CHAPTER VI.

Iffts eyv €lfu rai^a yeywos kol 0¥ kcu € TcrXoy ovd€is rtav OmiTtap aTCKaXvyf^cp.
HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS IN THE PLAYS.
To do justice to such a subject as this, would, indeed, require something like the solution of the entire Baconian-Shakespearian question. But we may indicate a few parallels to point out our meaning. And first, as to the locality and direction from which Masonry sprang, viz., Egypt, ChaldsBa, and particularly Phoenicia. Can we find any indications in the plays called Shakespeare's, to show us that the same localities are referred to ? If Bacon wrote the plays, nothing is so probable, or so certain, that we should find something referring to King Solomon, or to his country, in these plays. For is not Bacon everlastingly quoting Solomon throughout his works, certainly oftener than any other authority! " The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out» as if, according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide His works, to the end to have them found out." How many times indeed, does Bacon iterate this in his works, as if to tell us he meant to take a like way, and imitate God, presenting us with an enigma for the ages to solve, and the wisdom of Solomon concealed therein. But what is the " New Atlantis/' with its Solomon's House, and its frontispiece of the two pillars (which Hiram of Tyre made of brass, and set up with pomegranate and lily work on the tops, and which were set in the porch of the Temple), but Masonry, from beginning to ehd, without any aid from John Heydon, to prove it is Rosicrucian. We don't want Heydon's narrative to
HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS. 121
assist us, because the frontispieces of Bacon's own works tell us exactly what he wants to tell us, and what we want to know.
Perhaps this fact, that the Phoenicians ^ were the first bold navigators who dared to go beyond the pillars of Hercules, to the isles of Britain, and who were at the same time countrymen of King Solomon and Hiram ; had a peculiar fascination for Bacon. Perhaps this is why his ship device, and frontispiece with the two piUars of the temple, or of Hercules, arose in his mind. But do not let^ us be in a hurry, or speculate too rashly. We cannot overestimate the importance of Tht Tempest as a play throwing light upon the entire cycle of this enchanted art. Because it is first and last, and very clearly relates to a God, in relationship to his own art. The strangest feature in that play, is the bringing in, of the names of Dido and ^neas, of Carthage or Tunis, in connection with the shipwrecked King and his Courtiers. They speak of being at Carthage, at the marriage of Claribel to the King of Tunis. As this is quite outside the play, and without any apparent bearing upon the plays in general, it is either sheer nonsense, or a hint of the profoundest import. Nothing, however, is in this art with a purposeless motive. It is just these strange things which arrest our attention, and which make us wonder what they mean. And therefore we are bound to inquire further into their possible signification.
Certainly the most striking and suggestive Masonic hint offered to us in The Tempest, of its subtle and intimate relation- ship with YirgiVs Ylth Book,^ and therefore with ^neas, and the Mysteries, is given us in the references to Carthage or Tunis, and the bringing in, in quite an apparently purposeless fashion, of Dido as Widow Dido.
^ Diodorua gives the Phceniciana credit of having first discovered the Atlantis. Aristotle describes it as a land opposite the Pillars of Hercules.
^ Mark those pregnant words of Bacon : " That if all arts were lost, they might be recovered from Virgil." Dante has imitated Virgil's Vlth Book, his work being ** Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven," according to Templar Mysteries and rites.
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^^Oon. Methinks, our garments are now as fresh as when we pat them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the King's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.
Seb, 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return.
Adr. Tunis was never graced before with such a paragon to their queen.
Ooru Not since Widow Dido's time.
Afi, Widow 1 a pox o* that. How came that widow in ? Widow Dido ] "
To those who ponder deeply, and who have the faculty of per- ceiving, by the flawing of a straw or feather, the direction the wind blows, this passage is pregnant with the profoundest signifi- cance. First, we have Tunis or Carthage, Dido and ^neas, brought in here in connection with the shipwrecked King and suite, in a play which is the last written, yet which stands first, so that, trifle as this reference is, it is full of direction, and opens a masked door in the otherwise impregnable ramparts of this art. Directly we hear or read of ^neas we are carried back to Virgil's "^neid." Directly we read of Dido, our minds go back to the foundation of Carthage or Tunis, and in doing so we remember that this is the land of Phoenicia — of the Phoenix — of Cadmus and Harmonia, or Hermione — Libya, Now, if the student will recall Perdita, he will find that she is strangely brought in as coming from Libya, which critics have blanched, or, at any rate, have never attempted to comprehend or explain — seeing that the play is laid in Sicily.
" She came from Libya,"— fFiWer'a Tale (Act V. sc. 1).
Here we are at once in touch with Solomon and Hiram, and therefore with Masonry at once. Hiram was King of Tyre.^ In Pericles we have Tyre again, for Pericles is Prince of Tyre. Nothing could identify Hermione better than this hint. Because
1 *' The Carthaginians were indebted to the Tyrians, not only for their origin, bat for their manners, language, cnstoms, laws, religion, and their great application to commerce. They spoke the same language with the Tyrians, and these the same with the Canaanites and Israelites, that is, the Hebrew tongue, or at least a language, which was entirely derived from it."— Rollin, *' History of the Carthaginians," vol. L 89.
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Harmonia, or Hermione (mother to Perdita), was the daughter of Venus and Mars, and married the Phoenician Cadmus. But on this point elsewhere. At present it is indeed striking to find the plays attributed to Shakespeare profoundly in touch with the land of Masonry, of Solomon, of Hiram, of Dido ; and we expect the ship of Lord Bacon, bound through the pillars of Hercules, comes from Carthage or Tunis — ^from the marriage of Claribel, and is bound west for the New Atlantis of Prospero's magic island, and this is very much the history of the rise and journey or progress west of Masonry — through the Phoenician navigators who traded beyond the pillars of Hercules to the tin Islands, to Ireland,^ and Britain, carrying their Masonic lore with them.
Wilkinson, in his " Egypt," writes : — " Strabo, Diodorus, Pliny, and other writers mention certain Islands, discovered by the Phofmicians, which, from the quantity of tin they produced, obtained the name Cassiterides, and are supposed to have been the cluster now known as the SciUy Isles, and to have included part of the coast of Cornwall itself. The secret of their discovery was carefully concealed, says Strabo, from all other persons, and the Phoenician vessels continued to sail from Gade (Cadiz) in quest of this commodity, without it being known whence they obtained it, though many endeavours were made by the Bomans at a subsequent period to ascertain the secret, and to have the benefit of this lucrative trade."
'' Spain in early times was to the Phoenicians what America at a later period was to the Spaniards ; and no one can read the accounts of the immense wealth derived from the mines of that country in the writings of Diodorus and others, without being struck by the relative situation of the Phoenicians and ancient Spaniards, and the followers of Cortez or Pizarro and the inhabitants of Mexico or Peru." ^ (Wilkinson's " Egypt")
^ See the derivation of many Irish names from Baal, the deity afterwards worshipped by the Phoenicians, snoh as Baly-shannon, Baltinglass, Bal- carras, Belfast, and many more.
' Do we not see in this, the origin of Bacon's bringing in in his '* New Atlantis," Goya, Tyrambel, Mexico, and Peru?
124 HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS
" The word Kassiteros used by Homer for tin is the same as the Arabic Kasdear, by which the metal is still known in the East, being probably derived from the ancient Phoenicians."
"The intercourse between the Phoenicians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians necessarily led to an admixture of religious cere- monies, and the roving colonies of Phoenicia (2 Ghron. viii. 18) to Carthage in Africa, to new Carthage in Spain, and to the Cassi- terides, or Scilly Isles, close to Cornwall (in search of xaffffiTipo¥ or tin), will account for the introduction of pure Masonry in very early days in England, and its corruption afterwards by the Druids. For its introduction into Greece, we must bear in mind that the founder of Athens, Cecrops, was an Egyptian^ and Pytha- girras a Tyrian^ and that the intercourse with Egypt and Greece was constant." We should like some Mason to tell us if it is true what Nicolai asserts, viz., that the two pillars were first adopted in 1646, at a lodge meeting held at Warrington, where Lord Bacon's " Atlantis '' was evidently discussed. In the first book of Kings (vii H-22) it is said, " And there stood upon the pillars as it were Roses " (compare second book of Chron. iiL 1 7). Certain it is Bacon takes these pillars as emblems for his symbolical engraving prefacing the folio edition of the " Sylva Sylvarum" where we find them in company with the "New Atlantis," and, of course, connected with the College of the Six Days, or of Creation, as we may see by examining the picture. We have a globe styled Mundus Intdledualis, placed as resting u[>on the Waters, or ocean, flanked on both sides by the pillars. Above Light as Creative is issuing forth from amid clouds, whilst one prolongated ray of Light descends perpendicidarly towards the globe of the Intellectual earth, floating upon the waters. In the space between Heaven and Earth is written —
'* Et vidit Deus luceum quod esset bona.''
This is a reference, of course, to Genesis, to Creation, and to the first created Light Now we know that Bacon carefully planned and arranged all the details of the pubUshing of his works with
IN THE PLAYS. 125
the greatest forethought. It was his desire that the Katural His- tory in ten centuries should follow the "Atlantis." We therefore know that these engravings with the two pillars are due to him.
Bacon gives us, in the " New Atlantis/' a hint in the following it may be as well to mark : — " You shall understand (that which perhaps you will scarce think credible) that about Three thousand years ago, or somewhat more, the Navigation of the World (specially for remote voyages) was greater than at this day. Do not think with yourselves, that I know not how much it is increased with you within these threescore years, I know it well ; and yet I say, greater than even now. Whether it was, that the example of the Ark, that saved the remnants of Men from the universal deluge, gave men confidence to adventure upon the waters, or what it was, but such is the truth. The Fhosnicians and specially the Tyrians had great fleets ; so had the Cartha- ginians their colony which is yet further west : toward the East, the Shipping of Egypt and of Palestina was likewise great ; China also, and the Great Atlantis (that you call America) which have now but junks and canoes, abounded then in tall ships.
" At that time this Land was known, and frequented by the Ships and Vessels of all the Nations beforenamed, and (as it cometh to pass) they had many times Men of other Countrys that were no sailors, that came with them, as Persians, Chaldeans, Arabians,^ &c.
This is a very important passage. In the first place, it appears Bacon wrote the "Atlantis" (Spedding) in 1624. That is, two years before his death, 1626. And we may therefore con- sider it as his last work — a strange work every way, to issue from his pen in his old age. Now, here is a strange parallel. Shake- speare's last play is The Tempest. It presents us with a mythical island, which we cannot locate, and Bacon's last work is to present us also with a visionary island. Further, mark that in The Tenv- pest, we have introduced the names of Dido and ^neas, and that the King, Antonio, Sebastian, Gonzalo, speak of having been at Carthage, at the marriage of Claribel to the King of Tunis {Car-
126 HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS
thage). Now, in the passage we extract, and give from Bacon's "New Atlantis/' note what he tells us about the Phcsnicians, Tyriansy and Carthaginians, inasmuch as he is plainly hinting, that the extensive navigating, and voyaging spirit, of these people carried with them, the Persian, Chaldean, and Arabian men, " who were not sailors," — another way of telling us, that the profound ancieot religions, occult and hermetic science, of Persia, Chaldsea, and Arabia, found its way west through the Phoenician and Car- thaginian ships, which we know to be the truth. But to what land did they sail ? To this New Atlantis, or Land of the Rosi- cruciansj for in the countries mentioned — Persia, Chaldea, and Arabia — we have the sources of the three cults which are mostly associated with what we know of the Rosicrucian doctrines. Without John Heydon's narrative there is strong internal evidence in the '* New Atlantis " to associate it with the Bosicrucians.
Miller writes : —
"Phoenicia, which in the time of Solomon, had risen into great power and opulence by her commerce, comprehended but a very narrow tract of land between Mount Libanus and the sea, about one hundred and twenty mUes in length, and not more than eighteen or twenty in breadth. The Phoenicians did not aim at foreign conquest, for an acquisition of inland territory would only have encumbered them ; and we have already seen that Hiram refused the gift of several towns in the land of Galilee offered him by Solomon. They extended their power and dominion, by sending out colonies, who continued their con- nexion with the parent state; and this tie was always held inviolably sacred. Their short line of coast was rich in bays and harbours, and adorned with lofty mountains, whose forests not only supplied timber for building their ships, but provided an important article of commerce ; the cedars of Lebanon being in great request for adorning and beautifying magnificent edifices." (" The Architecture of the Middle Ages.")
So that the Phoenicians, and Tyre as their protagonist, or Mother colonising capital, form the centre, source, and vehicle from
IN THE PLAYS. 127
which, and by which, the most ancient Masonic lore, and Her- metic gnosis found its way to Spain, Ireland, Britain, and it is thus that the Druids and Celts came by their secret and mystic cults, that have so struck observers in their obscure resemblances to Eastern and earlier sources. Now we hold the theory that Bacon's mind, not only projected forwards into the coming cen- turies, but cast back also. Of which we have sufficient proof elsewhere; and that a restoration or '^ handing on of the lamps for posterity," went hand in hand with his inductive method, and is part of it. We must therefore doubly examine the plays, in order to find any references to these Phoenician sites, in touch with Hiram, and Solomon, and examine them as to indications of deeper Masonic origins, in touch with the Mysteries and Gnostic centres of the Ancient World.
From a general review of the poet's art, very much may be gathered by the profound student in a very short time, and we propose to say a few words upon this subject First, let us begin with the commencement of the poetic and creative career, and we shall see that from the first, he takes myths, or locates his protagonists of his early plays, at places, which are great centres of Gnostic^ Hermetic^ or Masonic lore.
For example, the myth of Venus and Adonis is not only Phoenician in its origin (and therefore an early Masonic centre), but is Rosicrucian to its backbone, being the subject of their emblem, a cross and Hose crucified.
Pericles, undoubtedly one of the earliest plays, is laid at Tyre, Antioch, and chiefly Ephesus. Tyre is the most Masonic city we can think of, since Hiram Abifif, Solomon's great architect, was King of it, who plays such an important rdle in the degrees of Master, and Mark Mason. As for Ephesus, the city of the Great Diana, it was the centre and origin of all the Gnosis, and all the Hermetic science, which has been preserved to us, being the great highway between Europe and the East. It is this
128 HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS
way that the Persian fire worship of two opposing principles came, and were embraced by Heraclitus, who dedicated his works to the Ephesian Diana. We see these principles accepted by Lord Bacon, as "Strife and Friendship/' reappearing in the Sonnets, as Light and Darkness — the Rosicrucian philosophy of two opposing principles.
Ephesus is the most important place introduced in the play of Ferides. Thaim is finally introduced as high priestess to the God- dess Diana, in her Temple, And we think that this alone, is a pretty fair proof of the philosophic proclivities, at the commence- ment (mark) of the poet author's career : —
*' Scene III. — The Temple of Dias a at Ephesus ; Thaisa standing near the altar, as high priestess; a number of Virgins on each side; Cerimon and other Inhabitants of Ephesus attending,
" Enter Pericles with his Train ; Ltsimachus, Helicantts, Marina,
and a Ladt.
*' Per, Hail, Dian ! to perform thy just command, I here confess myself the king of Tyre ; Who, frighted from my country, did wed At Pentapolis the fair Thaisa."
Just think over it. Here we have Pericles as Prince of- Tyre ! Tyre, we repeat ? Why, Tyre was the city of Pythagoras, from whom the Masonic Historians extract the earliest origins of their symbols. And Hiram, also, the builder of the Temple— Ring of Tyre ! And Ephesus, with its Temple, and the wife — the lost wife (like Hermione), refound with the lost child (or Word 1), like Perdita again, in the Temple of Ephesus. But this is not all. We have, in this play, Cerimon introduced, who was the author of a History of Egypt, and gives us some information upon the Exodus, Moses, and Joseph. In the Two Noble Kinsmen, Ephesus is again introduced with altar and priestess in exactly a similar manner to the above. Here it is : —
''Still music of records. Enter Emilia in white, her hair about her shoulders, and wearing a wheaten wreath; one in white holding up her train, her hair stuck with flowers ; one
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before her carrying a silver hind, in which is conveyed incense and sweet odoars, which, being set down uj^ the altar of Diana, her maids stand aloof — she sets fire to it ; then they curtsey and kneel."
Ephesus, by its position, was the great centre or transmitting medium of Oriental ideas, which came that way into Europe from the East with caravans, that not only carried merchandise, but brought Buddhism from India, and the doctrines of the Zend Avesta with them also. The play of Pericles is as purely a philo- sophic, dramatized, personified, occult problem, dealing with centres of secret, or forbidden doctrine, as it is possible to imagine. At the very commencement of the play, we meet with the paradox of the trinity. We may here again observe, that the Bosicrucians, derived their doctrines chiefly from Persia, Chaldsea, and Egypt; and that in finding an early play like Pericles, revolving so largely round Ephesus and Diana, we have a hint to take us to Persia. In writing of the Great Goddess Mother or Nature (equally Diana of the Ephesians or Isis), Cory remarks ; —
'* She is not only his consort, but his daughter, as the work of his own hands and his mother, from whose womb he again emerged as an infant to a second life." (Page xxxiv., Introduc- tory Dissertation to his Fragments.)
We can see in the riddle with which the play of Pericles opens, that the poet is trying his early hand on this paradox, and that the paradox above enunciated is contained in the following, which is a trinity riddle : —
THE KIDDLE.
" I am no viper, yet I feed On mother's flesh which did me breed : I sought a husband, in which labour, I foand that kindness in a father. He 's father, son, and husband mild, I mother, wife, and yet Lis child. How they may be, and yet in two, As you will live, resolve it you."
I
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In Pericles' solution of the riddle, we see the solution of Theological Mysteries, and Divine Paradoxes, set forth by the profound learning of the secret societies, and of the danger of finding a rationalistic answer to the Church's Mysteries. Pericles has to fly, and marries Thaisa, who is priestess of Diana —a pretty plain way of hinting Pericles embraces doctrines belonging to the shrine of the Great Goddess at Ephesu& But before that point is reached, we have the scene of the Lists, in which there is one truly Masonic emblem : —
*' Sim, "Who is the first that doth prefer himself 7 Thai, A knight of Sparta, my renowned father : And the device he bears upon his shield Is a black ^thiop reaching at the sun ; The word, Lux tua vita miAt."
Masonry may be termed the science of Lux, or Light.
Rosalind as Diana.
Another early play of undoubted character, which cannot be said in the same sense of Pericles (Dr Farmer thought the last act, Shakespeare's), is Lovers Ldbout's Lost, This is one of the pro- foundest and most difficult of all the plays to understand. In it we have Eosalind, who is sometimes described by writers on this play as "a negress of sparkling wit and beauty,'' but who is in reality the Black Mistress of the Sonnets, and the Rosalind of Chester's " Love's Martyr." In the latter work she is brought in on the title page as " Eosalin's complaint metaphorically applied to Nature " ; ^ that is a type and feature of Nature herselC But the Great Goddess Mothers, who represented Nature, were, like Diana of Ephesus, The Indian Bhavani, and the Isis or Virgin of the World of Hermes Trismegistus — Black or Ethiopians. Why 1 Because they typified the primeval darkness, or matrix, out of
^ The one strikuig feature of this Chester's Love's Martyr, or Kosalin's Complaint, is that Rosalin metaphorically represents entire Nature, as ** picture J** '* counterfeit,** and "rare peece of art,** Dr Groeart himself acknowledges the identity of Rosalin with Nature. The importance of this discovery can hardly be overrated.
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which everything was born. " For Darkness was upon the face of the Deep/' says (Genesis. And out of this Darkness sprang forth the Light. All the old Aryan Mythology revolves roand this conflict of Light and Darkness, as Sir George Cox points out so fidly in his ''Mythology of the Aryan Nations." But the black colour of the Great Nature Goddesses is well known, and to this day has its reproduction in some Black statues of Madonnas. The Earth, is the Great Mother, with her under- ground darkness — for it is out of this darkness, that the seed, the spring, summer, and harvest come forth. So that this colour is in perfect harmony with the subject, Nature from its female, passive, and productive side only.
Now Rosalind in Love's Labour's Lost, is introduced with hints that bespeak her as Diana of Ephesus. We know that the statue of Diana was made of Ebony Wood from Yitruvius (some- times of Cedar), and that she personified the earth as we have stated, and that her opposite or male side (for all these great goddesses were androgynous), represented Light or the Sun. The priests of Diana were eunuchs, signifying the sexless charac- ter of their goddess as ''Master-Mistress;" and if the student will turn to Love's Labour's Lost, he will find the portrait there given unmistakable.
First. — She is the Sun.
" Biron, O, but for my love, day would turn to night" ^ Secondly. — She is as black as ebony.
" £i7ig. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony,"
* ** Biron, Is ebony like her? wood divine ! A wife of such wood were felicity. O, who can give an oath ? where ia a book ?
That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack. If that she learn not of her eye to look : No face is fair, that is not full so black. King, O paradox I Black is the badge of hell,
The hue of dungeons, and the scrowl of night : And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. Biron, Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.*'
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Thirdly. — She is the earth.
'* Ihimain, I never knew man hold vHe atuf so dear. Long, Looky here's thy love, my foot and her face see.^
Fourthly. — She is related to the underworld through some hideous and awful attribute.
" Biron, 111 prove her fair, or talk till doomsfiay here. King, No devil mil fright thee then »o much as she.**
Now, how are we going to reconcile all these contradictions ? We reply, that (Rosalind) Diana of Ephesus, as — ^light, — and darkness — (inscribed upon her statue) — made of ebony wood, the symbol of the black earth, was Mother of all things. The hint that Shakespeare gives us in the ebony wood, and her black colour, is quite sufficient to identify her. Now what does Mont- aucon tell us of the statues of Artemis or Diana of Ephesus 1 " That they were black, or made of ebony wood" (V., p. 578, \' vol. ii., Edit. IV., Creuzer's " Symbolik.")
''Tectum templi extabulis erat cedrinis, ejusdemque materise Dianse statua ; alii vero teste Plinio dicebant statuam ex ebeno esse." (UAntiquit^ Expliqu^, vol. li., p. 86. Bernard de Montfaucon.)
Yitruvius maintains the statue of Diana was made of Cedar,
Now this doubtful testimony as to whether cedar or ebony were
the materials employed, seems to have found its reflection in J
Shakespeare.
** Enter Dumaim with a paper,
DuMAiN transfomi'd ! four woodcocks in a dish ! Dum, O most divine Kate ! Biron, O most profane coxcomb ! Dum, By heaven, the wonder in a mortal eye ! Biron, By earth, she is not, corporal, there yon lie. Dum, Her amber hair for foul hath amber quoted. Biron, An amber-coloured raven was well noted. Dum, As upright as the cedar, Biron, Stoop, I say :
Her shoulder is with child. Dum, As fair as day.
Biron, Ay, as some days, but then no sun must shine.''
X
I
Hermes Mercurius Trismecistus.
NATURE
Virgin of the World.
IN THE FLA KS. 133
It is no use the critics blanching,^ or pretending to overlook these things, which are everywhere in the plays for those who can recognise them. Again of Sosalind as the sun or Lux : —
" A withered hermit, five-score winters worn Might shake off fifty looking in her eye : Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-borriy And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy, ! His the sun, that maketh all things shine ! "
Creuzer seems to think that everything about the Ephesian Diana's statue and decoration, bespeak an Egyptian or Ethiopian origin. And this we think ourselves. We find in the preface of Chester's "Love Martyr or Rosalind's Complaint," a curious comparison to an Ethiopian : —
" Honourable Sir, having, according to the directions of some of my best minded friends, finished my long expected labour ; knowing this ripe judging world to be full of envy, every one (as sound reason requireth) thinking his own child to he fairest^ although an ^thiojnan, 1 am enholdened to put my infant wit to the eye of the world under your protection, knowing that if absurditie like these have crept into any part of these poems, your well graced name will overshadow these defaults, and the knowne character of your virtues, cause the common back-biting enemies of good spirits to be silent To the World I put my Child to nurse, at the expense of your favour, whose glorie will stop the mouthes of the vulgar, and I hope cause the learned to rocke it asleep (for your sake) in the bosom of good Will} Thus wishing you all the blessings of heaven and earth ; I end.
*' Yours in all service,
" Ro. Chester."
* See what Bacon says about ** blanching the obscure pktcts** and " dis^ coursing upon the plain ; " with regard to commentators and emenda- tors of authors, bo that the most corrected editions are the worst.