est_. Not catching the poet's meaning, he printed,--

'Most busy-_less_ when I do it,'

and his supposed emendation has ever since been taken as the
text; even Capell adopted it. I am happy in having Mr. Amyot's
concurrence in this restoration."

Mr. Knight adopts Theobald's reading, and Mr. Dyce approves it in the
following words:--

"When Theobald made the emendation, 'Most busy-_less_,' he
observed that 'the corruption was so very little removed from
the truth of the text, that he could not afford to think well of
his own sagacity for having discovered it.' The correction is,
indeed, so obvious that we may well wonder that it had escaped
his predecessors; but we must wonder ten times more that one of
his successors, in a blind reverence for the old copy, should
re-vitiate the text, and defend a corruption which outrages
language, taste, and common sense."

Although at an earlier period of life I too adopted Theobald's supposed
emendation, it never satisfied me. I have my doubts whether the word
_busyless_ existed in the poet's time; and if it did, whether he could
possibly have used it here. Now it is clear that _labours_ is a misprint
for _labour_; else, to what does "when I do _it_" refer? _Busy lest_ is
only a typographical error for _busyest_: the double superlative was
commonly used, being considered as more emphatic, by the poet and his
contemporaries.

Thus in Hamlet's letter, Act ii. Sc. 2.:

"I love thee best, O _most best_."

and in _King Lear_, Act ii. Sc. 3.:

"To take the basest and _most poorest_ shape."

The passage will then stand thus:--

"But these sweet thoughts, do even refresh my labour,
Most busiest when I do it."

The sense will be perhaps more evident by a mere transposition,
preserving every word:

"But these sweet thoughts, most busiest when I do
My labour, do even refresh it."

Here we have a clear sense, devoid of all ambiguity, and confirmed by
what precedes; that his labours are made pleasures, being beguiled by
these sweet thoughts of his mistress, which are busiest when he labours,
because it excites in his mind the memory of her "weeping to see him
work." The correction has also the recommendation of being effected in
so simple a manner as by merely taking away two superfluous letters. I
trust I need say no more; secure of the approbation of those who (to use
the words of an esteemed friend on another