So we're all more or less agreed that the long-awaited secondwave is now gaining traction on the European mainland? That gives us, what, a month or so of notice, if this wave follows the same trajectory as the first.

The typo in that tweet reminds me of something related, which I will plonk here.

I believe that this famous bit of Shakespeare has a transcription error.

"Infection AT the hand of war" makes better idiomatic sense and completes the military metaphor that began with "fortress."

And "The triple pillar of the world transformed/ Into a strumpet's fool" (Antony and Cleopatra) is a mistake created by modern editors.

The 11th word was ambiguous and may have read "stool."

Of course it should be "stool." The "triple pillar" becomes a stool's three legs! Duh.

Put "stool" instead of "fool" and it immediately makes sense.

Not only does "stool" alliterate with "strumpet," but it elevates the "strumpet" to the proportions of a whole world and puts the triple pillar (Rome's trumvirate) below her. There's also an unsavoury play on "stool."

That is the end of my Shakespearean nitpicking for the time being. The preceding are two observations I'd been carrying around in my head for years, and never found a writerly use for. Since Twitter is inherently and categorically useless, such brainfarts belong here.

Perhaps the most persuasive point for the lay reader (re the Antony and Cleopatra correction) is that the Triumvirate was three men, of whom Antony was just one.

It's in-your-face nonsense for all three to be Cleopatra's "fool" when only one of them (Antony) is smitten with her.