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Line 2407 - 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 2023-2950 ed. Frank N. Clary

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

2407 Ham. Nay I knowe not, is it the King?	3.4.26

1855 Wade

Wade

2407 Wade (1855, p. 12): “Half-assured of his mistake, but evidently not altogether displeased with the fact of his having at length done something, he replies to his amazed mother’s hurried question of—’What has thou done?’ by offhandedly averring that he knows not what; and immediately expresses an interrogative sort of notion that it is really the king whom he has killed, and thus by little better than accident fulfilled his great purposed earthly mission! Had he paused to ascertain who was ‘behind the arras,’ thus to guard himself from the possibility of becoming, not avenger, but murderer merely, and even found that the listener was the king, he would never, we may be sure, have thrust his sword through it; but would have contented himself with some biting piece of tongue-revenge, and only left their tricky majesties to the ignorant thought that he was madder than ever. This he instinctively knows, and so makes a convulsive effort to fulfil his destiny on the sudden and at random.”

1869 tsch

tsch

2407 Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “H’s. Antwort auf die Frage der Königin ist characteristisch. Seine That gründet sich nur auf die Vermuthung, der K ö n i g sei hinter der Tapete verborgen, daher seine schnelle Rückfrage: Is it the king? Sein Thun gehört jetzt “jenen tück’schen Mächten an, die keines Menschen Kunst vertraulicht macht,” u. beweist den Satz, dass “Will u. Geschick stets im Streit befangen” sind.” [Hamlet’s answer to the queen’s question is characteristic. His deed is based only on the suspicion that the king is hidden behind the curtain, whence comes his quick question, Is it the king? His action now belongs to those malicious powers that interfere with any person’s plans and proves the saying that Intention and fate are always enemies.]

1875 Marshall

Marshall

2407 is it the King] Marshall (1875, pp. 48-49): <p.48> “The intense eagerness with which [Hamlet] utters this question is the key to the apparent strangeness of his conduct. We have seen him, but a short while ago, gazing on the figure of the King as he knelt in the agony of barren prayer; we have seen him in the presence of an opportunity, which might </p.48><p.49> never occur again, of revenging his father’s death by slaying his murderer without the chance of interruption; we have seen him then stop to argue with himself, and to elaborate the most bloodthirsty cruelty in his mind, which his sword lay harmless in his motionless hand; but now, when the object of his hate is concealed from his sight, he strikes blindly, upon the impulse of the moment; and the very idea that he has thus, in spite of his own weakness, in spite of his fatal inertness, accomplished the deed he had so long contemplated, and fulfilled the solemn charge, for his faithlessness to which he had so bitterly reproached himself, fills him with a joy which, even in the presence of her whose husband he thinks he has slain, he cannot conceal.” </p.49>

1878 Watson

Watson

2407 Watson (1878, p. 31): “In the second attempt [on the king’s life] he made an unfortunate mistake and killed Polonius; and that is just as good, so far as intent and action goes, as if he had killed the King. It was a mistake no greater in proportion than we, ourselves often make while endeavouring to perform difficulty and unhappy tasks.”

1885 macd

macd

2407 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Hamlet takes him for, hopes it is the king, and thinks to conclude: he is not praying now! and there is not a moment to be lost, for he has betrayed his presence and called for help. As often as immediate action is demanded of Hamlet, he is immediate with his response—never hesitates, never blunders. There is no blunder here: being where he was, the death of Polonius was necessary now to the death of the king. Hamlet’s resolve is instant, and the act simultaneous with the resolve. The weak man is sure to be found wanting when immediate action is necessary; Hamlet never is. Doubtless those who blame him as dilatory, here blame him as precipitate, for they judge according to appearance and consequence.

“All his delay after this is plainly compelled, although I grant he was not sorry to have to await such more presentable evidence as at last he procured, so long as he did not lose the final possibility of vengeance.”

1903 p&c

p&c

2407 is . . . King] Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “Hamlet’s intention is made clear here, and emphasized in [4.1.40 (2627)]. Without Hamlet’s foreknowledge, Polonius suffers the penalty of intruders upon the course of a just revenge, as later, with foreknowledge, Guildenstern and Rosincrance likewise suffer.”

1929 trav

trav

2407 Nay] Travers (ed. 1929): “do not ask me.”

1931 crg1

crg1

2407 is it the King] Craig (ed. 1931): “The fact that Hamlet thinks he is stabbing the king is an indication that he does not lack will to carry out his revenge.”

1939 kit2

kit2

2407 is it the King] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “So Hamlet supposed when he made the thrust. In the interval between scenes 3 and 4, then, there has been time enough for the King to reach the Queen’s apartment and conceal himself.”

1983 Zitner

Zitner

2407 Zitner (1983, pp. 206): “[Zitner makes the point that merely by voice alone Hamlet should have known that the person behind the arras was not the king because of the difference in voice of Polonius] "(usually acted in a geriatric high pitch)" [from that of the king, which would be pitched low and deep.] "Apparently, Hamlet both knew and did not know that Claudius was behind the arras."”