and then he adds, by way of excuse,—
"But the sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,
Most busy when least I do it."
More busy in thought when idle, than in labour when employed. The cessation from labour was favourable to the thoughts that made it endurable.
Malone quarrelled with the word "but", for which he would have substituted "and" or "for". But in the apologetic sense which I would confer upon the last two lines of Ferdinand's speech, the word "but", at their commencement, becomes not only appropriate but necessary.
A.E.B.
Leeds, October 8. 1850.
"LONDON BRIDGE IS BROKEN DOWN."
(Vol. ii., p. 258.)