"As flaws cong_est_ed in the spring of day."
It is an easy thing to have printed cong_eal_ed for that word, and
_congest_ occurs in _A Lover's Complaint_. Still I think change
unnecessary.
Has the assertion made in _An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to
Shakspeare_, by a Strolling Player, 1729, respecting the destruction of
the poet's MSS. papers, been ever verified? If that account is
authentic, it will explain the singular dearth of all autograph remains
of one who must have written so much. As the pamphlet is not common, I
transcribe the essential passage:--
"How much it is to be lamented that _Two large Chests_ full of
this GREAT MAN'S _loose papers_ and _Manuscripts_ in the hands
of an ignorant _Baker of_ WARWICK (who married one of the
descendants from Shakspear), were carelessly scattered and
thrown about as Garret Lumber and Litter, to {54} the particular
knowledge of the late _Sir William Bishop_; till they were all
consum'd in the general Fire and Destruction of that Town."