354 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



As it was, he got one word right, and so far has the 

 advantage of Mr. Hazlitt. The true reading is, of 

 course, ner a dell, never a deal, not a whit. The very 

 phrase occurs in another poem which Mr. Hazlitt has re- 

 printed in his collection, 



" For never a dell 

 He wyll me love agayne." (Vol. III. p. 2.) 



That adell was a misprint in Ritson is proved by the fact 

 that the word does not appear in his glossary. If we 

 were to bring Mr. Hazlitt to book for his misprints ! In 

 the poem we have just quoted he gravely prints, 



" Matter in dede, 

 My sides did blede," 



for "mother, indede," "through ryght wysenes " for 

 "though ryghtwisenes," "with man vnkynde" for "sith 

 man vnkynde," "ye knowe a parte" for "ye knowe 

 aperte," " here in " for "herein," all of which make non- 

 sense, and all come within the first one hundred and 

 fifty lines, and those of the shortest, mostly of four syl- 

 lables each. Perhaps they rather prove ignorance than 

 want of care. One blunder falling within the same 

 limits we have reserved for special comment, because it 

 affords a good example of Mr. Hazlitt's style of editing : 



" Your herte souerayne 

 Clouen in twayne 

 Bylongestheblynde." (Vol. III. p. 7.) 



Here the uninstructed reader would be as completely in 

 the dark as to what longes meant as the editor plainly 

 was himself The old rhymer no doubt wrote Longis, 

 meaning thereby Longinus, a personage familiar enough, 

 one should think, to any reader of mediaeval poetry. 

 Mr. Hazlitt absolves himself for not having supplied a 

 glossary by the plea that none is needed by the class 

 of readers for whom his volumes are intended. Bat this 

 will hardly seem a valid excuse for a gentleman who 



