Select a letter to read. --------------------------------------------- 19 October, 1869 16 October, 1878 11 December, 1890

39 Abbey Road N.W.

19/10/69

My dear Wright,

... I think the very large number of such instances [of plural nouns with singular verbs in Shakespeare] requires some other theory than mere misprinting. Why should not the quarto be liable to misprints?

Is Walker right in saying that Shakespeare's handwriting may have given rise to the s? Have you met with the extra s in Ben Johnson or Beaumont + Fletcher? I read once carefully through the whole of B. F. and I have no note of the form in s. Is it found in Spenser? Surely if it was a mere misprint it will have been foundin other Elizabethan authors. Can it not have been a midland provincialism? I am anxious for facts and hints.

Yours most truly,

Edwin A. Abbott