he saw, though perhaps not quite distinctly, that such was the poet's intention, only, as I have said above, he arrived at it by altering, and I by adhering to, the poet's language. I may be allowed to add that I came to my conclusion many years before I was asked to put my name to an edition of Shakspeare, which interrupted one of the most valuable friendships I ever formed.
MR. SINGER will see at once that my interpretation (which I consider quite consistent with the character of Shakspeare's mind, as well as quite consistent with the expressions he has used throughout the speech of the hero), steers clear of his proposal to alter "busie lest," or "busie least," of the folios of 1623 and 1632, to busyest or busiest; although everybody at all acquainted with our old language will agree with him in thinking, that if Shakspeare had used "busiest" at all, which he does not in any of his productions, he might have said most busiest without a violation of the constant practice of his day.
J. PAYNE COLLIER.
September 24. 1850.
GRAY'S ELEGY.
Perhaps the HERMIT of HOLYPORT will be satisfied with proofs from GRAY himself as to the time and manner of the first appearance of the Elegy.
GRAY thus writes to Dr. Wharton, under the date of "Dec. 17, 1750." [I quote Mason's "Life" of its Author, p. 216.]
"The stanzas" [which he afterwards called Elegy at the suggestion of Mason] "which I now enclose to you have had the misfortune, by Mr. [Horace] Walpole's fault, to be made still more public," &c.
The next letter in Mason's publication is a letter from "Mr. Gray to Mr. Walpole" (p. 217.), and is dated "Cambridge, Feb. 11, 1751," which runs thus:—