Of the last editor it is more difficult to fpeak. Refpect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and veneration to genius and learning; but he cannot be justly offended at that liberty of which he has himself fo frequently given an example, nor very folicitous what is thought of notes, which he ought never to have confidered as part of his ferious employments, and which, I fuppofe, fince the ardor of compofition is remitted, he no longer numbers among his happy effufions.

The original and predominant error of his commentary, is acquiefcence in his first thoughts; that precipitation which is produced by confcioufnefs of quick difcernment; and that confidence which prefumes to do, by furveying the furface, what labour only can perform, by penetrating the bottom. His notes exhibit fometimes perverfe interpretations, and fometimes improbable conjectures; he, at one time gives the author more profundity of meaning than the fentence admits, and at another difcovers abfurdities, where the fenfe is plain to every other reader. But his emendations are likewife often happy and just; and his interpretation of obscure paffages learned and fagacious.

Of his notes, I have commonly rejected thofe, against which the general voice of the publick has exclaimed, or which their own incongruity immediately condemns, and which, I fuppofe the author himself would defire to be forgotten. Of the reft, to part I have given the highest approbation, by inferting

ferting the offered reading in the text; part I have left to the judgment of the reader, as doubtful, though fpecious; and part I have cenfured without referve, but I am fure without bitterness of malice, and, I hope, without wantonnefs of infult.

It is no pleasure to me, in revifing my volumes, to observe how much paper is wafted in confutation. Whoever confiders the revolutions of learning, and the various queftions of greater or lefs importance, upon which wit and reafon have exercised their powers, muft lament the unfuccessfulness of enquiry, and the flow advances of truth, when he reflects, that great part of the labour of every writer is only the deftruction of thofe that went before him. The first care of the builder of a new fyftem, is to demolish the fabricks which are standing. The chief defire of him that comments an author, is to fhew how much other commentators have corrupted and obfcured him. The opinions prevalent in one age, as truths above the reach of controverfy, are confuted and rejected in another, and rife again to reception in remoter times. Thus the human mind is kept in motion without progrefs. Thus fometimes truth and error, and sometimes contrarieties of error, take each other's place by reciprocal invafion. The tide of feeming knowledge which is poured over one generation, retires and leaves another naked and barren; the fudden meteors of intelligence, which for a while appear to shoot their beams into the regions of obfcurity, on a fudden withdraw their luftre, and leave mortals again to grope their way.

VOL. Li

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Thefe

Thefe elevations and depreffions of renown, and the contradictions to which all improvers of knowledge muft for ever be expofed, fince they are not efcaped by the higheft and brighteft of mankind, may furely be endured with patience by criticks and annotators, who can rank themfelves but as the fatellites of their authors. How canft thou beg for life, fays Homer's hero to his captive, when thou knowest that thou art now to fuffer only what must another day be fuffered by Achilles?

Dr. Warburton had a name fufficient to confer celebrity on those who could exalt themfelves into antagonists, and his notes have raised a clamour too loud to be diftinct. His chief affailants are the authors of The canons of criticifm, and of The revifal of Shakespeare's text; of whom one ridicules his errors with airy petulance, fuitable enough to the levity of the controverfy; the other attacks them with gloomy malignity, as if he were dragging to juflice an affaffin or incendiary. The one ftings like a fly, fucks a little blood, takes a gay flutter, and returns for more; the other bites like a viper, and would be glad to leave inflammations and gangrene behind him. When I think on one, with his confederates, I remember the danger of Coriolanus, who was afraid that girls with pits, and boys with ftones, fhould flay him in puny battle; when the other croffes my imagination, I remember the prodigy in Macbeth:

A falcon tow'ring in his pride of place,
Was by a moufing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.

Let

Let me however do them juftice. One is a wit, and one a feholar. They have both fhewn acutenefs fufficient in the difcovery of faults, and have both advanced fome probable interpretations of obfcure paffages; but when they afpire to conjecture and emendation, it appears how falfely we all eftimate our own abilities, and the little which they have been able to perform might have taught them more candour to the endeavours of others.

Before Dr. Warburton's edition, Critical obfervations on Shakespeare had been published by Mr. Uptont, a man skilled in languages, and acquainted with books, but who seems to have had no great vigour of genius or nicety of tafte. Many of his explanations are curious and ufeful, but he likewife, though he profeffed to oppofe the licentious confidence of editors, and adhere to the old copies, is unable to reftrain the rage of emendation, though his ardour is ill feconded by his fkill. Every cold empirick, when his heart is expanded by a fuccefsful experiment, fwells into a theorist, and the laborious collator at fome unlucky moment frolicks in conjecture.

Critical, hiftorical, and explanatory notes have been likewife published upon Shakespeare by Dr. Grey,

It is extraordinary that this gentleman fhould attempt fo voluminous a work, as the Revifal of Shakespeare's text, when he tells us in his preface," he was not fo fortunate as to be "furnished with either of the folio editions, much less any of "the ancient quartos: and even Sir Thomas Hanmer's per"formance was known to him only by Dr. Warburton's repre"fentation." FARMER.

+Republished by him in 1748, after Dr. Warburton's edition, with alterations, &c. STEEVENS.

whofe diligent perufal of the old English writers has enabled him to make fome useful obfervations. What he undertook he has well enough performed, but as he neither attempts judicial nor emendatory criticism, he employs rather his memory than his fagacity. It were to be wifhed that all would endeavour to imitate his modefty, who have not been able to furpafs his knowledge.

I can fay with great fincerity of all my predeceffors, what I hope will hereafter be faid of me, that not one has left Shakespeare without improvement, nor is there one to whom I have not been indebted for affiftance and information. Whatever I have taken from them, it was my intention to refer to its original author, and it is certain, that what I have not given to another, I believed when I wrote it to be my own. In fome perhaps I have been anticipated; but if I am ever found to encroach upon the remarks of any other commentator, I am willing that the honour, be it more or lefs, fhould be transferred to the first claimant, for his right, and his alone, stands above difpute; the fecond can prove his pretenfions only to himself, nor can himfelf always diftinguifh invention, with fufficient certainty, from recollection.

They have all been treated by me with candour, which they have not been careful of obferving to one another. It is not eafy to difcover from what cause the acrimony of a fcholiaft can naturally proceed. The fubjects to be difcuffed by him are of very small importance; they involve neither property nor liberty; nor favour the intereft of fect or party. The

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