Page 42 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

INTRODUCTIO N xxxv

'A quibble,' wrote Dr Johnson, 'was to Shakespeare
the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world and was
content to lose it.' The relationship seems to me far more
intimate and respectable. Shakespeare habitually thought
in quibbles, if indeed 'quibble' be the right term for
what was one of the main roots of his poetic expression.
When he used a word, all possible meanings of it were
commonly present to his mind, so that it was like a
musical chord which might be resolved in whatever
fashion or direction he pleased. To miss a quibble, then,
is often to miss the interwoven thread which connects
together a whole train of images; for imagery and double
meaning are generally inseparable. It is therefore of first
importance that an editor should know all the meanings
of which Shakespeare might be aware, and this has only
become feasible with the completion of The Oxford
Dictionary in which the sixteenth and seventeenth
century connotations of each word in the language are
1
generally to be found in close proximity .
Shakespeare employs at least two distinct types of
quibble. First there is what may be called the poetic
quibble or conceit, of which an example has already
been given in Hamlet's 'mortal coil.' This may be of
almost every degree of complexity from the simple
development of an image to an elaborate and lengthy
interweaving of two or more strands of meaning derived
from the same word or from an image either expressed
or implied. How effective it may be dramatically is
shown by Hamlet's 'table-book' speech at I. 5. 95 ff. a
and the opening episode of the play furnishes two good
1
That there are still a few stray fish to be caught in tie
sea dredged by the N.E.D. may be seen by referring to the
following items in the Glossary: cast beyond, cry on, days of
nature, fishmonger £v. note), mallecho, ore, piece of work,
rebel. Itis also sometimes wrong,e.g. in regard to 'conscience'
(3.1. 83) as Bradley (p. 98 n.) points out.
8
Cf. note 1. 5. 107-109.