with oftentatious expofitions of the new reading, and felf-congratulations on the happinefs of difcovering it.

As of the other editors I have preferved the prefaces *, I have likewife borrowed the author's life from Rowe, though not written with much elegance or fpirit; it relates however what is now to be known, and therefore deferves to pass through all fucceeding publications.

The nation had been for many years content enough with Mr. Rowe's performance, when Mr. Pope made them acquainted with the true state of Shakspeare's text, fhowed that it was extremely corrupt, and gave reason to hope that there were means of reforming it. He collated the old copies, which none had thought to examine before, and restored many lines to their integrity; but, by a very compendious criticifm, he rejected whatever he disliked, and thought more of amputation than of cure.

I know not why he is commended by Dr. Warburton for diftinguishing the genuine from the fpurious plays. In this choice he exerted no judgment of his own; the plays which he received, were given to Hemings and Condel, the first editors; and those which he rejected, though, according to the licentioufnefs of the prefs in thofe times, they were printed during Shakspeare's life, with his name, had been omitted by his friends, and were never added to his works before the edition of 1664, from which they were copied by the later printers.

This was a work which Pope feems to have thought unworthy of his abilities, being not able to fupprefs his contempt of the dull duty of an editor. He understood but half his undertaking. The duty of a collator is indeed dull, yet, like other tedious tasks, is very necessary; but an emendatory critick would ill discharge his duty, without qualities very different from dullness. In perufing a

*These are omitted in this edition.

corrupted

corrupted piece, he muft have before him all poffibilities of meaning, with all poffibilities of expreffion. Such muft be his comprehenfion of thought, and fuch his copioufnefs of language. Out of many readings poffible, he must be able to felect that which beft fuits with the ftate, opinions, and modes of language prevailing in every age, and with his author's particular caft of thought and turn of expression. Such must be his knowledge, and such his talte. Conjectural criticism demands more than humanity possesses, and he that exercifes it with most praife, has very frequent need of indulgence. Let us now be told no more of the dull duty of an editor.

Confidence is the common confequence of fuccefs. They whofe excellence of any kind has been loudly cele. brated, are ready to conclude, that their powers are univerfal. Pope's edition fell below his own expectations, and he was so much offended, when he was found to have left any thing for others to do, that he paffed the latter part of his life in a state of hostility with verbal criticism.

I have retained all his notes, that no fragment of fo great a writer may be loft; his preface, valuable alike for elegance of compofition and juftnefs of remark, and containing a general criticism on his author, fo extensive that little can be added, and so exact, that little can be difputed, every editor has an intereft to fupprefs, but that every reader would demand its infertion.

Pope was fucceeded by Theobald, a man of narrow comprehension, and fmall acquifitions, with no native and intrinfick fplendour of genius, with little of the artificial light of learning, but zealous for minute accuracy, and not negligent in pursuing it. He collated the ancient copies, and rectified many errors. A man fo anxi

ously scrupulous might have been expected to do more, but what little he did was commonly right.

*The Notes are alfo omitted.

In his reports of copies and editions he is not to be trufted without examination. He fpeaks fometimes indefinitely of copies, when he has only one. In his enumeration of editions, he mentions the two first folios as of high, and the third folio as of middle authority; but the truth is, that the first is equivalent to all others, and that the reft only deviate from it by the printer's negligence. Whoever has any of the folios has all, excepting thofe diverfities which mere reiteration of editions will produce. I collated them all at the beginning, but afterwards used only the first.

ment.

Of his notes* I have generally retained those which he retained himself in his fecond edition, except when they were confuted by fubfequent annotators, or were too minute to merit preservation. I have fometimes adopted his restoration of a comma, without inferting the panegyrick in which he celebrated himself for his achieveThe exuberant excrefcence of his diction I have often lopped, his triumphant exultations over Pope and Rowe I have fometimes fuppreffed, and his contemptible oftentation, I have frequently concealed; but I have in fome places fhewn him, as he would have shewn himself, for the reader's diverfion, that the inflated emptiness of fome notes may justify or excuse the contraction of the reft.

Theobald, thus weak and ignorant, thus mean and faithlefs, thus petulant and oftentatious, by the good luck of having Pope for his enemy, has escaped, and efcaped alone, with reputation, from this undertaking. So willingly does the world fupport those who folicit favour, against those who command reverence; and so eafily is he praised, whom no man can envy.

Our author fell then into the hands of Sir Thomas Hanmer, the Oxford editor, a man, in my opinion, eminently See the preceding note.

qualified

qualified by nature for fuch ftudies. He had, what is the first requifite to emendatory critifm, that intuition by which the poet's intention is immediately discovered, and that dexterity of intellect which defpatches its work by the easiest means. He had undoubtedly read much; his acquaintance with customs, opinions, and traditions, feems to have been large; and he is often learned without fhow. He feldom paffes what he does not understand, without an attempt to find or to make a meaning, and fometimes haftily makes what a little more attention would have found. He is folicitous to reduce to grammar, what he could not be fure that his author intended to be grammatical. Shakspeare regarded more the series of ideas, than of words; and his language, not being defigned for the reader's defk, was al! that he defired it to be, if it conveyed his meaning to the audience.

Hanmer's care of the metre has been too violently cenfured. He found the measure reformed in fo many paffages, by the filent labours of fome editors, with the filent acquiefcence of the reft, that he thought himself allowed to extend a little further the licence, which had already been carried fo far without reprehenfion; and of his corrections in general, it must be confeffed, that they are often juft, and made commonly with the leaft poffible violation of the text.

But, by inferting his emendations, whether invented or borrowed, into the page, without any notice of varying copies, he has appropriated the labour of his predeceffors, and made his own edition of little authority. His confidence indeed, both in himfelf and others, was too great; he fuppofes all to be right that was done by Pope and Theobald; he feems not to fufpect a critick of fallibility, and it was but reasonable that he should claim what he fo liberally granted.

As he never writes without careful inquiry and diligent confideration, I have received all his notes, and believe that every reader will with for more.

Of the last editor it is more difficult to speak. Refpect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and veneration to genius and learning; but he cannot be justly offended at that liberty of which he has himself so frequently given an example, nor very folicitous what is thought of notes, which he ought never to have confidered as part of his ferious employments, and which, I fuppofe, fince the ardour of compofition is remitted, he no longer numbers among his happy effusions.

The original and predominant error of his commentary, is acquiefcence in his first thoughts; that precipitation which is produced by confcioufnefs of quick difcernment; and that confidence which prefumes to do, by furveying the furface, what labour only can perform, by penetrating the bottom. His notes exhibit fometimes perverse interpretations, and fometimes improbable conjectures; he at one time gives the author more profundity of meaning than the fentence admits, and at another discovers abfurdities, where the fenfe is plain to every other reader. But his emendations are likewife often happy and just; and his interpretation of obfcure paffages learned and fagacious.

Of his notes, I have commonly rejected thofe, against which the general voice of the publick has exclaimed, or which their own incongruity immediately condemns, and which, I fuppofe, the author himself would defire to be forgotten. Of the reft, to part I have given the highest approbation, by inferting the offered reading in the text; part I have left to the judgment of the reader, as doubtful, though fpecious; and part I have cenfured without referve, but I am fure without bitterness of malice, and, I hope, without wantonnefs of infult.

It