222 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



as many as seven typographical errors unless some of them 

 are to be excused on the ground that Mr. Offer s studies have 

 not yet led him into those arcana where we are taught such recon 

 dite mysteries of language as that verbs agree with their nomi 

 natives. In Mr. Farr s Introduction to the Hymns and Songs 7 

 nine short extracts from other poems of Wither are quoted, and 

 in these we have found no less than seven misprints or false 

 readings which materially affect the sense. Textual inaccuracy 

 is a grave fault in the new edition of an old poet ; and Mr. Farr 

 is not only liable to this charge, but also to that of making 

 blundering mis-statements which are calculated to mislead 

 the careless or uncritical reader. Infected by the absurd cant 

 which has been prevalent for the last dozen years among literary 

 sciolists, he says: The language used by Wither in all his 

 various works whether secular or sacred is pure Saxon. 

 Taken literally, this assertion is manifestly ridiculous, and, 

 allowing it every possible limitation, it is not only untrue of 

 Wither, but of every English poet, from Chaucer down. The 

 translators of our Bible made use of the German version, and a 

 poet versifying the English Scriptures would therefore be likely 

 to use more words of Teutonic origin than in his original com 

 positions. But no English poet can write English poetry except 

 in English that is, in that compound of Teutonic and Romanic 

 which derives its heartiness and strength from the one and its 

 canorous elegance from the other. The Saxon language does 

 not sing, and though its tough mortar serve to hold together the 

 less compact Latin words, porous with vowels, it is to the Latin 

 that our verse owes majesty, harmony, variety, and the capacity 

 for rhyme. A quotation of six lines from Wither ends at the 

 top of the very page on which Mr. Farr lays down his extraor 

 dinary dictum, and we will let this answer him, Italicising the 

 words of Romance derivation : 



Her true beauty leaves behind 

 Apprehensions in the mind, 

 Of more sweetness than all art 

 Or inventions can impart; 

 Thoughts too deep to be expressed, 

 And too strong to be suppressed. 



Mr. Halliwell, at the close of his Preface to the Works of 

 Marston (vol. i. p. xxii.) says, * The dramas now collected to 

 gether are reprinted absolutely from the early editions, which 

 were placed in the hands of our printers, who thus had the 

 advantage of following them without the intervention of a tran 

 scriber. They are given as nearly as possible in their original 



