prepossession, against which, it seems, the Rev. Mr. Dyce was not proof,
although I only know it from MR. SINGER'S letter, never having looked
into the book in which I suppose, the opinion is advanced.

One reason why I should reject the substitution of "busy-less," even if
I had not a better mode of overcoming the difficulty, is properly
adverted to by MR. SINGER, viz. that the word was not in use in the time
of Shakspeare. The only authority for it, at any period, quoted in
Todd's Johnson, is this very (as I contend) corrupted passage in the
Tempest; I have not met with it at all in any of the older dictionaries
I have been able to consult; and unless the Rev. Mr. Dyce have been more
fortunate, he was a little short-sighted, as well as a little angry,
when he wrote his note upon mine. Had he taken more time to reflect, he
might have found that after all Theobald and I are not so much at odds,
although he arrives at his end by varying from, and I at mine by
adhering to, the ancient authorities. In fact, I gain some confirmation
of what, I believe, is the true meaning of Shakspeare, out of the very
corruption Theobald introduced, and the Rev. Mr. Dyce, to my surprise,
supports. I should have expected him to be the very last man who would
advocate an abandonment of what has been handed down to us in every old
edition of the play.

The key of the whole speech of Ferdinand is contained in its very
outset:--

"There be some sports are painful, and their labour
Delight in them sets off;"

and the poet has said nearly the same thing in "Macbeth:"