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Line 2456+4-2457 - 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.

2456+4-2457 {Could not so mope:} \| ô shame where is thy blush?

2457 Rebellious hell,	3.4.82

1747 warb

warb: contra [han] (emendation)

2457 hell] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Alluding to what he had told her before that her enormous conduct shewed a kind of possession, ‘—What Devil was’t, That thus hath &c—’ And again afterwards, ‘For use can almost change the stamp of Nature, And master ev’n the Devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency—’ But the Oxford Editor [[han]], not apprehending the meaning, alters it to ‘—rebellious heat If thou canst &c.’ And so makes nonsense of it. For must not rebellious lust mutiny where-ever it is quartered? That it should get there might seem strange, but that it should do its kind when it was there seems to be natural enough.”

1765 john1

john1/john2: han

2457 hell] Johnson (ed. 1765): “I think the present reading right, but cannot admit that Hanmer’s emendation produces nonsense. May not what is said of heat, be said of hell, that it will mutiny wherever it is quartered?”

1773 v1773

v1773 ≈ john +

2457 hell] Johnson (apud ed. 1773): “Though the emendation be elegant, it is not necessary. Johnson.”

1778 v1778

v1778 = v1773 +

2456+4 mope] Steevens (ed. 1778): “i.e. could not exhibit such marks of stupidity. The same word is used in the Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)]— ‘And were brought moping hither.’ Steevens.”

1785 v1785

v1785 = v1778

1790 mWesley

mWesley = han, john

2457 Wesley (ms. notes in v1785): “(Hanmer reads ‘rebellious heat’; J. thinks this elegant but unnecessary.) Good and true.”

1790 mal

mal = v1785 minus warb, minus john1

1791- rann

rann

2456+4 mope] Rann (ed. 1791-): “betray such strong symptoms of stupidity.”

1793 v1793

v1793 = mal

1803 v1803

v1803 = v1793)

1813 v1813

v1813 = v1803

1819 cald1

cald1 ≈ v1778 (Tmp. //)

2456+4 so mope] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Be so blind and stupid. See Tmp [5.1.240 (2229)] Boatsw.”

1821 v1821

v1821 = v1813

1826 sing1

sing1 ≈ rann

2456+4 Could not . . . mope] Singer (1826): “i.e. could not be so dull and stupid.”

1832 cald2

cald2= cald1

1854 Q[uincy]

sing1 Q[uincy]: [han]

2457 Rebellious hell] Q[uincy] (1854, p. 34): “For ‘Rebellious Hell,’ we are told to read ‘rebellious heat,’ a change that the context seems to support.”

1856 hud1 (1851-6)

hud1 = sing1 without attribution

1856b sing2

sing2 = sing1

1858 col3

col3 ≈ sing1

2456+4 mope] Collier (ed. 1858): “To ‘mope’ is to be stupid, or stupefied.”

1857 fieb

fieb ≈ cald1 (Tmp. //)

2456+4 Could . . . mope] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “I.e. could not exhibit such marks of stupidity. To mope, to be stupid, to drowse. The same word is used in Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)]: ‘And were brought moping hither.’”

1866 ktlyn

ktlyn ≈ col2

2456+4 mope] Keightley (ed. 1866, glossary): “to be stupid or foolish.”

1868 c&mc

c&mc: H5 //

2456+4 mope] Clarke & Clarke (ed. 1868, rpt. 1878): “‘Dully go astray,’ ‘blindly wander.’ See Note 121, H5 [3.7.133 (1761)].”

1869 tsch

tsch: Mueller

2456+4 mope] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Ueber mope s. Ed. Mueller. Der Sinn entspricht unserm vulgären duseln.” [For mopes see Ed. Mueller. The meaning corresponds to the vulgar German duseln.]

1872 hud2

hud2 ≈ hud1

2456+4 mope] Hudson (ed. 1872): “To mope is to be dull and stupid.”

1872 cln1

cln1 ≈ cald1 (Tmp. //)

2456+4 mope] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “be stupid, incapable of reason. See Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)]: ‘Even in a dream were we divided from them And were brought moping hither.’”

1877 v1877

v1877 ≈ v1778 (incl. Tmp. //)

2456+4 mope] Furness (ed. 1877): “Steevens: Cold not exhibit such marks of stupidity. See Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)].”

v1877 ≈ warb, wh1 (see VN)

2457 hell] Furness (ed. 1877): “Warburton: Hanmer’s change is nonsense. White: Hanmer’s change is very specious.”

1878 rlf1

rlf1 ≈ cln1 (Tmp. //); ≈ c&mc (H5 //)

2456+4 so mope] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “Be so stupid. Cf. Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)]: ‘And were brought moping hither’ (that is, bewildered); and H5 [3.7.133 (1761)]: “to mope with his fat-brained followers.”

1881 hud3

hud3 = hud2

1882 elze2

elze2: han

2457 Rebellious hell] Elze (ed. 1882): “Rebellious heat Hanmer conj. Heat looks indeed as if it was the very word required by the context, whilst hell seems to be foreign to the poet’s strain of thought.”

1885 macd

macd

2456+4 so mope] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—‘be so dull.’”

1889 Barnett

Barnett ≈ hud3

2456+4 mope] Barnett (1889, p. 51): “be dull, stupid.”

1890 irv2

irv2: cln1 (Tmp //) + TNK //; Littledale (Fletcher analogues) magenta underlined

2456+4 mope] Symons (in Irving & Marshall, ed. 1890): “The word is used again in this sense—to be dazed, or to act blindly, perhaps from myope—in Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)],. Compare TNK [3.2.25 (1479)]: ‘I am mop’t’ Littledale, in his note on the line in his edition, compares Fletcher, the Humorous Lieutenant, 4.6: ‘Sure, I take it, He is bewitch’d, or mop’d, or his brains melted;’ and the Queen of Corinth, ii. 3: ‘How am I tranced and moped?’”

1891 dtn

dtn: Skeat

2456+4 mope] Deighton (ed. 1891): “‘the same word as mop, to grimace . . . —Du. moppen, to pout; whence to grimace, or to sulk’ . . . (Skeat, Ety. Dict.)”

dtn

22457-60 Rebellious . . . fire] Deighton (ed. 1891): “if hellish passion can burst out into such uncontrolled mutiny in a woman of her age, virtue in the case of ardent youth may well show itself as soft as wax and melt in the fire which she (in flaming youth) feels.”

dtn: han

2457 hell] Deighton (ed. 1891): “Hanmer plausibly conjectures heat for hell.”

1899 ard1

ard1 ≈ cln1 (Tmp. //)

2456+4 mope] Dowden (ed. 1899): “be stupid, as in Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)].”

1903 rlf3

rlf3 = rlf1 for so mope

1904 ver

ver

2456+4 Could not so mope] Verity (ed. 1904): “could not commit such stupidity. The short line indicates Hamlet’s great passion; he has to pause for coherence.”

1906 nlsn

nlsn

2456+4 mope] Neilson (ed. 1906, glossary): “to drowse, be dazed.”

1929 trav

trav: O[nions]

2456+4 mope] Travers (ed. 1929): “be in a state of bewilderment; a sense still found in Northern dialects (O.).”

1931 crg1

crg1

2456+4 mope] Craig (ed. 1931): “be in a depressed, spiritless state, act aimlessly.”

1934 rid1

rid1

2456+4 mope] Ridley (ed. 1934): “be insensitive.”

1937 pen1

pen1

2457 Rebellious hell . . . . fire] Harrison (ed. 1937): “’if the lust in a woman of your age is uncontrollable, youth can have no restraining virtue.’”

1939 kit2

kit2

2456+4 so mope] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “be so dull and torpid.”

kit2: xref.

2457 Rebellious hell] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “The baser elements in our nature are conceived as rising in mutiny against our nobler selves. The figure is similar to that in the warning of Laertes to Ophelia: ‘Youth to itself rebels’ [507].”

1942 n&h

n&h = nlsn minus “to drowse”

2456+4 mope] Neilson & Hill (ed. 1942): “be dazed.”

1957 pel1

pel1 ≈ Barnett

2456+4 mope] Farnham (ed. 1957): “be stupid.”

1958 fol1

fol1

2457 Rebellious hell] Wright & LaMar (ed. 1958): “Hamlet is apostrophizing the evil impulses in human nature which rebel against the virtuous.”

1974 evns1

evns1 = n&h

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ crg1

2456+4 so mope] Spencer (ed. 1980): “behave so aimlessly.”

1982 ard2

ard2: ard1 (Tmp. //)

2456+4 mope] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “be in a daze, unaware of what one is doing. Cf. Tmp. [5.1.240 (2229)], ‘in a dream. . .brought moping hither’”

ard2: AWW, Lr. //s; xref.

2457 Rebellious hell] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “For the identification of sexual desire with the rebellion of man’s lower nature, cf. AWW [4.3.14-16 (2120-22)] (and see above, 507 and n.); for its attribution to hell, cf. Lr. [4.6.118-129 (2564-72)].”

1984 chal

chal

2456+4 mope] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “mope be stupified.”

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ ard2 (MV, Lr. //s)

2457 Rebellious hell] Hibbard (ed. 1987): “This phrase has pronounced sexual connotations. Sh. employs the verb ‘to rebel’ to describe masculine erection (MV [3.1.36 (1250)]), and refers to the female genitals as hell at Lr. [4.6.127 (2570)]. Rebellious hell is the sexual urge that revolts against the ‘sovereignty of reason.’”

1988 bev2

bev2 ≈ evns1

2456+4 mope] Bevington (ed. 1988): “be dazed, act aimlessly.”

1997 evns2

evns2 = evns1

2008 Maguire

Maguire: 1 Cor 15:55

2456+4-2457 Oh shame where is thy blush] Maguire (2008, pp. 64 ): “’Oh shame where is thy blush’ is an echo of the bible: 1 Cor. 15:55 "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory." (3.4.81)”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2 ≈ pen2

2456+4 so mope] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “behave in such an aimless way.”

2006 ard3q2

ard3q2: 507xref; Son 129 //

2457 Rebellious hell] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “ Hamlet sees sensuality as a kind of rebellion (as Laertes did at 1.3.43 [407]) and as a hell (as in Son 129).”