[45a] In a letter to me dated October 29th, 1871, FitzGerald says:—
“A suggestion that casually fell from old Spedding’s lips (I forget how long ago) occurred to me the other day. Instead of
‘Do such business as the bitter day,’
read ‘better day’—a certain Emendation, I think. I hope you take Spedding into your Counsel; he might be induced to look over one Play at a time though he might shrink from all in a Body; and I scarce ever heard him conning a page of Shakespeare but he suggested something which was an improvement—on Shakespeare himself, if not on his Editors—though don’t [tell] Spedding that I say so, for God’s sake.”
[45b] In ‘Notes and Queries,’ April 18th, 1874.
[48a] Lord Hertford
[48b] Frank Carr Beard, the friend and medical adviser of Dickens and Wilkie Collins.
[49a] See Lockhart’s ‘Life of Scott,’ vii. 394. ‘About half-past one, p.m., on the 21st of September, [1832], Sir Walter breathed his last, in the presence of all his children. It was a beautiful day—so warm that every window was wide open, and so perfectly still, that the sound of all others most delicious to his ear, the gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible as we knelt around the bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes.’
[49b] Dryburgh.
[49c] The North West Passage. The ‘Old Sea Captain’ was Trelawny.
[50a] See ‘Letters,’ ii. 173-4.