For that except that the precher, hym selfe lyue well,
His predycacyon wyll helpe neuer a dell,
And I know well, that thy lyuynge is nought:
Thou art an apostata, yf it were well sought,
An homycyde thou art I know well inoughe," &c.
The line omitted is the more remarkable, because it contains an instance of the employment of a word very old in our language, and in use in the best periods of our prose and poetry: "apostata" is explained in the Promptorium, is found in Skelton and Heywood, and so down to the time of Massinger, who was especially fond of it.
How many copies were issued of Smeeton's reprint of The Pardoner and the Frere, I know not; but any of your readers, who chance to possess it, will do well to add the absent line in the margin, so that the mistake may be both rectified and recorded. I was not aware of Mr. Child's intention to re-publish the interlude in the United States, or I would long ago have sent him the correction, as indeed I did, a day or two after I received his volume. It was, nevertheless, somewhat ungracious to thank him for his book, and at the same time to point out an important error in it, for which, however, he was in no way responsible.
J. PAYNE COLLIER.
Kensington, Jan. 28. 1850.