And, by a slight confusion of sound, the word mistake might appear in type as must take:—­

`So you mistake your husbands.’
                              Hamlet, iii. 2.

Again, idle votarist would easily become idol votarist—­

`I am no idle votarist.’—­Timon, iv. 3;

and long delays become transformed to longer days—­

`This done, see that you take no long delays.
                              Titus, iv. 2.

p 106From the time of Gutenberg until now this similarity of sound has been a fruitful source of error among printers.

``II. Errors of the Eye.—­The eye often misleads the hand of the compositor, especially if he be at work upon a crabbed manuscript or worn-out reprint.  Take out a dot, and This time goes manly becomes

`This tune goes manly.’ Macbeth, iv. 3.

So a clogged letter turns What beast was’t then? into What boast was’t then?—­

     `Lady M. What beast was’t then,
     That made you break this enterprise to me?’
                                   Macbeth, i. 7.

Examples might be indefinitely multiplied from many an old book, so I will quote but one more instance.  The word preserve spelt with a long s might without much carelessness be misread preferre (I Henry VI., iii. 2), and thus entirely alter the sense.

``III. Errors from a `foul case.’—­This class of errors is of an entirely different p 107kind from the two former.  They came from within the man, and were from the brain; this is from without, mechanical in its origin as well as in its commission.  As many readers may never have seen the inside of a printing office, the following short explanation may be found useful:  A `case’ is a shallow wooden drawer, divided into numerous square receptacles called `boxes,’ and into each box is put one sort of letter only, say all a’s, or b’s, or c’s.  The compositor works with two of these cases slanting up in front of him, and when, from a shake, a slip, or any other accident, the letters become misplaced the result is technically known as `a foul case.’  A further result is, that the fingers of the workman, although going to the proper box, will often pick up a wrong letter, he being entirely unconscious the while of the fact.

``Now, if we can discover any law which governs this abnormal position of the types —­if, for instance, we can predicate that the letter o, when away from its own, will be more frequently found in the box appropriated to letter a than any other; that b p 108has a general tendency to visit the l box, and l the v box; and that d, if away from home, will be almost certainly found among the n’s; if we can show this, we shall then lay a good foundation for the re-examination of many corrupt or disputed readings in the text of Shakspere, some of which may receive fresh life from such a treatment.