LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 269 



with the next. The phrase so mote I go is as common as a 

 weed in the works of the elder poets, both French and English ; 

 it occurs several times in Mr. Hazlitt s own collection, and its 

 other form, so mote I fare/ which may also be found there, 

 explains its meaning. On the phrase point-device (Vol. III. 

 p. 117) Mr. Hazlitt has a positively incredible note, of which we 

 copy only a part : This term, which is commonly used in early 

 poems [mark once more his intimacy with our earlier literature] 

 * to signify extreme exactitude, originated in the points which 

 were marked on the astrolabe, as one of the means which the 

 astrologers and dabblers in the black art adopted to enable them 

 (as they pretended) to read the fortunes of those by whom they 

 were consulted in the stars and planetary orbs. The excessive 

 precision which was held to be requisite in the delineation of 

 these points [the delineation of a point is good!] *&c. on the 

 astrolabe, led to point-device, or points-device (as it is sometimes 

 found spelled), being used as a proverbial expression for minute 

 accuracy of any kind. Then follows a quotation from Gower, 

 in which an astrolabe is spoken of with points and cercles mer- 

 veilous/ and the note proceeds thus : Shakespeare makes use of 

 a similar figure of speech in the Tempest, I. 2, where the follow 

 ing dialogue takes place between Prospero and Ariel : 



Prosp. Hast thou, spirit, 



Performed to point the tempest that I bade thee? 

 Ar. In every article. 



Neither the proposed etymology nor the illustration requires any 

 remark from us. We will only say that point-device is excel 

 lently explained and illustrated by Wedgwood. 



We will give a few more examples out of many to show Mr. 

 Hazlitt s utter unfitness for the task he has undertaken. In the 

 Kyng and the Hermyt are the following verses, 



A wyld wey, I hold, it were 

 The way to wend, I you swere, 

 Bot ye the dey may se, 



meaning simply, I think it would be a wild thing (in you) to go 

 on your way unless you wait for daylight. Mr. Hazlitt punc 

 tuates and amends thus : 



A \vyld wey I hold it were, 

 The wey to wend, I you swere, 



Ye hot [by] the dey may se. (Vol. I. p. 19.) 



The word bot seems a stumbling-block to Mr. Hazlitt. On page 

 54 of the same volume we have, 



Herd i neuere bi no leuedi 

 Hot* hendinesge and curteysi. 



