364 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



Every man his own editor seems to be his theory of the 

 way in which old poetry should be reprinted. On this 

 plan, the more riddles you leave (or make) for the reader 

 to solve, the more pleasure you give him. To correct 

 the blunders in any book edited by Mr. Hazlitt would 

 give the young student a pretty thorough training in 

 archaic English. In this sense the volumes before us 

 might be safely recommended to colleges and schools. 

 When Mr. Hazlitt undertakes to correct, he is pretty 

 sure to go wrong. For example, in " Doctour Doubble 

 Ale " (Vol. III. p. 309) he amends thus : — 



" And sometyme mikle strife is 

 Among the ale wyfes, [y-wis] ; 



where the original is right as it stands. Just before, in 

 the same poem, we have a parallel instance : — 



" And doctours dulpatis 

 That falsely to them pratis, 

 And bring them to the gates." 



The original probably reads (or should read) wyfis and 

 gatis. But it is too much to expect of Mr. Hazlitt that 

 he should remember the very poems he is editing from 

 one page to another, nay, as we shall presently show, 

 that he should even read them. He will change be into 

 ben where he should have let it alone (though his own 

 volumes might have furnished him with such examples 

 as " were go," " have se," " is do," and fifty more), but 

 he will sternly retain bene where the rhyme requires be, 

 and Ritson had so printed. In " Adam Bel " the word 

 pryme occurs (Vol. II. p. 140), and he vouchsafes us the 

 following note : " i. e. noon. It is commonly used by 

 early writers in this sense. In the Four P. P., by John 

 Hey wood, circa 1540, the apothecary says 



'If he taste this boxe nye abonte the pryme 

 By the masse, he is in heven or even songe tyme.' " 



