And is not Sir Thomas Hammer quite correct in expression, when he alters the hemistich into "Wilt drink up Nile?" But to multiply examples on such a point would be idle.
14. It is now to be considered whether, supposing that the word might mean a potion (whether of vinegar or wormwood) or a river, the potion or the river is the more applicable to the passage in which it occurs. It cannot be denied that the whole passage is full of rant and extravagance. Laertes begins to rant, and Hamlet answers him in a similar strain:
"Now pile your dust (says Laertes) upon quick and dead,
Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
T' o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus."
This is surely extravagant enough. Hamlet retorts, in correspondent tone,—
"What is he whose grief
Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them stand