Here it may be remarked that some of <p 125>the most extraordinary misprints never get farther than the printing office or the study; but although they may have been discovered by the reader or the author, they were made nevertheless.
Sometimes the fun of a misprint consists in its elaborateness and completeness, and sometimes in its simplicity (perhaps only the change of a letter). Of the first class the transformation of Shirley's well-known lines is a good example:—
``Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.''
is scarcely recognisable as
``All the low actions of the just
Swell out and blow Sam in the dust.''
The statement that ``men should work and play Loo,'' obtained from ``men should work and play too,'' illustrates the second class.
The version of Pope which was quoted by a correspondent of the Times about a year ago is very charming:—
``A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the aperient spring.'
<p 126>The reporter or printer who mistook the Oxford professor's allusion to the Eumenides, and quoted him as speaking of ``those terrible old Greek goddesses—the Humanities,'' was still more elaborate in his joke.
Horace Greeley is well known to have been an exceedingly bad writer; but when he quoted the well-known line (which is said to be equal to a florin, because there are four tizzies in it)—