GEORGE STEPHENS.

Stockholm.

[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.

Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850 · 第 57 / 74 题