"I do not remember a passage throughout our poet's works more
intricate and depraved in the text, of less meaning to outward
appearance, or more likely to baffle the attempt of criticism in
its aid."
He then proposes his reading:
"The dram of _base_
Doth all the noble substance of _worth out_
To his own scandal;"
observing that "the dram of base" means the _alloy_ of baseness or vice,
and that it is frequent with our poet to use the _adjective of quality_
instead of the substantive signifying the thing.
It would be tedious to enumerate all the hapless attempts at emendation
which have been subsequently made, but I must be allowed to refer to
that adopted by MR. SINGER as long since as the year 1826, when he
vindicated the original reading, _doubt_, from the unnecessary meddling
of Steevens and Malone. MR. SINGER thus printed the passage:
"The dram of _bale_
Doth all the noble substance _often_ doubt,
To his own scandal."
_Bale_ was most probably preferred to _base_ as more euphonous, and
nearer to the word _eale_ in the _first_ quarto; but MR. S. would now
perhaps adopt _base_, as suggested by the word _ease_, in the _second_
quarto, for the reasons given by Theobald and your correspondent A. E.
B.
It is evident that _dout_ cannot have been the poet's word, for, as your
correspondent remarks, the meaning is obviously, that "the dram of base"
renders all the noble substance doubtful or suspicious, not that it
extinguishes it altogether. This will appear from what precedes:
"Or by some habit that too much _o'erleavens_
The form of plausive manners," &c.
Under present impressions, therefore, I should prefer, as the least
deviation from the old copies, to read:
"The dram of _base_
Doth, all the noble substance _o'er_, a doubt,
To his own scandal:"
i.e. _doth cast a doubt over_ all the noble substance, _bring into
suspect_ all the noble qualities by the leaven of one dram of baseness.
This, according to your correspondent's own showing, is the very sense
required by the context, "the base _doth_ doubt to the noble, i.e.
_imparts_ doubt to it, or renders it doubtful." And when we recollect
the frequent use of the elision _o'er_ for _over_ by the poet, and the
ease with which _of_ might be substituted for it by the compositor, I
cannot but think it conclusive. To me the proposed reading, "_offer_
doubt," does not convey a meaning quite so clear and unequivocal.
Conjectural emendation of the text of our great poet is always to be
made with extreme caution, and that reading which will afford a clear
sense, with the slightest deviation from the first editions, is always
to be preferred. The errors are chiefly typographical, and often clearly
perceptible, but but they are also not unfrequently perplexing.
That MR. COLLIER and MR. KNIGHT, who do not often sin in this way,
should on the present occasion have countenanced such a wide departure
from the old copies as to read _ill_ and _doubt_, may well have
surprised A. E. B., as it certainly did