Page:A letter to the Rev. Richard Farmer.djvu/26

( 20 ) proofs which collected for this purpoe, were given ex abundanti. If intead of hewing that the editor, not knowing that the double comparative was the common phraeology of Shakpeare's time, had ubtituted for it a more grammatical form, giving us more afe, more worthy and more rich, for more afer, more worthier and more richer; that he did not know that the double negative was the common and authorized language of that age ; that when the beginning of a line in the elder copy was accidentally omitted at the pres, intead of attempting to cure the defect in the right place, he added ome words at the end of the line, and by his addition made the paage nonene ; that he was utterly ignorant of his author's elliptical language, as well as of his metre;—if intead of all thee proofs and many others to the ame point, I had produced only one of them, it would have been ufficient for my purpoe, and the old adage—ex uno dice omnes would have upplied the ret. Notwith-