In the course of his note he mentions that Heath, "the author of the Revisal, reads 'Rumour's eyes may wink;' which agrees in sense with the rest of the passage, but differs widely from run-aways in the trace of the letters."
I was not conscious of having seen this suggestion of Heath's, when, in consequence of a question put to me by a gentleman of distinguished taste and learning, I turned my thoughts to the passage, and at length came to the conclusion that the word must have been rumourers, and that from its unfrequent occurrence (the only other example of it at present known to me being one afforded by the poet) the printer mistook it for runawayes; which, when written indistinctly, it may have strongly resembled. I therefore think that we may read with some confidence:
"Spread thy close curtains, love-performing Night,
That rumourers' eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."
It fulfils the requirements of both metre and sense, and the words untalk'd of and unseen make it nearly indisputable. I had at first thought it might be "rumorous eyes;" but the personification would then be wanting. Shakspeare has personified Rumour in the Introduction to the Second Part of King Henry IV.; and in Coriolanus, Act IV. Sc. 6., we have—
"Go see this rumourer whipp'd."
I am gratified by seeing that I have anticipated your able correspondent, the Rev. Mr. Arrowsmith, in his elucidation of "clamour your tongues," by citing the same passage from Udall's Apophthegmes, in my Vindication of the Text of Shakspeare, p. 79. It is a pleasure which must console me for having subjected myself to his just animadversion on another occasion. If those who so egregiously blunder are to be spared the castigation justly merited, we see by late occurrences to what it may lead; and your correspondent, in my judgment, is conferring a favour on all true lovers of our great poet by exposing pretension and error, from whatever quarter it may come,—a duty which has been sadly neglected in some late partial reviews of Mr. Collier's "clever" corrector. Mr. Arrowsmith's communications have been so truly ad rem, that I think I shall be expressing the sentiments of all your readers interested in such
matters, in expressing an earnest desire for their continuance.
S. W. Singer.