456 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 84. 



ditions." Leges says, "it is universally agreed 

 that the word is a misi>riiit."* Now misprinting 

 may be traced to wrong letters being droi^pcd in tlie 

 boxes into wliich comj)asitors put the types, and 

 which generally are found to be neighbours (this 

 is hardly intelligible but to the initiated). How- 

 ever, they will at once see that a more unfortunate 

 illustration could hardly have been suggested. 

 An error, made by the printer, often passes " the 

 reader" or corrector, because it is something, in 

 appearance and sound, like what should have been 

 used. But in this word there is no assimilation of 

 either to any one of the words conjectured to have 

 been meant. Moreover, sucli a word would never 

 j have been iuncc used erroneously in tlie same 

 j piece. May it not rather have been an adaptation 

 I from the Norman ^rwt, or the Latin pren.iu, sig- 

 nifying assumed, seized, &e. ? The sound comes 

 much neare)-, the seuso would do. I hardly like 

 to venture a suggestion where so many eminent 

 commentators entertain other views ; but it seems 

 to me that it is a main excellence of your periodical 

 to encourage such suggestions; and if mine be not 

 too wild, your insertion of it will oblige B. B. 



P.S. May I end this note by adopting a Query 

 many years since put forth by n highly valued and, 

 alas! deceased friend and coa<ljuto"r in antiquarian 

 pursuits, —"What is the date of that edition of 

 the Bible which reads (Psalm cxix. IGl.): Printers 

 have persecuted me without a cause? " 



OnaPassag ■ in "■ Measure for Measure"' (Vol.iii., 

 p. 401.). — On 1 of the very few admissible con- 

 jectural emendations on Shakspeare made by the 

 ingenious and gifted jioet and critic Tieck, is that 

 which Mr. Kniglit adopted, and I cannot think 

 your correspondent Leges happy in proposing to 

 substitute " pensive." 



There can be no doubt that " guards " in the 

 passage in question signifies facings, trimmings, 

 ornaments, And thai \i is used "metaphorically for 

 dress, habit, appearance, and not for countenance, 

 demeanour. 



The context clearly shows this : 

 " Claud. Tlie precise Angelo ? 



" Isab. O, 'tis the cunning liL-erij of hell. 



The damned'st body to invest and corer 

 In precise guards." 

 Isabella had before characterised An"-elo — 



" This outward-stdnted deputy is yet a devil :" 

 and the Duke afterwards says : 



" Oh, wliat may man withui him hide, 

 Though angel on tlie outward side." 



* Old as well as modern typographers need have 

 broad backs. Bale, in his Preface to the Image of 

 holli C/iurclies, says, " But ij cruel enemies have my 

 just labours had * * * The printers are the first 

 whose heady hast, negligence, and conetousnesse com- 

 monly cornipteth all bokcs * * * thoui^h they 

 had at their handes ij learned corrcctours w^ take all 

 paynes possyble to preserue them." 



In 3fuch Ado alout Nothing (Act I. Sc. 1.), 

 Benedick says : 



" The body of your discourse is sometimes guarded 

 with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted 

 on, neither." 



That the epithet " precise" is pecidiarly applicable 

 to the assumed sanctity of Angelo, the poet has 

 decided in Act I. Sc. -1., where the Duke de- 

 scribes him thus : 



" Lord Angelo is precise, 

 Stands at a guard with envy, scarce confesses 

 That his blood flows, or tliat appetite 

 Is more to bread than stone. Hence we shall sec, 

 If power change purpose, what our secmers be," 

 "The ' pensive' Angelo" might be admissible, 

 though not so appropriate as " the precise ; " but 

 "pensive" is inapplicable to the word "guards," 

 in the sense which the poet everywhere attaches 

 to it. In the second Scene of this Act the Clown 

 says : 



" Craft being lichsr than innocency, stands for the 

 facing. " 



Your correspondent may be assured that the 

 word he would sidistitute was never written or 

 printed "]ienzive" in Shakspeare's time. 



Mr. Collier's objection, that "precise" "sounds 

 ill as regards the metre, the accent iiiUing on the 

 wrong syllable," has no weight with me, for it is 

 doubtful whether the accent was not placed on the 

 first syllable of "precise" by the poet and his 

 cotem])oraries ; but were this not the case, I 

 should still very much prefer the reading pro- 

 posed by Tieck, and adopted by Mr. Knight, to 

 any other that has been proposed, and have 

 little doubt that it is the true one. 



S. AV. Singer. 



iU}3lic^ ta iiliiinr (Suffice. 

 Countess of Pembroke's Epitaph (Vol. iii., 

 p. 307.). — Let me thank your correspondent Mr. 

 Gatty for his information. In order to complete 

 the history of this inscription, it may be stated 

 that though Gilford is silent as to Jonson having 

 any claim to it, yet, by admitting it into his works 

 (vol. viii. p. 3o7-), he concurs apparently with 

 Whalley and others, in assigning this " delicate 

 epitaph," as Whalley terms it, to Jonson, though 

 it " hath never yet been printed with his works." 

 Gifford considers that Jonson did not "cancel," 

 as it has been alleged, the six lines, " Marble 

 piles let no man raise," but that he possibly never 

 saw them. They certainly contradict the pre- 

 ceding ones ; admitting that such a character as 

 the Countess might again appear. These last-men- 

 tioned verses, Giflbrd adds, were copied from the 

 poems of William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, " a 

 humble votary of the Muses." This nobleman, 

 whose amiable character is beautifully drawn by 

 Clarendon, dee}>ly venerated his excellent mother; 

 he, perhaps, could not feel satisfied in leaving her 



