Buckland, Faringdon.
Your correspondent J. S. W. well deserves the thanks of all those of
your readers who have taken an interest in the discussion on the meaning
of _eisell_ in _Hamlet_, for the able manner in which he has summed up
the evidence put forward by the counsel on both sides. Perhaps he is
correct in his conclusion, that, of twelve good men and true, nine would
give their verdict for _eisell_ being "a river;" while but three would
favour the "bitter potion." Nevertheless, I must say, I think the
balance yet hangs pretty even, and I rather incline myself to the latter
opinion, for these reasons:
1. There is no objection whatever, even in the judgment of its enemies,
against _eisell_ meaning "a bitter potion," except that they _prefer_
the river as more to their taste; for the objection of MR. CAUSTON I
conceive to have no weight at all, that "to drink up" can only be
applied "to a definite quantity;" surely it may also mean, and very
naturally, to drink "without stint." And _eisell_ need not be taken as
meaning nothing more than "vinegar;" it may be a potion or medicament of
extreme bitterness, as in the 111th sonnet, and in Lydgate's _Troy Boke_
quoted by MR. SINGER, such, that while it would be possible to sip or
drink it in small quantities, or diluted, yet to swallow a quantity at a
draught would be almost beyond endurance; and hence, I submit, the
appropriateness of "drink up."
2. There is this objection against _eisell_ meaning a river,--Would the
poet who took a world-wide illustration from _Ossa_, refer in the same
passage to an obscure local river for another illustration? Moreover it
does not appear to be sufficient to find any mere river, whose name
resembles the word in question, without showing also that there is a
propriety in Hamlet's alluding, to that particular river, either on
account of its volume of water, its rapid flow, &c., or from its being
in sight at the time he spoke, or near at hand.
Can any of your readers, who have Shakspeare more at their fingers' ends
than myself, instance any _exact parallel_ of this allusion of his to
_local_ scenery, which, being necessarily obscure, must more or less mar
the universality, if I may so speak, of his dramas. Could such instances
be pointed out (which I do not deny) or at least any one exactly
parallel instance, it would go far towards reconciling myself at least
to the notion that _eisell_ is the river Essel.