what he's most assured. _Ibid._ II. 2. 119.

------ which now you censure him. _Ibid._ II. 1. 15.

The changes of accidence are less frequent than those of syntax, yet
such occur. In the Folios verbs ending in _d_ and _t_ are constantly
found making their second persons singular in _ds_ and _ts_ instead of
_d'st_ and _t'st_. This was a corruption coming into vogue about the
time of their publication, and in the earlier Quartos we frequently find
the correct form; for example, in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, V. 1:
'standst' in Q1 is corrupted to 'stands' in Q2 and in Ff. We have
therefore confidently replaced the correct form for the incorrect, even
without authority to back us; looking upon the variation as a corrupt
abbreviation of spelling.

But, in general, our practice has been not to alter the text, in order
to make the grammar conform to the fixed rules of modern English. A wide
latitude of speech was allowed in Shakespeare's age both as to spelling
and grammar.

C. _Orthography._

It was not without much consideration that we determined to adopt the
spelling of the nineteenth century. If we had any evidence as to
Shakespeare's own spelling, we should have been strongly inclined to
adopt it, but to attempt to reproduce it, by operating by rule upon the
texts that have come down to us, would be subjecting Shakespeare's
English to arbitrary laws, of which it never yet was conscious. This
argues no want of education on the part of Shakespeare; for if Lord
Bacon himself had rules for spelling, they were but few, as we may
easily perceive by inspection of his works published under his own eye.
But if we have not Shakespeare's own spelling to guide us, what other
spelling shall we adopt? Every student of Shakespeare has now an easy
opportunity of acquainting himself with the text of F1, by means of Mr
Booth's excellent reprint, and we are certain that not one of them will
consider the spelling of that volume intrinsically better than that of
our day. Rather more like Shakespeare's it certainly is, but we doubt
whether much is gained by such approximation, as long as it is short of
perfect attainment. Moreover, in many of the Plays there is a competing
claim to guide our spelling, put forward by an array of Quartos, of
earlier date than F1. To desert F1 for these, where they exist, would be
but an occasional, and at best an uncertain means of attaining the lost
spelling of Shakespeare, while the spelling of our