LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 361 



" Why schope thou me to wrother-hele," 

 and in "Dame Siris " (Ibid., 110), 



" To goder hele ever came thou hider." 

 Mr. Hazlitt prints, 



" For yf it may be found in thee 



That thou them [de] fame for emiyte." 



The emendation [de] is Ritson's, and is probably right, 

 though it would require, for the metre's sake, the elision 

 of that at the beginning of the verse. But what is 

 enuyte ? Ritson reads enmyte, which is, of course, the 

 true reading. Mr. Hazlitt prints (as usual either with 

 out apprehending or without regarding the sense), 



" With browes bent and eyes full mery," 



where Ritson has brent, and gives parallel passages in 

 his note on the word. Mr. Hazlitt gives us 



" To here the bugles there yblow, 

 With their bugles in that place," 



though Ritson had made the proper correction to hegles. 

 Mr. Hazlitt, with ludicrous nonchalance, allows the Squire 

 to press into the throng 



" With a bastard large and longe," 



and that with the right word (baslarde) staring him in 

 the face from Ritson's text. We wonder he did not give 

 us an illustrative quotation from Falconbridge ! Both 

 editors have allowed some gross errors to escape, such 

 as " come not " for " come " (v. 425) ; " so leue he be " 

 for " ye be " (v. 593) ; " vnto her chambre " for " vnto 

 your" (v. 993); but in general Ritson's is the better 

 and more intelligent text of the two. In the " Knight 

 of Curtesy," Mr. Hazlitt has followed Ritson's text 

 almost literatim. Indeed, it is demonstrable that he 

 gave it to his printers as copy to set up from. The proof 

 is this : Ritson has accented a few words ending in te. 

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