-take his rouse.] A rouse is a large dose of liquor, a debauch. So, in Othello: "they have given me a rouse already." It should seem from the following passage in Decker's Guls Horn book, 1609, that the word rouse was of Danish extraction. "Teach me, thou soveraigne skinker, how to take the German's upsy freeze, the Danish rousa, the Switzer's stoop of rhenish, &c." STEEVENS. "Rouse." Rouse should be written 'rouse (contraction) i. e. carouse or carousal. Gertrude in the last act says: "The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet." B. Ham. That these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect; -fortune's scar.] All the quartos read star. STEEVENS. The word star in the text signifies a scar of that appearance. It is a term of farriery: the white star or mark so common on the forehead of a dark coloured horse is usually produced by making a scar on the place. REMARKS. A slight "Being nature's livery or fortune's star." correction seems necessary here; for what can be particularly understood of "nature's livery?" The right word, I suppose, will be levity. As to 'fortune's star' it must be taken according to the idea entertained by the vulgar, respecting judicial Astrology. B. Ham. The dram of base Doth all the noble substance of worth out, To his own scandal. The dram of ease Doth all the noble substance of a doubt, To his own scandal. I do not remember a passage throughout all our poet's works, more intricate and depraved in the text, of less meaning to outward appearance, or more likely to baffle the attempts of criticism in its aid. It is certain, there is neither sense nor grammar as it now stands: yet with a slight altera tion, I'll endeavour to cure those defects, and give a sentiment too, that shall make the poet's thought close nobly. The dram of base (as I have corrected the text) means the least alloy of baseness or vice. It is very frequent with our poet to use the adjective of quality instead of the substantive signifying the thing. Besides, I have observed, that elsewhere, speaking of worth, he delights to consider it as a quality that adds weight to a person, and connects the word with that idea. THEOBALD. Doth all the noble substance of worth out.] Various conjectures have been employed about this passage. The author of The Revisal would read, Or, "Doth all the noble substance oft eat out." "Doth all the noble substance soil with doubt." Mr. Holt reads, "Doth all the noble substance oft adopt." And Dr. Johnson thinks, that Theobald's reading may stand. I would read, His Doth all the noble substance (i. e. the sum of good qualities) oft do out. Perhaps we should say, To its own scandal. 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 low colloquial phrases which at present are neither employed in writing, nor perhaps are reconcileable to the 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 fifth Canto of his Barons' Wars: "Was ta'en in battle, and his eyes out-done." STEEVENS. If with Mr. Steevens we understand the words doth out to mean effaceth, the following lines in The First Part of Henry IV. may perhaps prove the best comment on this passage: 66 Oftentimes it doth present harsh rage, "Loseth mens' hearts, and leaves behind a stain 66 Beguiling them of commendation." There is no necessity for supposing an error in the copies. His is frequently used by our author and his contemporaries for its. So, in Grim, the Collier of Croydon: "Contented life, that gives the heart his ease I would, however, wish to read: " "Doth all the noble substance oft work out." That is eat through as brass does silver when it is plated with it. S. W. "The dram of ease, &c." The great business of a commentator is to explain his author's text, and to alter as little as possible. Theobald says, that there is not a more depraved passage in Shakspeare than the present, and the several Editors, I find, are of the same opinion, by assisting him in his bungling alteration. The addition of a single letter, however, with a change in the order of the words, will render the original text correct. I read : "The drame of ease, "The noble substance of a doubt,-doth all "To his own scandal." 'Drame' is dream (see Chaucer.) Ease' is not rest or quiet, but pleasure; the word is frequently used in that sense by early writers. The drame of ease' will therefore mean, the dream of pleasure, and which he happily characterizes by the noble substance of a doubt,' i. e. shadowy substance [appearance of substance only, not the reality.] Pleasure (he would say) that dream, that something, nothing"-thereby pointing out its fleeting, evanescent nature. The whole is meant to insinuate that the man who indulges in licentious pleasures worketh his own confusion, loses his good name; in a word, is an enemy to himself. This agrees with the reasoning in the former part of the speech, and serves at the same time as an illustration. B. Ham. Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me! Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws, To cast thee up again? What may this mean,- With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do? -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 conversa tion, 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, I believe, only means capable of being conversed with. To question certainly in our author's time signified to converse. See vol. ii. p. 69. vol. iii. p. 228. 361. vol. iv. p. 320. vol. viii. p. 173. MALONE. questionable shape." shape" would be much more I think " I think "unquestionable forcible, much more in point. The meaning of the whole would then stand thus: "I know not what your intents may be but the figure or shape you bear is well known to me-I will therefore speak to you, which otherwise I might not have courage to do." This agrees with what he had said before: "My Father's spirit in arms!" B. Hamlet here speaks with wonder, that he who was dead should rise again and walk. But this, according to the vulgar superstition here followed, was no wonder. Their only wonder was, that one, who had the rites of Sepulture performed to him, should walk, the want of which was supposed to be the reason of walking ghosts. Hamlet's wonder then should have been placed here and so Shakspeare placed it, as we shall see presently. For hearsed is used figuratively, to signify reposited, therefore the place where should be designed: but death being no place, but a privation only, hearsed in death is nonWe should read, sense. tell, "Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in earth, "Have burst their cearments?" It appears, for the two reasons given above, that earth is the true reading. It will further appear for these two other reasons. First, From the words, canoniz'd bones; by which is not meant (as one would imagine) a compliment for, made holy, or sainted; but for bones to which the rites of sepulture have been performed; or which were buried according to the canon. For we are told he was murdered with all his sins fresh upon him, and therefore in no way to be sainted. But if this licentious use of the word canoniz'd be allowed, then earth must be the true reading, for inhuming bodies was one of the essential parts of sepulchral rites. Secondly, From the words, Have burst their cearments, which imply the preceding mention of inhuming, but no mention is made of it in the common reading. This enabled the Oxford editor to improve upon the emendation; so he reads, "Why thy bones hears'd in canonized earth.” For I suppose for the sake of harmony, not of sense. though the rites of sepulture performed canonizes the body. buried; yet it does not canonize the earth in which it is laid, unless every funeral service be a new consecration. WAR BURTON. It were too long to examine this note period by period, though almost every period seems to me to contain something reprehensible. The critic, in his zeal for change, writes with so little consideration, as to say, that Hamlet cannot call his father canonized, because we are told he was murdered with all his sins fresh upon him. He was not then told it, and had so little the power of knowing it, that he was to be told it by an、 apparition. The long succession of reasons upon reasons proves nothing, but what every reader discovers, that the king |