266 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



i [i.e. one] deuil a woman to speak may constrain,, 

 But all that in hel be cannot let it again, 



Mr. Hazlitt changes i ; to &amp;lt; A, and says in a note, Old ed. has 

 /. That by his correction he should miss the point was only 

 natural ; for he evidently conceives that the sense of a passage 

 does not in the least concern an editor. An instance or two will 

 suffice. In the &amp;lt; Knyght and his Wyfe (Vol. II. p. 17) we read, 



The fynd tyl hure hade myche tcne 

 As hit was a sterfull we seme ! 



Mr. Hazlitt in a note explains teneio mean trouble or sorrow ; 

 but if that were its meaning here, we should read made, and not 

 hade, which would give to the word its other sense of attention. 

 The last verse of the couplet Mr. Hazlitt seems to think per 

 fectly intelligible as it stands. We should not be surprised to 

 learn that he looked upon it as the one gem that gave lustre to 

 a poem otherwise of the dreariest. We fear we shall rob it of all 

 its charm for him by putting it into modern English : 



As it was after full well seen. 



So in the * Smyth and his Dame (Vol. III. p. 204) we read, 



It were a lytele maystry 

 To make a blynde man to se, 



instead of as lytell. It might, indeed, be as easy to perform 

 the miracle on a blind man as on Mr. Hazlitt. Again, in the 

 same poem, a little further on, 



For I tell the now trevely, 



Is none so wyse ne to sle, 



But ever^ may som what lere, 



which, of course, should be, 



ne so sle 

 But ever he may som what lere. 



Worse than all, Mr. Hazlitt tells us (Vol. I. p. 158) that when 

 they bury the great Khan, they lay his body in a tabernacle, 



With sheld and spere and other wede 

 With a whit mere to gyf him in ylke. 



We will let Sir John Maundeville correct the last verse: And 

 they seyn that when he shale come into another World .... 

 the mare schalle gheven him mylk? Mr. Hazlitt gives us some 

 wretched doggerel by Piers of Fulham, and gives it swarming 

 with blunders. We take at random a couple of specimens: 



And loveship goith ay to warke 



Where that presence is put a bake (vol. II. pp. 13, 14), 



where we should read love s ship, wrake/ and abake. Again, 

 just below, 



