228 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS, 



thing, of course ; but best beloved of all that is, by the 

 speaker. 



In Antonio and Mellida (vol. i. pp. 50, 51) occur some 

 Italian verses, and here we hoped to fare better ; for Mr. 

 Halliwell (as we learn from the titlepage of his Dictionary) is a 

 member of the * Reale Academia di Firenze? This is the 

 Accademia della Crusca, founded for the conservation of the 

 Italian language in its purity, and it is rather a fatal symptom 

 that Mr. Halliwell should indulge in the heresy of spelling 

 Accademia with only one c. But let us see what our Della 

 Cruscan s notions of conserving are. Here is a specimen : 



Bassiammi, coglier 1 aura odorata 

 Che in sua neggia in quello dplce labra. 

 Dammi pimpero del tuo gradit amore. 



It is clear enough that we ought to read, 



Lasciami coglier, .... Che ha sua seggia, .... Dammi 1 impero. 



A Delia Cruscan academician might at least have corrected by 

 his dictionary the spelling and number of labra. 



We think that we have sustained our indictment of Mr. 

 Halliwell s text with ample proof. The title of the book should 

 have been, The Works of John Marston, containing all the 

 Misprints of the Original Copies, together with a few added for 

 the First Time in this Edition ; the whole carefully let alone by 

 James Orchard Halliwell, F.R.S., F.S.A. It occurs to us that 

 Mr. Halliwell may be also a Fellow of the Geological Society, 

 and may have caught from its members the enthusiasm which 

 leads him to attach so extraordinary a value to every goose- 

 track of the Elizabethan formation. It is bad enough to be, as 

 Marston was, one of those middling poets whom neither gods 

 nor men nor columns (Horace had never seen a newspaper) 

 tolerate ; but, really, even they do not deserve the frightful 

 retribution of being reprinted by a Halliwell. 



We have said that we could not feel even the dubious satis 

 faction of knowing that the blunders of the old copies had been 

 faithfully followed in the reprinting. We see reason for doubting 

 whether Mr. Halliwell ever read the proof-sheets. In his own 

 notes we have found several mistakes. For instance, he refers 

 to p. 159 when he means p. 153; he cites * I, but her life] 

 instead of l lip \ and he makes Spenser speak of old Pithonus. 

 Marston is not an author of enough importance to make it 

 desirable that we should be put in possession of all the corrupted 

 readings of his text, were such a thing possible even with the 

 most minute painstaking, and Mr. Halliwell s edition loses its 



