LEAVES THEY HAVE TOUCHED. 539 



take advantage of my shaking hands with you at the Garrick Club a 

 few weeks ago, noi' must you trouble me with any more letters on the 

 subject upon which you have ' set your mind.' Besides, you should 

 have stated your views to the pu.blishers — decidedly not to me. — 

 Yours truly, W. M. Thackeray." 



To the Shakspearean group, I add volumes once the property 

 of several distinguished Shakspearean commentators or editors, as 

 shewing inscriptions from the hands of each of their former owners : 

 (1) Joseph Eitson's copy of "Miscellaneous Pieces relating to the 

 Chinese," collected by Thomas Percy, afterwards Bishop of Dromore. 

 In his "Observations on the Aficient English Minstrels," Bitson 

 coarsely criticised Percy's "Reliques ;" but Bitson coarsely criticised 

 everybody. Sir Walter Scott says of Bitson that he was " a man of 

 acute observation, profound research, and great labour. These valu- 

 able attributes were unhappily combined with an eager irritability of 

 temper which induced him to treat antiquarian trifles with the same 

 seriousness which men of the world reserve for matters of importance." 

 (Bitson died mad.) (2) Isaac Beed's copy of " Ozell's Translation of 

 the Lutrin of Boileau." Bead edited Shakspeare twice : first in ten, 

 and secondly in twenty-one volumes. At his death, in 1807, the 

 sale of his library occupied thii-ty-nine days. (3) Alexander Dyce's 

 copy of his own " Ti'anslation of Quintus Smyrnseus's continuation 

 of the Iliad " — a presentation copy from himself " to his friend 

 J. J. Eyton." Besides Shakspeare, Mr. Dyce edited the plays of the 

 early English dramatists Peele, Greene and Webster. (4) Bobert 

 Chambers' copy of J. Payne Collier's edition of the " Notes and 

 Emendations to the text of Shakspeare's Plays, from early manu- 

 script corrections in a copy of the folio, 1632." Besides the auto- 

 graph of B. Chambers, in this volume, there is at the end a MS. 

 note from the same hand on the word "flote," in scene 2, act 1, 

 of the Tempest, corrected to "float" in the " Emendations," with the 

 change of the preceding " all " into " are," making the passage read 



thus : 



" They all have met again, 

 And all upon the Mediterranean float." 



The editor of the " Emendations " remarks on this : " 'Float' in fact 

 is a verb, used by everybody, and not a substantive, used by no other 

 English writer." To this B. Chambers in his MS. note rejoins : 

 " 'Flote' is used as a noun for ' fleet ' in a letter of King James VI., 



