310 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



" Bassiatnmi, coglier 1' aura odorata 

 Che in sua neggia in quello dolce labra. 

 Dammi pimpero del tuo gradit' amore." 



It is clear enough that we ought to read, 

 " Lasciami coglier, .... Che ha sua seggia, .... Dammi 1' impero." 

 A Delia Cruscan academician might at least have cor- 

 rected by his dictionary the spelling and number of 

 labra. 



We think that we have sustained our indictment of 

 Mr. Halliwell's text with ample proof. The title of the 

 book should have been, " The Works of John Marston, 

 containing all the Misprints of the Original Copies, 

 together with a few added for the First Time in this 

 Edition, the whole carefully let alone by James Orchard 

 Halliwell, F. R. S., F. S. A." It occurs to us that Mr. 

 Halliwell may be also a Fellow of the Geological Society, 

 and may have caught from its members the enthusiasm 

 which leads him to attach so extraordinary a value to 

 every goose-track of the Elizabethan formation. It is 

 bad enough to be, as Marston was, one of those middling 

 poets whom neither gods nor men nor columns (Horace 

 had never seen a newspaper) tolerate ; but, really, even 

 they do not deserve the frightful retribution of being 

 reprinted by a Halliwell. 



We have said that we could not feel even the dubious 

 satisfaction of knowing that the blunders of the old cop- 

 ies had been faithfully followed in the reprinting. We 

 see reason for doubting whether Mr. Halliwell ever read 

 the proof-sheets. In his own notes we have found sev- 

 eral mistakes. For instance, he refers to p. 159 when he 

 means p. 153; he cites "I, but her life" instead of 

 " lip " ; and he makes Spenser speak of " old Pithonus." 

 Marston is not an author of enough importance to make 

 it desirable that we should be put in possession of all 

 the corrupted readings of his text, were such a thing 



