Line 3562, etc. - 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 2951-end ed. Hardin A. Aasand
| 3562 {Dooes} <Doth> by their owne insinnuation growe, | 5.2.59 |
|---|
3563 Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
mtby2 1723-33? ms. notes in pope1
mtby2
3563 the baser nature] Thirlby (ms. notes in Pope, ed. 1723 [1723-33?]): “[the in Pope1] which I think might not by any means to have been thrown out.”
1747 warb
warb
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe] Warburton (ed. 1747) : “for corruptly obtruding themselves into his service.”
1765 john1
john1 = warb
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1765- mDavies
mDavies
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe] Davies (ms. notes in Johnson, ed. 1765): “Their calamity is owing to themselves, for pretending to be my friends as they were my familiars & school fellows, they became the Kings Agents & creatures & thrust themselves into a business wch did not belong to them—
“It does not appear that Rosencrantz & Guildenstern knew the contents of their commission—They are punished for being overbusy like Polonius & submitting to any employment without enquiring whether it was right or wrong Shakespeare was aware that the Criticks would censure Hamlet for putting these men to death and has prepared a justification of ye Action in ye 3d Act.”
1773 v1773
v1773 = john1
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1778 v1778
v1778 = v1773
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1784 Davies
Davies : mdavies + magenta underlined
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
Davies (1784, 3:
137-8) : <p
. 137> “Hamlet is here accounting for his behaviour to Rosencraus and Guildenstern, whose fate, he says, was owing to their own conduct. If we should not agree, with Dr. Warburton, that these men corruptly insinuated themselves into the service of Hamlet, yet we must own that they </p. 137> <p. 138> were very ready and officious instruments of the King. And, although it does not appear, from the context, that they knew the contents of their commission,
‘to destroy the prince,’ yet I believe the author punishes them, as well as Polonius, for being over busy, and thrusting themselvees into any employment, without enquiring whether it was right or wrong, just or unjust.
No time was more infamous, for gross flattery to the prince, than the reigns of Elizabeth and of James I. This our author knew; and this was one mark of the age and body of the time, which his manly nature despised and wished to remove.”</p. 138>
1784 ays1
ays1 = v1778 w/o attribution
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1785 v1785
v1785 = v1778
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1787 ann
ann = v1785
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1790 mal
mal
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe] Malone (ed. 1790) : “By having insinuated or thrust themselves into the employment. MALONE “
-1790 mWesley
mWesley
3562 insinnuation] Wesley (typescript of ms. notes in ed. 1785): “‘Winding themselves into his service’ preserves the sense of the text and the etymology of the word. ‘Obtrude’ is violence with a vengeance. Rare Dr. Warburton!”
1793 v1793
v1793 = v1785 ; mal
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1805 Seymour
Seymour
3563-5 Tis . . .
points]
Seymour (1805, 2:202) : <p. 202>“It is dangerous for inferior persons to intermeddle in the strife between great and powerful antagonists.” </p. 202>
1813 v1813
v1813 = v1803
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1819 cald1
cald1
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe] Caldecott (ed. 1819) : “Their overthrow or ruin (see ‘damn’d defeat,’ [Ham. 2.2.? [1611]. Haml.) was the consequence of their own voluntary intrusion. For defeat , the reading of the quartos, the folios give debate .”
1821 v1821
v1821 = v1813
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1832 cald2
cald2 = cald1
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1854 del2
del2
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe] Delius (ed. 1854) : “ihr Untergang erfolgt durch ihre eigne einschmeichelnde Dienstfertigkeit. Ueber defeat vgl. Anm. 163, A.2,Sc.2.” [“their demise follows through their own insinnuating service. Concerning defeat see [2.2.? (1611) note 163 [p. 70, DELIUS provides a derivation of defeat , “aus dem französischen défaite, ist =Wegräumung, sei es durch Tod oder Raub.” [“from the French, défaite, and signifies a removal. It may be through death or robbery”]].
1860 Walker
Walker
3564-5 Betweene . . .
opposits]
Walker (1860, I:35): <p. 35> “(The thought reminds me of
PL vi. 307,—’—from each side with speed retir’d, Where erst was thickest fight, th’ angelic throng, And left large field, unsafe within the wind Of such commotion.’” </p. 35>
1872 del4
del4 = del2
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1872 cln1
cln1 : standard
3562 insinnuation] Clark & Wright (ed. 1872): “artful intrusion into the business, crooked policy.”
1877 v1877
v1877 = mal
3562 Dooes by their owne insinnuation growe]
1877 Gervinus
Gervinus
3563-4 Tis . . .
opposits]
Gervinus (1877, p. 581): <p. 581> “If poetic justice appears too severe in these destinies, it is only that avenging justice may all the more severely recoil upon Hamlet himself. the poet has expressly placed in Hamlet’s lips the fearful sentence of cold egotistical levity which exhibits these terrible bloody results of his dread of blood in the right light; a sentence which may be also applied to the end of Paris in [
Rom.5.3.73 (2926)]. ‘Tis dangerous,’ he says at the death his friends, ‘when the
baser nature comes between the pass and fell incensed points of mighty opposites.’ In this manner does the man of great genius trifle with the subordinate creature, whom he regards as appointed to play only inferior parts on this atge of life. Thus is it then that the conscientiousness, foresight and consideration which restrain hamlet from the murder and from the just punishment of a single man, bury at last the gulty and the guiltless in one common ruin; his own want of determination, the avenging rage of Laertes, the poisoned cup of his uncle, the careless weakness of his mother, the officiousness of his friends, the inoffensive folly of Polonius, the impotence of the devoted lover, each and all of these—virtue, and pardonable faults, and inexpiable mortal crimes—suffer the same ruin so that scarcely any of the living remain upon the stage.” <p. 581>
1885 macd
macd
3562 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “With the concern of Horatio for the fate of Rosincrance and Guildensterne, Hamlet shows no sympathy. It has been objected to his character that there is nothing in the play to show them privy to the contents of their commission; to this it would be answer enough, that Hamlet is satisfied of their worthlessness, and that their whole behaviour in the play shows them merest parasites; but, at the same time, we must note that, in changing the commission, he had no intention, could have had no thought, of letting them go to England without him: that was a pure shaping of their ends by the Divinity. Possibly his own ‘dear plots’ had in them the notion of getting help against his uncle from the king of England, in which case he would willingly of course have continued his journey; but whatever they may be supposed to have been, they were laid in connection with the voyage, not founded on the chance of its interruption. It is easy to imagine a man like him, averse to the shedding of blood, intending interference for their lives: as heir apparent, he would certainly have been listened to. The tone of his reply to Horatio is that of one who has been made the unintending cause of a deserved fate: the thing having fallen out so, the Divinity having so shaped their ends, there was nothing in their character, any more than in that of Polonius, to make him regret their death, or the part he had had in it.”
macd : Sh. Lexicon
3562 insinnuation] MacDonald (ed. 1885): “‘Their destruction they have enticed on themselves by their own behaviour;’ or, ‘they have crept into their fate by their underhand dealings.’ The Sh. Lex. explains insinuation as meddling.”
1885 mull
mull ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
1889 Barnett
Barnett
3562 insinnuation]
Barnett (1889, p. 63): <p. 63>“
crooked dealing; this is also a side allusion to the fact that they had thrust themselves into Hamlet’s affairs.” </p. 63>
1899 ard1
ard1 ≈ v1877 w/o attribution (Malone)
3562 insinnuation]
1900 ev1
ev1≈ standard
3562 insinnuation] Herford (ed. 1900): "Springs from their own meddling."
1906 nlsn
nlsn
3562 insinnuation] Neilson (ed. 1906, Glossary): “ingratiation; meddling.”
1931 crg1
crg1 ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
1934 Wilson
Wilson
3562 Dooes] Wilson (1934, 2:243) cites this usage as a moment in which Q2 and F1 show no allegiance to an archaic or modernised form.
1934 cam3
cam3
3562 insinnuation] Wilson (ed. 1934): “cf. 4.2.15-16.”
cam3 :
3562 insinnuation] Wilson (ed. 1934, Glossary): “stealing into favour, ingratiation.”
1934 rid1
rid1 : standard
3562 insinnuation] Ridley (ed. 1934, Glossary):
1939 kit2
kit2≈ standard +
3562 insinnuation] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Though Rosencrantz and Guildenstern did not know the contents of the ‘grand commission’, they had put themselves into the King’s hands unreservedly and could expect no mercy from Hamlet. Cf. [3.4.31-3 (2413)]: ‘Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger.’”
kit2
3563 baser] Kittredge (ed. 1939): “Hamlet speaks as a prince, conscious of his royalty and convinced of the difference between kings and common men. Baser is not used in a moral sense, bu refers to rank and dignity. These lines indicate the proper position of Claudius in the drama. He is the ‘mighty opposite,’ the great antagonist, of Hamlet, and no contemptible foe. The struggle between him and his stepson is a battle of the giants.”
3563 baser] Kittredge (ed. 1936, Glossary): “lower in rank.”
1938 parc
parc ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
1942 n&h
n˙&h ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
1947 cln2
˙Cln2 ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
1951 alex
Alex ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation] Alexander (ed. 1951, Glossary, insinuate)
1951 crg2
crg2=crg1
3562 insinnuation]
1954 sis
sis ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation] Sisson (ed. 1954, Glossary):
1957 pel1
pel1 : standard
3562 insinnuation]
1970 pel2
pel2=pel1
3562 insinnuation]
1974 evns1
evns1 ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
evns1 ≈ standard
3563 baser]
1980 pen2
pen2 ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
1982 ard2
ard2 ≈ standard (“worming their way in”)
3562 insinnuation]
ard2 ≈ standard (“worming their way in”)
3563 baser]
1984 chal
chal :
3562 insinnuation] Wilkes (ed. 1984): "artful intrusion."
1984 chal
chal : standard
3563 baser]
1985 cam4
cam4 ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
cam4 ≈ standard
3563 baser] see n. 3535
1987 oxf4
oxf4 ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
oxf4 ≈ standard
3563 baser]
1988 bev2
bev2: standard +
3562 insinnuation] Bevington (ed. 1988): “sticking their noses in my business.”
bev2: standard
3563 baser]
1992 fol2
fol2≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
fol2≈ standard
3563 baser]
1993 dent
dent ≈ standard
3562 insinnuation]
3562 3563