HW Home	Previous CN	View CN	View TNM	View TNI	Next CN

Line 3385-86 - 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 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand

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

3385-6 Ham. Doost thou thinke Alexander lookt a this fa\|shion i’th earth?

1865 hal

hal

3385-6 Alexander . . . earth] Halliwell (ed. 1865) : “He told the King and the ladies plainly speaking of death and of the skulls and bones of dead men and women, how there is no difference; that nobody could tell that of the great Marius or Alexander from a pyoneer; nor, for all the pains the ladies take with their faces, he that should look in a charnel-house could not distinguish which was Cleopatra’s, or fair Rosamond’s, or Jane Shore’s.—Pepys, 25 Mar. 1664.”

1899 ard1

ard1

3385 Alexander] Dowden (ed. 1899): “Perhaps Shakespeare thought of Alexander’s beauty and sweet smell as well as of his conquests. North’s Plutarch: ‘Alexander had a very faire white colour mingled also with red . . . his skin has a marvellous good favour . . . his bodie has do sweet a smell’ that his apparel ‘took thereof a passing delightfuls avour.’ His corpse remained ‘many days naked without buriall, in a hote drie countrie,’ yet was ‘still a cleane and faire corps as could be’ (Life of Alexander).”

1980 pen2

pen2

3385 Alexander] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(the Great).”

1982 ard2

ard2

3385 Alexander] Jenkins (ed. 1982): “From ancient times Alexander was regularly cited in meditations on Death the leveller. See, e.g., Lucian’s Dialogues of the Dead, xii-xiv. Marcus Aurelius (vi. 24)) comments on the sameness of the dust of Alexander and his groom.”

ard2

3385-6 Jenkins (ed. 1982): “Alexander in life was noted for his ‘very fair white colour’ and a body of ‘so sweet a smell’ that his apparel ‘took thereof a passing delightful savour, as if it had been perfumed’ (North’s Plutarch, Tudor Trans. iv. 301).”

1984 chal

chal : pen2; Q2 VN

3385 Alexander]

1992 fol2

fol2: standard

3385 Alexander] Mowat & Werstine (ed. 1992): “Alexander the Great, who died in 323 B.C. as ruler of the known world.”

1993 dent

dent

3385 Alexander] Andrews (ed. 1989): “Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.), the Greek general who amassed more territory than anyone prior to him; he sat down and wept when he realized that there were no more lands for him to conquer.”