Line 2250 - 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.
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Notes for lines 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary
| 2250 Ham. Mee thinks it is like a Wezell. 2250 | 3.2.379 |
|---|
1723 pope1
pope1
2250 Wezell] Pope (ed. 1723): “Ouzle] An Ouzle or Blackbird: it has been printed by mistake a Weesel, which is not black.”
The precedent for this spelling is not Q2, which Pope occasionally cites, but some other edition, unidentified in the gloss, which must have served as a reference-text. None of the editions that we are currently collating, however, has the spelling for Weesel.
1726 theon
theon=contra pope1
2250 Wezell] Theobald (1726, p. 97): “I have nothing to object against this Alteration made by Mr. POPE; or, why an Ouzle may not be as proper as a Weesel: But I am afraid his Reasoning, that it has been printed by Mistake a Weesel, because a Weesel is not black,—will not be altogether so incontestible; when we come to see that the Second Edition in Folio, and several other of the Copies have a various Reading, in which there is not the least Intimation of Blackness. There, you read it, ‘Haml. Methinks, it is like a Weesel. Polon. It is BACK’D like a Weesel.’”
1733 theo1
theo1 ≈ pope; MND, 2H4 //s
2250 Wezell] Theobald (ed. 1733): “The old Quarto and Folio give us this Passage thus: ‘Methinks, it is like a Weezel. Pol. It is black like a Weezel.’ But a Weezel, as Mr. Pope has observ’d, is not black. Some other Editions read the last Line thus: ‘Pol. It is back’d like a Weezel.’ This only avoids the Absurdity of giving a false Colour to the Weezel: But Ouzle is certainly the true Reading, and a Word which our Author has used in other Places; ‘The Ousel-Cock, so black of hue, With Orange-tawny Bill, &c.’ MND [3.1.125-6 (942-3)] ‘Shal. And how doth my Cousin, your Bedfellow? and your fairest Daughter and mine, my God-daughter Ellen? Sil. Alas a black Ouzel, Cousin Shallow.’ 2H4 [3.2.8 (1541)] But there is a Propriety in the Word being used in the Passage before us, which determines it to be the true Reading; the Reason of which, I presume, did not occur to Mr. Pope. ‘Tis obvious, that Hamlet, under the Umbrage of suppos’d Madness, is playing on Polonius; and a particular Compliance is shewn in the old Man, (who thinks Hamlet really mad, and, perhaps, is afraid of him) to confess; that the same Cloud is like a Beast, a Bird, and a Fish: viz. a Camel, an Ouzle, and a Whale. Nor is there a little Humour in the Disproportion of the three Things, which the Cloud is suppos’d to resemble.”
1744 han1
han1:≈ pope1 without attribution
2250 Wezell] Hanmer (ed. 1744: glossary, ouzle): “An OUZLE, a blackbird.”
1765 Heath
Heath
2250-2251 like . . . . Weezel] Heath (1765, p.540): “The common reading was, ’like a weesel,’ which I am persuaded is the true one, since the resemblance of a cloud to an animal is generally concluded from its shape, not from its colour. The second line therefore, should be read, agreeably to the second folio and several other copies, ‘It is back’d like a weesel.’ Polonius is desirous of humouring to the utmost one whom he looks on as a madman. He agrees therefore to every thing he says; and when Hamlet had said the cloud was like a weesel, he not only concurs with him, but unluckily pitches upon the back of the weesel for the peculiar circumstance of resemblance, the very part in which it differs most from the camel, whose resemblance to the cloud he had the very moment before equally admitted.”
1765 john2
john2
2250-1 it is . . . . Wezell] Steevens (apud Steevens, ed. 1765: Appendix, Ll3): “The first folio reads, ‘—it is like a weazell It is back’d like a weazell. And this I apprehend to be the true reading.’ Polonius has already agreed to the similitude the cloud bears to a camel, and confesses, readily enough, that it is very like a whale; but on Hamlet’s pushing the matter still further, though his complaisance holds out, it will not extend to a general resemblance any longer; he therefore admits the propriety of the last comparison but in part, and only says, ‘It is back’d like a weasel.’ The weasel is remarkable for the length of its back; but the editors were misled by the quartos, which concur in reading, black like a weasel, for this they said was impossible to be right, the animal being of another colour. The variation in these old copies was no more than a blunder of the printers, for it is as likely that the cloud should resemble a weasel in shape, as an ouzle, i.e. blackbird, (which they substituted for it) colour. Mr. Steevens.”
1773 v1773
v1773 ≈ john2 minus char. of Ham’s thinking process
2250-1 it is . . . . Wezell] Steevens (ed. 1773): “This passage has been printed in modern editions thus: ‘Methinks. it is like an ouzle, &c. Pol. It is black like an ouzel.’ The first folio reads, it is like a WEAZEL. ‘Pol. It is back’d like a weazel’; and what occasion for alteration there was, I cannot find out. The weasel is remarkable for the length of its back; but though I believe a black weasel is not easy to be found, yet it is as likely that the cloud should resemble a weasel in shape, as an ouzle (i.e. black-bird) in colour. Steevens.”
1773 gent1
gent1
2250-2252 Mee . . . . Whale] Gentleman (ed. 1773): “Polonius is here played off, in a pleasant characteristic manner.”
1778 v1778
v1778=v1773 + Tollet
2251 backt] Steevens (ed. 1778): “Mr.Tollet observes, that we might read—’it is beck’d like a weasel,’ i.e. weasel-snouted. So, in Holished’s Description of England, p. 172: ‘if he be wesell-becked.’ Quarles uses this term of reproach in his Virgin Widow: ‘Go you weazel-snouted, addle-pated, &c.’ Mr. Tollet adds, that Milton in his Lycidas, calls a promontory beaked, i.e. prominent like the beak of a bird.’ Steevens.”
1784 ays1
ays1=john2 minus “Appendix . . . . a weasel.” and “but the editors . . . . colour.”
2250 Wezell] Ayscouth (ed. 1784): “The weasel is remarkable for the length of its back.”
1790 mal
mal=v1785 minus “This passage . . . . cannot [find out] discover.” +
2250-1 it is . . . . Wezell] Malone (ed. 1790): “Thus the quarto, 1604, and the folio. The weasel, Mr Steevens observes, is remarkable for the length of its back. In a more modern quarto, that of 1611 [Q3], back’d, the original reading, was corrupted into black. Perhaps in the original edition the words camel and weazel, were shuffled out of their places. The poet might have intended the dialogue to proceed thus: ‘Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in the shape of a weazel? Pol. By the mass, and ‘tis like a weazel, indeed. Ham. Methinks, it is like a camel. Pol. It is back’d like a camel.’ The protuberant back of a camel seems more ot resemble a cloud, than the back of a weazel does. Malone.”
1793 v1793
v1793=v1785, mal
Order of items in note is somewhat reorganized.
1822 Nares
Nares: etym.; MND // without attribution; Drayton, Spenser analogues
2250 Wezell] Nares (1822, glossary, ousel or ouzel): “The blackbird; the bird [Greek Here]. Oisel, or oiseau, old French; or oΓle, Saxon. ‘The ousel cock, so black of hue, With orange tawny bill.’ MND [3.1.125-6 (942-3)]. Drayton writes it woosel, but evidently means the same bird: ‘The woosel near at hand, that hath a golden bill.’ Polyolb. Song xiii. p. 914. He has it also osel. Sheph. Garl. In the passage in Hamlet, (Act iii. Sc. 2) where some modern editions have read ouzle, for ousel; the old editions all read weasel, which is now adopted. ‘The ousel shrills, the ruddock warbles soft.’ Spens. Epithal. l.82.”
1899 ard1
ard1
2250 Wezell] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Capell transposed the camel and the weasel, to provide a hump for the second animal. Pope, reading with the later Qq black for backed, substituted ouzle for weasel, which Theobald approved, noting that ‘there is humour in comparing the same cloud to a beast, a bird, and a fish.” See n. [3.2.380 (2251)].
2250