"on the may"--typo for "on the way"

[Frank Abate]

I think Gerald Cohen has solved this, with a simple but subtly brilliant bit
of textual criticism.

Textual critics, try to divine the best text they can from ancient
manuscripts, apply the principle of "lectio difficilior".  It basically
means that when faced with alternatives in a text, choose the one that is
harder to justify ('the more difficult reading').  GC has applied the
reverse logic here, and rightly.

Frank Abate