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Line 3533 - 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.

3533 Deuisd a new commission, wrote it faire,	5.2.32

1817 Hazlitt

Hazlitt

3533-38 Deuisd . . . wrote] Hazlitt (1817, p. 107): <p. 107> “He seems incapable of deliberate action, and is only hurried into extremities on the spur of the occasion, when he has no time to reflect, as in the scene where he kills Polonius, and again, where he alters the letters which Rosencraus and Guildenstern are taking with them to England, purporting his death.” </p. 107>

1855 mHunter

mHunter: 3533

3533 Deuisd a new commision] Hunter (1855, p. 229) : <p. 229> “The commentators have enquired whence Shakspeare borrowed this incident of subtracting the genuine commission & replacing it with another.—There is a traditionary story of such a trick having been played by an [illeg] wife at Chester, who abstracted the commission of some persons who were on this way to Ireland to see or [illeg] a presentation there against the Protestants in the last year of Queen Mary. But instad of a new commission, which it were perhaps past her skill to fabricate she filled up the envelope with playing cards.” </p. 229>

mHUNTER (Prolegomena and Notes on Shakespeare [BL ADD. MS. 24495 ]

1882 elze2

elze2

3533 wrote it faire] Elze (ed. 1882): “Compare [Jn. 4.1.37 (1609): ‘Can you not read it? is it not fair writ?’ The City Gallant (Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, XI, 276): ‘Write your name fair, I pray, and at large.’”

1885 macd

macd

3533 Deuisd a new commission] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “Note Hamlet’s rapid practicality—not merely in devising, but in carrying out.”

1929 trav

trav

3533 wrote it faire] Travers (ed. 1929): “The style of writing implied, this being a State letter, would seem to be the luminous Italian script, which Henry VIII had already made his children learn most carefully, though he himself wrote ((as Sh. still did)) the variety of Gothic hand called English ((Sir E. M. Thompson, vol. II of Sh.’s England)).

1931 crg1

crg1 ≈ standard

3533 wrote it faire]

1939 kit2

kit2

3533-35 Kittredge (ed. 1939):“Lancashire (Pearson ed., IV, 189): ‘It hath been held that it is the part of a Gentleman, to write a scurvy hand’; Claudius Hollybrand, Campo di Fior, 1583 (ed. Byrne, The Elizabethan Home, 1925, p. 14): ‘Maurice. He said that there was no shorter waye to learne much, then to write faire and swifte. Mendoze But our noble men for the most parte, doe not obeye this commandement: which thinketh it a good and an honorable thing not to write well—thou wouldest saye it were the scratching of hennes.’”

1947 cln2

cln2

3533 wrote it faire] Rylands (ed. 1947, Notes): “i.e. the elaborate Italian calligraphy of State papers.”

1951 crg2

crg2=crg1

3533 wrote it faire]

1957 pel1

pel1 : standard

3533 wrote it faire] Farnham (ed. 1957): "with professional clarity ((like a clerk or a scrivener, not like a gentleman))."

1974 evns1

evns1 ≈ standard

3533 wrote it faire]

1980 pen2

pen2 ≈ standard

3533 wrote it faire]

pen2

3533 faire] Spencer (ed. 1980): “(in a clear hand, like a professional scrivener).”

1982 ard2

ard2 ≈ standard

3533 faire]

1984 chal

chal : standard

3533 faire]

1987 oxf4

oxf4 ≈ standard

3533 wrote it faire]

1988 bev2

bev2: standard

3533 faire]

1992 fol2

fol2≈ standard

3533 wrote it faire]

1993 dent

dent ≈ oxf4

3533 wrote it faire]