[Footnote 5: Old as well as modern typographers need have broad
backs. Bale, in his Preface to the _Image of both Churches_, says,
"But ij cruel enemies have my just labours had * * * The
_printers_ are the first whose heady hast, negligence, and
couetousnesse commonly corrupteth all bokes * * * though they had
in their handes ij learned correctours w'h take all paynes possyble
to preserue them."]
P.S. May I end this note by adopting a Query many years since put forth
by a highly valued and, alas! deceased friend and coadjutor in
antiquarian pursuits,--"What is the date of that edition of the Bible
which reads (Psalm cxix. 161.): _Printers_ have persecuted me without a
cause?"
_On a Passage in "Measure for Measure"_ (Vol. iii., p. 401.).--One of
the very few admissible conjectural emendations on Shakspeare made by
the ingenious and gifted poet and critic Tieck, is that which Mr. Knight
adopted, and I cannot think your correspondent LEGES happy in proposing
to substitute "pensive."
There can be no doubt that "guards" in the passage in question signifies
_facings_, _trimmings_, _ornaments_, and that it is used metaphorically
for _dress_, _habit_, _appearance_, and not for _countenance_,
_demeanour_.
The context clearly shows this:
"_Claud._ The _precise_ Angelo?
"_Isab._ O, 'tis the cunning _livery_ of hell,
The damned'st body _to invest and cover_
In _prècise guards_."