n-ball cries out instinctively. Shakspeare therefore
might, I think, have very poetically described the action and effect of a
cannon-ball passing through the air by the strong figure of _wounding the
air that sings with the piercing which it is enduring_.

In concluding this Note, I beg to express what is not merely my own, but a
very general feeling of disappointment in respect of MR. COLLIER'S new
edition of Shakspeare. To it, with a new force, may be applied the words of
A. E. B. in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 296.:

"But the evil of these emendations is not in this instance confined to
the mere suggestion of doubt; the text has absolutely been altered in
all accessible editions, in many cases _silently_, so that the ordinary
reader has no opportunity of judging between _Shakspeare_ and his
improvers."

That MR. COLLIER should be the greatest of such offenders, is no very
cheering sign of the times.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_Dogberry's Losses_ (Vol. vii., p. 377.).--I do not know whether it has
ever been suggested, but I feel inclined to read "lawsuits." He has just
boasted of himself as "one that knows the _law_;" and it seems natural
enough that he should go on to brag of being a rich fellow enough, "and a
fellow that hath had _lawsuits_" of his own, and actually figured as
plaintiff or defendant. Suppose the words taken down from the mouth of an
actor, and the mistake would be easy.

JOHN DOE.

* * * * *

THE COENACULUM OF LIONARDO DA VINCI.

I have in my possession a manuscript critique on the celebrated picture of
The Last Supper by Lionardo da Vinci, written many years ago by a deceased
academician; in which the writer has called in question the _point of time_
usually supposed to have been selected by the celebrated Italian painter.
The criticisms are chiefly founded on the copy by Marco Oggioni, now in the
possession of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Uniform tradition has assumed that the moment of action is that in which
the Saviour announces the treachery of one of his disciples "Dico vobis
quia unus vestrum me traditurus est." Matth. xxvi. 21., Joan. xiii. 21.,
Vulgate edit.; and most of the admirers of this great work have not failed
to find in it decisive proofs of the intention of the painter to represent
that exact point of time. {525}

The author of the manuscript enters into a very detailed examination of the
several groups of