found in his 'Perkins Folio' the extremely happy emendation (now
generally adopted) of 'bisson multitude' for 'bosom multiplied' in
Coriolanus's speech:

How shall this bisson multitude digest
The senate's courtesy?--(_Coriolanus_, III. i. 131-2.)

{318} A happy example of his shrewdness may be quoted from _King Lear_,
III. vi. 72, where in all previous editions Edgar's enumeration of
various kinds of dogs included the line 'Hound or spaniel, brach or hym
[or him].' For the last word Hanmer substituted 'lym,' which was the
Elizabethan synonym for bloodhound.

{320} Edition of 1793, vol. i. p. 7.

{327a} Cf. the opening line of Matthew Arnold's Sonnet on Shakespeare:

Others abide our question. Thou art free.

{327b} These letters have been interpreted as standing for the
inscription 'In Memoriam Scriptoris' as well as for the name of the
writer. In the latter connection, they have been variously and
inconclusively read as Jasper Mayne (Student), a young Oxford writer; as
John Marston (Student or Satirist); and as John Milton (Senior or
Student).

{328} Charles Gildon in 1694, in 'Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer's Short
View of Tragedy' which he addressed to Dryden, gives the classical
version of this incident. 'To give the world,' Gildon informs Dryden,
'some satisfaction that Shakespear has had as great a Veneration paid his
Excellence by men of unquestion'd parts as this I now express of him, I
shall give some account of what I have heard from your Mouth, Sir, about
the noble Triumph he gain'd over all the Ancients by the Judgment of the
ablest Critics of that time. The Matter of Fact (if my Memory fail me
not) was this. Mr. _Hales_ of Eaton affirm'd that he wou'd shew all the
Poets of Antiquity outdone by Shakespear, in all the Topics, and common
places made use of in Poetry. The Enemies of Shakespear wou'd by no
means yield him so much Excellence: so that it came to a Resolution of a
trial of skill upon that Subject; the place agreed on for the Dispute was
Mr. Hales's Chamber at Eaton; a great many Books were sent down by the
Enemies of this Poet, and on the appointed day my Lord Falkland, Sir John
Suckling, and all the Persons of Quality that had Wit and Learning, and
interested themselves in the Quarrel, met there, and upon a thorough
Disquisition of the point, the Judges chose by agreement out of this
Learned and Ingenious Assembly unanimously gave the Preference to
Shakespear. And