3. A 3 B. of Herennia Estruscilla.—Rev. The usual seated figure of Pudicitia; and the Legend, PVDICITIA AVG.
According to Col. Smyth, Akermann, and other authorities, no third brass of this empress exists; but the specimen before me has been decided as undoubtedly genuine by many competent judges.
4. A 3 B. coin of the Emperor Macrinus, struck in some of the provinces.—Obv. A bearded portrait of the emperor: Leg., AVT. K.M.O.C.C. MAKPINOC: Rev. An archaic S.C. in a laurel garland, above L and beneath C. I am anxious to know to what locality I may ascribe this coin, as I have not been able to find it described.
E.S.T.
QUERIES PROPOSED, NO. 2.
When reflecting on my various pen-and-ink skirmishes, I have sometimes half-resolved to avoid controversy. The resolution would have been unwise; for silence, on many occasions, would be a dereliction of those duties which we owe to ourselves and the public.
The halcyon days, so much desired, may be far distant! I have to comment, elsewhere, on certain parts of the Report of the commissioners on the British Museum—which I hope to do firmly, yet respectfully; and on the evidence of Mr. Panizzi—in which task I must not disappoint his just expectations. I have also to propose a query on the blunder of Malone—to which I give precedence, as it relates to Shakspeare.
The query is—have I "mistaken the whole affair"? A few short paragraphs may enable others to decide.
1. The question at issue arose, I presume to say, out of the statement of Mr. Jebb. I never quoted the Irish edition. If C. can prove that Malone superintended it, he may fairly tax me with a violation of my new canon of criticism—not otherwise. What says Mr. James Boswell on that point? I must borrow his precise words: "The only edition for which Mr. Malone can be considered as responsible [is] his own in 1790." [Plays and poems of W.S. 1821, i. xxxiii.]