صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

advantageously be taken from the words of Mr. Pope, than from any recommendation of my own.

66

[ocr errors]

"The follo edition fays he, in which all the plays we now receive as his were frit collected, was published by "two player, Heminges and Condell, in 1623, seven years after his deceafe. They declare that all the other "editions were ftolen and furreptitious, and affirm theirs ❝to be purged from the errors of the former. This is true "as to the literal errors, and no other; for in all respects "It is far worse than the quartos.

66

[ocr errors]

"Firit, because the additions of trifling and bombaft potages are in this edition for more numerous. For what"ever had been added fince thofe quartos by the actors, or "had ftolen from their mouths into the written parts, were "from thence conveyed into the printed text, and all ftand "charged upon the author. He himicif complained of "this ufage in Hamlet, where he withes thoje who play the "lewens would speak no more than is fet drun for them (Aết iii.“ "Sc. iv.) But as a proof that he could not escape it, in "the old editions of Romeo and Juliet, there is no hint of "the mean conceits and ribaldries now to be found there. "In others the fcenes of the mobs, plebeians, and clowns, "are vaftly fhorter than at prefent; and I have feen one in "particular (which feems to have belonged to the play"houfe, by having the parts divided by lines, and the actors names in the margin) where feveral of thofe very pas"fages were added in a written hand, which fince are to be "found in the folio.

[ocr errors]

"In the next place, a number of beautiful paffages were "omitted, which were extant in the firft fingle editions; as "it feems without any other reafon than their willingness "to fhorten some scenes."

To this I muft add, that I cannot help looking on the folio as having fuffered other injuries from the licentious alteration of the players; as we frequently find in it an unusual word changed into one more popular; fometimes to the weakening of the fenfe, which rather feems to have been their work, who knew that plainnefs was neceffary for the

It may be proper on this occafion to obferve, that the actors printed feveral of the plays in their folio edition from the very quarto copies which they are here ftriving to depreciate; and ad ditional depravation is the utmost that these copies gained by passing through their hands,

audience

audience of an illiterate age, than that it was done by the confent of the author: for he would hardly have unnerved a line in his written copy, which they pretend to have tranfcribed, however he might have permitted many to have been familiarized in the reprefentation. Were to indulge my own private conjecture, I fhould fuppofe that his blotted manufcripts were read over by one to another among those who were appointed to transcribe them; and hence it would eafily happen, that words of fimilar found, though of senses directly oppofite, might be confounded with each other. They themselves declare that Shakefpeare's time of blotting was paft, and yet half the errors we find in their edition could not be merely typographical. Many of the quartos (as our own printers affure me) were far from being unfkilfully executed, and fome of them were much more correctly printed than the folio, which was published at the charge of the fame proprietors, whofe names we find prefixed to the older copies; and I cannot join with Mr. Pope in acquitting that edition of more literal errors than those which went before it. The particles in it feem to be as fortuitoufly difpofed, and proper names as frequently undiftinguished by Italick or capital letters from the reft of the text. The punctuation is equally accidental; nor do I fee on the whole any greater marks of a fkilful revifal, or the advantage of being printed from unblotted originals in the one, than in the other. One reformation indeed there feems to have been made, and that very laudable; I mean the fubftitution of more general terms for a name too often unneceffarily invoked on the ftage; but no jot of obfcenity is omitted: and their caution against prophanenefs is, in my opinion, the only thing for which we are indebted to the judgment of the editors of the folio.

How much may be done by the affiftance of the old copies will now be eafily known; but a more difficult task remains behind, which calls for other abilities than are requifite in the laborious collator.

From a diligent perufal of the comedies of contemporary authors, I am perfuaded that the meaning of many expreffions in Shakespeare might be retrieved; for the language of converfation can only be expected to be preserved in works, which in their time affumed the merit of being pictures of men and manners. The ftile of converfation we may fuppofe to be as much altered as that of books; and in confequence of the change, we have no other authorities to recur [L4]

to

to in either cafe. Should our language ever be recalled to a ftrict examination, and the fashion become general of striving to maintain our old acquifitions, inftcad of gaining new ones, which we shall be at last obliged to give up, or be incumbered with their weight; it will then be lamented that no regular collection was ever formed of the old English books; from which, as from ancient repofitories, we might recover words and phrases as often as caprice or wantonness fhould call for variety; instead of thinking it neceflary to adopt new ones, or barter solid strength for feeble splendour, which no language has long admitted, and retained its purity.

We wonder that, before the time of Shakespeare, we find the ftage in a ftate fo barren of productions, but forget that we have hardly any acquaintance with the authors of that period, though fome few of their dramatick pieces may remain. The fame might be almost said of the interval between that age and the age of Dryden, the performances of which, not being preferved in fets, or diffused as now, by the greater number printed, muft lapfe apace into the fame obfcurity.

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi-

And yet we are contented, from a few fpecimens only, to form our opinions of the genius of ages gone before us. Even while we are blaming the taste of that audience which received with applaufe the worst plays in the reign of Charles the Second, we fhould confider that the few in poffeflion of our theatre, which would never have been heard a second time had they been written now, were probably the best of hundreds which had been difmiffed with general cenfure. The collection of plays, interludes, &c. made by Mr. Garrick, with an intent to depofit them hereafter in fome publick library, will be confidered as a valuable acquifition; for pamphlets have never yet been examined with a proper regard to pofterity. Most of the obfolete pieces will be found on enquiry to have been introduced into libraries but fome few years fince; and yet thofe of the present age, which may one time or other prove as ufeful, are ftill entirely neglected. I fhould be remifs, I am fure, were I to forget my acknowledgments to the gentleman I have juft mentioned, to whofe benevolence I owe the ufe of feveral of the fcarceft quartos,

which I could not otherwise have obtained; though I adver tifed for them, with fufficient offers, as I thought, either to tempt the casual owner to fell, or the curious to communicate them; but Mr. Garrick's zeal would not permit him to with-hold any thing that might ever fo remotely tend to thew the perfections of that author who could only have enabled him to display his own.

It is not merely to obtain juftice to Shakespeare, that I have made this collection, and advise others to be made. The general intereft of English literature, and the attention due to our own language and hiftory, require that our ancient writings fhould be diligently reviewed. There is no age which has not produced fome works that deferved to be remembered; and as words and phrafes are only understood by comparing them in different places, the lower writers must be read for the explanation of the higheft. No language can be afcertained and fettled, but by deducing its words from their original fources, and tracing them throught their fucceffive varieties of fignification; and this deduction can only be performed by confulting the earliest and intermediate authors.

Enough has been already done to encourage us to do more. Dr. Hickes, by reviving the ftudy of the Saxon language, feems to have excited a stronger curiofity after old English writers, than ever had appeared before. Many volumes which were mouldering in duft have been collected; many authors which were forgotten have been revived; many laborious catalogues have been formed; and many judicious gloffaries compiled: the literary tranfactions of the darker ages are now open to discovery; and the language in its intermediate gradations, from the Conqueft to the Reftoration, is better understood than in any former time.

To incite the continuance, and encourage the extenfion of this domeftick curiofity, is one of the purposes of the prefent publication. In the plays it contains, the poet's first thoughts as well as words are preferved; the additions made. in fubfequent impreffions diftinguished in Italicks, and the performances themfelves make their appearance with every typographical error, fuch as they were before they fell into the hands of the player-editors. The various readings, which can only be attributed to chance, are fet down among the reft, as I did not choofe arbitrarily to determine for others. which were ufelefs, or which were valuable. And many

words

words differing only by the spelling, or ferving merely to fhew the difficulties which they to whofe lot it first fell to difentangle their perplexities must have encountered, are exhibited with the reft. I must acknowledge that fome few readings have flipped in by mistake, which can pretend to ferve no purpose of illustration, but were introduced by confining myself to note the minutest variations of the copies, which foon convinced me that the oldeft were in general the moft correct. Though no proof can be given that the poet fuperintended the publication of any one of these himself, yet we have little reason to fuppofe that he who wrote at the command of Elizabeth, and under the patronage of Southampton, was so very negligent of his fame, as to permit the most incompetent judges, fuch as the players were, to vary at their pleasure what he had fet down for the firft fingle editions; and we have better grounds for a fufpicion that his works did materially fuffer from their prefumptuous corrections after his death.

It is very well known, that before the time of Shakespeare, the art of making title-pages was practifed with as much, or perhaps more fuccefs than it has been fince. Accordingly, to all his plays we find long and defcriptive ones, which, when they were first published, were of great service to the venders of them. Pamphlets of every kind were hawked about the streets by a fet of people refembling his own Autolycus, who proclaimed aloud the qualities of what they offered to fale, and might draw in many a purchaser by the mirth he was taught to expect from the humours of Corporal Nym, or the fwaggering vaine of Auncient Pistoll, who was not to be tempted by the reprefentation of a fact merely historical., The players, however, laid aside the whole of this garniture, not finding it fo neceffary to procure fuccefs to a bulky volume, when the author's reputation was established, as it had been to bespeak attention to a few straggling pamphlets while it was yet uncertain.

The fixteen plays, which are not in thefe volumes, remained unpublished till the folio in the year 1623, though the compiler of a work, called Theatrical Records, mentions different fingle editions of them all before that time. But as no one of the editors could ever meet with fuch, nor has any one else pretended to have seen them, I think myfelf at liberty to fuppofe the compiler supplied the defects of the lift out of his own imagination; fince he must have had

fingular

« السابقةمتابعة »