Take any shape but that, and my firme neures
"Shall neuer tremble. Or be aliue againe,
"And dare me to the desart with thy sworde,

"If trembling I inhabit then, protest mee
"The baby of a girle."

Pope here changed inhabit to inhibit. Upon this correction Steevens builds another, and changes then to thee. Both which insipid corrections Malone, with his usual judgment, inserts in his text. And there it stands

"If trembling I inhibit thee."

"The emendation inhibit (says Mr. Malone) "was made by Mr. Pope. I have not the least " doubt that it is the true reading. By the other "slight but happy emendation, the reading thee "instead of then, which was proposed by Mr. "Steevens, and to which I have paid the respect “that it deserved by giving it a place in the text, "this passage is rendered clear and easy,"

But for these tasteless commentators, one can hardly suppose that any reader of Shakspeare could have found a difficulty; the original text is so plain, easy, and clear, and so much in the author's accustomed manner,

“Dare me to the desart with thy sworde."

"If I inhabit then."......i. e. If then I do not meet thee there; if trembling I stay at home, or within doors, or under any roof, or within any habitation: If, when you call me to the desart, I then house me, or, through fear, hide myself from thee in any dwelling;

"If trembling I do house me then.....Protest ❝me &c,

But a much stronger instance of the importance of such a strictly similar edition (in which not a single letter or supposed misprint should be altered from the original copy) offers itself to me from the two following passages:

"He blushes, and 'tis HIT."

All's well that ends well, pag. 253, col. 1.

Mr. Malone has altered the text to

"He blushes, and 'tis IT."

And he adds the following note:

"The old copy has.... 'tis HIT......The emenda"tion was made by Mr. Steevens. In many of "our old chronicles I have found HIT printed "instead of IT. Hence probably the mistake " here."

"Stop up th' accesse and passage to remorse,

"That no compunctious visitings of nature,

"Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

"Th' effect and HIT."

Macbeth, pag. 134.

Upon this passage Mr. Malone (having again altered the text, from HIT to IT) says,

"The old copy reads....Between the effect and "HIT....the correction was made by the editor of "the third folio."

The corrector and the adopter deserve no thanks for their mischievous alteration: for mischievous it is; although no alteration can, at first sight, appear more trivial.

I can suppose one probable mischief to have resulted from it to my former castigator, Mr. Burgess,....(I beg his pardon, the present lord bishop of St. David's).

It-is possible that he may not have seen the first folio, and may have read only the corrected text of Shakspeare. If so; by this alteration he may have missed one chance of a leading hint; by which, if followed, he might have been enabled to fulfil his undertaking, concerning an explanation of the pronouns, which he promised: no unimportant part in the philosophy or system of human speech. For I can easily suppose that, with his understanding and industry, (for I have heard a very favourable mention of him, in all respects) he might have been struck with this HIT in Shakspeare and might, in consequence, have travelled backward; and have found that, not only in our old chronicles, but in all our old English authors, down to the reign of queen Elizabeth, the word was so written; and that it was not, as poor Malone imagined, any mistake of the printer.

"And whan the bisshop aright hym bethoughte,
"He gan remembre playnly in his mynde
"That of disdayne and wylful necligence
"The yerde of Joseph was left behynde;
"Wherby he knewe that he had done offence,
"And gan alone to brynge HIT in presence,
“And toke HIT Joseph deuoutely in his honde."

Lydgate, Lyfe of our Lady, (pag. 27.)

"The bisshoppe hath the cuppe fyrste directe
"Unto Joseph, and hym the parell tolde,

“And manly he gan it holde

"And dranke HET up, and chaunged nat his chere."

Lyfe of our Lady, (pag. 91.)

"Whiche ordinaunce of Moses was afterward established in the citie of Athens, and from thens the Romaines receiued HIT." Dr. Martin's Confutation of Poynett, chapter 4.

"Not that matrimonie is of the church abhorred, for the

churche doeth reuerence and alowe HIT.”

Id. chap. 7.

"He useth not the onely tearme of womanne by HIT selfe," Id. Chap. 13.

"I geue mi regall manyer called Wie, with al thapperte"naunces longinge to my regall crowne, with al liberties priui"legies and regal customes as fre and gayet as I hadde HIT แ fyrste." The true dyfferences of Regall Power, by lord Stafford. I must suppose that when he had noticed innumerable such instances, he would then have gone still farther back, to our original language: and there he would have found this same word written hit, hyʊ, and hat: which might perhaps have plainly discovered to him, that this pronoun was merely the past participle of the verb hAITAN, hatan, nominare. () And, upon application, he would have found this meaning, viz. nominatum i. e. the said, perfectly to correspond with every use of the word IT in our language. Having observed this, he would have smiled at our grammatical arrangements; and would not have been in the least

(*)" And so befel that in the taas they founde
"Two yonge knyghtes lyeing by and by
"Bothe in armes same, wrought full rychely,
"Of whiche two, Arcyte hyght that one,

"And that other hight Palamon."

Knightes Tale, fol. 1, pag. 2, col. 2.

Mr. Tyrwhit in his note upon this word hight, says, "It is difficult to determine precisely what part of speech it "is; but, upon the whole, I am inclined to consider it as a word of a very singular form, a verb active with a passive signification."

It is the same past tense, and therefore past participle of hAITAN; and has the same meaning as HIT or IT.

shocked to find (as he would often find) the word IT used in the following manner,

"The greate kynge, IT whiche Cambyses

"Was hote." Gower, lib. 7, fol. 158, pag. 1, col. 1. "When king Arthur had seene them doe all this, hee asked "Sir Laucelot what were those knights and that queene. Sir, "said Laucelot, I cannot shew you no certainte, but if Sir Tris"tram or Sir Palomides. Wit yee well of a certaine IT beene "they and la beale Isond."

Historie of Prince Arthur, 3d part. chap. 98.

For he would be well aware, that IT, (or the said) is (like all our other participles) as much masculine as feminine, and as plurally applicable as singularly. And from this small inlet, perhaps, (if from no other quarter) the nature of all the other pronouns might instantly have rushed upon his mind, and have enabled him to perform satisfactorily his contract with the public.

F. I have often remarked, amongst all our old writers, a similar use of the word THAT; which, as well as IT, is applied by them indifferently to plural nouns and to singular. For instance; in that traictise you have quoted, by Dr. Martin, (who wrote accurately and was no mean scholar) we meet with such sentences as the following;

"Patrones elected many into THAT holy ordres, "neither of age, nor of learnyng, nor of discretion, "woorthie to take so high a function." pag. 2.

"The temporall menne at THAT dayes did much "extolle and mayntaine chastite." pag. 47.

“The midwife, christenyng the child, added notʻ "THAT solemne wordes, nor any man promised "the same for him." pag. 113.