Miching malicho (Vol. iii., p. 3.).—Your correspondent Mr. Collier is probably not aware that his suggestion respecting the meaning of Malicho had been anticipated upwards of twenty years since. In the unpretending edition of Shakspeare by another of your correspondents, Mr. Singer, printed in 1825, I find the following note:—

"Miching malicho is lurking mischief, or evil doing. To mich, for to skulk, to lurk, was an old English verb in common use in Shakspeare's time; and Malicho, or Malhecho, misdeed, he has borrowed from the Spanish. Many stray words of Spanish and Italian were then affectedly used in common conversation, as we have seen French used in more recent times. The Quarto spell the word Mallicho. Our ancestors were not particular in orthography, and often spelt according to the ear."

I have since looked at Mr. Collier's note to which he refers, and find that he interprets miching by stealing, which will not suit the context; and abundant examples may be adduced that to mich was to skulk, to lurk, as Mr. Singer has very properly explained it. Thus Minsheu:—

"To Miche, or secretly hide himself out of the way, as TRUANTS doe from Schoole, vi. to hide, to cover."

and again—

"A micher, vi. Truant."

Mr. Collier's text, too, is not satisfactory, for he has abandoned the old word Malicho, and given Mallecho, which is as far from the true form of the Spanish word as the old reading, which he should either have preserved or printed Malhecho, as Minsheu gives it.

I am glad to see from your pages that Mr. Singer has not entirely abandoned Shakspearian illustration, for in my difficulties I have rarely consulted his edition in vain; and, in my humble opinion, it is as yet the most practically useful and readable edition we have.

Fiat Justitia.

Cor Linguæ, &c. (Vol. iii., p. 168.).—The lines quoted by J. Bs. occur in the poem "De Palpone et Assentatore," printed in the volume of Latin Poems, commonly attributed to Walter Mapes, edited by Mr. T. Wright for the Camden Society, 1841, at p. 112., with a slight variation in expression, as follows:—