159 



And after scandal them ; or if you know- 

 That I profess myself in banquetting 

 To all the rout, then hold me dangerous. 



Act i, Scene II. 



The diflSculty occurred in the first line of the passage 

 He had never seen any satisfactory exj)lanation of wha 

 Cassius meant by the term " a common laugher." Som 

 early copies had " common laughter," which was stil 

 worse. It struck him that they ought to be bold enoug] 

 to correct the text here, and he would submit a word 

 which would at least be consistent with common sense 

 as a substitute for the existing one, which certainly con 

 veyed no sense at all. The word he would suggest wa 

 " lover." It was used in Shakspeare's time for friend. I 

 occui'red in the same play, as when Brutus addressed th( 

 people as " Romans, countrymen, and lovers." In tin 

 Psalms it was used in the same sense — " Lover and frienc 

 hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance intt 

 darkness." " My lovers and my friends stand aloof fron 

 my sore." But it appeared, he thought, probable, tha. 

 soon after Shakspeare's time, if not in his time, it was 

 rather antiquated, and had quite lost its signification a? 

 friend, and hence the printer might have been misled. 

 and substituted " laughter" for " lover." 



Mr. Yates exhibited a portion of a Greek M.S. Avritten 

 by a community of Greek Monks in the Thebaid, in 

 Egypt, giving an account of the Solar Eclipse of 1715. 



The following papers were read at this meeting : — 



" On the British Hymenomycktes." By the Rev. H. H, 

 HiGGlNS, M.A. — See Appendix, page 1. 



" On the Local Fungi — Part I. Hymenomyoetes." B;y 

 the Rev. H. H. IIiggins, M.A. — See Ajfpendt'x, ^iage 55. 



Also, by the same gentleman. 



