dies for a Reflexion on their Beauties. It is certain, I am indebted to Him for fome flagrant Civilities; and I fhall willingly devote a part of my Life to the honest Endeavour of quitting Scores: with this Exception however, that I will not return those Civilities in his peculiar Strain, but confine myself, at least, to the Limits of common Decency. I fhall ever think it better to want Wit, than to want Humanity and impartial Posterity may, perhaps, be of my Opinion.

But, to return to my Subject; which now calls upon me to inquire into those Caufes, to which the Depravations of my Author originally may be affign'd. We are to confider him as a Writer, of whom no authentic Manuscript was left extant; as a Writer, whofe Pieces were difperfedly perform'd on the feveral Stages then in Being. And it was the Cuftom of thofe Days for the Poets to take a Price of the Players for the Pieces They from time to time furnifh'd; and thereupon it was fuppos'd, they had no farther Right to print them without the Confent of the Players. As it was the Intereft of the Companies to keep their Plays unpublish'd, when any one fucceeded, there was a Contest betwixt the Curiofity of the Town, who demanded to fee it in Print, and the Policy of the Stagers, who wifh'd to secrete it within their own Walls. Hence, many Pieces were taken down in Short-hand, and imperfectly copied by Ear, from a Representation: Others were print

ed

ed from piece-meal Parts furreptitiously obtain'd from the Theatres, uncorrect, and without the Poet's Knowledge. To fome of these Causes we owe the Train of Blemishes, that deform those Pieces which ftole fingly into the World in our Author's Life-time.

There are ftill other Reasons, which may be fuppos'd to have affected the whole Set. When the Players took upon them to publish his Works intire, every Theatre was ranfack'd to fupply the Copy; and Parts collected, which had gone thro' as many Changes as Performers, either from Mutilations or Additions made to them. Hence we derive many Chafms and Incoherences in the Senfe and Matter. Scenes were frequently tranfpofed, and fhuffled out of their true Place, to humour the Caprice, or fuppos'd Convenience, of fome particular Actor. Hence much Confufion and Impropriety has attended, and embarras'd, the Bufinefs and Fable. To these obvious Caufes of Corruption it must be added, that our Author has lain under the Disadvantage of having his Errors propagated and multiplied by Time: because, for near a Century, his Works were republifh'd from the faulty Copies, without the Affiftance of any intelligent Editor: which has been the Cafe likewise of many a Claffic Writer.

The Nature of any Diftemper once found has generally been the immediate Step to a Cure. Shakefpeare's Cafe has in a great measure resembled That

of a corrupt Claffic; and, confequently, the Method of Cure was likewife to bear a Refemblance. By what Means, and with what Succefs, this Cure has been effected on ancient Writers, is too well known, and needs no formal Illuftration. The Reputation, confequent on Tasks of that nature, invited me to attempt the Method here; with this View, the Hopes of reftoring to the Publick their greatest Poet in his Original Purity: after having fo long lain in a Condition that was a Difgrace to common Senfe. To this end I have ventur'd on a Labour, that is the first Affay of the kind on any modern Author whatsoever. For the late Edition of Milton by the Learned Dr. Bentley is, in the main, a Performance of another Species. It is plain, it was the Intention of that Great Man rather to correct and pare off the Excrefcencies of the Paradife Loft, in the manner that Tucca and Varius were employ'd to criticize the Eneis of Virgil, than to restore corrupted Paffages. Hence, therefore, may be feen either the Iniquity or Ignorance of his Cenfurers, who, from fome Expreffions, would make us believe, the Doctor every where gives us his Corrections as the Original Text of the Author; whereas the chief Turn of his Criticifm is plainly to fhew the World, that if Milton did not write as He would have him, he ought to have wrote fo.

I thought proper to premife this Obfervation to the Readers, as it will fhew that the Critic on Shake

Speare

fpeare is of a quite different Kind. His genuine Text is for the most part religiously adher❜d to, and the numerous Faults and Blemishes, purely his own, are left as they were found. Nothing is alter'd, but what by the cleareft Reasoning can be proved a Corruption of the true Text; and the Alteration, a real Restoration of the genuine Reading. Nay, fo ftrictly have I ftrove to give the true Reading, tho' fometimes not to the Advantage of my Author, that I have been ridiculously ridicul'd for it by Thofe, who either were iniquitoufly for turning every thing to my Disadvantage; or else were totally ignorant of the true Duty of an Edi

tor.

The Science of Criticism, as far as it affects an Editor, feems to be reduced to these three Claffes; the Emendation of corrupt Paffages; the Explanation of obfcure and difficult ones; and an Inquiry into the Beauties and Defects of Compofition. This Work is principally confin'd to the two former Parts: tho' there are fome Specimens interspers'd of the latter Kind, as feveral of the Emendations were best supported, and several of the Difficulties beft explain'd, by taking notice of the Beauties and Defects of the Compofition peculiar to this Immortal Poet. But This was but occafional, and for the fake only of 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 fhail be pleas'd to fee it the Employment of a mafterly Pen.

It

It must neceffarily happen, as I have formerly obferv'd, that where the Affiftance of Manuscripts is wanting to set an Author's Meaning right, and rescue him from thofe Errors which have been tranfmitted down thro' a Series of incorrect Editions, and a long Intervention of Time, many Paffages must be defperate, and past a Cure; and their true Sense irretrievable either to Care or the Sagacity of Conjecture. But is there any Reason therefore to fay, That because All cannot be retriev'd, All ought to be left defperate? We fhould 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 Sense 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 Shakespeare, upon which fome Sufpicions of Depravity do not reasonable 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

fre