THE

PREFACE

OF THE

PLAYERS.

To the great Variety of READERS.

ROM the most able, to him that can but fpell: there you are number'd, we had rather you were weighd. Efpecially, when the fate of all bookes depends upon your capacities: and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well! it is now publique, and you will stand for your priviledges, wee know: to read, and cenfure. Doe fo, but buy it first. That doth best commend a booke, the stationer faies. Then, how odde foever your braines be, or your wifedomes, make your licence the fame, and fpare not. Judge your fixe-pen'orth, your fhillings worth, your five fhillings worth at a time, or higher, so you rife to the just rates, and welcome. But, whatever you doe, buy. Cenfure will not drive a trade, or make the jacke goe. And though you be a magiftrate of wit, and fit on the stage at Black-friars, or the Cock-pit, to arraigne plays dailie, know, these playes have had their triall already, and stood out all appeales; and do now come forth quitted rather by a decree of court, than any purchas'd letters of commendation.

It had bene a thing, we confeffe, worthie to have been wished, that the author himselfe had liv'd to have set forth, and overseen his owne writings; but fince it hath been ordain'd otherwife, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you doe not envie his friends, the office of their care and paine, to have collected and publish'd them; and fo to have publish'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with divers ftolne and furreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious impoftors, that expos'd them: even thofe are now offer'd to your view cur'd,

and

and perfect of their limbes; and all the reft, absolute in their numbers as he conceived them. Who, as he was a happy imitator of nature, was a moft gentle expreffer of it. His mind and hand went together: and what he thought, he uttered with that eafineffe, that wee have scarce received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province, who onely gather his workes, and give them you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to your divers capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold you: for his wit can no more lie hid, then it could be loft. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe : and if then you doe not like him, furely you are in fome manifeft danger, not to understand him. And fo we leave you to other of his friends, who, if you need, can bee your guides: if you neede them not, you can leade yourselves, and others. And fuch readers we wish him.

JOHN HEMINGE,

HENRIE CONDELL.

MR. POPE's

Mr. PO PE's
POPE's

PREFACE.

IT

T is not my defign to enter into a criticifm upon this author; though to do it effectually, and not fuperficially, would be the beft occafion that any juft writer could take, to form the judgment and tafte of our nation. For of all English poets Shakespeare must be confeffed to be the fairest and fulleft subject for criticism, and to afford the most numerous, as well as moft confpicuous inftances, both of beauties and faults of all forts. But this far exceeds the bounds of a preface, the bufinefs of which is only to give an account of the fate of his works, and the disadvantages under which they have been tranfmitted to us.. We fhall hereby extenuate many faults which are his, and clear him from the imputation of many which are not: a defign, which, though it can be no guide to future criticks to do him justice in one way, will at least be fufficient to prevent their doing him an injuftice in the other.

I cannot however but mention fome of his principal and characteristick excellencies, for which (notwithstanding his defects) he is juftly and univerfally elevated above all other dramatick writers. Not that this is the proper place of praising him, but because I would not omit any occafion of doing it.

If ever any author deserved the name of an original, it was Shakespeare. Homer himfelf drew not his art fo immediately from the fountains of nature, it proceeded through Ægyptian ftrainers and channels, and came to him not without fome tincture of the learning, or fome caft of the models, of those before him. The poetry of Shakespeare was inspiration indeed: he is not fo much an imitator, as an instrument, of nature; and it is not fo juft to fay that he speaks from her, as that fhe fpeaks through him.

His characters are fo much nature itself, that it is a fort of injury to call them by fo distant a name as copies of her. Thofe of other poets have a conftant refemblance, which fhews that they received them from one another, and were but multipliers of the fame image: each picture, like a mock-rainbow, is but the reflexion of a reflexion. But every fingle character in Shakespeare is as much an individual, as thofe in life itself; it is as impoffible to find any two alike; and fuch as from their relation or affinity in any respect appear most to be twins, will, upon comparifon, be found remarkably distinct. To this life and variety of character, we muft add the wonderful prefervation of it; which is fuch throughout his plays, that had all the fpeeches been printed without the very names of the perfons, I believe one might have applied them with certainty to every speaker.

The power over our paffions was never poffeffed in a more eminent degree, or difplayed in fo different inftances. Yet all along, there is feen no labour, no pains to raise them; no preparation to guide our guefs to the effect, or be perceived to lead toward it: but the heart fwells, and the tears burst out, juft at the proper places: we are furprised the moment we weep; and yet upon reflexion find the paffion fo juft, that we fhould be surprised if we had not wept, and wept at that

very moment.

How aftonishing is it again, that the paffions directly oppofite to thefe, laughter and fpleen, are no lefs at his command! that he is not more a mafter of the great than of the ridiculous in human nature; of our noblest tenderneffes, than of our vaineft foibles; of our ftrongeft emotions, than of our idleft fenfations!

Nor does he only excel in the paffions: in the coolness of reflexion and reafoning he is full as admirable. His fentiments are not only in general the moft pertinent and judicious upon every fubject; but by a talent very peculiar, fomething between penetration and felicity, he hits upon that particular point on which the bent of each argument turns, or the force of each motive depends. This is perfectly amazing, from a man of no education or experience in thofe great and publick fcenes of life which are ufually the fubject of his thoughts: fo that he feems to have known the world by intuition, to have looked through human nature at one glance, and to be the only author that gives ground for a very new opinion, that the philofopher, and even the man of the world, may be born, as well as the poet.

It must be owned, that with all these great excellencies, he has almost as great defects; and that as he has certainly written better, fo he has perhaps written worse than any other. But I think I can in fome measure account for thefe defects, from feveral causes and accidents; without which it is hard to imagine that fo large and fo enlightened a mind could ever have been fufceptible of them. That all these contingencies fhould unite to his difadvantage feems to me almost as fingularly unlucky, as that fo many various (nay contrary) talents fhould meet in one man, was happy and extraordi

nary.

It must be allowed that ftage-poetry, of all other, is more particularly levelled to please the populace, and its fuccefs more immediately depending upon the common fuffrage. One cannot therefore wonder, if Shakespeare, having at his first appearance no other aim in his writings than to procure a fubfiftence, directed his endeavours folely to hit the taste and humour that then prevailed. The audience was generally compofed of the meaner fort of people; and therefore the images of life were to be drawn from thofe of their own rank accordingly we find, that not our author's only, but almost all the old comedies have their scene among tradefmen and mechanicks: and even their hiftorical plays ftrictly follow the common old ftories or vulgar traditions of that kind of people. In tragedy, nothing was fo fure to furprize and caufe admiration, as the most strange, unexpected, and confequently most unnatural, events and incidents; the most exaggerated thoughts; the most verbose and bombaft ex-.. preflion; the most pompous rhymes, and thundering verfification. In comedy, nothing was fo fure to pleafe, as mean buffoonry, vile ribaldry, and unmannerly jefts of fools and clowns. Yet even in these our author's wit buoys up, and is borne above his fubject: his genius in thofe low parts is like fome prince of a romance in the difguife of a fhepherd or peafant; a certain greatness and spirit now and then break out, which manifeft his higher extraction and qualities.

It may be added, that not only the common audience had no notion of the rules of writing, but few even of the better fort piqued themfelves upon any great degree of knowledge or nicety that way; till Ben Jonfon getting poffeffion of the ftage, brought critical learning into vogue: and that this was not done without difficulty, may appear from those frequent leffons (and indeed almost declamations) which he was forced to prefix to his firft plays, and put into the mouth

of