LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 311 



possible even with the most minute painstaking, and Mr. 

 Hailiweirs edition loses its only claim to value the mo- 

 ment a doubt is cast upon the accuracy of its inaccuracies. 

 It is a matter of special import to us (whose means 

 of access to originals are exceedingly limited) that the 

 English editors of our old authors should be faithful and 

 trustw^orthy, and we have singled out Mr. Halliwell's 

 Marston for particular animadversion only because we 

 think it on the whole the worst edition we ever saw of 

 any author. 



Having exposed the condition in which our editor has 

 left the text, we proceed to test his competency in an- 

 other respect, by examining some of the emendations 

 and explanations of doubtful passages which he proposes. 

 These are very few ; but had they been even fewer, they 

 had been too many. 



Among the dramatis personce of the " Fawn," as we 

 said before, occurs " Granuffo, a silent lord:' He speaks 

 only once during the play, and that in the last scene. 

 In Act I. Scene 2, Gonzago says, speaking to Granuffo, — 



" Now, sure, thou art a man 

 Of a most learned scilence, and one whose words 

 Have bm most pretious to me." 



This seems quite plain, but Mr. Halliwell annotates 

 thus : " Scilence. — Query, science ? Th. ^nmmon read- 

 ing, silence, may, however, be what is intenaeG.. ' That 

 the spelling should have troubled Mr. Halliwell is re- 

 markable ; for elsewhere we find "god-boy "for "good- 

 bye," "seace" for "cease," "bodies" for " boddice," 

 "polhce" for "poHcy," " pitittying" for "pitying," 

 "scence" for "sense," " Misenzius " for " Mezentius," 

 " Ferazes " for " Ferrarese," — and plenty beside, equal- 

 ly odd. That he should have doubted the meaning is 

 no less strange ; for on p. 41 of the same play we read, 

 " My Lord Granuffo, you may likewise stay, for I know 



