LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 249 



singular in this way is so uncommon, if not unprecedented, and 

 the verse as corrected so halting, that we have no doubt Love 

 lace so wrote it. Of course * hollowed should be hallowed, 

 though the broader pronunciation still lingers in our country 

 pulpits. 



What need she other bait or charm 



But look ? or angle but her arm ? (p. 65.) 



So the original, which Mr. Hazlitt, missing the sense, has 

 changed to what hook or angle. 



Fly Joy on wings of Popinjays 



To courts of fools where as your plays 



Die laught at and forgot, (p. 67.) 



The original has * there. Read, 



Fly, Joy, on wings of popinjays 



To courts of fools ; there, as your plays, 



Die, &c. 



Where as/ as then used, would make it the plays that were 

 to die. 



As he Lucasta nam d, a groan 

 Strangles the fainting passing tone ; 

 But as she heard, Lucasta smiles, 

 Posses her round ; she s slipt meanwhiles 

 Behind the blind of a thick bush. (p. 68. 



Mr. Hazlitt s note on posses could hardly be matched by any 

 member of \b.Q posse comilatits taken at random: 



This word does not appear to have any very exact meaning. 

 See Halliwell s Dictionary of Archaic Words, art. Posse, and 

 Worcester s Diet., ibid.^ &c. The context here requires to turn 

 sharply or quickly! 



The ifa d., c. is delightful; in other words, find out the 

 meaning ot posse for yourself. Though dark to Mr. Hazlitt, the 

 word has not the least obscurity in it. It is only another form of 

 push, nearer the French pousser, from Latin pulsare, and the 

 context here requires nothing more than that an editor should 

 read a poem if he wish to understand it. The plain meaning is, 



But, as she heard Lucasta, smiles 

 Possess her round. 



That is, when she heard the name Lucasta, for thus far in 

 the poem she has passed under the pseudonyme of Amarantha. 

 ( Possess her round is awkward, but mildly so for Lovelace, 

 who also spells commandress in the same way with a single s. 

 Process is spelt prosses in the report of those who absented 

 themselves from Church in Stratford. 



O thou, that swing st upon the waving care, 

 Of some well-filled eaten beard, (p. 94.) 



