Chronicles, and in his Tragedies when Greek or Roman ftory, could give any light; no pains have been omitted to fet paffages right by comparing my Author with his originals: for, as I have fre-. quently obferved, he was a clofe and accurate copier wherever his Fable was founded on Hiftory.

Wherever the Author's fenfe is clear and difcoverable, (tho' perchance, low and trivial;) I have pot by any innovation tampered with his text; out of an oftentation of endeavouring to make him fpeak better than the old copies have done. Where, thro' all the former editions, a passage has laboured under fat nonfenfe and invincible darknefs, if, by the addition or alteration of a letter or two, I have restored to him both fenfe and fentiment, fuch corrections, I am perfuaded, will need no indulgence.

And whenever I have taken a greater latitude' and liberty in amending, I have conftantly endeavoured to fupport my corrections and conjectures by parallel paffages and authorities from himself, the fureft means of expounding any author whatfoever. Cette voie d'interpreter un autheur par luimême eft plus fure que tous les commentairies, fays a learned French critic.

very

As to my Notes, (from which the common and learned readers of our Author, I hope, will derive fome pleafure;) I have endeavoured to give them a variety in fome proportion to their number. Where-ever I have ventured at an emendation, a Note is constantly subjoined to justify and

affert

affert the reason of it. Where I only offer a conjecture, and do not difturb the text, I fairly fet forth my grounds for such conjecture, and submit it to judgment. Some remarks are spent in explaining paffages, where the wit or fatire depends on an obfcure point of hiftory: Others, where fallufions are to divinity, philofophy, or other branches of fcience. Some are added to fhew, where there is a fufpicion of our Author having borrowed from the antients: Others, to fhew where he is rallying his contemporaries; or where he himself is rallied by them. And fome are neceffarily thrown in, to explain an obscure and obfolete Term, Phrafe, or Idea.

In reforming an infinite number of paffages in the Pointing, where the fense was before quite loft, I have frequently fubjoined notes to fhew the depraved, and to prove the reformed, pointing: a part of labour in this work which I could very willingly have fpared myself. May it not be objected, why then have you burdened us with these notes? The answer is obvious, and, if I mistake not, very material. Without fuch notes, these paffages in fubfequent editions would be liable, through the ignorance of printers and correctors, to fall into the old confufion: whereas, a note on every one hinders all poffible return to depravity; and for ever fecures them in a ftate of purity and integrity not to be loft or forfeited.

Again, as fome notes have been neceffary to point out the detection of the corrupted text, b 2

and

and establish the restoration of the genuine readings; fome others have been as necessary for the explanation of paffages obfcure and difficult. To underftand the neceffity and use of this part of my task, fome particulars of my Author's character are previously to be explained. There are Obscurities in him, which are common to him with all Poets of the fame fpecies; there are others, the iffue of the times he lived in; and there are others, again, peculiar to himself. The nature of comic poetry being entirely fatyrical, it bufies itself more in exposing what we call caprice and humour, than vices cognizable to the laws. The English, from the happiness of a free conftitution, and a turn of mind peculiarly fpeculative and inquifitive, are obferved to produce more Humourists and a greater variety of original Characters than any other people whatfoever: and thefe owing their immediate birth to the peculiar genius of each age, an infinite number of things alluded to, glanced at, and expofed, muft needs become obfcure, as the characters themselves are antiquated, and difufed. An Editor therefore should be well versed in the history and manners of his Author's age, if he aims at doing him a fervice in

this refpect.

Befides, Wit lying mostly in the affemblage of Ideas, and in the putting thofe together with quickness and variety, wherein can be found any resemblance, or congruity, to make up pleasant pictures, and agreeable vifions in the fancy; the

writer,

writer, who aims at wit, muft of course range får and wide for materials. Now, the age, in which Shakespeare lived, having above all others, a wonderful affection to appear learned, they declined vulgar images, fuch as are immediately fetched from nature, and ranged through the circle of the fciences to fetch their ideas from thence. But as the resemblances of such ideas to the subject must neceffarily lie very much out of the common way, and every piece of wit appear a riddle to the vulgar; This, that should have taught them the forced, quaint, unnatural tract they were in, (and induce them to follow a more natural one,) was the very thing that kept them attached to it. The oftentatious affectation of abftrufe learning, peculiar to that time, the love that men naturally have to every thing that looks like mystery, fixed them down to this habit of obscurity. Thus became the poetry of DONNE (though the wittiest man of that age,) nothing but a continued heap of riddles. And our Shakespeare, with all his eafy nature about him, for want of the knowledge of the true rules of art, falls frequently into this vicious manner.

The third fpecies of Obfcurities, which deforin our Author, as the effects of his own genius and character, are those that proceed from his peculiar manner of thinking, and as peculiar a manner of cloathing those thoughts. With regard to his thinking, it is certain, that he had a general knowledge of all the fciences; but his acquain

⚫tance was rather that of a traveller, than a native. Nothing in philosophy was unknown to him; but every thing in it had the grace and force of novelty. And as novelty is one main source of admiration, we are not to wonder that he has perpetual allufions to the most recondite parts of the fciences and this was done not so much out of affectation, as the effect of admiration begot by novelty. Then, as to his style and diction, we may much more juftly apply to SHAKESPEARE, what a celebrated writer has faid of MILTON; • Our language funk under him, and was unequal

to that greatness of foul which furnished him ' with such glorious conceptions.' He therefore frequently ufes old words, to give his diction an air of folemnity; as he coins others, to express the novelty and variety of his ideas..

Upon every diftinct fpecies of these Obfcurities I have thought it my province to employ a note, for the fervice of my Author, and the entertainment of my readers. A few tranfient remarks too I have not fcrupled to intermix, upon the Poet's negligences and omiffions in point of art; but I have done it always in fuch a manner, as will teftify my deference and veneration for the immortal Author.

I had not mentioned the modest liberty I have ́here and there taken of animadverting on my Author, but that I was willing to obviate in time the fplenetic exaggerations of my adverfaries on this head. From past experiments I have reafon to be conscious, in what light this attempt may be