Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/212

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ty* s. n. SEPT. 10,

himself by too exclusive a devotion to an attractive woman, when possibly she went off with another man. Cassio would say no more about her. Perhaps no one but lago knew of the marriage. So she is not men- tioned further in the play.

In the fourth act lago, speaking of Bianca, says : " She gives it out that you shall marry her," &c. But Bianca did not know of Cassio's marriage, Cassio would not acknowledge it, and lago would not refer to it. This passage in the fourth act does not seem to me to be detrimental to my interpretation of the line in the first act, though I daresay that it has had an effect with the commen- tators. E. YARDLEY.

' 1 HENRY VI.,' I. i. (9 th S. i. 284). Than Julius Caesar or bright.

In the Folio there is a comma after "Csesar." For this comma, I think, final s has been mistaken. For "or" I read orb. The next word beginning with b, the omission of b as a final letter is easily accounted for. With these corrections the whole passage reads thus :

A far more glorious star thy soul will make Than Julius Caesar's orb bright.

If I am right, there is no omission to be sup- plied. We have simply a broken line. The sense is complete. So, too, is the grammar, which is not the case with the present text.

The line, as I have thus restored it, con- sists of four accents. It may be scanned either

Than Ju | lius Cae' | sar's orb | b- right, or

Than Ju | lius Cfle' | sar's 6- | rb bright. Lines of four accents are very common where "the break is caused" (as is the case here) "by the arrival of a new-comer" (Abbott's ' Shak. Gram.,' 506).

R. M. SPENCE, D.D. Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

' HAMLET,' I. iv. 36-38.

The dram of eale

Doth all the noble substance of a doubt To his own scandal.

The following may perhaps be allowed to take its chance among the multitudinous explanations of this passage. "The dram of eale" evidently corresponds with the "one defect " of 1. 31 ; " the noble substance " with " their virtues else," &c., of 11. 33 and 34. Now the substance of a doubt is nothing else than its ground that without which the doubt would not exist. This ground is composed of two elements, one noble, the other ignoble. In! this passage the ignoble element ("the

dram of eale") is regarded as so infecting every part of the noble element, which is so much greater in apparent proportion, that the ignoble element small and insignificant as it appeared at first sight cannot avoid a condemnation coextensive with the effect of its pernicious influence. "His own" must necessarily refer to the subject of the sen- tencethat is, to "the dram of eale." The use of the word "doth" may seem at first sight a little unusual, but it is just such a variation of common idiom as we might ex- pect from a great master of expression.

If this interpretation be adopted, we have here no mere repetition of the thought of the preceding lines, in which the effect on the virtues is brought into prominence, but the final condemnation of the agent itself which brought about their disgrace. I, of course, assume that " eale " is either an alter- native form for ' evil," or else the provincial word said to mean "reproach"; it matters not which. ALFRED E. THISELTON.

' As You LIKE IT,' II. iv. 44-58.

Ros. Alas, poor shepherd ! searching of thy

wound, I have by hard adventure found mine own.

Touch.... We that are true lovers run into strange capers ; but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly.

Ros. Thou speakest wiser than thou art ware of.

Rosalind's part in this dialogue indicates that, for her, it has a tragic turn, the fool's words being susceptible of a construction that he was not ware of. The meaning, therefore, is, " but as all is mortal in nature (subject to death), so is all nature, when in love, liable to receive a death wound through that passion."

' As You LIKE IT,' II. iv. 46-48.

Touch. I remember, when I was in love I broke my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for coming a-night to Jane Smile.

It looks very much as though this stone was

Eunished for having tripped Jane Smile. As >r the word "a-night," while it may be undor- stood that the stone played its mischievous trick under cover of darkness, I suspect that the original word was a-nigh, the t being- added by a process the reverse of absorption.

' As You LIKE IT,' II. iv. 80-93. Cor. My master is of churlish disposition.

Besides, his cote, his flocks and bounds of feed

Are now on sale

Ros. What is he that shall buy his flock and

pasture ? Cor. That young swain that you saw here but

erewhile; That little cares for buying anything.