Does "goodly" in this sentence in Hamlet mean "considerable" or "pleasing?

Solution 1:

Although goodly at this point means "of considerable size", this was not the meaning that Shakespeare intended. Goodly has quite a few other archaic and rare definitions. I believe the Italian translation was accurate, and the intended (now archaic) sense was:

Of good or pleasing appearance; handsome, beautiful, good-looking; comely, fair.
_{OED (the premium version, since the free version is too brief)}

Solution 2:

In day-to-day talk, goodly means sizable or large. Like "I drank a goodly amount of orange juice, and I now feel sick." Since the world is much larger than Denmark and in the story is described as having "many confines", then goodly in this instance would most likely also mean large. I'm assuming the Italian version was just a mistranslation.

Hope this helps!

Solution 3:

The OED says that both sizable and handsome were possible meanings for goodly in Shakespeare's time, so the 16th century meaning of the word does not help.

We can look for help to other translations of Hamlet, and we discover that there is considerable support among these for the sizable meaning. As some of the comments speculate, it's quite possible that Shakespeare meant the word to carry both meanings.

The No Fear Shakespeare supports the "sizable" meaning. It "translates" this passage as:

Hamlet: Denmark’s a prison.
Rosencrantz: Then I guess the whole world is one.
Hamlet: Yes, quite a large one, with many cells and dungeons, Denmark being one of the worst.

The French translation of Hamlet also supports the "sizable" meaning. It translates this passage as:

HAMLET. − Le Danemark est une prison.
ROSENCRANTZ. − Alors le monde en est une aussi.
HAMLET. − Une vaste prison, dans laquelle il y a beaucoup de cellules, de cachots et de donjons. Le Danemark est un des pires. [emphasis added]

The French word vaste means vast.

The German translation manages to avoid the problem by choosing the word stattlich, which can mean impressive, imposing or handsome.

Hamlet.
Dännemark ist ein Kerker.
Rosenkranz.
So ist die ganze Welt einer.
Hamlet.
Ein recht stattlicher, worinn viele Thürme, Gefängnisse und Löcher sind, unter denen Dännemark eines der ärgsten ist.

Solution 4:

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/goodly

goodly adjective

1 Considerable in size or quantity: ‘a goodly number of our countrymen’

2 archaic Attractive, excellent, or admirable.

I'd suggest that in this sense it takes the archaic meaning "excellent" - and I'd dispute the allegation of archaic...