Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/171

 9<s.v.MAncH3,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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count, and their revival in your columns would be nothing short of a calamity.

MR. SKIPWITH says that he had' "looked through various suggestions on this well- known crux in the Eighth Series." If he had read them with any care he would not have ventured to speak of " the unmeaning 'eale'" after DR. FURNIVALL'S demonstration (8 th S. x. 70) that "eale" is the original reading, as a phonetic abbreviation of " evil " no more un- meaning than is the twice-repeated "deale" for "devil."

In his impossible transmutation of " eale " into "base" MR. SKIPWITH was anticipated in 8 th S. x. 23. On this transmutation another contributor (8 th S. x. 70) remarks, with just sarcasm : " To read ' base ' for eale requires almost the courage of that prince of emen- dators, Peter, in Swift's ' Tale of a Tub,' who substituted ' broomsticks ' for 'silver fringe.'"

I have nothing to add to my own final note (the last of three) on this passage, 8 th S. x. 450. With the exception of modernizing the spelling of " eale," I did not, in the emenda- tion which I proposed, and to which I adhere, add to or remove from the text a single letter :

The dram of evil

Doth o' the noble substance fall a doubt To his own scandal.

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

' THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,' I. i. 29-36 (9 th S. v. 63). I ask my esteemed friend MR. MERTON DEY whether there is not a more likely solution of the supposed difficulty than that which he has proposed. I think there is. Let us suppose " I " understood in line 35, arid all is plain :

And, in a word, [I] but even now worth this, And now worth nothing.

If, as MR. DEY supposes, " worth " referred to the spices arid silks, I think their worth would have been stated in ducats, and not in the very indefinite " this." But it may be asked, Does Shakespeare ever use "worth" in the sense of estimation of a man by his means 1 In one other passage at least he evidently does :

Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he 's worth to season.

' Comedy of Errors,' IV. ii. 58.

B. M. SPENCE, D.D.

Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

P.S. "[I] but even now worth this." "This" refers to the rich merchandise instanced. In the possession of that his wealth had lain.

'THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,' I. ii. 7-10.

" It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated

in the mean : superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer."

Hanmer changed the adversative "but" in line 9 to and, which receives the approval of the latest Variorum editor. "Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, is short lived - an undesirable result; but competency lives longer, is long-lived a desirable result." With the emphasis on "longer," the adversa- tive "but" expresses the contrast between the result of superfluity and that of com- petency. E. M. DEY.

' THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,' II. ix. 59-62. Ar. Did I deserve no more than a fool's head ?

Is that my prize? are my deserts no better? POT. To offend, and judge, are distinct offices,

And of ojjposed natures.

Eccles's note on Portia's words is as follows :

" There is surely an obscurity in this reply. She seems to consider him as having offended by the injudicious choice he had made ; he ought not, therefore, to assume the character of a judge in deciding upon his own merits, which, indirectly, he may be said to do by this indignant inquiry."

It is hard to see how the prince could offend in making this choice; indeed, the reverse was the case, so far as the lady was concerned. Unless we may suppose the im- personal author of the casket's contents felt, in some inexplicable manner, that he was aggrieved by the unlucky suitors, Eccles's theory will not hold. If Arragon may be said indirectly to decide upon his own merits by his indignant inquiry, then, as a decision, his words required no reply, and Portia's remark was volunteered and in the nature of a rebuke to one who was suffering from mortification and disappointment. Had these words been uttered by Kate the cursed, the explanation offered by Eccles would, perhaps, be plausible ; but, coming from Portia, this meaning (to use Dr. Furness's fitting words regarding another speech of Portia's) " is not exactly in harmony with that sympathetic tenderness of hers which was like the gentle rain from heaven." Portia's reply indicates that she considered herself responsible for the offence given by having insisted on this choice of the caskets, and, by saying that she was thus incapacitated to act as judge on his merits, gave good promise of the acumen which she was to display later on. While admiring the adroit manner of escaping from the dilemma, we can also note the kindness shown in her refraining to add to Arragon's discomfiture. As Capell very properly marked

Too long a pause for that which you find there

as an " aside," so may we be sure Portia did not mean to utter a criticism upon Arragon's