366 LIBKAEY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



which we print purposely without punctuation. Mr. 

 Hazlitt prints them thus, 



" Dame, he said, what shall we i)ow doo ? 

 Sir, she said, so mote [it] go. 

 The munk," &c, 



and gives us a note on the locution he has invented to 



this effect, "1 so might it be managed." And the 



Chancellor said, / doubt ! Mr. Hazlitt's query makes 



such a singular exception to his more natural mood of 



immediate inspiration that it is almost pathetic. The 



amended verse, as everybody (not confused by too great 



familiarity with our "early writers") knows, should 



read, 



" Sir, she said, so might I go," 



and should be followed only by a comma, to show its 

 connection with the next. The phrase " so mote I go," 

 is as common as a weed in the works of the elder poets, 

 both French and English ; it occurs several times in Mr. 

 Hazlitt's own collection, and its other form, " so mote I 

 fare," which may also be found there, explains its mean- 

 ing. On the phrase point-device (Vol. III. p. 117) Mr. 

 Hazlitt has a positively incredible note, of which we 

 copy only a part : " This term, which is commonly used 

 in early poems " [mark once more his intimacy with our 

 earlier literature] " to signify extreme exactitude, origi- 

 nated in the points which were marked on the astrolabe, 

 as one of the means which the astrologers and dabblers 

 in the black art adopted to enable them (as they pre- 

 tended) to read the fortunes of those by whom they were 

 consulted in the stars and planetary orbs. The exces- 

 sive precision which was held to be requisite in the 

 delineation of these points " [the delineation of a point 

 is good !] " &c. on the astrolabe, led to point-device, or 

 points-device (as it is sometimes found spelled), being 

 used as a proverbial expression for minute accuracy of 



