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Bianca Pallo
Professor Nance
ENL 3334
23 October 2015
A Textual Variant in Hamlet
Over time, the alterations and consequential textual variations between the different
publications of Shakespeares works have raised concerns around which is more true to the
originators grand design. Forcing Shakespearean scholars to deal with not only the difficulty of
examining which change is due to theatrical versus authorial revisions, but also which is the
more literarily appropriate version of a segment from the play. The decisions the scholarly
community reaches over these variations could essentially affect which version of Hamlet is seen
as the authoritative text.
There have been many disputes over which Hamlet printing is the original, or at least the
closest to Shakespeares own manuscript. Scholars have used the examination of large portions
of texts that vary from both quartos and the folio to determine which is more Shakespearean and
which demonstrates more hallmarks of an outside influence adapting the piece. One such textual
variant in Hamlet that has been widely explored has been that of (I.ii.129-32), from quarto 2 as it
is seen as the authorial text, in which Hamlet begins his first soliloquy with the line O that this
too sallied flesh would melt, /Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, / Or that the Everlasting had not
fixed/ His canon gainst self-slaughter (Thompson and Taylor 175). This soliloquy demonstrates
Hamlets profound horror and anger about the lack of a grief period for his recently deceased
father and the hasty remarriage of his mother. Brought on after Claudius and Gertrude had called
on Hamlet to stop grieving, move on with his life and be happy once again.

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In each printing of this soliloquy, there has been a small variation between the word used
to describe Hamlets flesh. The issue with the variations being between sullied, sallied or
solid, and which word is more contextually appropriate and meets the literary requirements of
the passage (Weiss 220). In Q2, the text used within the course material, the word sallied is used
to describe the state of Hamlets flesh, bringing to mind an image of an attack upon his body,
whether it was verbally or physically they both have the same effect in the Galenic view of
human health. By Hamlet saying that he personally feels assailed by his mothers marriage to
Claudius, he is essentially explaining the reason why he is fervent for his life to end within the
next lines. Why he wishes he could find relief from his extreme melancholy because he feels like
the world is laying siege after siege upon his happiness. However, the use of sallied has been
considered a contamination from Q1 or the bad quarto, leading some scholars to believe that
the folio is the one transcriptional link to Shakespeares manuscript (Weiss 219). Others
maintaining that sallied is a rare Elizabethan variant of sullied so instead of the printing of
sallied being a mistake carried over from Q1, it would have been found in the manuscript and
correctly placed (Weiss 219).
Other printings have used the word sullied in the place of sullied stating that in the
context of the metaphor Hamlet is trying make about his flesh, sullied would make more sense as
it refers to it being contaminated like a dirty snow that he wishes would melt away. Hamlet feels
as if the world is full of corruption and sickness, and as a product of Elizabethan England, his
health is influenced by his surroundings so much that he is both physically and mentally ill from
being around his familys moral depravity. So ill that he finds suicide or a complete dissolving of
his being more desirable than existing any longer. However, the problem with sullied is that
although it does meet the literary requirements of the soliloquy more than sallied, it takes away

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from issue of mutability that is present in the passage and is consistent throughout the play.
Hamlet is constantly grappling with and refusing the inconsistent and unreliable nature of
humans and their loyalty, and his first soliloquy is meant to demonstrate that from the very
beginning. He is in constant denial of the mutability of human nature and therefore, saying that
his flesh is only sullied by his feelings of betrayal from the constant change of loyalty and love
takes away from the emotional tension he is trying to convey (Weiss 225).
In the folio, the word solid is used in place of sallied or sullied to express what Hamlet
wishes would happen to his physical form. Contextually, solid is more appropriate by far
compared to the other variations as it lends to a clearer sense of the metaphorical transition of
Hamlets flesh from human to a dew. Tying again into the issue of mutability, Hamlet wishes for
his body to undergo the ultimate mutation of human life, which is death, but his flesh is too
solid for that to happen meaning Hamlets body is resisting his death wish (Weiss 225). Also,
from a Galenic point of view, solid is more literarily appropriate because Hamlet is meant to
have an excess of black bile causing his severe melancholia, and this lack of purgation could
physically lead to a rigidity of his body as the bile builds up, preventing him from exerting
himself with the action of suicide. Weiss also explains that solid is more closely related to
Shakespeares manuscript by establishing the link the word solid has with the dissolution of other
things within the play. Referencing (III.iv.48-51) in which Hamlet confronts Gertrude and about
her marriage with Claudius, yelling Heavens face does glow/Oer this solidity and compound
mass/ with heated visage as against the doom, /Is thought-sick at the act (Thompson and Taylor
338-9). This line is meant to not only show Gertrude that heaven and earth are disgusted with her
incestuous marriage but also to represent the gross flesh of man and how heaven wishes to
dissolve humanity from their solid form into nothing because their crimes (Weiss 226).

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Overall textual variants serve to demonstrate the interesting history behind Shakespeares
works as the physical rights to each play changed hands, adapting as they moved from authorial
to theatrical manuscript. They continue to create confusion and interesting discourses among
scholars around which printing is closer to the original and exactly what it means for the text to
have some lines changed or missing entirely.

Works Cited
Thompson, Ann and Taylor, Neil. Hamlet. 3rd Ed. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare,

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2006. Print
Weiss, Samuel A. ""Solid", "Sullied" and Mutability: A Study in Imagery." Shakespeare
Quarterly 10.2 (1959): 219-27. Print.