perfecting the two other Parts, which were the proper Objects of the Editor's Labour. The third lies open for every willing Undertaker: and I fhall be pleas'd to fee it the Employment of a masterly Pen.

It must neceffarily happen, as I have formerly obferv'd, that where the Affiftance of Manufcripts is wanting to fet an Author's Meaning right, and rescue him from thofe Errors which have been transmitted down thro' a Series of incorrect Editions, and a long Intervention of Time, many Paffages must be desperate, and past a Cure; and their true Senfe irretrievable either to Care or the Sagacity of Conjecture. But is there any Reason therefore to say, That because All cannot be retriev'd, All ought to be left defperate? We should fhew very little Honesty, or Wisdom, to play the Tyrants with an Author's Text; to raze, alter, innovate, and overturn, at all Adventures, and to the utter Detriment of his Senfe and Meaning: But to be fo very referved and cautious, as to interpofe no Relief or Conjecture, where it manifeftly labours and cries out for Affiftance, feems, on the other hand, an indolent Abfurdity.

As there are very few pages in Shakefear, upon which fome Sufpicions of Depravity do not reasonably arife; I have thought it my Duty, in the first place, by a diligent and laborious Collation to take in the Affiftances of all the older Copies.

In his Hiftorical Plays, whenever our English Chronicles, and in his Tragedies when Greek or Roman Story, could give any Light; no Pains have been omitted to fet Paffages right by comparing my Author with his Originals: for, as I have frequently obferved, he was a clofe and accurate Copier where-ever his Fable was founded on History.

Where-ever the Author's Senfe is clear and difcoverable, (tho', perchance, low and trivial;) I have not by any Innovation tamper'd with his Text;

out of an

Often

Oftentation of endeavouring to make him speak better than the old Copies have done.

Where, thro' all the former Editions, a Paffage has labour'd under flat Nonfenfe and invincible Darkness, if, by the Addition or Alteration of a Letter or two, or a Tranfpofition in the Pointing, I have restored to Him both Sente and Sentiment; fuch Corrections, I am perfuaded, will need no Indulgence.

And whenever I have taken a greater Latitude and Liberty in amending, I have conftantly endeavour'd to fupport my Corrections and Conjectures by parallel Paffages and Authorities from himfelf, the fureft Means of expounding any Author whatfoever. Cette voïe d'interpreter un Autheur par luimême est plus fure que tous les Commentaires, fays a very learned French Critick.

As to my Notes, (from which the common and learned Readers of our Author, I hope, will derive fome Satisfaction;) I have endeavour'd to give them a Variety in fome Proportion to their Number. Where-ever I have ventur'd at an Emendation, a Note is conftantly fubjoin'd to justify and affert the Reason of it. Where I only offer a Conjecture, and do not disturb the Text, I fairly fet forth my Grounds for fuch Conjecture, and fubmit it to Judgment. Some Remarks are fpent in explaining Paffages, where the Wit or Satire depends on an obfcure Point of History: Others, where Allufions are to Divinity, Philofophy, or other Branches of Science. Some are added to fhew, where there is a Sufpicion of our Author having borrow'd from the Ancients: Others, to fhew where he is rallying his Contemporaries; or where He himself is rallied by them. And fome are necef farily thrown in, to explain an obfcure and oblohete Term, Phrafe, or Idea. I once intertled to have added a complete and copious Glossary; but as I have been importun'd, and am prepar'd, to give a correct Edition of our Author's POEMS, (in which many Terms occur that are not to be met with in his Plays,)

I thought a Gloffary to all Shakespear's Works more proper to attend that Volume.

In reforming an infinite Number of Paffages in the Pointing, where the Senfe was before quite loft, I have frequently fubjoin'd Notes to fhew the deprav'd, and to prove the reform'd, Pointing: a Part of Labour in this Work which I could very willingly have fpar'd myfelf. May it not be objected, why then have you burden'd us with thefe Notes? The Answer is obvious, and, if I mistake not, very material. Without fuch Notes, thefe Paffages in fubfequent Editions would be liable, thro' the Ignorance of Printers and Correctors, to fall into the old Confufion: Whereas, a Note on every one hinders all poffible Return to Depravity; and for ever fecures them in a State of Purity and Integrity not to be loft or forfeited.

Again, as fome Notes have been necessary to point out the Detection of the corrupted Text, and establish the Restoration of the genuine Readings; fome others have been as neceffary for the Explanation of Paffages · obfcure and difficult. To understand the Neceffity and Ufe of this Part of my Task, fome Particulars of my Author's Character are previoufly to be explain'd. There are Obfcurities in him, which are common to him with all Poets of the fame Species; there are Others, the Iffue of the Times he liv'd in; and there are others, again, peculiar to himfelf. The Nature of Comic Poetry being entirely fatirical, it bufies itfelf more in expofing what we call Caprice and Humour, than Vices cognizable to the Laws. The English, from the Happiness of a free Conftitution, and a Turn of Mind peculiarly fpeculative and inquifitive, are obferv'd to produce more Humourifts and a greater Variety of original Characters, than any other People whatsoever: And Thefe owing their immediate Birth to the peculiar Genius of each Age, an infinite Number of Things alluded to, glanced at, and expos'd, muft needs become obfcure, as the Characters them

felves are antiquated, and disused. An Editor therefore fhould be well vers'd in the Hiftory and Manners of his Author's Age, if he aims at doing him a Service in this Refpect.

Befides, Wit lying moftly in the Affemblage of Ideas, and in the putting Thofe together with Quicknefs and Variety, wherein can be found any Refemblance, or Congruity, to make up pleasant Pictures, and agreeable Vifions in the Fancy; the Writer, who aims at Wit, muft of courfe range far and wide for Materials. Now, the Age, in which Shakespear liv'd, having, above all others, a wonderful Affection to appear Learned, They declined vulgar Images, fuch as are immediately fetch'd from Nature, and rang'd thro' the Circle of the Sciences to fetch their Ideas from thence. But as the Refemblances of fuch Ideas to the Subject must neceffarily lie very much out of the common Way, and every Piece of Wit appear a Riddle to the Vulgar; This, that fhould have taught them the forced, quaint, unnatural Tract they were in, (and induce them to follow a more natural One,) was the very Thing that kept them attach'd to it. The oftentatious Affectation of abftrufe Learning, peculiar to that Time, the Love that Men naturally have to every Thing that looks like Mystery, fixed them down to this Habit of Obfcurity. Thus became the Poetry of DONNE (tho' the wittiest Man of that Age,) nothing but a continued Heap of Riddles. And our ShakeSpear, with all his ealy Nature about him, for want of the Knowledge of the true Rules of Art, falls frequently into this vicious Manner.

The third Species of Obfcurities, which deform our Author, as the Effects of his own Genius and Character, are Thofe that proceed from his peculiar Manner of Thinking, and as peculiar a Manner of cloathing thofe Thoughts. With regard to his Thinking, it is certain, that he had a general Knowledge of all the Sciences: But his Acquaintance was rather That of a Traveller,

g 3.

Traveller, than a Native. Nothing in Phifofophy was unknown to him; but every Thing in it had the Grace and Force of Novelty. And as Novelty is one main Source of Admiration, we are not to wonder that He has perpetual Allufions to the most recondite Parts of the Sciences: and This was done not fo much out of Affectation, as the Effect of Admiration begot by Novelty. Then, as to his Style and Diction, we may much more justly apply to SHAKESPEAR, what a celebrated Writer has faid of MILTON; Our Language funk under him, and was unequal to that Greatness of Soul which furnish'd him with fuch glorious Conceptions. He therefore frequently ufes old Words, to give his Diction an Air of Solemnity; as he coins others, to exprefs the Novelty and Variety of his Ideas.

Upon every diftinct Species of thefe Obfcurities I have thought it my Province to employ a Note, for the Service of my Author, and the Entertainment of my Readers. A few tranfient Remarks too I have not fcrupled to intermix, upon the Poet's Negligences and Omiffions in point of Art; but I have done it always in fuch a Manner, as will testify my Deference and Veneration for the immortal Author. Some Cenfurers of Shakespear, and particularly Mr. Rymer, have taught me to diftinguish betwixt the Railer and Critick. The Outrage of his Quotations is fo remarkably violent, fo pufh'd beyond all bounds of Decency and fober Reafoning, that it quite carries over the Mark at which it was levell'd. Extravagant Abufe throws off the Edge of the intended Difparagement, and turns the Madman's Weapon into his own Bofom. In short, as to Rymer, This is my Opinion of him from his Criticisms on the Tragedies of the Laft Age. He writes with great Vivacity, and appears to have been a Scholar: but, as for his Knowledge of the Art of Poetry, I can't perceive it was any deeper than his Acquaintance with Bou and Dacier, from whom he has tranfcrib'd many of the best Reflexions, The

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