Page:A letter to the Rev. Richard Farmer.djvu/18

( 12 ) to mark it more plainly to the reader. In the preent intance, however, this may not have been the cae, for the word ew was variouly pelt in Shakpeare's time, and Milton writes it, though improperly, ow. Throughout my edition, as is mentioned in my preface, I have not adhered to ancient pelling, but adopted that which is now generally ued, and which I conidered as jut. I have done o in this intance. With repect to the imilarity of ound between ew and o, there can be no doubt, from the paage before us, but that the two words were pronounced alike in Shakpeare's days, as they are at preent by all who do not deviate from received modes from affectation or ignorance.

2. Vol. II. p. 71. Meaure for Meaure.

"Let me hear you peak further." "Both editions—farther, a word entirely different from further, though too frequently confounded with it by ignorant perons."

Here is a quetion merely of propriety in pelling, and whenever I have any doubts on that ubject I hall take counel from ome other preceptor than this critick. In the authentick copy of 1623, the word is very frequently pelt