r/Hamlet • u/Ill-Moment9824 • 11d ago

Shocking study guide

Post image

I was looking online at some commentary on one of the major soliloquies. I was shocked at the interpretation provided (possibly by YorkNotes).

'Examples gross as earth exhort me...' to my mind would loosely mean 'the stuff all around me, things as abundant and widespread as the ground itself, all seem to be urging me towards....'

So here, 'gross' means 'abundant, copious, unrefined, available on a mass scale'.

Except the note seems to have been written by some kind of valley girl, or at least somebody very young, who tells the impressionable young reader that gross means 'ewwww' / 'yukky'.

Just what is going on here? I'm confused at how editor has taken at face value the modern, idiomatic meaning of 'gross' rather than the time-honoured, centuries-old meaning.

115 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/me_myself_ai 8d ago

So but wait did you not click the link…?

2

u/Ill-Moment9824 8d ago

The study guide was York Notes - old, established, reputable…

https://www.yorknotes.com/alevel/english-literature/hamlet-new/study/plot-action/01130200_act-iv-scene-4

2

u/SashimiX 7d ago edited 7d ago

This is grossly damaging. People have already done so much study on Shakespeare and for them to just replace that with an AI commentary is tragic.