A pond as deep as hell."
To this it appears to me Claudio would naturally exclaim:
"The saintly Angelo!"
and Isabella, as naturally following up the contrast, would continue—
"O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'st body to invest and cover
In saintly guards!"
My acquaintance with the handwriting of the age is very limited, but I have no doubt there are possible scrawls in which saintlie might be made to look like prenzie. If any one knows a better word, let him propose it; only I beg leave to warn him against pious, which I have already tried, and for various reasons rejected.
SAMUEL HICKSON.
St. John's Wood, May 24. 1851.