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.

1869 tsch

tsch: Shaksp.-Forsch

2749-51 She . . . strawes] Tschischwitz (ed. 1869): “Dies sind Symptome, die zugleich bei O. auf geheime Vorwürfe gegen sich selbst schliessen lassen S. m. Shaksp - Forsch. p. 186.” [These are symptoms that indicate that Ophelia has made secret self-accusations. See my Shaksp.-Forsch. p. 186.]

1888 macl

macl: contra cam

2749-58 Maclachlan (ed. 1888): “Probably no passage in all Shakespeare’s plays, of equal brevity, to the same degree exhibits his surpassing power over language to express in simple English with definite accuracy any notion presentable to the human mind, how shadowy, evanescent, or indefinite soever it may be, without loss or variation; and, as if to ratify this impression of his mastery, he returns upon the scene, so accurately limned in the lines that precede, to sum the effect in faithful words fit for the Queen’s ear, and in three lines portrays the madding maniac and maddening crowd, the concluding words burdened with possible consequences,—but not a syllable in these three lines overstating the actual verity of the facts presented to ear and eye by the voice and antics of the maniac and the obvious impression of the multitude. Yet the Cambridge Editors call them ‘ill-expressed!’”