LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 321 



has crept in by editorial oversight for " wisely, that 's 

 jealously." So have 



" Ay, the great emperor of [or] the mighty Cham " ; 

 and 



' This wit [icith] taking long journeys "; 



and 



" Virginius, thou ddst but supply my place, 



I thine: Fortune hath lift me [ihee] to my chair, 

 And thrown me headlong to thy pleading bar " ; 



and 



I'll pour my soul into my daughter's belly, [body,] 

 And with my soldier's tears embalm her wounds." 



We suggest that the change of an a to an r would 

 make sense of the following : " Come, my little punk, 

 with thy two compositors, to this unlawful painting- 

 house," [printing-house,] which Mr. Hazlitt awkwardly 

 endeavors to explain by this note on the word compos 

 itors, " i. e. (conjecturally), making up the composition 

 of the picture " ! Our readers can decide for themselves ; 

 the passage occurs Vol. I. p. 214. 



We think Mi*. Hazlitt's notes are, in the main, good ; 

 but we should like to know his authority for saying that 

 pench means " the hole in a bench by which it was taken 

 up," that "descant" means " look askant on," and 

 that " I wis " is equivalent to " I surmise, imagine," 

 which it surely is not in the passage to which his note is 

 appended. On page 9, Vol. I., we read in the text, 



" To whom, my lord, bends thus your awe," 



and in the note, " i. e. submission. The original has 

 aue, which, if it mean ave, is unmeaning here." Did Mr. 

 Hazlitt never see a picture of the Annunciation with ave 

 written on the scroll proceeding from the bending angel's 

 mouth ? We find the same word in Vol. III. p. 217 : 



" Whose station's built on avees and applause." 



Vol. III. pp. 47, 48 : 



14* u 



