38
HAMLET
[ACT I.
That for some vicious mole of nature[b 1] in them,
As, in their birth,—wherein they are not guilty, 25
Since nature cannot choose his[b 2] origin,—
By the[a 1] o'ergrowth of some complexion,[b 3]
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive[b 4] manners; that these men,— 30
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,[b 5][a 2]—
Their[a 3][b 6] virtues else—be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo—[b 7]
Shall in the general censure[b 8] take corruption 35
From that particular fault: the dram of evil
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt[a 4][b 9]
To his own scandal.
- ↑ 24. mole of nature] natural blemish. Theobald suggested "mould." Prof. Hales notes in Greene's Pandosto: "One mole staineth the whole face."
- ↑ 26. his] its.
- ↑ 27. complexion] temperament, resulting from the supposed combination of the four "humours" in the body in various proportions; the complexions were sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic.
- ↑ 30. plausive] pleasing, popular, All's Well, I. ii. 53: "plausive words."
- ↑ 32. star] perhaps a mark like a star. Cymbeline, V. v. 364: "Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star."
- ↑ 33. Their] His of Q may be Shakespeare's word, though grammatically incorrect.
- ↑ 34. undergo] support. Measure for Measure, I. i. 24: "To undergo such ample grace and honour."
- ↑ 35. censure] opinion, judgment, as in I. iii. 69.
- ↑ 36-38. the dram . . . scandal] This difficult and perhaps corrupt passage is here printed as in Qq 2, 3, except that for evil these Qq read eale. The later Qq read ease. In II. ii. 638: "May be a devil; and the devil hath power," Qq 2, 3 have deale; evil is frequently a monosyllable in Elizabethan poetry. I can hardly regard evil as an emendation open to reasonable doubt. The letters vi of a MS. might easily be mistaken for an Elizabethan manuscript a; the second l in "evill," "devill" might be taken for an e, or the
