f the commentators; and we see here our eminent lexicographer
confessing his ignorance of a word which the dictionaries of the poet's age
would have enabled him readily to explain. For although we have not the
participle _ribaudred_, which may be peculiar to the poet, in Baret's
_Alvearie_ we find "_Ribaudrie_, vilanie in actes or wordes, filthiness,
uncleanness"--"A _ribaudrous_ and filthie tongue, os obscoenum et
impudicum:" in Minsheu, _ribaudrie_ and _ribauldrie_, which is the
prevailing orthography of the word, and indicates its sound and derivation
from the French, rather than from the Italian _ribalderia_.

That _nagge_ is a misprint for _hagge_, will be evident from the
circumstance, that in the first folio we have a similar error in the _Merry
Wives of Windsor_, Act IV. Sc. 2., where instead of "you witch, you
_hagge_," it is misprinted "you witch, you _ragge_." It is observable that
_hagge_ is the form in which the word is most frequently found in the
folios, and it is the epithet the poet applies to a witch or enchantress.

I cannot, therefore, but consider the alteration of the text by Steevens as
one of the most violent and uncalled-for innovations of which he has been
guilty; and he himself seems to have had his misgivings, for his
observation that Shakspeare "is not always very nice about his
versification" was meant as an apology for marring its harmony by the
substitution of _ribald-rid_ for the poet's own _ribaudred_.

It is to me a matter of surprise that Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight, in their
laudable zeal for adherence as closely as possible to the old copies,
should not have perceived the injury done both to the sense and harmony of
the passage by this unwarrantable substitution.

S. W. SINGER.

* * * * *

BROWNE'S BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS.

I have lately been amusing myself by reading the small volume with this
title published in Clarke's _Cabinet Series_, 1845.

Among the many pleasing passages that I met with in its pages, _two_ in
particular struck me as being remarkable for their beauty; but I find that
neither of them is cited by either Ellis or Campbell. (See Ellis,
_Specimens of the Early English Poets_, 4th edition, corrected, 1811; and
the Campbell, _Specimens of the British Poets_, 1819.)

Indeed Campbell says of Browne:

"His poetry is not without beauty; but it is the beauty of mere
landscape and allegory, without the manners and passions tha