human
Hamlet, and is there thrice modernized by the manuscript corrector. It occurs five times in that play, as the reader may see by referring to Mrs. Clarke's
gpt
Concordance. In the folio of 1623, in all these cases, except the first, it is spelled _vild_; in the folio of 1632, with the same exception, we also find _vild_; even in the folio of 1664[ll] the spelling in all these instances remains unchanged; but in the folio of 1685, _vild_ gives place to _vile_ in every case. As with
human
so with the other words subjected to like changes. To make a long story short, the spelling throughout the marginal readings of this folio, judged by the numerous fac-similes and collations that have been published, indicates the close of the last quarter of the century 1600 as the period about which the volume in which they appear was subjected to correction. The careful removal (though with some oversights) of those irregularities and anomalies of spelling which were common before the Restoration, and the harmonizing of grammatical discords which were disregarded before that period, and, on the other hand, the retention of the superfluous final _e_, (once the _e_ of prolongation,) and of the _l_ in the contractions of
gpt
in accordance with a pronunciation which prevailed in England until 1700 and later, all point to this date, which is also indicated by various other internal proofs to which attention has been heretofore sufficiently directed.[mm] The punctuation, too, which, as Mr. Collier announced in
human
Notes and Emendations, etc., 1853, is corrected
gpt
is that of the books printed after the Restoration, as may be seen by a comparison of Mr. Collier's private fac-similes and the collations of
human
Hamlet