ERRATA RECEPTA. 69 



by the application of a rule deduced long ago from considerations in 

 regard to old fashioned hand-writing similar to those spoken of by 

 Mr. J. P. Collier, in his "Account of Early English Literature," 

 (ii. 259.) He is observing on the couplet from a now forgotten 

 writer — Barnaby Rich : 



" To what impression I bave wrought it now, 

 The wise may judge, for fools feare not how." 



After pointing out that in the second line, both sense and measure 

 detect a misprint, and that " I care not how '* ought manifestly to be 

 read instead of " feare not how ;" he adds, " When we recollect that 

 in manuscript of the time (1613) the pronoun 1 was constantly car- 

 ried below the line, it is easy to understand how ' I care' came to be 

 misprinted * feare.' This mode of detecting errors in old books has 

 never been sufficiently attended to ; and editors of Shakspeare have 

 often preserved blunders, because they did not consider, or perhaps 

 did not know, how words would look in writing of the period." 



1. In Act iii., sc. 2. of Romeo and Juliet, the beginning of the 

 sixth line (the locus conclamatus) should, I think, read : — 



" That Erinnys' eyes may wink." 

 It is quite in Shakspeare' s way to put into the mouths of his charac- 

 ters mythological names well-known through the translations in vogue 

 in his day, of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, &c. In line 2, of this scene, we 

 have • Phoebus ; ' in line 3, ' Phaethon.' The fury * Erinnys,' fami- 

 liar from Virgil's 



" In flammas et in arma feror, quo tristis Erinnya, 

 Quo fremitus vocat, et sublatus ad sethera clamor—" 



is here conceived of as promoting the fierce family feuds which were 

 distracting Verona, and rendering adventures, like that of Romeo, ex- 

 ceedingly dangerous. In Act ii., sc. 2., line 70, Juliet says to Romeo^ 

 " If they (any of the Capulets) see thee, they will murder thee." — 

 The name * Erinnys,' with similar associations, is employed by Shaks- 

 peare in line 5 of 1 Hen., iv. 1. 1. 



*' The thirsty Erinnys of this soil." 

 That is to say, it is highly probable (as Mr. Monk Mason suggested) 

 that ' Erinnys ' is the right reading here, also ; and, accordingly, the 

 word is given in the Concordance of Mrs. Cowden Clarke, with this 

 one reference. But the idea of ' Erinnvs ' occurred to me as the pro- 

 per lection in the place referred to in Romeo and Juliet, while consi- 

 dering one of the lines in the Latin invocation which, in the " Tra- 



