP and Hamlet’s words are printed in the right-hand margin, perhaps a way of indicating an aside. Some performers address this line to Horatio.”

ard3q2 ≈ oxf4; 2410 xref

2049 wormwood] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “literally, the plant artemisia absinthium, used figuratively for something bitter or mortifying. Hamlet seems to be more attentive to the reactions of the Queen than to those of the King at this point. He accuses her of kill[ing] a king at 3.4.27 [2410], although the Ghost has not been specific about the extent of her involvement.”