Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/122

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. V. MAY, 1919.

of printing or typewriting, to scribble it carelessly with pen or pencil, and see what it might have been mistaken for. In this case the very first trial produced results quite unexpected : confirming the oldest emendation of one word, and suggesting for the others something unthought of by any one, yet more satisfactory than any. Here is our " eale " :

Obviously, this is " base," as Theobald with his usual sagacity divined or perhaps discovered by the same process. But another consideration, which had struck me before trying this experiment, strengthens it. In old usage only one class of substances are ever called "noble" to wit, metals ; and the regular antithesis was " base." Men did not speak of noble and base liquors or bread or cloth, but of pure and adulterated, or honest and frau- dulent, or coarse and fine. The former terms were taken from alchemy, a fertile theme of interest and literary capital in the Elizabethan time, and it would be exactly in Shakespeare's fashion to annex a bit *of its terminology, and in addition these terms had passed into popular use.

Aside from the fact that some explana- tions of " of a doubt " conflict with my first principle, none of them satisfy any one but their authors, and none explain at all the intensive " own " in the next line. Here is my scrawl :

--^---^L^^^

I read this,

Doth all the noble substance oft divert [diuert] To his own scandal.

That is, " Turns his very nobility into his own scandal " : " makes the volume of his noble substance the measure of his public disrepute." Here "own" is not only natural, but alm6st indispensable : the meaning is shorn of its strength without it.

True or not, this leaves no raw edges of unsatisfied meaning, and has no sophistica- tion or straining. FORREST MORGAN.

Hartford, Conn.

There is little^doubt that in 'Hamlet,' I. iy. 36-8, a process in cheesemaking is indicated.

A piece of dried and salted stomach of a-, calf (the caul) was steeped in lukewarm water overnight ; the liquid rennet (about half a pint) was then mixed with the milk, which slowly clouts or clots. The solid part, the clot, clout, or clod (hence clot or clouted cream : see ' Friar of Orders Grey ') r sinks, and instead of a tub or vat of nice- pure white milk, there is seen a greenish,., unpleasant -looking fluid.

The dram of caul fulfils its mission- curds, clots, or clouts the milk and leaves a residue of which, to judge from its appear- ance, the dram is ashamed.

This is an old-fashioned way of cheese- making in vogue in Shakespeare's time, and the simile would be generally understood.

The dram of* caul, the pure milk, the- clotting or clouting, and the residue which scantles or scandalizes the dram when the result is seen, all hang together logically. OSWALD COCKS.

Derby.

I was interested in H. R. D.'s emendation of this passage. I have always taken " eale " to connote something the opposite of " noble," and thus I think it is possibly a mistake for " base." I take the whote passage to mean that a little corruption spoils the purity of the whole, and that the- adulteration leads to an additional count against the cause of corruption. For this emendation one has of course no other authority than one's own idea of sense.

RICHMOND NOBLE.

SHAKESPEARE : A SURVIVAL OF AUGURY (12 S. v. 5). The subject of the magpie as a bird of omen was discussed in ' N. & Q.' nearly thirty-two years ago (see 7 S. iii. 119, 188, 298, 414, 524). Various and extended rhymes as applied to the bird were recorded,, but the following seems to be the one most largely used :

One for sorrow,

Two for mirth,

Three for a wedding,

And four for a birth.

There appear to have been many methods in use for averting the catastrophe of sorrow. Some aver that the sight of four birds prognosticates death, while others continue the above lines as follows :

Five for a christening,

Six for a death,.

Seven's heaven, eight is hell,

And nine's the devil his ane sel.

The last two words certainly smack of a~ Scottish origin. JOHN T. PAGE

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.