Note VI

I. 4. 36, 37. We have left this corrupt passage unaltered because none of the conjectures proposed appear to be satisfactory.

Rann, reading in his text:

'The dram of base
Doth all the noble substance of worth out
To his own scandal....'

gives some conjectures, without naming the authors, in a note thus: 'Doth all, &c. oft corrupt: oft work out: eat out: By it's own scandal.'

The first of these alterations, 'oft corrupt,' anticipates one which Mitford published as his own, and the third, 'eat out,' is borrowed from the author of 'the Revisal' (Heath).

Mr Grant White suggests that "the corruption lurks in a part of the passage hitherto unsuspected, and that 'Doth' is either a misprint of 'Hath,' or has the sense of 'accomplishes.'" Mr Keightley reads,

'The dram of evil
Doth all the noble substance, out o' doubt,
To his own scandal....'

marking the sentence as incomplete.

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