more or fewer, the Restriction of five Acts being accidental and arbitrary. This Shakespeare knew, and this he practifed: His Plays were written, and at first printed, in one broken Continuity, and ought now to be exhibited with fhort Paufes, interpofed as often as the Scene is changed, or any confiderable Time is required to pafs. This Method would at once quell a thousand Abfurdities,

In reftoring the Author's Works to their Integrity, I have confidered the Punctuation as wholly in my Power: For what could be their Care of Colons and Commas, who corrupted Words and Sentences; Whatever could be done by adjusting Points is therefore filently performed, in fome Plays with much Diligence, in others with lefs: It is hard to keep a bufy Eye ftedfaftly fixed upon evanefcent Atoms, or a difcurfive Mind upon evanefcent Truth.

The fame Liberty has been taken with a few Particles, or other Words of flight Effect. I have fome times inferted or omitted them without Notice. I have done that fometimes, which the other Editors have done always, and which indeed the State of the Text may fufficiently juftify.

The greater Part of Readers, inftead of blaming us for paffing Trifles, will wonder that on mere Trifles fo much Labour is expended, with fuch Importance of Debate, and fuch Solemnity of Diction. To thefe I anfwer with Confidence, that they are judging of an Art which they do not understand yet cannot much reproach them with their Ignorance, nor promife that they would become in general, by learning Criticifm, more ufeful, happier, or wifer.

As I practifed Conjecture more, I learned to truft it lefs; and after I had printed a few Plays, refolved to infert none of my own Readings in the Text. Upon this Caution I now congratulate myself, for every Day encreafes my Doubt of my Emendations.

Since I have confined my Imagination to the Margin, it must not be confidered as very reprehenfible, if I have fuffered it to play fome Freaks in its own Dominion. There is no Danger in Conjecture, if it be propofed as Conjecture; and while the Text remains uninjured, thofe Changes may be fafely offered, which are not confidered, even by him that offers them, as neceffary or fafe.

If my Readings are of little Value, they have not been oftentatiously displayed, or importunately obtruded. I could have written longer Notes, for the Art of writing Notes is not of difficult Attainment. The Work is performed firft, by railling at the Stupidity, Negligence, Ignorance, and afinine Tafteleffnefs of the former Editors, and fhewing, from all that goes before, and all that follows, the Inelegance and Abfurdity of the old Reading; then by propofing fomething, which, to fuperficial Readers, would feem fpecious, but which, the Editor rejects with Indignation; then by producing the true Reading, with a long Paraphrafe, and concluding with loud Acclamations on the Discovery, and a fober With for the Advancement and Profperity of genuine Criticifm.

All this may be done, and perhaps done fometimes without Impropriety. But I have always fufpected that the Reading is right, which requires many Words to prove it wrong; and the Emendation wrong, that cannot, without fo much Labour, appear to be right. The Juftnefs of a happy Re-. ftoration ftrikes at once, and the moral Precept may be well applied to Criticifm, quod dubitas ne feceris.

To dread the Shore which he fees fpread with Wrecks, is natural to the Sailor. I had before my Eye fo many critical Adventures ended in Mifcar riage, that Caution was forced upon me. I encountered in every Page Wit ftruggling with its own Sophiftry, and Learning coufufed by the Multiplicity of its Views. I was forced to cenfure those VOL. II. whom

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whom I admired, and could not but reflect, while I was difpoffeffing their Emendations, how foon the fame Fate might happen to my own, and how many of the Readings which I have corrected may be, by fome other Editor, defended and established.

Criticks, I faw, that other's Names efface, And fix their own, with Labour, in the Place ; Their own, like others, foon the Place refign'd, • Or difappear'd, and left the first behind.'

POPE.

That a conjectural Critick fhould often be miftaken cannot be wonderful, either to others or to himself, if it be confidered, that in his Art there is no Syftem, no principal and axiomatical Truth, that regulates fubordinate Pofitions. His Chance of Errour is renewed at every Attempt; an oblique View of the Paffage, a flight Mifapprehenfion of a Phrafe, a cafual Inattention to the Parts connected, is fufficient to make him not only fail, but fail ridiculously; and when he fucceeds beft, he produces perhaps but one Reading of many probable; and he that fuggefts another will always be able to dif pute his Claims.

It is an unhappy State in which Danger is hid under Pleasure. The Allurements of Emendation are fcarcely refiftible. Conjecture has all the Joy and all the Pride of Invention, and he that has once ftarted a happy Change is too much delighted to confider what Objections may rise against it.

Yet conjectural Criticism has been of great Ufe in the learned World; nor is it my Intention to depreciate a Study, that has exercised fo many mighty Minds, from the Revival of Learning to our own Age, from the Bishop of Aleria to English Bentley. The Criticks on ancient Authours have, in the Exercife of their Sagacity, many Affiftances which the Editor of Shakespeare is condemned to want. They

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are employed upon grammatical and fettled Languages, whofe Conftruction contributes fo much to Pefpicuity, that Homer has fewer Paffages unintelligible than Chaucer. The Words have not only a known Regimen, but invariable Quantities, which direct and confine the Choice. There are commonly more Manufcripts than one; and they do not often confpire in the fame Miftakes. Yet Scaliger could confefs to Salmafius how little Satisfaction his Emendations gave him. Illudunt nobis conjecturæ noftræ, quarum nos pudet, pofteaquam in meliores codices incidimus. And Lipfius could complain, that Criticks were making Faults, by trying to remove them: Ut olim vitiis, ita nunc remediis laboratur. And indeed, where mere Conjecture is to be used, the Emendations of Scaliger and Lipfius, notwithstanding their wonderful Sagacity and Erudition, are often vague and difputable, like mine or Theobald's.

Perhaps I may not be more cenfured for doing wrong, than for doing little; for raifing in the Puplick Expectations, which at laft I have not anfwered. The Expectation of Ignorance is indefinite, and that of Knowledge is often tyrannical. It is hard to fatisfy thofe who know not what to demand, or those who demand by Defign what they think impoffible to be done. I have indeed difappointed no Opinion more than my own; yet I have endeavoured to perform my Tafk with no flight Solicitude. Not a fingle Paffage in the whole Work has appeared to me corrupt, which I have not attempted to reftore; or obfcure, which I have not endeavoured to illuftrate. In many I have failed like others; and from many, after all my Efforts, I have retreated, and confeffed the Repulfe. I have not paffed, over, with affected Superiority, what is equally difficult to the Reader and to myself, but where I could not inftruct him, have owned my Ignorance. I might eafily have accumulated a Mafs

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of feeming Learning upon eafy Scenes; but it ought not to be imputed to Negligence, that, where nothing was neceffary, nothing has been done; or that, where others have faid enough, I have faid no more.

Notes are often neceffary, but they are neceffary Evils. Let him that is yet unacquainted with the Powers of Shakespeare, and who defires to feel the highest Pleasure that the Drama can give, read every Play, from the firft Scene to the laft, with utter Negligence of all his Commentators. When his Fancy is once on the Wing, let it not ftoop at Correction or Explanation. When his Attention is ftrongly engaged, let it difdain alike to turn afide to the Name of Theobald and Pope. Let him read on through Brightness and Obfcurity, through Integrity and Corruption; let him preferve his Comprehenfion of the Dialogue, and his Intereft in the Fable; and when the Pleasures of Novelty have ceased, let him attempt Exactnefs, and read the Commentators.

Particular Paffages are cleared by Notes, but the general Effect of the Work is weakened. The Mind is refrigerated by Interruption; the Thoughts are diverted from the principal Subject, the Reader is weary, he fufpects not why, and at laft throws away the Book, which he has too diligently studied.

Parts are not to be examined till the Whole has been furveyed; there is a Kind of intellectual Remotenefs neceffary for the Comprehenfion of any great Work, in its full Defign and its true Proportions; a clofe Approach fhews the fmaller Niceties, but the Beauty of the Whole is difcerned no longer.

It is not very grateful to confider how little the Succeffion of Editors has added to this Authour's Power of pleafing. He was read, admired, ftudied, and imitated, while he was yet deformed with all the Improprieties which Ignorance and Neglect could

accumulate