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RICHARD FARMER

An Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare: Addressed to Joseph Cradock, Esq.

1767

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, 1767.

THE AUTHOR of the following ESSAY was solicitous only for the honour of Shakespeare: he hath however, in his own capacity, little reason to complain of occasional Criticks, or Criticks by profession. The very FEW,' who have been pleased to controvert any part of his Doctrine, have favoured him with better manners than arguments; and claim his thanks for a further opportunity of demonstrating the futility of Theoretick reasoning against Matter of Fact. It is indeed strange that any real Friends of our immortal POET should be still willing to force him into a situation which is not tenable: treat him as a learned Man, and what shall excuse the most gross violations of History, Chronology, and Geography?

Οὐ πείσεις οὐδ ̓ ἦν πείσῃς is the Motto of every Polemick: like his Brethren at the Amphitheatre, he holds it a merit to die hard; and will not say, Enough, though the Battle be decided. "Were it shewn," says some one, "that the old Bard borrowed all his allusions from English books then published, our Essayist might have possibly estab

lished his System."-In good time!This had scarcely been attempted by Peter Burman himself, with the Library of Shakespeare before him."6 Truly," as Mr. Dogberry says, "for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a King, I could find in my heart to bestow it all on this Subject": but where should I meet with a Reader?-When the main Pillars are taken away, the whole Building falls in course: Nothing hath been, or can be, pointed out, which is not easily removed; or rather, which was not virtually removed before: a very little Analogy will do the business. I shall therefore have no occasion to trouble myself any further; and may venture to call my Pamphlet, in the words of a pleasant Declaimer against Sermons on the thirtieth of January, "an Answer to every thing that shall hereafter be written on the Subject."

But this method of reasoning will prove any one ignorant of the Languages, who hath written when Translations were extant." -Shade of Burgersdicius !-does it follow, because Shakespeare's early life was incompatible with a course of Education-whose Contemporaries, Friends and Foes, nay, and himself likewise, agree in his want of what is usually called Literaturewhose mistakes from equivocal Translations, and even typographical Errors, cannot possibly be accounted for otherwise, that Locke, to whom not one of these circumstances is applicable, understood no Greek?—I suspect, Rollin's Opinion of our Philosopher was not founded on this argument.

Shakespeare wanted not the Stilts of Languages to raise him above all other men. The quotation from Lilly in the Taming of the Shrew, if indeed it be his, strongly proves the extent of his reading: had he known Terence, he would not have quoted erroneously from his Grammar. Every one hath met with men in common life, who, according to the language of the Water-poet, "got only from Possum to Posset, and yet will throw out a line occasionally from their Accidence or their Cato de Moribus with tolerable propriety.If, however, the old Editions

be trusted in this passage, our Author's memory somewhat failed him in point of Concord.

The rage of Parallelisms is almost over, and in truth nothing can be more absurd. "THIS was stolen from one Classick,-THAT from another";--and had I not stept in to his rescue, poor Shakespeare had been stript as naked of ornament, as when he first held Horses at the door of the Playhouse.

The late ingenious and modest Mr. Dodsley declared himself

Untutor'd in the lore of Greece or Rome :

Yet let us take a passage at a venture from any of his performances, and a thousand to one, it is stolen. Suppose it be his celebrated Compliment to the Ladies, in one of his earliest pieces, The Toy-shop: "A good Wife makes the cares of the World sit easy, and adds a sweetness to its pleasures; she is a Man's best Companion in Prosperity, and his only Friend in Adversity; the carefullest preserver of his Health, and the kindest Attendant in his Sickness; a faithful Adviser in Distress, a Comforter in Affliction, and a prudent Manager in all his domestic Affairs."-Plainly, from a fragment of Euripides preserved by Stobæus.

Γυνὴ γὰρ ἐν κακοῖσι καὶ νόσοις πόσει
Ηδιστόν ἐστι, δώματ' ἢν οἰκῇ καλῶς,
Οργήν τε πραΰνουσα, καὶ δυσθυμίας
Ψυχὴν μεθιστᾶσ! -Par. 4to. 1623.

Malvolio in the Twelfth-Night of Shakespeare hath some expressions very similar to Alnaschar in the Arabian Tales: which perhaps may be sufficient for some Criticks to prove his acquaintance with Arabic!

It seems however, at last, that "Taste should determine the matter." This, as Bardolph expresses it, is a word of exceeding good command: but I am willing that the Standard itself be somewhat better ascertained before it be opposed to demonstrative Evidence. Upon the whole, I may consider myself as the Pioneer of the Commentators:

I have removed a deal of learned Rubbish, and pointed out to them Shakespeare's track in the ever-pleasing Paths of Nature. This was necessarily a previous Inquiry; and I hope I may assume with some confidence, what one of the first Criticks of the Age was pleased to declare on reading the former Edition, that "The Question is now for ever decided."

** I may just remark, lest they be mistaken for Errata, that the word Catherine in the 47th page [p. 191] is written, according to the old Orthography, for Catharine; and that the passage in the 51st page [p. 193] is copied from Upton, who improperly calls Horatio and Marcellus in Hamlet, "the Centinels,"

AN ESSAY ON THE LEARNING OF SHAKESPEARE: ADDRESSED TO JOSEPH CRADOCK, ESQ.

"SHAKESPEARE," says a Brother of the Craft, "is a vast garden of criticism": and certainly no one can be favoured with more weeders gratis.

But how often, my dear Sir, are weeds and flowers torn up indiscriminately?-the ravaged spot is re-planted in a moment, and a profusion of critical thorns thrown over it for security.

"A prudent man, therefore, would not venture his fingers amongst them."

Be, however, in little pain for your friend, who regards himself sufficiently to be cautious :-yet he asserts with confidence, that no improvement can be expected, whilst the natural soil is mistaken for a hot-bed, and the Natives of the banks of Avon are scientifically choked with the culture of exoticks.

Thus much for metaphor; it is contrary to the Statute to fly out so early but who can tell, whether it may not be demonstrated by some critick or other, that a deviation from rule is peculiarly happy in an Essay on Shakespeare !

You have long known my opinion concerning the literary acquisitions of our immortal Dramatist; and remember how I congratulated myself on my coincidence with the last and best of his Editors. I told you, however, that his small Latin and less Greek would still be litigated, and you see very assuredly that I was not mistaken. The trumpet hath been sounded against "the darling project of representing Shakespeare as one of the illiterate vulgar"; and indeed to so good purpose, that I would by all means recommend the performer to the army of the braying Faction, recorded by Cervantes. The testimony of his contemporaries is again disputed; constant tradition is opposed by flimsy arguments; and nothing is heard but confusion and nonsense. One could scarcely imagine this a topick very likely to inflame the passions: it is asserted by Dryden, that "those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greatest commendation"; yet an attack upon an article of faith hath been usually received with more temper and complacence, than the unfortunate opinion which I am about to defend.

But let us previously lament, with every lover of Shakespeare, that the Question was not fully discussed by Mr. Johnson himself: what he sees intuitively, others must arrive at by a series of proofs; and I have not time to teach with precision: be contented therefore with a few cursory observations, as they may happen to arise from the Chaos of Papers you have so often laughed at, "a stock sufficient to set up an Editor in form." I am convinced of the strength of my cause, and superior to any little advantage from sophistical arrangements.

General positions without proofs will probably have no great weight on either side, yet it may not seem fair to suppress them: take them therefore as their authors occur to me, and we will afterward proceed to particulars.

The testimony of Ben. stands foremost; and some have held it sufficient to decide the controversy in the warmest Panegyrick that ever was written, he apologizes

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