Line 2743+34 - 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
| 2743+34 {Bestiall obliuion, or some crauen scruple} | 4.4.41 |
|---|
1755 Johnson Dict.
Johnson Dict.
2743+34 crauen ] Johnson (1755): 1. “a cock conquered and dispirited.”
2. “a coward; a recreant.”
1790 mal
mal = v1785
2743+34 crauen scruple] Malone (ed. 1790): “Some cowardly scruple. See Vol. III. p. 237, n, 2. Malone.”
1791- rann
rann
2743+34 crauen] Rann (ed. 1791-): “base, dastardly.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal
Adjusted reference: “See Vol. VI. p. 454, n. 4.”
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
Adjusted reference: “See Vol IX. p. 85, n. 4.”
1819 cald1
cald1: Shr. //
2743+34 crauen scruple] Caldecott (ed. 1819): “Cowardly; as asking quarter by pronouncing this word of fear and fealty. Shr. 3.1 [1104] Kath.”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813 +
2743+34 crauen] Malone (apud Boswell, ed. 1821): “A craven is a mean spirited cock. So, in Shr: ‘No cock of mine, you crow too like a craven’ [2.1.227 (1104)]. Malone.”
1822 Nares
Nares: Jacobs, Todd; H5 //; = v1821 (Shr. //)
2743+34 crauen] Nares (1822, glossary, craven): “Recreant, beaten, cowardly. In the old appeal or wager of battle, in our common law, we are told, on the high authority of Lord Coke, that the party who confessd himself wrong, or refused to fight, he was to pronounce the word cravent, and judgment was immediately given against him. When battle had been joined, if the appellant cried cravent he lost liberam legem, that is, the right of such appeal in future; but if the appellee, he was to be hanged. See Jacobs, and other Law Dictionaries. Mr. Todd has given the various opinions of the origin of this word; but his is cleraly the right. Its remoter etymology is the same as that of to crave; i.e. crafian, Sax. ‘He is a craven and a villain else.’ H5 [4.7.133 (2664)]. Very naturally transferred to a beaten cock: ‘No cock of mine, you crow too like a craven. Shr. [2.1.227 (1104)].”
1826 SING1
sing1: Ywaine and Gawarine, Richard Cœur de Lion analogues
2743+34 crauen] Singer (ed. 1826): “Craven is recreant, cowardly. It may be satisfactorily traced from crant, creant, the old French word for an act of submission. It is so written in the old metrical romance of Ywaine and Gawaine (Riston, vol. I. p. 133):—‘Or yelde the til us als creant.’ And in Richard Cœur de Lion (Weber, vol. ii. p. 208):—‘On knees he fel down, and cryde, “Créaunt.” It then became cravant, cravent, and at length craven. It is superfluous to add that recreant is from the same source.”
1857 fieb
fieb: Jacobs Dict./etym.; = Nares (H5. //)
2743+34 crauen] Fiebig (ed. 1857): “Craven, recreant, beaten, cowardly. – In the old appeal or wager of battle, in the English common law, we are told, on the authority of Nares, that the party who confessed himself wrong, or refused to fight, was to pronounce the word cravent, and judgment was immediately given against him. When battle had been joined, if the appellant cried cravent, he lost liberam legem, that is, the right of such appeal in future; but if the appellee, he was to be hanged. See Jacobs, and other Law Dictionaries. Its remoter etymology is the same as than of to crave; i.e. crafian, Sax. So, in H5 [4.7.133 (2664)]: ‘He is a craven and a villain else.’—The verb to craven is also used by Shakespeare and others.”
1864a glo
glo: Nares (Shr. //) without attribution
2743+34 crauen] Clark and Wright (ed. 1864a [1865] 9 glossary, Craven): “sb. a dunghill cock. Shr. [2.1.227 (1104)].”
1872 cln1
cln1
2743+34-2743+35 scruple Of thinking] Clark and Wright (ed. 1872): “scruple which consists in thinking or results from thinking.”
1877 v1877
v1877 = cln1 + Abbott
2743+34 scruple]
Furness (ed. 1877): “See
Abbott, § 168.
Clarendon: Scruple which consists in thinking or results from thinking.”
1882 elze2
elze2
2743+34 some crauen scruple] Elze (ed. 1882): “This passage serves as another clue to guide us to an insight into the character of hero and the meaning of the tragedy.”
1885 macd
macd: xrefs.
2743+34 Bestiall obliuion] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has just mentioned. See [1.5.32 (720)] and [3.1.78 (1733)].”
macd
2743+34-2743+35 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “—the consequences. The scruples that come of thinking of the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they were craven scruples, that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the noble self-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to result from the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands at least absolute assurance of guilt? or that ‘a thinking too precisely on the event,’ to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an unwounded name behind him?”
1889 Barnett
Barnett
2743+34-2743+35 scruple Of thinking] Barnett (1889, p. 55): “a scruple resulting from thinking.”
1891 dtn
dtn
2743+34 crauen] Deighton (ed. 1891): “cowardly; literally one who sues for mercy.”
1929 trav
trav: Clutton-Brock
2743+34 Bestiall obliuion]
Travers (ed. 1929): “cp. 34.—
Oblivion, ‘really’ the shrinking of his unconscious from the very subject of revenge, which expresses itself, to the conscious, in forgetfulness’ (Clutton-Brock).”
trav
2743+34 crauen]
Travers (ed. 1929): “confessing defeat before the fight, abjectly pusillanimous.”
trav
2743+34 scruple]
Travers (ed. 1929): “super-subtle reason for hesitation.”
1934 cam3
cam3: xref.
2743+34-2743+35 some craven scrupl1 . . . th’event] Wilson (ed. 1934): “Cf. [3.3.75 (2352)] ff.”
1939 kit2
kit2
2743+34 Bestiall obliuion] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “forgetfulness like that of the beasts (which do not remember their parents long).”
1947 cln2
cln2 : xref.
2743+34-2743+35 Rylands (ed. 1947): “See n. [3.4.110 (2490)].”
1953 Joseph
Joseph
2743+34 crauen scruple] Joseph (1953, p. 128): “Writing to Cheke, Ascham declares: ’however the scruples, which a false alarm had caused, have been removed by my better judgment’ [Ed. Giles (1885): 1: lxxviii]. This is the sense in which Hamlet uses the word when he speaks of a ’craven scruple’ as responsible for his delay. For this doubt or fear of the Ghost, which seemed like a warning of a healthy conscience, has indeed made him act the coward.”
1957 pel1
pel1 = kit2 minus “like . . . long).”
2743+34 obliuion] Farnham (ed. 1957): “forgetfulness.”
1958 mun
mun
2743+34 crauen scruple] Munro (ed. 1958): “faltering perplexity.”
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ kit2
2743+34 Bestiall obliuion] Spencer (ed. 1980): “animal-like inability to retain past impressions.”
pen2
2743+34 crauen scruple] Spencer (ed. 1980): “cowardly scrupulousness.”
1984 chal
chal ≈ pen2
2743+34 Bestiall obliuion] Wilkes (ed. 1984): “the forgetfulness appropriate to a beast.”
1993 dent
dent ≈ chal; xref.
2743+34 Bestiall obliuion] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Beastlike forgetfulness. Compare [3.2.129-134, 186-215 (1983-89, 2054-83)].”
dent: xref.
2743+34 crauen scruple] Andrews (ed. 1993): “Slavish, cowardly doubt. See [3.1.82-87 (1737-42)].”
1998 OED
OED
2743+34 crauen] OED (Sept. 21, 1998): “2. That owns himself beaten or afraid of his opponent; cowardly, weak-hearted, abjectly pusillanimous.
“? a 1400 Morte Arth. 133 Haa! crauaunde knyghte! a cowarde the semez! 1598 DRAYTON Heroic. Epist. v. 77 Those Beggers-Brats..Ally the Kingdome to their cravand Brood. 1602 SHAKS. Ham. 4.4.40 Some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event. 1656 TRAPP Comm. 1 Cor. xv. 55 Death is here out-braved, called craven to his face. 1808 SCOTT Marm. v. xii, The poor craven bridegroom said never a word. 1848 MACAULEY Hist. Eng. II 592 All other feelings had given place to a craven fear for his life.”
2006 ard3q2
ard3q2: standard
2743+34 Bestial oblivion] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “the forgetfulness or heedlessness characteristic of animals rather than people.”
ard3q2
2743+34 craven] Thompson & Taylor (ed. 2006): “cowardly.”
2743+34