The first time I saw Hamilton, I was blown away by the sweeping story, the diverse casting, the brilliant lyrics, the incredible music, the knockout choreography, my leaping emotions in response—how much it inspires. I had all the big feels. If that weren’t enough, a small detail regarding punctuation captured my editor’s attention. Perhaps you noticed it too. The brilliant Angelica sings:
In a letter I received from you two weeks ago
I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase
It changed the meaning. Did you intend this?
One stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days
It says:
“My dearest, Angelica”
With a comma after “dearest.”
You’ve written
“My dearest, Angelica”
Ooh, things just got interesting. What’s going to happen here? After all, Hamilton’s married to Angelica’s s-i-s-t-e-r, Eliza! When Angelica first meets Hamilton, she feels an electric current. But her sister also loves Hamilton, and as the oldest, Angelica knows she would be expected to marry rich. This combination leads her to put her own feelings aside and yield to her sister’s desires. But did she really put those feelings aside? She’s thinking about that comma a lot.
You see it, right?
Perhaps you don’t, and if so, you’re not the only one. Most people don’t think too much about commas.
How could a little comma stir the blood so?
If Hamilton had simply written “My dearest Angelica” (without the comma), it would have been a warm, though ordinary, form of address. He might have addressed anyone this way to be polite and congenial.
Dearest is a superlative word, like the word “favorite.” It is the highest in its category. To use a comma before a particular name in conjunction with a superlative is to set that person apart and assign the category to them alone. To say “My dearest, Angelica” (with a comma after dearest) is to say that out of all the beating hearts in this world, Angelica is the dearest to him of all.
Mercy! It does make you wonder what was going on there.
How good is Lin Manuel Miranda, who quickens our hearts with the stroke of a comma?
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