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Page 26
MR. SINGER (vol. ii., p. 241.) says:
"Numerous passages of our old dramatic writers show that it was a
fashion with the gallants of the time to do some extravagant feat as
proof of their love."
I quite agree with him, if he mean to say that the early dramatists ascribe
to their gallants a fashion which in reality belongs to the age of Du
Gueslin and the Troubadours. But Hamlet himself, in the context of the
passage in question, gives the key to his whole purport, when, after some
further extravagance, he says:
"Nay, an thoul't mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou."
That being so, why are we to conclude that each feat of daring is to be a
tame possibility, save only the last--the crowning extravagance? Why not
also the one preceding? Why not a feat equally of mere verbiage and rant?
Why not a river?
Adopting MR. HICKSON'S canon of criticism, the grammatical construction of
the passage requires that a definite substantive shall be employed to
explain the definite something that is to be done. Shakspeare says--
"Woul't drink up esile?"[9]
--a totality in itself, without the expression of quantity to make it
definite. If we read "drink up wormwood," what does it imply? It may be the
smallest possible quantity,--an ordinary dose of bitters; or a pailful,
which would perhaps meet the "madness" of Hamlet's daring. Thus the little
monosyllable "up" must be disposed of, or a quantity must be expressed to
reconcile MR. SINGER'S proposition with Mr. HICKSON'S canon and the
grammatical sense of Shakspeare's line.
If with Steevens we understand _esile_ to be a river, "the Danish river
_Oesil_, which empties itself into the Baltic," the _Yssel_, _Wessel_, or
any other river, real or fictitious, the sense is clear. Rather let
Shakspeare have committed a geographical blunder on the information of his
day, than break {68} Priscian's head by modern interpretation of his words.
If we read "_drink up esile_" as one should say, "_woul't drink up
Thames?_"--a task as reasonably impossible as setting it on fire
(nevertheless a proverbial expression of a thirsty soul, "He'll drink the
Thames dry"),--the task is quite in keeping with the whole tenor of
Hamlet's extravagant rant.
H.K.S.C.
Brixton.
[Footnote 6: So the folio, according to my copy. It would be advantageous,
perhaps, to note the spelling in the earliest edition of the sonnet whence
MR. SINGER quotes "_potions of eysell_:" a difference, if there be any,
would mark the distinction between Hamlet's river and the Saxon
derivative.]
* * * * *
ALTAR LIGHTS, ETC.
(Vol. ii., p. 495. Vol. iii., p. 30.)
The following passage from the works of a deeply pious and learned Caroline
Divine, which I have never before seen quoted, merits, I think, a place in
"NOTES AND QUERIES:"--
"As our Lord himself, so his Gospel also, is called Light, and was
therefore anciently never read without a burning taper, '_etiam Sole
rutilante_' ('tis Saint Hierome's testimony), though it were lighted in
the sun.... The careful Church, perceiving that God was so much taken
with this outward symbol of the Light, could do no less than go on with
the ceremony. Therefore, the day of Our Lord's nativity was to be
called [Greek: epiphania], or, appearing of the Light; and so many
tapers were to be set up the night before, as might give name to the
vigil, '_Vigilia Luminum_'. And the ancients did well to send lights
one to another, whatsoever some think of the Christmas candle. The
receiving of this Light in Baptism, though called not usually so, but
[Greek: ph�tismos], Illumination, which further to betoken the rites,
were to celebrate this sacrament [Greek: haptomen�n pant�n t�n k�r�n],
etc., with all the tapers lighted, etc., as the order in the
Euchologus. The Neophytus, also, or new convert, received a Taper
lighted and delivered by the Mystagogus, which for the space of seven
days after, he was to hold in his hand at Divine service, sitting in
the Baptistery.
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