particularly the choral part, which must have been
so striking and beautiful in the original of the former drama. Upon my
return to England I wrote to the then lessee of Drury Lane Theatre,
recommending a similar experiment on our stage from the free version by
Wheelwright, published some time before by the late D. A. Talboys, of
Oxford. The answer I received was, that the manager had then too much on
his hands to admit of his giving time to such an undertaking, which I still
think might be a successful one (as is the case with the "Antigone" {251}
of Sophocles, so often represented at Berlin), and such as to ensure the
favourable attention of an English audience, particularly as the subject
turns so much upon the danger and uselessness of the meteoric or visionary
education, then so prevalent at Athens.

ARCHAEUS.

Dusseldorf, March 6.

_Denarius Philosophorum_ (Vol. iii., p. 168.).--Bishop Thornborough may
have been thus styled from his attachment to alchemy and chemistry. One of
his publications is thus entitled:

"Nihil, Aliquid, Omnia, in Gratiam eorum qui Artem Auriferam
Physico-chymice et pie, profitentur." Oxon. 1621.

Another part of his monumental inscription is singular. On the north side
are, or were, these words and figures--"In uno, 2^o 3^a 4^r 10--non spirans
spero."

"He was," says Wood, "a great encourager of Bushall in his searches
after mines and minerals:"

and Richardson speaks of this prelate as--

"Rerum politicarum potius quam Theologicarum et artis Chemicae peritia
Clarus."

J. H. M.

_On a Passage in the Tempest_ (Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299. 337. 429. 499.).--If
you will allow me to offer a conjecture on a subject, which you may think
has already been sufficiently discussed in your pages, I shall be glad to
submit the following to the consideration of your readers.

The passage in the _Tempest_, Act III. Scene 1., as quoted from the first
folio, stands thus:

"I forget:
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours
Most busie lest, when I do it."

This was altered in the second folio to

"Most busie least, when I do it."

Instead of which Theobald proposes,--

"Most busyless, when I do it."

But "busyless" is not English. All our words ending in _less_ (forming
adjectives), are derived from Anglo-Saxon nouns; as love, joy, hope, &c.,
and never from adjectives.

My conjecture is that Shakespeare wrote--