ideration, then, I am inclined to think that the whole of the scene
(Act III. Sc. 2.) to which your correspondent refers, was originally
written by Fletcher, although, as it now stands, it is strongly marked by
the hand of Shakspeare. In the same category, also, I am inclined to place
Scenes 3. and 4. of Act II. It will be observed that these changes are not
inconsistent with the view I had previously taken; the effect being merely,
that I am inclined to ascribe a little more than in the first instance to
the hitherto unsuspected participator in the work. I am not sure, too, that
I shall not be coming nearer to MR. SPEDDING; as, if I am not mistaken, it
is in some of these scenes that he imagines he detects "a third hand;" a
theory which, though I do not adopt, I certainly have not confidence enough
to reject altogether. But this view affects so very small a portion of the
play, that it is of very little consequence.

SAMUEL HICKSON.

* * * * *

ILLUSTRATIONS OF TENNYSON.

That great poets are sometimes obscure, needs no proof. That the greatest
poets will necessarily be so to the ordinary reader, seems to me equally
indisputable.

Not without effort can one enter into the spontaneous thought of another,
or even of himself in another mood. How much more when that other is
distinguished from his fellows by the _greatness_ and _singularity_ of his
thoughts, and by the extreme subtilty of their connecting links. Obscurity
is not a blemish but an excellence, if the pains of seeking are more than
compensated by the pleasures of finding, the luxury of [Greek: mathesis],
where the concentrated energy of a passage, when once understood, gives it
a hold on the imagination and memory such as were ill sacrificed to more
diluted clearness.

_Grandis praefatio tenui incepto_--a sort of apology to Tennyson for
implying that he needs illustration. Some time ago I made a few notes on
particular passages in _Locksley Hall_, which I now enclose. Some of them
are, I dare say, superfluous--some, possibly, erroneous. If so, they will
stand a fair chance of being corrected in your valuable publication.

By the bye, if a "NOTES AND QUERIES" had existed in the days of AEschylus,
we might have been saved from many a recourse to "corrupt text" and "lacunae
admodum deflendae."

_Notes on Locksley Hall._

Stanza 2. "Dreary gleams:" in apposition with "curlews." I know the
construction of this line has puzzl