Dr. WARBURTON's PREFACE. IT IT hath been no unufual thing for Writers, when. diffatisfied with the Patronage or Judgment of their own Times, to appeal to Pofterity for a fair Hearing. Some have even thought fit to apply to it in the first. Instance; and to decline Acquaintance with the Public till Envy and Prejudice had quite fubfided. But, of all the Trufters to Futurity, commend me to the Author of the following Poems, who not only left it to Time to do him Juftice as it would, but to find him out as it could. For, what between too great Attention to his Profit as a Player, and too little to his reputation as a Poet, his Works, left to the Care of Door-keepers and Prompters, hardly efcaped the common Fate of thofe Writings, how good foever, which are abandoned to their own Fortune, and unprotected by Party or Cabal. At length, indeed, they ftruggled into Light; but fo difguifed and travefted, that no claffic Author, after having run ten fecular Stages thro' the blind Cloifters of Monks and Canons, ever came out in half fo maimed and mangled a Condition. But for a full Account of his Disorders, I refer the Reader to the excellent Difcourfe which follows, and turn myself to confider the Remedies that have been applied to them. Shake *Meaning Pope's Preface, which follows Dr. Warburton's in the Doctor's Edition. Shakespeare's Works, when they escaped the Players, did not fall into much better Hands when they came amongst Printers and Bookfellers: who, to fay the Truth, had, at first, but small Encouragement for putting him into a better Condition. The ftubborn Nonfenfe, with which he was incrufted, occafioned his lying long neglected amongst the common Lumber of the Stage. And when that refiftlefs Splendor, which now shoots all around him, had, by degrees, broke thro' the Shell of those Impurities, his dazzled Admirers became as fuddenly infenfible to the extraneous Scurf that ftill ftuck upon him, as they had been before to the native Beauties that lay under it. So that, as then, he was thought not to deserve a Cure, he was now fuppofed not to need any. His growing Eminence, however, required that he fhould be used with Ceremony: And he foon had his Appointment, of an Editor in form. But the Bookfeller, whofe dealing was with Wits, having learnt of them, I know not what filly Maxim, that none but a Poet bould prefume to meddle with a Poet, engaged the ingenious Mr. Rowe to undertake this Employment. A Wit indeed he was; but fo utterly unacquainted with the whole Bufinefs of Criticism, that he did not even collate or confult the firft Editions of the Work he undertook to publish; but contented himself with giving us a meagre Account of the Author's Life, interlarded with fome common-place Scraps from his Writings. The Truth is, Shakespeare's Condition was yet but ill understood. The Nonfenfe, now, by confent, received for his own, was held in a kind of Reverence for its Age and Author: and thus it continued, till another great Poet broke the Charm; by fhewing us, that the higher we went, the lefs of it was ftill to be found. For the Proprietors, not difcouraged by their firft unfüccefsful Effort, in due Time, made a fecond; and, tho' they ftill ftuck to their Poets, with infinitely more Succefs in their Choice of Mr. POPE. Who by the mere force of an uncommon Genius, without any particular Study or Profeffion of this Art, discharged the great great Parts of it fo well as to make his Edition the beft Foundation for all further Improvements. He feparated the genuine from the fpurious Plays: And, with equal Judgment, tho' not always with the fame Succefs, attempted to clear the genuine Plays from the interpolated Scenes: He then confulted the old Editions; and, by a careful Collation of them, rectified the faulty, and fupplied the imperfect Reading, in a great Number of Places: And laftly, in an admirable Preface, hath drawn a general, but very lively, Sketch of Shakespeare's poetic Character; and, in the corrected Text, marked out thofe peculiar Strokes of Genius which were most proper to fupport and illustrate that Character. Thus far Mr. POPE. And altho' much more was to be done before Shakespeare could be restored to himself, (fuch as amending the corrupted Text where the printed Books afford no Affiftance; explaining his licentious Phrafeology and obfcure Allufions; and illuftrating the Beauties of his Poetry ;) yet, with great Modefty and Prudence, our illuftrious Éditor left this to the Critic by Profeffion. But nothing will give the common Reader a better Idea of the Value of Mr. Pope's Edition, than the two Attempts which have been fince made, by Mr. Theobald and Sir Thomas Hanmer, in Oppofition to it. Who, altho' they concerned themselves only in the first of these three Parts of Criticifm, the reftoring the Text, (without any Conception of the fecond, or venturing even to touch upon the third) yet fucceeded fo very ill in it, that they left their Author in ten times a worse Condition than they found him. But, as it was, my ill Fortune to have fome accidental Connexions with thefe two Gentlemen, it will be incumbent on me to be a little more particular concerning them. The one was recommended to me as a poor Man; the Other as a poor Critic and to each of them, at different Times, I communicated a great Number of Obfervations, which they managed, as they faw fit, to the Relief of their feveral Diftreffes. As to Mr. Theobald, who wanted Money, I allowed him to print what I gave him for his own Advantage: and he al lowed lowed himself in the Liberty of taking one Part for his own, and fequeftering another for the Benefit, as I fuppofed, of iome future Edition. But, as to the Oxford Editor, who wanted nothing, but what he might very well be without, the Reputation of a Crie tic, I could not fo eafily forgive him for trafficking with my Papers without my Knowledge; and, when that Project failed, for employing a number of my conjectures in his Edition, againit my exprefs Defire not to have that honour done unto me. Mr. Theobald was naturally turned to Industry and. Labour. What he read he could transcribe: but, as. what he thought, if ever he did think, he could but ill exprefs, fo he read on; and, by that means got a Character of Learning, without rifquing, to every Obferver, the Imputation of wanting a better Talent. By a punctilious Collation of the old Books, he corrected what was manifeftly wrong in the latter Editions, by what was manifeftly right in the earlier. And this is his real Merit, and the whole of it. For where the Phrafe was very obfolete or licentious in the common Books, or only flightly corrupted in the other, he wanted. fufficient Knowledge of the Progrefs and various Stages of the English Tongue, as well as Acquaintance with the Peculiarity of Shakespeare's Language to understand what was right; nor had he either common Judgment to fee, or critical Sagacity to amend, what was manifeftly faulty. Hence he generally exerts his conjectural Talent in the wrong Place: He tampers with what is found in the common Books; and, in the old ones, omits all Notice of Variations, the Sense of which he did not understand. How the Oxford Editor came to think himself qua lified for this Office, from which his whole Course of Life had been fo remote, is ftill more difficult to conceive. For whatever Parts he might have either of Genius or Erudition, he was abfolutely ignorant of the Art of Criticism, as well as of the Poetry of that Time, and the Language of his Author. And fo far from a Thought of examining the firft Editions, that he even neglected to compare Mr. Pope's, from which he: he printed his own, with Mr. Theobald's; whereby he loft the Advantage of many fine Lines which the other had recovered from the old Quartos. Where he trufts to his own Sagacity, in what affects the Senfe, his Conjectures are generally abfurd and extravagant, and violating every Rule of Criticifm. Tho', in this Rage of Correcting, he was not abfolutely deftitute of all Art.. For, having a Number of my Conjectures before him, he took as many of them as he faw fit, to work upon; and by changing them to fomething, he thought, fynonymous or fimilar, he made them his own; and fo became a Critic at a cheap Expence. But how well he hath fucceeded in this, as likewife in his Conjectures. which are properly his own, will be seen in the course of my Remarks: Tho' as he hath declined to give the Reafons for his Interpolations, he hath not afforded me fo fair a hold of him as Mr. Theobald hath done, who was lefs cautious. But his principal Object was to reform his Author's Numbers; and this, which he hath done, on every Occafion, by the Infertion or Omiffion of a Set of harmless unconcerning Expletives, makes the grofs Body of his innocent Corrections. And fo, in fpite of that extreme Negligence in Numbers, which distinguishes the firft Dramatic Writers, he hath tricked up the old Bard, from Head to Foot, in all the finical Exactness of a modern Meafurer of Syllables. up For the reft, all the Corrections which these two Editors have made on any reasonable Foundation, are here admitted into the Text; and carefully affigned to. their refpective Authors. A piece of Juftice which the Oxford Editor never did; and which the Other was not always fcrupulous in obferving towards me. To conclude with them in a Word, they feparately pof-. feffed those two Qualities, which, more than any other, have contributed to bring the Art of Criticifm into Difrepute, Dulness of: Apprehenfion, and Extravagance of Conjecture. I am now to give fome Account of the prefent Undertaking. For as to all thofe Things, which have been published under the titles of Ellays, Remarks, Ob Jervations, &c. on Shakespeare, (if you except fome critical |