July 26. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



65 



3. Johnson was silent, and left the explanation 

 of the word to Steevens, who, observing that 

 Hamlet meant to rant (as he says he will), sup- 

 posed him to defy Laertes "to drink up a river, 

 or try his teeth on an animal whose scales are 

 supposed to be impenetrable." The word, he 

 thinks, may be irrecoverably corrupted, but he 

 finds plenty of rivers in Denmark of a somewhat 

 similar sound, any one of which would " serve 

 Hamlet's turn." 



4. Malone, in his first edition, deeming that 

 Hamlet was not speaking of " impossibilities," but 

 merely of " difficult or painful exertions," decided 

 on adhering to Theobald and his vinegar. But in 

 his second edition he repented, and expressed his 

 conviction tliat " Mr. Steevens's interpretation is 

 the true one," remarking that " this kind of hyper- 

 bole is common among our ancient poets." 



5. Steevens, before he published his second 

 edition, read the observations in favour of vinegar 

 given in Malone's first edition ; but, though he 

 allowed them to be "acute," was not moved by 

 anything advanced in them to depart from his 

 opinion that a river was intended. 



6. Boswell followed Malone's second thoughts. 



7. Mr. Singer, in his edition printed in 1826, 

 had so little notion that vinegar could be signified, 

 that he does not even advert to a single argument 

 in behalf of that opinion, attending only to the 

 consideration "what river, lake, or firth, Shak- 

 speare meant." 



8. iir. Collier makes no decision, observing only 

 that eijesel is certainly the old word for vinegar, 

 but that there is considerable doubt whether that 

 be meant here ; and that "some of the commenta- 

 tors suppose Hamlet to challenge Laertes to drink 

 ■up the river Yssell or Eisell." 



9. Mr. Knight favoured the river, remarking 

 that "there is littledoubt that Shakspeare referred 

 to the river Yssell, Issell, or Izel, the most northern 

 branch of the Rhine, and that which is nearest to 

 Denmark." 



Tiius we have, on the side of vinegar, Theobald, 

 and Malone's first edition; on the side of the river, 

 Sir T. Hanmer, Steevens, Malone's second edition, 

 Boswell, Mr. Singer in 1826, and Mr. Knight; six 

 against two. I say nothing of Johnson, whom, 

 however, we may consider to have been favourable 

 to Steevens ; or of the earlier editors, who, accor- 

 ding to Theobald, printed the word in Italics as a 

 proper name. 



So the matter remained ; most readers, as well 

 as critics, being, I believe, of opinion that a river 

 was intended, until Mr. Singer, in the 46th No. 

 of" Notes and (2uhries," revived the notion that 

 some kind of drink was signified. 



10. Let us now consider what testimonies are 

 advanced by tiie various critics on behalf of each 

 of these opinions. That eysell (the 4to., 1604, reads 

 esil, and the folio esile) was used as synonymous 



with one kind of drink, viz. vinegar, is apparent 

 from the following authorities. jMalone observes 

 that it occurs in Chaucer and Skelton, and also in 

 Sir Thomas More, Works, p. 21., edit. 1557 : 



" with sowre pocion 



If tliou palne thy taste, remember therewithal 

 That Christ for thee tasted tisil and gall." 

 He also remarks that it is found in Minsheu's 

 Dictionary, 1617, and in Coles's Latin Dictionary, 

 1679. 



Shakspeare himself, as Farmer was the first to 

 point out, has, in his 111th Sonnet, 



" like a willing patient 1 will drink 



Potions of ej/sdl 'gainst my strong infection ; 

 No bitterness that I will bitter think, 

 Nor double penance to correct correction." 



From Chaucer, Richardson's Dictionary supplies, 

 " She was like thing for hunger deed 

 That lad her life only by breed 

 Kneden with eisel strong and agre, 

 And thereto she was lean and megre." 



Romaunt of the Rose. 



and another passage thus : 



" Then these wretches full of all frowardnesse 

 Gave him to drink eisel temp'red with gall." 



Lamentation of Mary Maijdalc7i. 



Todd, also, in his edition of Johnson, says that 

 the old English ai/sel for vinegar is used by 

 Wicliffe. 



11. Next comes the consideration whether, if 

 vinegar were intended, the expression drink up 

 could properly have been used in reference to it. 

 On this point Theobald says nothing, except 

 intimating that "drink up" is equivalent to 

 " swallow down." Steevens denies that if Shak- 

 speare had meant Hamlet to say, " Wilt thou drink 

 vin<^gar ? " he would have used " the term drink 

 np," which means " totally to exhaust." Malone, in 

 his first edition, remarks on the subject as follows: 



" On the phrase drink up no stress can be laid, for 



our poet has employed the same expression in his 



1 14th Sonnet, without any idea of entirely exhausting, 



and merely as synonymous to drink : 



' Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you, 



Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery ? ' 



" Again, in the same Sonnet : 



' 'Tis flattery in my seeing, 



And my great mind most kingly drinks it up,' 



" Again, in Timon of Athens: 



' And how his silence drinks up his applause' 



" In Shakspeare's time, as at present, to drink up often 

 meant no more than simply to drink. So in Florio's 

 Italian Dictionary, 1598 : ' Sorbire, to sip or sup up any 

 drink.' In like manner we sometimes say, ' 'VVlK'n you 

 have sicalloioed down this potion,' though we mean no 

 more than, ' When you have swallowed this ])otion.' " 



In liis second edition, however, IMalone aban- 

 doned his first interpretation, and his remtuks on 

 dri7ik up then went for nothing. 



