The original was “prize their life,” and the use of “neat” as a singular in this way is so uncommon, if not unprecedented, and the verse as corrected so halting, that we have no doubt Lovelace so wrote it. Of course “hollowed” should be “hallowed,” though the broader pronunciation still lingers in our country pulpits.
“What need she other bait or charm
But look? or angle but her arm?” (p. 65.)
So the original, which Mr. Hazlitt, missing the sense, has changed to “what hook or angle.”
“Fly Joy on wings of Popinjays
To courts of fools where as your plays
Die laught at and forgot.” (p. 67.)
The original has “there.” Read,—
“Fly, Joy, on wings of popinjays
To courts of fools; there, as your plays,
Die,” &c.
“Where as,” as then used, would make it the “plays” that were to die.
“As he Lucasta nam’d, a groan
Strangles the fainting passing tone;
But as she heard, Lucasta smiles,
Posses her round; she’s slipt meanwhiles
Behind the blind of a thick bush.” (p. 68.)
Mr. Hazlitt’s note on “posses” could hardly be matched by any member of the posse comitatus taken at random:—
“This word does not appear to have any very exact meaning. See Halliwell’s Dictionary of Archaic Words, art. Posse, and Worcester’s Dict., ibid., &c. The context here requires to turn sharply or quickly.”