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,