t there found; it begins--

"These gates be shut so wonderly well;"

and it ends,

"Tyll they came to the kynge's palays."

It is "_wonderous_ well" in Copland's impression, and palace is there spelt
"pallace," a more modern form of the word than _palays_. Just afterwards we
have, in my fragment,

"Streyght comen from oure kyng,"

instead of Copland's

"Streyght _come nowe_ from our king."

_Comen_ is considerably more ancient than "come nowe;" so that, without
pursuing this point farther, I may say that my fragment is not only an
older specimen of typography than Copland's impression, but older still in
its words and phraseology, a circumstance that communicates to it
additional interest. I subjoin a few various readings, most, if not all, of
them presenting a superior text than is to be met with elsewhere. Speaking
of the porter at the gate of Carlisle, we are told--

"And to the gate faste he throng."

Copland's edition omits _faste_, and it is not met with in Percy. In
another place a rhyme is lost by an awkward transposition, "he saide" for
_sayd he_; and farther on, in Copland's text, we have mention of

"The justice with a quest of squyers."

instead of "a quest of _swerers_," meaning of course the jury who had
condemned Cloudesly "there hanged to be." Another blunder committed by
Copland is the omission of a word, so that a line is left without its
corresponding rhyme:

"Then Clowdysle cast hys eyen aside,
And sawe his two bretheren _stande_
At the corner of the market-place,
With theyr good bowes bent in theyr hand."

The word I print in Italics is entirely wanting in Copland. It is curious
to see how Percy (_Reliques_, i. 157., ed. 1775) gets over the difficulty
by following no known copy of the original:

"Then Cloudesle cast his eyen asyde,
And saw hys brethren twaine
At a corner of the market-place,
Ready the justice for to slaine."

Cloudesly is made to exclaim, in all editions but mine, "I see comfort,"
instead of "I see _good_ comfort." However, it would perhaps be wearisome
to press this matter farther, and I have said enough to set a few of your
readers, zealous in such questions, rummaging their stores to ascertain
whether any text with which they are acquainted, tallies with that I have
above quoted.

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

* * * * *

WITCHCRAFT.

Observing that you have lately admitted some articles on witchcraft,