"And how brave sons and daughters fair Blest Teviot's flower and Cranstoun's heir."
And now a word touching M.'s hint of giving a corner in the "NOTES AND QUERIES" to the "Prophecy of Criticism." If he will forgive me the remark, I do not think the phrase a very happy one. Criticism does not _prophecy_, it _pronounces_, and is valuable only in proportion to the judgment, taste, and knowledge displayed in its sentence. Above all, the critic should be impartial, and by no means allow himself to be biassed by either prejudice or prepossession, whether personal or political. Still less should he sacrifice his subject in order to prove the acuteness and point of his own weapon, which is too often dipped in gall instead of honey. To what extent these qualifications are found in our modern reviewers let each man answer according to his own experience: but as critics are not infallible, and as authors generally see more, feel more, and think more than the ordinary run of critics and readers give them credit for, I doubt not that a place will always be open in the "NOTES AND QUERIES," in answer to the _fallacies_ of criticism, wherever they may be detected.
As your correspondent A. E. B. has endeavoured to strengthen the case in favour of the word _precise_ being the proper reading of "prenzie," will you allow me to suggest a few further points for consideration in inquiring into the meaning of this word?
I am afraid your etymological readers are in danger of being misled by the plausible theory that "prenzie" is not an error of the press or copyist, but a true word. In reference to this view of the case, as taken by your several correspondents, allow me to suggest, first: that Shakspeare was no word-coiner; secondly, that, for application in a passage of such gravity, he would not have been guilty of the affectation of using a newly-imported Scotch word; and, thirdly, that, as we may reasonably infer that he was essentially popular in the choice of words, so he used such as were intelligible to his audience. A word of force and weight sufficient to justify its use twice in the passage in question, if merely popular, would surely not so entirely have gone out of use; whereas if merely literary it would still be to be found in books.