“The radiant gemme was brightly set
In as divine a carkanet;
Of which the clearer was not knowne
Her minde or her complexion.” (p. 101.)
The original reads rightly “for which,” &c., and, the passage being rightly pointed, we have,—
“For which the clearer was not known,
Her mind or her complexion.”
Of course “complexion” had not its present limited meaning.
“ ... my future daring bayes
Shall bow itself.” (p. 107.)
“We should read themselves,” says Mr. Hazlitt’s note authoritatively. Of course a noun ending in s is plural! Not so fast. In spite of the dictionaries, bays was often used in the singular.
“Do plant a sprig of cypress, not of bays,”
says Robert Randolph in verses prefixed to his brother’s poems; and Fe11tham in “Jonsonus Virbius,”
“A greener bays shall crown Ben Jonson’s name.”