---- Rectory, Hereford. _Three Passages in "Measure for Measure._"--H. C. K. has a treacherous memory, or rather, what I believe to be the truth, he, like myself, has not a complete Shakspeare apparatus. COLLIER'S first edition surely cannot be in his library, or he would have known that Warburton, long ago, read _seared_ for _feared_, and that the same word appears in Lord Ellesmere's copy of the first folio, the correction having been made, as MR. COLLIER remarks, while the sheet was at press. I however assure H. C. K. that I regard his correction as perfectly original. Still I have my doubts if _seared_ be the poet's word, for I have never met it but in connexion with hot iron; and I should be inclined to prefer _sear_ or _sere_; but this again is always physically _dry_, and not metaphorically so, and I fear that the true word is not to be recovered. I cannot consent to go back with H. C. K. to the Anglo-Saxon for a sense of _building_, which I do not think it ever bore, at least not in our poet's time. His quotation from the "Jewel House," &c. is not to the point, for the context shows that "a building word" is a word or promise that will {362} set me a-building, _i. e._ writing. After all I see no difficulty in "the _all-building_ law;" it means the law that builds, maintains, and repairs the whole social edifice, and is well suited to Angelo, whose object was to enhance the favour he proposed to grant. Again, if H. C. K. had looked at COLLIER'S edit., he would have seen that in Act I. Sc. 2., _princely_ is the reading of the second folio, and not a modern conjecture. If he rejects this authority, he must read a little farther on _perjury_ for _penury_. As to the Italian _prenze_, I cannot receive it. I very much doubt Shakspeare's knowledge of Italian, and am sure that he would not, if he understood the word, use it as an adjective. MR. COLLIER'S famed corrector reads with Warburton _priestly_, and substitutes _garb_ for _guards_, a change which convinces me (if proof were wanting) that he was only a guesser like ourselves, for it is plain, from the previous use of the word _living_, that _guards_ is the right word. THOS. KEIGHTLEY. _Shakspeare's Works with a Digest of all the Readings_ (Vol. viii., pp. 74, 170.).--I fully concur with your correspondent's suggestion, and beg to suggest to MR. HALLIWELL that his splendid monograph edition would be greatly improved if he would undertake the task. As his first volume contains but one play (_Tempest_), it may not be too late to adopt the suggestion, so that every variation of the text (in the briefest possible form) might be seen at a glance. ESTE. * * * * * DEATH ON THE FINGERS.