Line 2440 - 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
| 2440 Hiperions curles, the front of Ioue himselfe, 2440 | 3.4.56 |
|---|
1747 warb:
warb: Homer analogue
2440 Ioue] Warburton (ed. 1747): “Alluding to the description of Phidias’s Jupiter from Homer.”
1773 v1773
v1773: Farmer (Spenser analogue)
2440 Hiperions curles] Farmer (apud Steevens, ed. 1773): “It is observable that Hyperion is used by Spenser with the same error in quantity. Farmer.”
1778 v1778
v1778: Marston analogue
2440 Hyperions curles] Steevens (ed. 1778): “I have never met with an earlier edition of Marston’s Insatiate Countess than that in 1603. In this the following lines occur, which bear a close resemblance to Hamlet’s description of his father: ‘A donative he hath of every god; Apollo gave him locks, Jove his high front.’ Steevens.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785 + Ovid analogue
2440 Hiperions curles] Steevens (ed. 1793): “‘—dignos et Apolline crines.’ Ovid’s Metam. B. III. thus translated by Golding, 1557: ‘And haire that one might worthily Apollo’s haire it deeme.’ Steevens.”
1807 Pye
Pye
2440 Hiperions] Pye (1807, p. 321): “It was hardly worth while to make the same remark on the quantity of this name twice in the same play.”
1854 del2
del2: xref.
2440 Hiperions] Delius (ed. 1854): “Mit Hyperion hatte Hamlet schon früher seinen Vater verglichen. S. Anm. 47, A. 1, Sc. 2.” [Hamlet had already compared his father to Hyperion earlier. See Note 47, [1.2.140 (324)].
1857 fieb
fieb ≈ v1793 (incl. Marston, Ovid analogues)
2440 Hiperions curles] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Concerning the error in quantity, see p. 19. 3). In Marston’s Insatiate Countess, 1603, the following line occur, which bear a close resemblance to Hamlet’s description of his father: ‘A donative he hath of every god;/ Apollo gave him lock’s Jove his high front.’ St. See also Ovid. Metam. III, 420: dignos et Apolline crines.”
1869 tsch
tsch ≈ del2 (xref.); Koch
2440 Hiperions] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Hy périon wie oben 1.2.140. Ueber den Accent gr. Wörter belehrt Koch I. §. 247. f.” [Hy périon as above [1.2.140 (324). ]For the accent gr. words see the explanation in Koch I. § 247.f.]
1872 hud2
hud2
2440 the front of Ioue himselfe] Hudson (ed. 1872): “The statues of Jupiter represented him as the most intellectual of all the gods, as Apollo was the most beautiful; while in Mercury we have the ideal of swiftness and dispatch.”
1872 cln1
cln1 ≈ del2 (xref.)
2440 Hiperions] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “See note on [1.2.140 (324)].”
1878 rlf1
rlf1 = cln1 for Hiperions
rlf1: R3 //; xref,
2440 the front of Ioue] Rolfe (ed. 1878): “That is, the forehead; as in R3 [1.1.9 (11)]: “his wrinkled front,” etc. See cut on p. 166 [0000].”
1882 elze2
elze2: Sheridan, Chapman analogues; Cym. //
2440 Hiperions curles] Elze (ed. 1882): “Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan’s Rivals, IV, 2 delivers the following inimitable parody of this passage: I protest, when I saw him, I thought of what Hamlet says in the play:-“Hesperian curls – the front of Job himself! – an eye, like March, to threaten at command! – a station, like Harry Mercury new ---“ Something akout kissing – on a hill – however, the similitude struck me directly. – Sh. may possibly have had in view the following lines from Chapman’s Iliads, II, 407 seq.: — ‘Amongst whom shin’d the king, With eyes like lightning-loving Jove, his forehead answering, In breast like Neptune, Mars in waist.
“Chapman’s Seaven Bookes of the Iliades of Homere, &c. were published in 1598, whilst the lines under discussion appear first in Q2. If Sh. really had read Chapman’s Iliads (and why should he not have done so?), he must have been strongly impressed by the above passage, for we meet with a similar description again in Cym. [4.2.308-312 (2630-34)]: — ‘The Garments of Posthumus? I know the shape of’s Legge: this is his Hand: His Foote Mercuriall; his martiall Thigh The brawnes of Hercules: but his Iouiall face –Murther in heaven? How? ‘tis gone.”
elze2: Soliman and Persede analogue
2440 the front of Ioue himselfe, Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare Soliman and Perseda (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, V, 333): Smooth forehead, like the table of high Jove.”
1891 dtn
dtn ≈ cln1 (xref.)
2440 Hiperions curles] Deighton (ed. 1891): “see note on [1.2.140 (324)]; on some ancient coins the sun-god is represented with an abundance of curls in imitation of the lambent rays on the circumference of the sun’s disc.”
dtn:
2440 front] Deighton (ed. 1891): “brow.”
1903 p&c
p&c
2440-43 Porter & clarke (ed. 1903): “That is, the beauty of the sun-god, Apollo; the majesty of the father of the gods, Jove; the force of the god of war, Mars; the swift grace and poise of the person of the messenger of the gods, Mercury.”
1903 rlf3
rlf3=rlf1 for Hiperions curles
rlf3=rlf1 for front of Ioue
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ dtn minus xref. and description
2440 Hiperions] Craig (ed. 1931): “the sun-god.”
crg1
2440 front] Craig (ed. 1931): “forehead.”
1934 cam3
cam3 = rlf for Hiperions curles
cam3: xref.
2440 Ioue himselfe] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Cf. [3.2.282 (2154)].”
1939 kit2
kit2 ≈ cln1 (xref.)
2440 Hiperions] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “See [1.2.140 (324)].”
1957 pel1
pel1 = crg1 for Hiperions and front
1961 SQ
Reno
2440-42 Reno (1961, p. 112): “Is it going too far to suggest, then, that in the first scene of the last act Hamlet finds his noble father where Gertrude told him not to look -- ’in the dust’? To suggest that Hamlet has come somehow to see the death of his father in relation to the universal condition that is represented by the graveyard and the symbol of dust? Then he has somehow become aware of how false were his terms of comparison earlier in the play -- ’Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars. . . /A station like the herald of Mercury’ [TLN 2440-42, III.iv.56-58] -- and that he spoke more wisely than perhaps he knew in I.ii, he said of his father, ’He was a man, take him for all in all’? [TLN 376, I.ii.187]”
1961 ShQ
Reno: 376 xref
2440 Reno (1961, p. 112): “. . . [H]e [Hamlet] has somehow become aware of how false were his terms of comparison earlier in the play--"Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars. . . /A station like the herald of Mercury"--and that he spoke more wisely than perhaps he knew in I.ii, he said of his father, "He was a man, take him for all in all"?”
1974 evns1
evns1 = pel1 for Hiperions and front
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ kit2 (xref.)
2440 Hiperions] Spencer (ed. 1980): “See the second note to [1.2.140 (324)].”
1982 ard2
ard2 = evns1 for front
1984 chal
chal = kit2 for Hiperions
chal = ard2 for front
1988 bev2
bev2 = crg1 for Hiperions
bev2 = dtn for front
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: 324, 1807 xref
2440 Hyperion’s curls] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “Presumably the sun-god would have golden tresses. For a preview of this idealized portrait, see 1.2.140 [324], where Hamlet saw his father in relation to the present King as "Hyperion to a satyr". He now elaborates by attributing to his father all the best features and qualities of the classical gods. The list of attributes recalls Ophelia’s enumeration of Hamlet’s own ’eye, tongue, sword’ at 3.1.150 [1807].”
ard3q2
2440 front of Jove] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “forehead of Jove, the king of the gods.”
2440