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Shall in the general cenfure take corruption
From that particular fault: The dram of base
Doth all the noble fubftance often dout,
To his own fcandal."

— The dram of base

Doth all the noble fubftance often dout,

To his own fcandal.] I once propofed to read-Doth all the noble fubftance (i. e. the fum of good qualities) oft do out. We should now fay,-To its own scandal; but his and its are perpetually confounded in the old copies.

As I understand the paffage, there is little difficulty in it. This is one of the phrafes which at prefent are neither employed in writing, nor perhaps are reconcileable to propriety of language.

To do a thing out, is to extinguish it, or to efface or obliterate any thing painted or written.

In the first of these fignifications it is used by Drayton, in the 5th Canto of his Barons' Wars:

"Was ta'en in battle, and his eyes out-done."

My conjecture-do out, inftead of doubt, might have received fupport from the pronunciation of this verb in Warwickshire, where they always fay" dout the candle,"-" dout the fire;" i. e. put out or extinguish them. The forfex by which a candle is extinguished is alfo there called-a douter.

Dout, however, is a word formed by the coalefcence of two others, (do and out) like dan for do on, doff for de off, both of which are ufed by Shakspeare.

The word in queftion (and with the fame blunder in fpelling) has already occurred in the ancient copies of King Henry V: -- make incifion in their hides,

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“That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
"And doubt them with fuperfluous courage:

i. e. put or do them out. I therefore now think we should read: Doth all the noble fubftance often dout, .

for furely it is needlefs to fay

the noble fubftance of worth dout,

because the idea of worth is comprehended in the epithet-noble. N. B. The improvement which my former note on this paffage has received, I owed, about four years ago, to the late Rev. Henry Homer, a native of Warwickshire. But as Mr. Malone appears to have been furnished with almost the fame intelligence, I thall not fupprefs his mode of communicating it, as he may fairly plead priority in having laid it before the publick. This is the fole caufe why our readers are here prefented with two annotations, of

HOR.

Enter Ghoft.

Look, my lord, it comes!

almoft fimilar tendency, on the fame fubject: for unwilling as I am to withhold justice from a dead friend, I should with equal reluctance defraud a living critick of his due. STEEVENS.

The quarto, where alone this passage is found, exhibits it thus: the dram of eale

Doth all the noble fubftance of a doubt,

To his own fcandal.

To dout, as I have already observed in a note on King Henry V. Vol. IX. p. 421, n. 2, fignified in Shakspeare's time, and yet fignifies in Devonshire and other western counties, to do out, to efface, to extinguish. Thus they fay, "dout the candle,"— -"dout the fire," &c. It is exactly formed in the fame manner as to don (or do on,) which occurs fo often in the writings of our poet and his contemporaries.

I have no doubt that the corruption of the text arofe in the following manner. Dout, which I have now printed in the text, having been written by the mistake of the transcriber, doubt, and the word worth having been inadvertently omitted, the line, in the copy that went to the prefs, stood,

Doth all the noble fubftance of doubt,-.

The editor or printer of the quarto copy, finding the line too fhort, and thinking doubt must want an article, inferted it, without attending to the context; and instead of correcting the erroneous, and fupplying the true word, printed—

Doth all the noble fubftance of a doubt, &c.

The very fame error has happened in King Henry V:
"That their hot blood may fpin in English eyes,
"And doubt them with fuperfluous courage:"

where doubt is again printed instead of dout.

That worth (which was fupplied first by Mr. Theobald) was the word omitted originally in the hurry of tranfcription, may be fairly collected from a paffage in Cymbeline, which fully juftifies the correction made:

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"From whofe fo many weights of baseness cannot

"A dram of worth be drawn."

This paffage alfo adds fupport to the correction of the word eale in the first of thefe lines, which was likewife made by Mr. Theo

HAM. Angels and minifters of grace defend us!"—

bald.-Bafe is ufed fubftantively for bafenefs: a practice not uncommon in Shakspeare. So, in Meafure for Measure:

"Say what thou canft, my falfe outweighs your true." Shakspeare, however, might have written-The dram of ill. This is nearer the corrupted word eale, but the paffage in Cymbeline is in favour of the other emendation.

The meaning of the paffage thus corrected is, The fmallest particle of vice fo blemishes the whole mafs of virtue, as to erase from the minds of mankind the recollection of the numerous good qualities poffeffed by him who is thus blemished by a single stain, and taints his general character.

To his own fcandal, means, fo as to reduce the whole mass of worth to its own vicious and unfightly appearance; to translate his virtue to the likeness of vice,

His for its, is fo common in Shakspeare, that every play furnishes us with examples. So, in a fubfequent fcene in this play :-" than the force of honefty can tranflate beauty into his likeness."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"When every feather sticks in his own wing,———.' Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Whofe liquor hath this virtuous property,

"To take from thence all error with his might."

Again, in King Richard II:

"That it may fhew me what a face I have,
"Since it is bankrupt of his majesty.”

So, in Grim, the Collier of Croydon:

"Contented life, that gives the heart his ease,———.” We meet with a fentiment somewhat fimilar to that before us, in King Henry IV. P. I:

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oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,

"Defect of manners, want of government,
"Pride, haughtinefs, opinion, and difdain;
"The leaft of which, haunting a nobleman,
"Lofeth men's hearts, and leaves behind a flain
"Upon the beauty of all parts befides,

"Beguiling them of commendation."

MALONE.

1 Angels and minifters of grace defend us! &c.] Hamlet's speech to the apparition of his father feems to confift of three parts. When firft he fees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an invocation: Angels and minifters of grace defend us!

As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himself, and determines, that whatever it be he will venture to address it,

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Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from

hell,

Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,
Thou com'ft in fuch a queftionable shape,"

Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd,

Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,

Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape,

That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee, &c.

This he fays while his father is advancing; he then, as he had determined, Speaks to him, and calls him—Hamlet, King, Father, Royal Dane: O! anfewer me. JOHNSON.

8 Be thou a Spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, &c.] So, in Acolafius his After-wit, 1600:

"Art thou a god, a man, or else a ghost?

"Com'ft thou from heaven, where bliss and folace dwell? "Or from the airie cold-engendring coaft?

"Or from the darkfome dungeon-hold of hell?

The first known edition of this play is in 1604.

The fame question occurs alfo in the MS. known by the title of William and the Werwolf, in the Library of King's College, Cambridge:

"Whether thou be a gode goft in goddis name that fpeakeft,

" Or any foul fiend fourmed in this wife,

"And if we fchul of the hent harme or gode." p. 36.

Again, in Barnaby Googe's Fourth Eglog:

"What foever thou art yt thus doft com,

"Ghooft, hagge, or fende of hell,

"I the comaunde by hym that lyves

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Thy name and cafe to tell." STEEVENS. questionable shape,] By questionable is meant provoking

queftion. HANMER.

So, in Macbeth:

"Live you, or are you aught

"That man may question ?" JOHNSON.

Questionable, I believe, means only propitious to converfation, eafy and willing to be converfed with. So, in As you like it: "An unqueftionable fpirit, which you have not." Unquestionable in this laft inftance certainly fignifies unwilling to be talked with.

STEEVENS.

That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me:
Let me not burft in ignorance! but tell,
Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in death,
Have burft their cerements! why the fepulchre,

Questionable perhaps only means capable of being converfed with. To queftion, certainly in our author's time fignified to converse. So, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

For after fupper long he queftioned

"With modeft Lucrece -.'

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Out of our question wipe him."

See also Vol. XIV. p. 272, n. 5. MALONE.

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Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in death,

Have burft their cerements!] Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been confidered as the most wonderful and moft dreadful operation of fupernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most emphatick terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he afks in a very confufed circumlocution, confounding in his fright the foul and body. Why, fays he, have thy bones, which with due ceremonies have been entombed in death, in the common ftate of departed mortals, burft the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has the tomb, in which we saw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that mouth which, by its weight and ftability, feemed closed for ever? The whole fentence is this: Why dejt ibou appear, whom we know to be dead? JOHNSON.

By the expreffion bearfed in death is meant, fhut up and fecured with all thofe precautions which are ufually practifed in preparing dead bodies for fepulture, fuch as the winding-fheet, fhrowd, coffin, &c. perhaps embalming into the bargain. So that death is here used, by a metonymy of the antecedent for the confequents, for the rites of death, fuch as are generally efteemed due, and practifed with regard to dead bodies. Confequently, I understand by cere ments, the waxed winding-fheet or winding-fheets, in which the corpfe was enclosed and fown up, in order to preferve it the longer from external impreffions from the humidity of the fepulchre, as embalming was intended to preferve it from internal corruption.

HEATH.

By bearfed in death, the poet feems to mean, repofited and confined

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