neybour Pratte_." The original copy has the following imprint:
"Imprynted by Wyllyam Rastell the v. day of Apryll, the yere of our
lorde, M. CCCCC. xxx III."

The reprint by Smeeton is in black letter, and it professes to be a
fac-simile, or as nearly so as possible; and although it consists of
only eight leaves, it contains no fewer than forty variations from the
original, all more or less important, and one of them the total omission
of a line, so that the preceding line is left without its corresponding
rhyme, and the sense materially injured.

Unfortunately, Mr. Child reprinted in America from this defective
reprint in England; but his sagacity prevented him from falling into
some of the blunders, although it could not supply him with the wanting
line; and his notes are extremely clear and pertinent. I shall not go
over the thirty-nine other errors; but I shall just quote the passage as
it stands in the (as far as I know) unique copy, now deposited at
Devonshire House, and supply in italics the necessary line. It occurs in
a speech by the Pardoner, near the end, where he is praising one of his
relics:-- {210}

"I wyll edefy more, with the syght of it
Than wyll all the pratynge of holy wryt;
For that except that the precher, hym selfe lyue well,
His predycacyon wyll helpe neuer a dell,
And I know well, that thy lyuynge is nought:
_Thou art an apostata, yf it were well sought_,
An homycyde thou art I know well inoughe," &c.

The line omitted is the more remarkable, because it contains an instance