342 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



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 emenda 

 tions. 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 care 

 less book, to speak mildly), in which flute 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 

 ftt Murano, says, " For the High Dutch they have high 

 glasses called Flutes, a full yard long." So in Dryden's 

 Sir Martin Mar-all, " bring two flute-basses and some 

 stools, ho ! We '11 have the ladies' health." The origin 

 pf the word, though doubtful, is probably nearer to flood 

 than flute. But conceive of two gentlemen, members of 

 one knows not how many learned societies, like Messrs. 

 Wright and Halliwell, pretending to edit Nares, when 

 they query a word which they could have found in any 

 French or German dictionary ! 



On page 93 we have, 



" Hayle. holy cold! chaste temper, hayle! the fire 

 Raved o'er my purer thoughts I feel t' expire." 



Mr. Hazlitt annotates thus : " Rav'd seems here to be 

 equivalent to reavd or bereav'd. Perhaps the correct 

 reading may be 'reav'd.' See Worcester's Dictionary, 

 art. liAjb, where Menage's supposition of affinity be- 



