our intellectual muscles in getting over them.  But no; Mr. Halliwell has appended notes to his edition, and among them are some which correct misprints, and therefore seem to imply that he considers that service as belonging properly to the editorial function.  We are obliged, then, to give up our theory that his intention was to make every reader an editor, and to suppose that he wished rather to show how disgracefully a book might be edited and yet receive the commendation of professional critics who read with the ends of their fingers.  If this were his intention, Marston himself never published so biting a satire.

Let us look at a few of the intricate passages, to help us through which Mr. Halliwell lends us the light of his editorial lantern.  In the Induction to “What you Will” occurs the striking and unusual phrase, “Now out up-pont,” and Mr. Halliwell favors us with the following note:  “Page 221, line 10. Up-pont.—­That is, upon’t.”  Again in the same play we find—­

  “Let twattling fame cheatd others rest,
  I um no dish for rumors feast.”

Of course, it should read,—­

  “Let twattling [twaddling] Fame cheate others’ rest,
  I am no dish for Rumor’s feast.”

Mr. Halliwell comes to our assistance thus:  “Page 244, line 21, [22 it should be,] I um,—­a printer’s error for I am.”  Dignus vindice nodus!  Five lines above, we have “whole” for “who’ll,” and four lines below, “helmeth” for “whelmeth”; but Mr. Halliwell vouchsafes no note.  In the “Fawn” we read, “Wise neads use few words,” and the editor says in a note, “a misprint for heads”!  Kind Mr. Halliwell!

Having given a few examples of our “Editor’s” corrections, we proceed to quote a passage or two which, it is to be presumed, he thought perfectly clear.

“A man can skarce put on a tuckt-up cap, A button’d frizado sute, skarce eate good meate, Anchoves, caviare, but hee’s satyred And term’d phantasticall.  By the muddy spawne Of slymie neughtes, when troth, phantasticknesse—­ That which the naturall sophysters tearme Phantusia incomplexa—­is a function Even of the bright immortal part of man.  It is the common passe, the sacred dore, Unto the prive chamber of the soule; That bar’d, nought passeth past the baser court.  Of outward scence by it th’ inamorate Most lively thinkes he sees the absent beauties Of his lov’d mistres.”—­Vol.  I. p. 241.

In this case, also, the true readings are clear enough:—­

  “And termed fantastical by the muddy spawn
  Of slimy newts”;

and

  ——­“past the baser court
  Of outward sense";—­

but, if anything was to be explained, why are we here deserted by our fida compagna?

Again, (Vol.  II. pp. 55-56,) we read, “This Granuffo is a right wise good lord, a man of excellent discourse, and never speakes his signes to me, and men of profound reach instruct aboundantly; hee begges suites with signes, gives thanks with signes,” etc.