* Ante, p. 64, note.
** Id. p. xx.
*** "Some Shakespearean and Spenserian MSS.," "American
Whig Review," December, 1851,
But if, instead of going to school, or operating a theater, William had passed his days as a journeyman printer, he could hardly have been more at home to the mysteries of that craft. Mr. Blades, a practical printer, has found in the Works so many terms, technical to and employed in the exact sense of the composing and press-rooms, that they seriously add to the enumeration of possible Shakesperean vocations. For example:
"Behold, my Lords,
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father,
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger."
Witness, also, the following:
"You are but as a form in wax, by him imprinted.
—Midsummer-Night's Dream, I, 1.
"His heart, with your print impressed.