Errors in Punctuation (Vol. viii., p. 217.).—Every one must agree with R. H. C. as to the importance of correct punctuation; and it may easily be supposed how it must puzzle readers of works whose language is in great part obsolete, to meet with mistakes of this kind, when we find modern writers frequently rendered almost unintelligible by similar errors. To take those whose works have, perhaps, been oftener reprinted than any others of this century, Byron and Scott, the foregoing passage in Childe Harold is a signal instance; and as another, the Sonnet translated by Byron from Vittorelli, has only had corrected in the very latest editions, an error in the punctuation of the first two lines which rendered them a mystery to those who did not understand the original, as printed on the opposite page. In note 12 to the 5th Canto of Marmion, every edition, British or foreign, down to the present day, punctuates the last two or three lines as follows:
"A torquois ring;—probably this fatal gift is, with James's sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London."
Sir Walter is thus made to express a doubt, which he never intended, as to the ring being there. A comma after "ring," another after "gift," and the omission of the dash, will restore the true meaning of the sentence.
J. S. Warden.
Waugh of Cumberland (Vol. ix., p. 272.).—John Waugh (D.C.L., Feb. 8, 1734)—born and educated at Appleby, Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford; Rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill; Prebendary of Lincoln; Dean of Gloucester,—was consecrated to the See of Carlisle Oct. 13, 1723: he died Oct. 1734, and was buried in the church of St. Peter, Cornhill. He bore for arms: Arg., on a chevron engrailed gules, three bezants.
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.
"Could we with ink," &c. (Vol. viii. passim).—Perhaps one more communication may find admission on the above interesting lines. I received from a clerical friend, many years ago, a version of them, which differs considerably from that given in "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 127. The variations I have marked by Italics:
"Could you with ink the ocean fill,
Were the whole world of parchment made,
Were every single stick a quill,