Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace, Shall in the general censure take corruption As infinite as man may undergo,)] As large as can be accumulated upon man. JOHNSON. So, in Measure for Measure: "To undergo such ample grace and honour, The dram of base Doth all the noble substance often dout, STEEVENS. To his own scandal.] I once proposed to read-Doth all the noble substance (i. e. the sum of good qualities) oft do out. We should now say,-To its own scandal; but his and its are perpetually confounded in the old copies. As I understand the passage, there is little difficulty in it. This is one of the phrases which at present 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 significations 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, instead of doubt, might have received support from the pronunciation of this verb in Warwickshire, where they always say-" dout the candle,"-" dout the fire;" i. e. put out or extinguish them. The forfex by which a candle is extinguished is also there called—a douter. Dout, however, is a word formed by the coalescence of two others,(do and out) like don for do on, doff for do off, both of which are used by Shakspeare. The word in question (and with the same blunder in spelling) has already occurred in the ancient copies in King Henry V: make incision in their hides, "That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, " i. e. put or do them out. I therefore now think we should read: Doth all the noble substance often dout, &c. for surely it is needless to say the noble substance of worth dout, HOR. Enter Ghost. Look, my lord, it comes! because the idea of worth is comprehended in the epithetnoble. N.B. The improvement which my former note on this passage 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 same intelligence, I shall not suppress his mode of communicating it, as he may fairly plead priority in having laid it before the publick. This is the sole cause why our readers are here presented with two annotations, of almost similar tendency, on the same subject: 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 substance of a doubt, To his own scandal. To dout, as I have already observed in a note on King Henry V. Vol. XII. p. 444, n. 1, signified in Shakspeare's time, and yet signifies in Devonshire and other western counties, to do out, to efface, to extinguish. Thus they say, "dout the candle," "dout the fire," &c. It is exactly formed in the same manner as to don (or do on,) which occurs so often in the writings of our poet and his contemporaries. I have no doubt that the corruption of the text arose 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 press, stood Doth all the noble substance of doubt, The editor or printer of the quarto copy, finding the line too short, and thinking doubt must want an article, inserted it, without attending to the context; and instead of correcting the erroneous, and supplying the true word, printed Doth all the noble substance of a doubt, &c. The very same error has happened in King Henry V: "That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, "And doubt them with superfluous courage:" where doubt is again printed instead of dout. HAM. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!5 That worth (which was supplied first by Mr. Theobald) was the word omitted originally in the hurry of transcription, may be fairly collected from a passage in Cymbeline, which fully justifies the correction made: "From whose so many weights of baseness cannot "A dram of worth be drawn." This passage also adds support to the correction of the word eale in the first of these lines, which was likewise made by Mr. Theobald.-Base is used substantively for baseness: a practice not uncommon in Shakspeare. So, in Measure for Measure: "Say what thou canst, my false outweighs your true." Shakspeare, however, might have written-the dram of ill. This is nearer the corrupted word cale, but the passage in Cymbeline is in favour of the other emendation. The meaning of the passage thus corrected is, The smallest particle of vice so blemishes the whole mass of virtue, as to erase from the minds of mankind the recollection of the numerous good qualities possessed by him who is thus blemished by a single stain, and taints his general character. To his own scandal, means, so as to reduce the whole mass of worth to its own vicious and unsightly appearance; to translate his virtue to the likeness of vice. His for its, is so common in Shakspeare, that every play furnishes us with examples. So, in a subsequent scene in this play:" than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness." Again, in Timon of Athens: "When every feather sticks in his own wing,Again, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream: "Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, Again, in King Richard II: "That it may show me what a face I have, So, in Grim, the Collier of Croydon: "Contented life, that gives the heart his ease, We meet with a sentiment somewhat similar to that before us, in King Henry IV. P. I. oftentimes it doth present harsh rage, 6 Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, · 5 "The least of which, haunting a nobleman, Beguiling them of commendation." MALONE. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! &c.] Hamlet's speech to the apparition of his father seems to consist of three parts. When first he sees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an invocation: Angels and ministers of grace defend us! As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himself, and determines, that whatever it be he will venture to address it. Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee, &c. This he says while his father is advancing; he then, as he had determined, speaks to him, and calls him-Hamlet, King, Father, Royal Dane: O! answer me. JOHNSON. Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, &c.] So, in Acolastus his After-wit, 1600: "Art thou a god, a man, or else a ghost? "Com'st thou from heaven, where bliss and solace dwell? "Or from the airie cold-engendering coast? "Or from the darksome dungeon-hold of hell?" The first known edition of this play is in 1604. The same question occurs also 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 gost in goddis name that speakest, " Or any foul fiend fourmed in this wise, "And if we schul of the hent harme or gode." p. 36. Again, in Barnaby Googe's Fourth Eglog: "What soever thou art yt thus dost com, "I the comaunde by him that lyves Thy name and case to tell." STEEVENS. Thou com'st in such a questionable shape," 7 questionable shape,] By questionable is meant provoking question. HANMER. So, in Macbeth: "Live you, or are you aught "That man may question?" Johnson. Questionable, I believe, means only propitious to conversation, easy and willing to be conversed with. So, in As you like it : "An unquestionable spirit, which you have not." Unquestionable in this last instance certainly signifies unwilling to be talked with. STEEVENS. Questionable perhaps only means capable of being conversed with. To question, certainly in our author's time signified to > converse,__So, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "For after supper long he questioned "With modest Lucrece Again, in Antony and Cleopatra : " "Out of our question wipe him." See also King Lear, Act V. sc. iii. MALONE. tell, Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements!] Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been considered as the most wonderful and most dreadful operation of supernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most emphatick terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he asks in a very confused circumlocution, confounding in his fright the soul and body. Why, says he, have thy bones, which with due ceremonies have been entombed in death, in the common state of departed mortals, burst 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 stability, seemed closed for ever? The whole sentence is this: Why dost thou appear, whom we know to be dead? JOHNSON. |