* * * * *


NOTES.

THE MEANING OF "DRINK UP EISELL" IN HAMLET.

Few passages have been more discussed than this wild challenge of Hamlet
to Laertes at the grave of Ophelia:

"Ham. I lov'd Ophelia! forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

--Zounds! show me what thou'lt do?
Woo't weep? Woo't fight? Woo't fast? Woo't tear
thyself?

_Woo't drink up Eisell?_ eat a crocodile?

I'll do't".

The sum of what has been said may be given in the words of Archdeacon
Nares:

"There is no doubt that eisell meant vinegar, nor even that
Shakspeare has used it in that sense; but in this passage it
seems that it must be put for the name of a Danish river.... The
question was much disputed between Messrs. Steevens and Malone:
the former being for the river, the latter for the vinegar; and