that the whole amounted to about 25 words: and pretends to have annexed a complete lift of the reft, which were not worth his embracing. Whoever has read my book will, at one glance, fee how in both thefe points veracity is ftrained, fo an injury might but be done. Malus, etfi obeffe non poteft, tamen cogitat.

Another expedient, to make my work appear of a trifling. nature, has been an attempt to depreciate literal criticifm. To this end, and to pay a fervile compliment to Mr. Pope, an anonymous writer has, like a Scotch pedlar in wit, unbraced his pack on the fubject. But, that his virulence might not feem to be levelled fingly at me, he has done me the honour to join Dr. Bentley in the libel. I was in hopes we should have been both abufed with fmartnefs of fatire at least, though not with folidity of argument: that it might have been worth fome reply in defence of the fcience attacked. But I may fairly fay of this author, as Falftaff does of Poins; Hang him, baboon! his wit is as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him, than is in a MALLET. If it be not prophanation to fet the opinion of the divine Longinus against fuch a feribler, he tells us exprefsly, "That to make "a judgment upon words (and writings) is the moft confum"mate fruit of much experience. ydp Tv λyev xplos πολλῆς ἔσι πείρας τελευταῖον ἐπιγέννημα. Whenever words are depraved, the fenfe of course must be corrupted; and thence the reader is betrayed into a falfe meaning.

If the Latin and Greek languages have received the greateft advantages imaginable from the labours of the editors and criticks of the two laft ages, by whofe aid and affistance the grammarians have been enabled to write infinitely better in that art than even the preceding grammarians, who wrote when thofe tongues flourifhed as living languages; I fhould account it a peculiar happiness, that, by the faint effay I have made in this work, a path might be chalked out for abler hands, by which to derive the fame advantages to cur own tongue: a tongue, which, though it wants none of the fundamental qualities of an univerfal language, yet, as a noble writer fays, lifps and ftammers as in its cradle; and has produced little more towards its polishing than complaints of its barbarity.

Having now run through all thofe points, which I intended fhould make any part of this differtation, and having in my former edition made publick acknowledgments of the

affiftances

affistances lent me, I fhall conclude with a brief account of the methods taken in this.

It was thought proper, in order to reduce the bulk and price of the impreffion, that the notes, wherever they would admit of it, might be abridged: for which reafon I have curtailed a great quantity of fuch, in which explanations were too prolix, or authorities in support of an emendation too numerous: and many I have entirely expunged, which were judged rather verbose and declamatory (and so notes merely of oftentation) than neceffary or inftructive.

The few literal errors which had escaped notice, for want of revifals, in the former edition, are here reformed; and the pointing of innumerable paffages is regulated, with all the accuracy I am capable of.

I fhall decline making any farther declaration of the pains I have taken upon my author, because it was my duty, as his editor, to publish him with my best care and judgment; and because I am fenfible, all fuch declarations are construed to be laying a fort of a debt on the publick. As the former edition has been received with much indulgence, I ought to make my acknowledgments to the town for their favourable opinion of it; and I thall always be proud to think that encouragement the best payment I can hope to receive from my poor ftudies.

Sir T.

T. HAN M ER's

PREFACE,

W

HAT the publick is here to expect is a true and correct edition of Shakespeare's works, cleared from the corruptions with which they have hitherto abounded. One of the great admirers of this incomparable author hath made it the amufement of his leifure hours for many years past to look over his writings with a careful eye, to note the obfcurities and abfurdities introduced into the text, and according to the beft of his judgment to reftore the genuine fenfe and purity of it. In this he propofed nothing to himfelf, but his private fatisfaction in making his own copy as perfect as he could; but as the emendations multiplied upon his hands, other gentlemen, equally fond of the author, defired to fee them, and fome were fo kind as to give their affiftance, by communicating their obfervations and conjectures upon difficult paffages which had occurred to them. Thus by degrees the work growing more confiderable than was at firft expected, they who had the opportunity of looking into it, too partial perhaps in their judgment, thought it worth being made publick; and he, who hath with difficulty yielded to their perfuafions, is far from defiring to reflect upon the late editors for the omiflions and defects which they left to be fupplied by others who fhould follow them in the fame province. On the contrary, he thinks the world much obliged to them for the progrefs they made in weeding out fo great a number of blunders and mistakes as they have done, and probably he who hath carried on the work might never have thought of fuch an undertaking, if he had not found a confiderable part fo done to his hands.

From what caufes it proceeded that the works of this author, in the first publication of them, were more injured and abufed than perhaps any that ever paffed the prefs, hath been fufficiently explained in the preface to Mr. Pope's edi

tion, which is here subjoined, and there needs no more to be faid upon that fubject. This only the reader is defired to bear in mind, that as the corruptions are more numerous, and of a groffer kind than can well be conceived, but by those who have looked nearly into them; fo in the correcting them this rule hath been moft ftrictly obferved, not to give a loose to fancy, or indulge a licentious fpirit of criticism, as if it were fit for any one to prefume to judge what Shakespeare ought to have written, inftead of endeavouring to discover truly and retrieve what he did write: and fo great caution hath been ufed in this refpect, that no alterations have been made, but what the fenfe neceffarily required, what the measure of the verfe often helped to point out, and what the fimilitude of words in the falfe reading and in the true, generally speaking, appeared very well to juftify.

Moft of those paffages are here thrown to the bottom of the page, and rejected as spurious, which were ftigmatized as fuch in Mr. Pope's edition; and it were to be wished that more had then undergone the fame fentence. The promoter of the prefent edition hath ventured to difcard but few more upon his own judgment, the most confiderable of which is that wretched piece of ribaldry in King Henry the Fifth, put into the mouths of the French princefs and an old gentlewoman, improper enough as it is all in French, and not intelligible to an English audience, and yet that perhaps is the best thing that can be said of it. There can be no doubt but a great deal more of that low ftuff, which difgraces the works of this great author, was foifted in by the players after his death, to pleafe the vulgar audiences by which they fubfifted: and though fome of the poor witticifms and conceits must be fuppofed to have fallen from his pen, yet as he hath put them generally into the mouths of low and ignorant people, fo it is to be remembered that he wrote for the ftage, rude and unpolifhed as it then was; and the vicious tate of the age muft ftand condemned for them, fince he hath left upon record a fignal proof how much he defpifed them. In his play of The Merchant of VENICE, a clown is introduced quibbling in a miferable manner; upon which one, who bears the character of a man of fenfe, makes the following reflexion: How every fool can play upon a word! I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into filence, and difcourfe grow commendable in none but parrots. He could hardly have found ftronger words to exprefs his indignation at those falfe pretences to wit then in vogue; and therefore though

[K 3]

fuch

fuch trafh is frequently interfperfed in his writings, it would be unjust to caft it as an imputation upon his taste and judgment and character as a writer.

There being many words in Shakespeare which are grown out of use and obfolete, and many borrowed from other languages which are not enough naturalized or known among us, a gloffary is added at the end of the work, for the explanation of all thofe terms which have hitherto been fo many stumbling-blocks to the generality of readers; and where there is any obfcurity in the text, not arifing from the words, but from a reference to fome antiquated cuftoms now forgotten, or other caufes of that kind, a note is put at the bottom of the page to clear up the difficulty.

With thefe feveral helps, if that rich vein of fenfe which runs through the works of this author can be retrieved in every part, and brought to appear in its true light, and if it may be hoped, without prefumption, that this is here effected; they who love and admire him will receive a new pleafure, and all probably will be more ready to join in dcing him juftice, who does great honour to his country as a rare and perhaps a fingular genius: one who hath attained an high degree of perfection in thofe two great branches of poetry, tragedy and comedy, different as they are in their natures from each other; and who may be faid without partiality to have equalled, if not excelled, in both kinds, the beft writers of any age or country, who have thought it glory enough to diftinguish themfelves in either.

Since therefore other nations have taken care to dignify the works of their most celebrated poets with the fairest impreffions beautified with the ornaments of fculpture, weil may our Shakespeare be thought to deferve no lefs confideration: and as a fresh acknowledgment hath lately been paid to his merit, and a high regard to his name and memory, by erecting his ftatue at a publick expence; fo it is defired that this new edition of his works, which hath coft fome attention and care, may be looked upon as another small monument defigned and dedicated to his honour.

Dr. WAR