“And, where he took it up, resigns the bays.”
“But we (defend us!) are divine,
[Not] female, but madam born, and come
From a right-honorable wombe.” (p. 115.)
Here Mr. Hazlitt has ruined both sense and metre by his unhappy “not.” We should read “Female, but madam-born,” meaning clearly enough “we are women, it is true, but of another race.”
“In every hand [let] a cup be found
That from all hearts a health may sound.” (p. 121.)
Wrong again, and the inserted “let” ruinous to the measure. Is it possible that Mr. Hazlitt does not understand so common an English construction as this?
“First told thee into th’ ayre, then to the ground.” (p. 141.)
Mr. Hazlitt inserts the “to,” which is not in the original, from another version. Lovelace wrote “ayër.” We have noted two other cases (pp. 203 and 248) where he makes the word a dissyllable. On the same page we have “shewe’s” changed to “shew” because Mr. Hazlitt did not know it meant “show us” and not “shows.” On page 170, “their” is substituted for “her,” which refers to Lucasta, and could refer to nothing else.
Mr. Hazlitt changes “quarrels the student Mercury” to “quarrels with,” not knowing that quarrels was once used as a transitive verb. (p. 189.)
Wherever he chances to notice it, Mr. Hazlitt changes the verb following two or more nouns connected by an “and” from singular to plural. For instance:—
“You, sir, alone, fame, and all conquering rhyme
File the set teeth,” &c. (p. 224.)