---- Rectory, Hereford.
_Three Passages in "Measure for Measure._"--H. C. K. has a treacherous
memory, or rather, what I believe to be the truth, he, like myself, has not
a complete Shakspeare apparatus. COLLIER'S first edition surely cannot be
in his library, or he would have known that Warburton, long ago, read
_seared_ for _feared_, and that the same word appears in Lord Ellesmere's
copy of the first folio, the correction having been made, as MR. COLLIER
remarks, while the sheet was at press. I however assure H. C. K. that I
regard his correction as perfectly original. Still I have my doubts if
_seared_ be the poet's word, for I have never met it but in connexion with
hot iron; and I should be inclined to prefer _sear_ or _sere_; but this
again is always physically _dry_, and not metaphorically so, and I fear
that the true word is not to be recovered.
I cannot consent to go back with H. C. K. to the Anglo-Saxon for a sense of
_building_, which I do not think it ever bore, at least not in our poet's
time. His quotation from the "Jewel House," &c. is not to the point, for
the context shows that "a building word" is a word or promise that will
{362} set me a-building, _i. e._ writing. After all I see no difficulty in
"the _all-building_ law;" it means the law that builds, maintains, and
repairs the whole social edifice, and is well suited to Angelo, whose
object was to enhance the favour he proposed to grant.
Again, if H. C. K. had looked at COLLIER'S edit., he would have seen that
in Act I. Sc. 2., _princely_ is the reading of the second folio, and not a
modern conjecture. If he rejects this authority, he must read a little
farther on _perjury_ for _penury_. As to the Italian _prenze_, I cannot
receive it. I very much doubt Shakspeare's knowledge of Italian, and am
sure that he would not, if he understood the word, use it as an adjective.
MR. COLLIER'S famed corrector reads with Warburton _priestly_, and
substitutes _garb_ for _guards_, a change which convinces me (if proof were
wanting) that he was only a guesser like ourselves, for it is plain, from
the previous use of the word _living_, that _guards_ is the right word.