[Even our respect for Mr. Stephens' well-known scholarship, fails to remove our prejudices in favour of the ordinary system of orthography.]
On a Passage in "The Tempest" (Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299. 337.).—Will you allow me to suggest that the reading of the original edition is perfectly correct as it stands, as will be seen by simply italicising the emphatic words:—
"Most busie least, when I doe it."
The construction is thus merely an instance of a common ellipsis (here of the word busy), and requires the comma after least. This is another proof of the advantage of being slow to abandon primitive texts.
GEORGE STEPHENS.
Saint, Legend of a (Vol. ii., pp. 267.).—The circumstance alluded to is perhaps that in the legend of St. Patrick. It was included by Voragine in his life of that saint. See the "Golden Legend" in init.
GEORGE STEPHENS.
Cupid and Psyche (Vol. ii., pp. 247.).—This is probably an old Folk-tale, originally perhaps an antique philosophical temple-allegory. Apuleius appears only to have dressed it up in a new shape. The tale is still current, but in a form not derived from him, among the Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Scots, Germans, French, Wallachians, Italians, and Hindoos. See Svenska Folk-sagor och Afventyr, efter muntlig Ofverlemning samlade och utgifna of G.O.H. Cavallius och G. Stephens, vol. i. (Stockholm, 1844-9), p. 323.
GEORGE STEPHENS.
Kongs Skuggsia (Vol. ii., pp 296. 335.).—This noble monument of Old Norse literature was written at the close of the twelfth century by a Norwegian of high rank, but who expresses his resolution to remain unknown, in which he has perfectly succeeded. He probably resided near Trondhjem. See, for other information, the preface to the last excellent edition lately published by Keyser, Munch, and Unger, as follows:—