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It does not appear, that Shakespeare thought his works worthy of pofterity, that he levied any ideal tribute upon future times, or had any further profpect, than of prefent popularity and prefent profit. When his plays had been acted, his hope was at an end; he folicited no addition of honour from the reader. He therefore made no fcruple to repeat the fame jefts in many dialogues, or to entangle different plots by the fame knot of perplexity, which may be at leaft forgiven him, by thofe who recollect, that of Congreve's four comedies, two are concluded by a marriage in a mask, by a deception, which perhaps never happened, and which, whether likely or not, he did not invent.

So careless was this great poet of future fame, that, though he retired to eafe and plenty, while he was yet little declined into the vale of years, before he could be difgufted with fatigue, or difabled by infirmity, he made no collection of his works, nor defired to rescue thofe that had been already published from the depravations that obfcured them, or fecure to the rest a better destiny, by giving them to the world in their genuine state.

Of the plays which bear the name of Shakespeare in the late editions, the greater part were not published till about seven years after his death, and the few which appeared in his life are apparently thrust into the world without the care of the authour, and therefore probably without his knowledge.

Of

Of all the publishers, clandeftine or profeffed, their negligence and unfkilfulness has by the late revifers been fufficiently fhown. The faults of all are indeed numerous and grofs, and have not only corrupted many paffages perhaps beyond recovery, but have brought others into fufpicion, which are only obfcured by obfolete phrafeology, or by the writer's unfkilfulness and affectation. To alter is more eafy than to explain, and temerity is a more common quality than diligence. Thofe who faw that they must employ conjecture to a certain degree, were willing to indulge it a little further. Had the authour published his own works, we should have fat quietly down to disentangle his intricacies, and clear his obfcurities; but now we tear what we cannot loofe, and eject what we happen not to understand.

The faults are more than could have happened without the concurrence of many caufes. The ftile of Shakespeare was in itfelf ungrammatical, perplexed and obfcure; his works were tranfcribed for the players by those who may be fuppofed to have feldom understood them; they were tranfmitted by copiers equally unfkilful, who ftill multiplied errours; they were perhaps fometimes mutilated by the actors, for the fake of fhortening the fpeeches; and were at laft printed without correction of the prefs.

In this ftate they remained, not as Dr. Warburton fuppofes, because they were unregarded, but because the editor's art was not yet applied to modern languages, and our ancestors were accustomed to fo

much

much negligence of English printers, that they could very patiently endure it. At laft an edition was undertaken by Rowe, not becaufe a poet was to be publifhed by a poet, for Rowe feems to have thought very little on correction or explanation, but that our authour's works might appear like thofe of his fraternity, with the appendages of a life and recommendatory preface. Rowe has been clamorously blamed for not performing what he did not undertake, and it is time that juftice be done him, by confeffing, that though he seems to have had no thought of corruption beyond the printer's errours, yet he has made many emendations, if they were not made before, which his fucceffors have received without acknowledgment, and which, if they had produced them, would have filled pages and pages with cenfures of the ftupidity by which the faults were committed, with difplays of the abfurdities which they involved, with oftentatious expofitions of the new reading, and felf congratulations on the happiness of discovering it.

Of Rowe, as of all the editors, I have preserved the preface, and have likewife retained the authour's life, though not written with much elegance or fpirit; it relates however what is now to be known, and therefore deferves to pafs through all fucceeding publications.

The nation had been for many years content enough with Mr. Rowe's performance, when Mr. Pope made them acquainted with the true ftate of Shakespear's

text,

text, fhewed that it was extremely corrupt, and gave reafon to hope that there were means of reforming it. He collated the old copies, which none had thought to examine before, and reftored many line's to their integrity; but, by a very compendious criticifm, he rejected whatever he difliked, and thought more of amputation than of cure.

I know not why he is commended by Dr. Warburton for distinguishing the genuine from the fpurious plays. In this choice he exerted no judgement of his own; the plays which he received, were given by Ilemings and Condel, the firft editors; and those which he rejected, though, according to the licentioufnefs of the prefs in thofe times, they were printed during Shakespear's life, with his name, had been omitted by his friends, and were never added to his works before the edition of 1664, from which they were copied by the later printers.

This was a work which Pope feems to have thought unworthy of his abilities, being not able to fupprefs his contempt of the dull duty of an editor. He underftood but half his undertaking. The duty of a collator is indeed dull, yet, like other tedious tasks, is very neceffary; but an emendatory critick would ill difcharge his duty, without qualities very different from dulnefs. In perufing a corrupted piece, he must have before him all poffibilities of meaning, with all poffibilities of expreffion. Such must be his comprehenfion of thought, and fuch his copiouinefs of language. Out of many readings poffible, he must be able to

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felect

felect that which beft fuits with the ftate, opinions, and modes of language prevailing in every age, and with his authour's particular caft of thought, and turn of expreffion. Such muft be his knowledge, and fuch his tafte. Conjectural criticifm demands more than humanity poffeffes, and he that exercifes it with most praise has very frequent need of indulgence. Let us now be told no more of the dull duty of an editor.

Confidence is the common confequence of fuccefs. They whofe excellence of any kind has been loudly celebrated, are ready to conclude, that their powers are univerfal. Pope's edition fell below his own expectations, and he was fo much offended, when he was found to have left any thing for others to do, that he past the latter part of his life in a state of hoftility with verbal criticism.

I have retained all his notes, that no fragment of fo great a writer may be loft; his preface, valuable alike for elegance of compofition and juftnefs of remark, and containing a general criticism on his authour, fo extenfive that little can be added, and so exact, that little can be difputed, every editor has an intereft to fupprefs, but that every reader would demand its infertion.

Pope was fucceeded by Theobald, a man of narrow comprehenfion and fmall acquifitions, with no native and intrinfick fplendour of genius, with little of the artificial light of learning, but zealous for minute accuracy, and not negligent in purfuing it. He col

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