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Sir T. HAN MER's

PREFACE.

WHA

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 amusement of his leisure hours for many years paft to look over his writings with a careful eye, to note the obfcurities and abfurdities introduced into the text, and according to the best of his judgment to restore 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 first 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 refiect upon the late editors for the omiffions and defects which they left to be supplied 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 fubjoined, 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 observed, 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, instead of endeavouring to discover truly and retrieve what he did write: and fo great caution hath been used 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 justify.

Moft of thofe paffages are here thrown to the bottom of the page, and rejected as fpurious, 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 present edition hath ventured to discard 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 faid 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 please the vulgar audiences by which they fubfifted: and though fome of the poor witticisms and conceits must be supposed 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 unpolished as it then was; and the vicious taste 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 dif courfe grow commendable in none but parrots. He could hardly have found ftronger words to exprefs his indignation at thofe falfe pretences to wit then in vogue; and therefore though

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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 those terms which have hitherto been fo many ftumbling-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 customs now forgotten, or other causes of that kind, a note is put at the bottom of the page to clear up the difficulty.

With these several helps, if that rich vein of fense 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 doing 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 those 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 best writers of any age or country, who have thought it glory enough to diftinguish themselves 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, well 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 some attention and care, may be looked upon as another small monu◄ ment defigned and dedicated to his honour.

Dr. WAR

Dr. WARBURTON's

PREFACE.

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T hath been no unufual thing for writers, when diffatisfied with the patronage or judgment of their own times, to appeal to pofterity for a fair hearing. Some have even thought fit to apply to it in the first inftance; and to decline acquaintance with the publick, till envy and prejudice had quite fubfided. But, of all the trufters to futurity, commend me to the author of the following poems, who not only left it to time to do him juftice as it would, but to find him out as it could. For, what between too great attention to his profit as a player, and too little to his reputation as a poet, his works, left to the care of door-keepers and prompters, hardly efcaped the common fate of those writings, how good foever, which are abandoned to their own fortune, and unprotected by party or cabal. At length, indeed, they ruggled into light; but so disguised and travefted, that claflick author, after having run ten fecular ftages through the blind cloifters of monks and canons, ever came out in half fo maimed and mangled a condition. But for a full account of his diforders, I refer the reader to the excellent difcourfe which follows, and turn myself to confider the remedies that have been applied to them..

Shakespeare's works, when they escaped the players, did not fall into much better hands when they came amongst printers and bookfellers; who, to fay the truth, had at first but small encouragement for putting him into a better condition. The ftubborn nonfenfe, with which he was incrufted, occafioned his lying long neglected amongst the common lumber of the ftage. And when that refiftlefs fplendor, which now fhoots all around him, had, by degrees, broke through the fhell of thofe impurities, his dazzled admirers became as fuddenly infenfible to the extraneous fcurf that ftill ftuck upon him, as they had been before to the na

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tive beauties that lay under it. So that, as then he was thought not to deserve a cure, he was now fuppofed not to need any.

His growing eminence, however, required that he should be ufed with ceremony; and he foon had his appointment of an editor in form. But the bookfeller, whofe dealing was with wits, having learnt of them, I know not what filly maxim, that none but a post should prefume to meddle with a poet, engaged the ingenious Mr. Rowe to undertake this employment. A wit indeed he was; but fo utterly unacquainted with the whole bufinefs of criticifm, that he did not even collate or confult the first editions of the work he undertook to publifh; but contented himself with giving us a meagre account of the author's life, interlarded with some commonplace fcraps from his writings. The truth is, Shakespeare's condition was yet but ill understood. The nonfenfe, now, by confent, received for his own, was held in a kind of reverence for its age and author; and thus it continued, till another great poet broke the charm, by fhewing us, that the higher we went, the lefs of it was still to be found.

For the proprietors, not difcouraged by their firft unfuccefsful effort, in due time, made a fecond; and, though they ftill ftuck to their poets, with infinitely more fuccefs in their choice of Mr. Pope, who, by the mere force of an uncommon genius, without any particular study or profesfion of this art, difcharged the great parts of it fo well, as to make his edition the best foundation for all further improvements. He feparated the genuine from the fpurious plays; and, with equal judgment, though not always with the fame fuccefs, attempted to clear the genuine plays from the interpolated fcenes: he then confulted the old editions; and, by a careful collation of them, rectified the faulty, and fupplied the imperfect reading in a great number of places; and lastly, in an admirable preface, hath drawn a general, but very lively sketch of Shakespeare's poetick character: and, in the corrected text, marked out thofe peculiar ftrokes of genius which were moft proper to fupport and illuftrate that character. Thus far Mr. Pope. And although much more was to be done before Shakespeare could be restored to himfelf (fuch as amending the corrupted text where the printed books afford no affiftance; explaining his licentious phrafeology and obfcure allufions; and illuftrating the beauties of his poetry) yet, with great modefty and prudence, our illuftrious editor left this to the critick by profeffion.

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