THE PREFACE. HAT the reader may not be difappointed, by expecting an entertainment from the following sheets which he is not likely to find, it may be not improper to premise this advertisement, that the whole fcope, and only design of the author of them is, to contribute his endeavours towards a more correct and genuine edition of Shakespear's text than hath been yet published. It is a misfortune which will ever be lamented by all perfons, who have the leaft pretence to taste or fentiment, that the publication of the works of this amazing genius, fecond to none in any age or language, hath fallen to the lot of the moft illiterate and incapable editors; who feem to have given themselves no farther trouble or concern in the execution of their undertaking, than merely that of handing to the prefs fuch copies as the playhouse could most readily furnish them with, however defective or erroneous. And what adds to this misfortune is, that it is now become in great measure irreparable, fince even thefe playhouse copies are now loft, and the poft exact researches have not hitherto produced A 3 duced a discovery of more than fifteen plays printed while the author was yet living; and even these most probably not under his inspection. At least, though they fometimes differ confiderably from the pofthumous editions, they appear upon the whole to have little advantage over them in point of correctness; and though it must be confeffed that they frequently furnish a very valuable affiftance towards the retrieving the original text, yet in other refpects they feem to have been thrust into the world with full as great negligence and inadvertency. 1 But the firft Editors are not the only perfons of whom Shakespear and the publick have reason, and that perhaps the greatest reason, to complain. They have been fucceeded by a race of criticks, who have treated him ftill more injuriously. Under the fpecious pretence of re-establishing his genuine text, they have given it us mangled and corrupted, juft as their own particular turn of imagination prompted, or the fize and pitch of their own genius suggested to them; and by discarding the traditionary reading, and interpolating their own fanciful conjectures in its place, they have, to the utmost of their power, endeavoured to continue the corruption down to diftant pofterity. The gentlemen who have diftinguished themfelves in this difplay of their critical abilities are Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Mr. Warburton. To Mr. Theobald the publick is under under real and confiderable obligations. By a careful collation of fuch original editions as have efcaped the efforts of time and accidents, he has been enabled to restore many paffages upon indifputable authority, in which laudable undertaking Mr. Pope too hath a juft, though not an equal, fhare of merit; and though the critical talents of the former in the way of conjecture feem to have been but feeble, yet they have been fometimes not unfuccefsful. Sir Thomas Hanmer's performance is known to the author only from Mr. Warburton's representation of it, which though it is certainly by no means a favourable one, yet it furnished him with facts fufficient, in his judgment, to support the conclufion he had formed from them, that it was quite unneceffary for him to give himself the trouble of a particular and fcrupulous examination of it. Mr. Warburton's pretenfions are pompous and folemn, calculated to raise the highest expectations in the reader, which were never furely before fo miferably defeated by the execution. The author, in the course of his reading, hath found occafion to have recourse to critical writers in more than one language, but he hath never yet had the fortune to meet with one fo peculiarly unhappy. The licentioufnefs of his criticism overleaps all bounds or restraint, while the lightest glitter of a heated imagination is fufficient to mislead him into the most improbable conjectures, which are at the fame time conftantly enforced by the authoritative, and frequently A 4 quently almoft oracular, manner in which they are delivered. The author confeffes that he could not avoid feeling fome indignation rifing up in his mind at a ftile of criticism to which he had been fo little accustomed, but at the fame time could not help perceiving the strong and imposing influence fuch powers of imagination would inevitably have on the minds of the generality of readers. He imagined therefore, he should render a fervice neither unufeful nor unacceptable to the republick of letters, if he attempted to diffolve the charm by entering into a particular examination of this gentleman's criticisms. He accordingly undertook and compleated it in the space of a few months about fix years ago, intending it as a kind of fupplement to the Canons of Criticism, which are conftantly and regularly referred to throughout the course of this work, At the fame time, apprehending it might be of more general and extenfive ufe, if he availed himself of all other affiftances within his power towards the re-establishing the genuine text of his author, he carefully collated Mr. Pope's and Mr. Theobald's editions, to which he added Mr. Upton's Critical Remarks, Mr. Theobald's Shakespear reftored, Mr. Johnfon's Remarks on Macbeth, and a pamphlet or two befides. He was not fo fortunate as to be furnished with either of the folio editions, much lefs with any, of the ancient quarto's: a misfortune he acquiefced under with the lefs reluctance, as he faw reafon to perfuade himself, that all the |