The Explanations tranfcribed from others, if I do not fubjoin any other Interpretation, I suppose commonly to be right, at least I intend by Acquiefcence to confefs that I have nothing better to propose.

After the Labours of all the Editors, I found many Paffages which appeared to me likely to obftruct the greater Number of Readers, and thought it my Duty to facilitate their Paffage. It is impoffible for an Expofitor not to write too little for fome, and too much for others. He can only judge what is neceffary by his own Experience; and how long foever he may deliberate, will at laft explain many Lines which the Learned will think impoffible to be miftaken, and omit many for which the Ignorant will want his Help. Thefe are Cenfures merely relative, and must be quietly endured. I have endeavoured to be neither fuperfluously copious, nor fcrupuloufly referved, and hope that I have made my Authour's Meaning acceffible to many who before were frighted from perufing him, and contributed fomething to the Publick, by diffufing innocent and rational Pleasure.

The complete Explanation of an Authour not fyftematick and confequential, but defultory and vagrant, abounding in cafual Allufions and light Hints, is not to be expected from any fingle Scholiaft. All perfonal Reflections, when Names are fuppreffed, must be in a few Years irrecoverably obliterated; and Cuftoms, too minute to attract the Notice of Law, fuch as Modes of Drefs, Formalities of Converfation, Rules of Vifits, Difpofition of Furniture, and Practices of Ceremony, which naturally find. Places in familiar Dialogue, are fo fugitive and unfübftantial, that they are not easily retained or recovered. What can be known, will be collected by Chance, from the Receffes of obfcure and obfolete Papers, perufed commonly with fome other View

Of this Knowledge every Man has fome, and none has much; but when an Authour has engaged the publick Attention, those who can add any Thing to his Illuftration, communicate their Discoveries, and Time produces what had eluded Diligence.

To Time I have been obliged to refign many Paffages, which, though I did not understand them, will perhaps hereafter be explained; having, I hope, illuftrated fome, which others have neglected or miftaken, fometimes by fhort Remarks, or marginal Directions, fuch as every Editor has added at his Will, and often by Comments more laborious than the Matter will feem to deferve; but that which is moft difficult is not always moft important, and to an Editor nothing is a Trifle by which his Authour is obfcured.

The poetical Beauties or Defects I have not been very diligent to obferve. Some Plays have more, and fome fewer judicial Obfervations, not in Proportion to their Difference of Merit, but because I gave this Part of my Defign to Chance and to Caprice. The Reader, I believe, is feldom pleased to find his Opinion anticipated; it is natural to delight more in what we find or make, than in what we receive. Judgment, like other Faculties, is improved by Practice, and its Advancement is hindered by Submiffion to dictatorial Decifions, as the Memory grows torpid by the Ufe of a Table-book. Some Initiation is however neceffary; of all Skill Part is infused by Precept, and Part is obtained by Habit; I have therefore fhewn fo much as may enable the Candidate of Criticism to discover the reft.

To the End of moft Plays I have added fhort Strictures, containing a general Cenfure of Faults, or Praise of Excellence; in which I know not how much I have concurred with the current Opinion; but I have not, by any Affectation of Singularity, deviated from it. Nothing is minutely and particu

:

Jarly

larly examined, and therefore it is to be fuppofed, that in the Plays which are condemned there is much to be praised, and in thofe which are praised much to be condemned.

The Part of Criticism in which the whole Succeffion of Editors has laboured with the greatest Diligence, which has occafioned the most arrogant Oftentation, and excited the keenest Acrimony, is the Emendation of corrupted Paffages, to which the publick Attention having been firft drawn by the Violence of the Contention between Pope and Theobald, has been continued by the Perfecution, which, with a Kind of Confpiracy, has been fince raised against all the Publishers of Shakespeare.

That many Paffages have paffed in a State of Depravation through all the Editions, is indubitably certain; of these the Restoration is only to be attempted by Collation of Copies, or Sagacity of Conjecture. The Collator's Province is fafe and eafy, the Conjecturer's perilous and difficult. Yet, as the greater Part of the Plays are extant only in one Copy, the Peril must not be avoided, nor the Difficulty refused.

Of the Readings which this Emulation of Amendment has hitherto produced, fome from the Labours of every Publisher I have advanced into the Text; thofe are to be confidered as in my Opinion fufficiently fupported: Some I have rejected without Mention, as evidently erroneous; fome I have left in the Notes without Cenfure or Approbation, as refting in Equipoife between Objection and Defence; and fome, which feemed fpecious, but not right, I have inferted with a subsequent Animadverfion.

Having claffed the Obfervations of others, I was at laft to try what I could fubftitute for their Miftakes, and how I could fupply their Omiffions. I collated fuch Copies as I could procure, and wished

for

for more; but have not found the Collectors of these Rarities very communicative. Of the Editions which Chance or Kindness put into my Hands, I have given an Enumeration, that I may not be blamed for neg lecting what I had not the Power to do.

By examining the old Copies, I foon found that the late Publishers, with all their Boafts of Diligence, fuffered many Paffages to ftand unauthorised, and contented themselves with Rowe's Regulation of the Text, even where they knew it to be arbitrary, and with a little Confideration might have found it to be wrong. Some of thefe Alterations are only the Ejection of a Word for one that appeared to him more elegant, or more intelligible. Thefe Corruptions I have often filently rectified; for the Hiftory of our Language, and the true Force of our Words, can only be preferved by keeping the Text of Authours free from Adulteration. Others, and those very frequent, fmoothed the Cadence, or regulated the Meafure; on these I have not exercised the fame Rigour; if only a Word was transposed, or a Particle inferted or omitted, I have fometimes fuffered the Line to ftand; for the Inconftancy of the Copies is fuch, as that fome Liberties may be eafily permitted. But this Practice I have not fuffered to proceed far, having restored the primitive Diction wherever it could for any Reafon be preferred.

The Emendations, which Comparison of Copies fupplied, I have inferted in the Text; fometimes where the Improvement was flight, without Notice; and sometimes with an Account of the Reasons of the Change.

Conjecture, though it is fometimes unavoidable, I have not wantonly not licentiously indulged. It has been my fettled Principle, that the Reading of the ancient Books is probably true; and therefore is not to be disturbed for the Sake of Elegance, Perfpicuity, or mere Improvement of the Senfe. For,

though

though much Credit is not due to the Fidelity, nor any to the Judgment of the firft Publishers; yet they who had the Copy before their Eyes were more likely to read it right, than we who only read it by Imagination. But it is evident that they have often made ftrange Miftakes by Ignorance or Negligence; and that therefore fomething may be properly attempted by Criticifm, keeping the middle Way between Prefumption and Timidity.

Such Criticifm I have attempted to practife; and, where any Paffage appeared inextricably perplexed, have endeavoured to discover how it may be recalled to Sense with least Violence. But my first Labour is, always to turn the old Text on every Side, and try if there be any Interftice, though which Light can find its Way; nor would Huetius himself con. demn me, as refufing the Trouble of Refearch, for the Ambition of Alteration. In this modeft Induftry I have not been unfuccefsful. I have refcued many Lines from the Violation of Temerity, and fecured many Scenes from the Inroads of Correction. I have adopted the Roman Sentiment, that it is more honourable to fave a Citizen, than to kill an Enemy, and have been more careful to protect than to attack.

I have preferved the common Distribution of the Plays into Acts, though I believe it to be in almost all the Plays void of Authority. Some of thofe which are divided in the later Editions have no Divifion in the first Folio, and fome that are divided in the Folio have no Divifion in the preceding Copies. The fettled Mode of the Theatre requires four Intervals in the Play; but few, if any, of our Authour's Compofitions can be properly diftributed in that Manner. An Act is fo much of the Drama as paffes without Intervention of Time, or Change of Place. A Pause makes a new Act. In every real, and there fore in every imitative Action, the Intervals may be

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