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Hoists Sailes, and flyes Staunton (Athen. 26 Apr. 1873): To say nothing of the redundant sibilants in this line, would Shakespeare have described a nag, as like a cow stung by the gad-fly, hoisting sails? I think, to sustain the similitude and the characteristic roughness of the speaker, he is more likely to have written,—‘Hoists tail and flies.’ Those familiar with old typography know well how readily ‘sails’ and taile would be confounded. If my conjecture has any weight, it shows the error committed by several modern editors in reading hag for ‘nag.’
William Shakespeare. Horace Howard Furness. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra. Philadelphia and London. J. B. Lippincott Company. 1907.
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