300 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 49. 



? 



so that the whole merit I claim is that of altering 

 the place of a comma, thereby, as I apprehend, 

 rendering the meaning of .the poet evident. 

 The principle upon which I proceeded through- 

 out was that of making as little variation as 

 possible from the ancient authorities : upon that 

 rinciple I acted in the instance in question, and 



frequently found that this was the surest mode 

 of removing difficulties. I could not easily adduce 

 a stronger proof of this position, 'than the six 

 words on which the doubt at this time has been 

 raised. 



Theobald made an important change in the old 

 text, and his ^reading has been that generally 

 adopted : — 



" Most busy-less when I do it." 



In restoring the old text I had, therefore, to 

 contend wlth,prepossession, against which, it seems, 

 the llev. Mr. Dyce was not proof, although I only 

 know it from Mr. Singer's letter, never having 

 looked into the book in which, 1 suppose, the 

 opinion is advanced. 



One reason why I should reject the substitution 

 of " busy-less," even if 1 had not a better mode of 

 overcoming the difficulty, is properly adverted to 

 by Mr. Singer, viz. that the word was not in use 

 in the time of Shakspeare. The only authority 

 for it, at any period, quoted in Todd's Johnson, is 

 this very (as i contend) corrupted passage in the 

 Tempest ; I have not met with it at all in any of the 

 older dictionaries I have been able to consult ; and 

 unless the K,ev. Mr. Dyce have been more fortu- 

 nate, he was a little short-sighted, as well as a 

 little angry, when he wrote his note upon mine. 

 Had he taken more time to reliect, he might have 

 found that after all Theobald and I are not so 

 much at odds, although he arrives at his end by 

 varying from, and I at mine by adhering to, the 

 ancient authorities. In fact, I gain some con- 

 firmation of what, I believe, is the true meaning of 

 Shakspeare, out of the very corruption Theobald 

 introduced, and the Rev. Mr. Dyce, to my sur- 

 prise, supports. I should have expected him to 

 be the Aery last man who would advocate an 

 abandonment of what has been handed down to us 

 in every old edition of the play. 



The key of the whole speech of Ferdinand is 

 contained in its very outset : — 

 " There be some sports are painful, and their labour 



Delight in them sets off;" 



and the poet has said nearly the same thing in 

 " Macbeth : " 



" The labour we delight in physics i)ain." 



It is because Ferdinand delights in the labour 

 that he does not I'eel it irksome : 



" This my mean task 

 Would be as heavy to me as odious ; but 

 The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, 

 And makes my labours pleasures.'' 



He, therefore, tells us, at the close, that his 

 labours are refreshed by the sweet thoughts of 

 her ; that, in fact, his toil is no toil, and that 

 when he is " most busy " he " least does it," and 

 sutlers least under it. The delight he takes in his 

 " mean task " renders it none. 



Such I take to be the clear meaning of the 

 poet, though somewhat obscurely and paradoxi- 

 cally expressed — 



" Most busy, least when I do it ;" 



and when Theobald proposed to substitute 

 " Most busy-less when I do it," 



he saw, though perhaps not quite distinctly, that 

 such was the poet's intention, only, as I have said 

 above, he arrived at it by altering, and I by ad- 

 hering to, the poet's language. I may be allowed 

 to add that I came to my conclusion many years 

 before I was asked to put my name to an edition 

 of Shakspeare, which interrupted one of the most 

 valuable friendships I ever formed. 



Mr. Singer will see at once that my interpre- 

 tation (which I consider quite consistent with the 

 character of Shakspeare's mind, as well as quite 

 consistent with the expressions he has used through- 

 out the speech of the hero), steers clear of his pro- 

 posal to alter " busie lest, or " busie least," of the 

 folios of 1623 and 1632, to busyext or busiest; al- 

 though everybody at all acquainted with our old 

 language will agree with him in thinking, that if 

 Shakspeare had used "busiest" at all, which he 

 does not in any of his productions, he might have 

 said most busiest without a violation of the constant 

 practice of his day. J. Patne Colueb. 



September 24. 1850. 



GRAY S ELECT. 



Perhaps the Hermit of Holtport will be sa- 

 tisfied with proofs from Gray himself as to the 

 time and manner of the first appearance of the 

 Elegi/. 



Gray thus writes to Dr. Wharton, under the 

 date of "Dec. 17, 1750." [I quote Mason's 

 "Life" of its Author, p. 216.] 



" The stanzas " [which he afterwards called Elegy at 

 the suggestion of Slason] " which I now enclose to you 

 have had the misfortune, by Mr. [Horace] Walpole's fault, 

 to be made still more public," &c. 



The next letter in Mason's publication is a 

 letter from " Mr. Gray to Mr. Walpole" (p. 217.), 

 and is dated " Cambridge, Feb. 11, 1751," which 

 runs thus : — 



"As you have brought me into a little sort of dis- 

 tress, you must assist me, 1 believe, to get out of it as 

 well as 1 can. Yesterday 1 had the misfortune of 

 receiving a letter from certain gentlemen (as their book- 

 seller expresses it) who have taken the Magazine of 

 Magazines into their hands : they tell me that an 



