LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 251 



it possible that Mr. Hazlitt does not understand so common an 

 English construction as this ? 



First told thee into th ayre, then to the ground, (p. 141.) 



Mr. Hazlitt inserts the to/ which is not in the original, from 

 another version. Lovelace wrote ayer. We have noted two 

 other cases (pp. 203 and 248) where he makes the word a dis 

 syllable. On the same page we have shewe s changed to 

 shew because Mr. Hazlitt did not know it meant show us, 

 and not shows. On page 170, * their is substituted for her, 

 which refers to Lucasta, and could refer to nothing else. 



Mr. Hazlitt changes quarrels the student Mercury to 

 quarrels with, not knowing that quarrels was once used as a 

 transitive verb. (p. 189.) 



Wherever he chances to notice it, Mr. Hazlitt changes the 

 verb following two or more nouns connected by an and from 

 singular to plural. For instance : 



You, sir, alone, fame, and all conquering rhyme 

 File the set teeth, &c. (p. 224.) 



for files. Lovelace commonly writes so. On p. 181, where it 

 escaped Mr. Hazlitt s grammatical eye, we find 



But broken faith, and th cause of it, 



All damning gold, was damned to the pit. 



Indeed, it was usual with writers of that day. Milton, in one 

 of his sonnets, has 



Thy worth and skill exempts thee from the throng, 



and Leigh Hunt, for the sake of the archaism, in one of his, 

 * Patience and Gentleness is power. 



Weariness, and not want of matter, compels us to desist from 

 further examples of Mr. Hazlitt s emendations. But we must 

 also give a few specimens of his notes, and of the care with 

 which he has corrected the punctuation. 



In a note on * flutes of canary (p. 76) too long to quote, Mr. 

 Hazlitt, after citing the glossary of Nares (edition of 1859, by 

 Wright and Halliwell, a very careless book, to speak mildly), 

 in which jf& is conjectured to mean cask, says that he is not 

 satisfied, but adds, I suspect that a flute of canary was so 

 called from the cask having several vent-holes. But flute means 

 simply a tall glass. Lassel, describing the glass-making at 

 Murano, says, For the High Dutch they have high glasses 

 called Flutes, a full yard long. So in Dry den s Sir Martin 

 Mar-all, bring two fttite-glas&es and some stools, ho ! We ll 

 have the ladies health. The origin of the word, though doubtful, 



