Thus we have, on the side of _vinegar_, Theobald, and Malone's first edition, on the side of the _river_, Sir T. Hanmer, Steevens, Malone's second edition, Boswell, Mr. Singer in 1826, and Mr. Knight; six against two. I say nothing of Johnson, whom, however, we may consider to have been favourable to Steevens; or of the earlier editors, who, according to Theobald, printed the word in Italics as a proper name. So the matter remained; most readers, as well as critics, being, I believe, of opinion that a river was intended, until MR. SINGER, in the 46th No. of "NOTES AND QUERIES," revived the notion that some kind of drink was signified. 10. Let us now consider what testimonies are advanced by the various critics on behalf of each of these opinions. That _eysell_ (the 4to., 1604, reads _esil_, and the folio _esile_) was used as synonymous with one kind of drink, viz. _vinegar_, is apparent from the following authorities. Malone observes that it occurs in Chaucer and Skelton, and also in Sir Thomas More, _Works_, p. 21., edit. 1557 ---- "with sowre pocion If thou paine thy taste, remember therewithal That Christ for thee tasted _eisil_ and gall." He also remarks that it is found in Minsheu's _Dictionary_, 1617, and in Coles's _Latin Dictionary_, 1679. Shakspeare himself, as Farmer was the first to point out, has, in his 111th Sonnet, ---- "like a willing patient I will drink Potions of _eysell_ 'gainst my strong infection; No bitterness that I will bitter think, Nor double penance to correct correction." From Chaucer, Richardson's _Dictionary_ supplies, "She was like thing for hunger deed That lad her life only by breed Kneden with _eisel_ strong and agre, And thereto she was lean and megre." _Romaunt of the Rose._ and another passage thus: "Then these wretches full of all frowardnesse Gave him to drink _eisel_ temp'red with gall." _Lamentation of Mary Magdalen._ Todd, also, in his edition of Johnson, says that the old English _aysel_ for _vinegar_ is used by Wicliffe. 11. Next comes the consideration whether, if _vinegar_ were intended, the expression _drink up_ could properly have been used in reference to it. On this point Theobald says nothing, except intimating that "drink up" is equivalent to "swallow down." Steevens denies that if Shakspeare had meant Hamlet to say, "Wilt thou drink vinegar?" he would have used "the term _drink up_," which means "_totally to exhaust_." Malone, in his first edition, remarks on the subject as follows: "On the phrase _drink up_ no stress can be laid, for our poet has employed the same expression in his 114th Sonnet, without any idea of entirely exhausting, and merely as synonymous to _drink_: 'Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you, _Drink up_ the monarch's plague, this flattery?' "Again, in the same Sonnet: