A printer's widow in Germany, while a new edition of the Bible was printing at her house, one night took an opportunity of stealing into the office, to alter that sentence of subjection to her husband, pronounced upon Eve in Genesis, chap. 3, v. 16. She took out the two first letters of the word HERR, and substituted NA in their place, thus altering the sentence from "and he shall be thy LORD" (_Herr_), to "and he shall be thy FOOL" (_Narr_). It is said her life paid for this intentional erratum; and that some secreted copies of this edition have been bought up at enormous prices. We have an edition of the Bible, known by the name of _The Vinegar Bible_; from the erratum in the title to the 20th chap. of St. Luke, in which "Parable of the _Vineyard_," is printed, "Parable of the _Vinegar_." It was printed in 1717, at the Clarendon press. We have had another, where "Thou shalt commit adultery" was printed, omitting the negation; which occasioned the archbishop to lay one of the heaviest penalties on the Company of Stationers that was ever recorded in the annals of literary history.[37] Herbert Croft used to complain of the incorrectness of our English classics, as reprinted by the booksellers. It is evident some stupid printer often changes a whole text intentionally. The fine description by Akenside of the Pantheon, "SEVERELY great," not being understood by the blockhead, was printed _serenely great_. Swift's own edition of "The City Shower," has "old ACHES throb." _Aches_ is two syllables, but modern printers, who had lost the right pronunciation, have _aches_ as one syllable; and then, to complete the metre, have foisted in "aches _will_ throb." Thus what the poet and the linguist wish to preserve is altered, and finally lost.[38] It appears by a calculation made by the printer of Steevens's edition of Shakspeare, that every octavo page of that work, text and notes, contains 2680 distinct pieces of metal; which in a sheet amount to 42,880--the misplacing of any one of which would inevitably cause a blunder! With this curious fact before us, the accurate state of our printing, in general, is to be admired, and errata ought more freely to be pardoned than the fastidious minuteness of the insect eye of certain critics has allowed.