"I love thee best, O most best."
and in King Lear, Act ii. Sc. 3.:
"To take the basest and most poorest shape."
The passage will then stand thus:—
"But these sweet thoughts, do even refresh my labour,
Most busiest when I do it."
The sense will be perhaps more evident by a mere transposition, preserving every word:
"But these sweet thoughts, most busiest when I do
My labour, do even refresh it."
Here we have a clear sense, devoid of all ambiguity, and confirmed by what precedes; that his labours are made pleasures, being beguiled by these sweet thoughts of his mistress, which are busiest when he labours, because it excites in his mind the memory of her "weeping to see him work." The correction has also the recommendation of being effected in so simple a manner as by merely taking away two superfluous letters. I trust I need say no more; secure of the approbation of those who (to use the words of an esteemed friend on another occasion) feel "that making an opaque spot in a great work transparent is not a labour to be scorned, and that there is a pleasant sympathy between the critic and bard—dead though he be—on such occasions, which is an ample reward."