Replies to Minor Queries:--Commemoration of Benefactors --King Robert Bruce's Watch--Hornchurch--Buzz--Melody of the Dying Swan--"From the Sublime to the Ridiculous is but a Step"--"Carmen perpetuum," &c.--Sterne at Paris--The Paper of the present Day--Cimmerii, Cimbri--Rents of Assize--Monastic Establishments in Scotland--History of Brittany--Marches of Wales, and Lords Marchers--The Broad Arrow--Miniature of Cromwell--The Sinaïtic Inscriptions--Why cold Pudding settles One's Love --Covines--"Arborei foetus alibi," &c.--Poniatowski Gems 186 MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, &c. 190 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 190 Notices to Correspondents 191 Advertisements 191 Notes. READINGS IN SHAKSPEARE, NO. II. _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 4. "The dram of eale Doth all the noble substance of a doubt To his own scandal."--_Quarto of 1604._ "The dram of eafe." _Quarto of 1605._ "The dram of ill Doth all the noble substance often dout, To his own scandal." _Knight and Collier._ I cannot look upon this emendation, although sanctioned by the two latest editors of Shakspeare, as by any means a happy one. The original word in the second quarto, "ease," so nearly resembles "eale" in the first quarto (especially when printed with the old-fashioned long "[s]"); and the subsequent transition from _ease_ to _base_ is so extremely obvious, and at the same time so thoroughly consistent with the sense, that it is difficult to imagine any plausible ground for the rejection of _base_ in favour of _ill_. _Dram_ was formerly used (as _grain_ is at present) to signify an indefinitely small quantity; so that "the dram of base" presents as intelligible an expression as can be desired. But in addition to its easy deduction from the original, _base_ possesses other recommendations, in being the natural antagonist of _noble_ in the line following, and in the capability of being understood either in a moral or physical sense. If the whole passage be understood as merely assertive, then _base_ may have, in common with _ill_, a moral signification; but if it be understood as a metaphorical allusion to substantial matter, in illustration of the moral reflections that have gone before, then _base_ must be taken (which _ill_ cannot) in the physical sense, as a _base substance_, and, as such, in still more direct antagonism to the _noble substance_ opposed to it.