For not only is _dout_ an apocryphal word, but it is _inelegant_ when placed, as it must be in this instance, in connexion with the expletive _doth_, being at the same time in itself a verb compounded of _do_. Neither is the meaning it confers so clear and unobjectionable as to render it desirable; for in what way can a very small quantity be said to _dout_, or expel, a very large quantity? To justify such an expression, the entire identity of the larger must be extinguished, leaving no part of it to which _the scandal_ mentioned in the third line could apply. But an examination of the various places wherein scandal is mentioned by Shakspeare, shows that the meaning attached by him to that word was false imputation, or loss of character: therefore, in the contact of the base and the noble, _the scandal_ must apply _to the noble substance_--a consideration that must not be lost sight of in any attempt to arrive at the true meaning of the whole passage. So far, I have assumed that "often" (the third substitution in the amended quotation) is the best representative that can be found for the "of a" of the original; and inasmuch as it is confirmed by general consent, and is moreover so redundant, in this place, that its absence or presence scarcely makes any difference in the sense, it is not easily assailable. The best way, perhaps, to attempt to supplant it is to suggest a better word--one that shall still more closely resemble the original letters in sound and formation, and that shall, in addition, confer upon the sense not a redundant but an effective assistance. Such a word is _offer_: it is almost identical (in sound at least) with the original, and it materially assists in giving a much clearer application to the last line. For these reasons, but especially for the last, I adopt _offer_, as a verb in the infinitive ruled by _doth_, in the sense of causing or compelling; a sense that must have been in familiar use in Shakspeare's time, or it would not have been introduced into the translation of Scripture. In this view the meaning of the passage becomes, "The base _doth_ the noble offer doubt, to his own scandal"--that is, causes the noble to excite suspicion, to the injury of its own character. Examples of _do_ in this sense are very numerous in Spenser; of which one is (_F.Q._, iii. 2. 34.): "To _doe_ the frozen cold away _to fly_." And in Chaucer (_Story of Ugolino_): "That they for hunger wolden _do_ him _dien_." And in Scripture (2 Cor. viii. 1.): "We _do_ you _to wit_ of the grace of God." By this reading a very perfect and intelligible meaning is obtained, and that too by the slightest deviation from the original yet proposed. By throwing the action of offering doubt upon "the _noble substance_," it becomes the natural reference to "his own scandal" in the third line.