_Shakepeare's Use of Captious_ (Vol. ii., p. 354.).--In _All's Well that
Ends Well_, Act I. Sc. 3.:
"I know I love in vain; strive against hope;
Yet in this _captious_ and intenible sieve,
I still pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still:"
has not MR. SINGER, and all the other commentators upon this passage,
overlooked a most apparent and satisfactory solution? Is it not evident
that the printer simply omitted the vowel "a," and that the word, as
written by Shakespeare, was "cap_a_tious," the "t," according to the
orthography of the time, being put for the "c" used by modern writers?
With great deference to former critics, I think this emendation is the most
probable, as it accords with the sentiment of Helena, who means to depict
her _vast_ but unretentive sieve, into which she poured the waters of her
love.