he hoped to find his way through the wilderness of these editions into that fair country the poet's real habitation. He had not proceeded far in his collation, before he saw cause to come to this refolution;-to ftick invariably to the old editions, (that is, the best of them) which hold now the place of manufcripts, no scrap of the author's writing having the luck to come down to us; and never to depart from them, but in cafes where reason, and the uniform practice of men of the greatest note in this art, tell him-they may be quitted; nor yet in those without notice. But it will be neceffary, that the general method of this edition should now be laid open; that the publick may be put in a capacity not only of comparing it with those they already have, but of judging whether any thing remains to be done towards the fixing this author's text in the manner himself gave it.

It is faid a little before, that we have nothing of his in writing; that the printed copies are all that is left to guide us; and that those copies are fubject to numberless imperfections, but not all in like degree: our first business then was to examine their merit, and fee on which fide the scale of goodness preponderated; which we have generally found, to be on that of the most ancient: it may be seen in the table, what editions are judged to have the preference among those plays that were printed fingly in quarto; and for those plays, the text of those editions is chiefly adher'd to: in all the rest, the firft folio is followed; the text of which is by far the most faultlefs of the editions in that form; and has alfo the advantage in three quarto plays, in 66 2. Henry IV, Othello, and Richard III." Had the editions thus follow'd been printed with carefulness, from correct copies, and copies not added to or otherwise altered after

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thofe impreffions, there had been no occafion for going any further but this was not all the cafe, even in the best of them; and it therefore became proper and neceffary to look into the other old editions, and to felect from thence whatever improves the author, or contributes to his advancement in perfectness, the point in view throughout all this performance that they do improve him, was with the editor an argument in their favour; and a prefumption of genuinenefs for what is thus felected, whether additions, or differences of any other nature; and the causes of their appearing in fome copies, and being wanting in others, cannot now be discovered, by reason of the time's diftance, and defect of fit materials for making the difcovery. Did the limits of his Introduction allow of it, the editor would gladly have dilated and treated more at large this article of his plan as that which is of greatest importance, and most likely to be contefted of any thing in it: but this doubt, or this diffent (if any be) muft come from thofe perfons only who are not yet poffeffed of the idea they ought to entertain of these ancient impreffions; for of those who are, he fully perfuades himself he shall have both the approof and the applaufe. But without entering further in this place into the reasonableness, or even neceffity, of fo doing, he does for the present acknowledge,—that he has every-where made ufe of fuch materials as he met with from the old copies, which he thought improved the editions that are made the ground-work of the present text: and whether they do fo, or no, the judicious part of the world may certainly know, by turning to a collection that will be publish'd; where all difcarded readings are entered, all additions noted, and variations of every kind; and the editions specified to which they feverally belong.

But, when these helps were administered, there was yet behind a very great number of paffages, labouring under various defects and thofe of various degrees, that had their cure to feek from other fources, that of copies affording it no more for these he had recourse, in the first place, to the affiftance of modern copies: and, where that was incompetent, or else abfolutely deficient, which was very often the cafe, there he fought the remedy in himself, ufing judgment and conjecture; which, he is bold to fay, he will not be found to have exercised wantonly, but to follow the establish'd rules of critique with fobernefs and temperance. These emendations, (whether of his own, or other gentlemen (10) carrying in themselves a face of certainty, and coming in aid of places that were apparently corrupt, are admitted into the text, and the rejected reading is always put below; fome others, that have neither that certainty, nor are of that neceffity, but are fpecious and plaufible, and may be thought by fome to mend the paffage they belong to, -will have a place in the collection that is spoken of above. But where it is faid, that the rejected reading is always put below, this must be taken with fome restriction: for fome of the emendations, and of course the ancient readings upon which they are grounded, being of a complicated nature, the general method was there inconvénient; and, for these few, you are referred to a note which will be found among the reft: and another fort there are, that are fimply insertions; these are effectually pointed out by being printed in the gothick or black character.

NOTE.

(10) In the manufcripts from which all these plays are printed, the emendations are given to their proper owner by initials and other marks that are in the margin of thofe manufcripts; but they are fuppreffed in the print for two reasons: Firft, their number, in fome pages, makes them a little unfightly; and the editor profeffes him

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Hitherto, the defects and errors of these old editions have been of fuch a nature, that we could lay them before the reader, and fubmit to his judgment the remedies that are applied to them; which is accordingly done, either in the page itfelf where they occur, or in fome note that is to fol low but there are fome behind that would not be fo manag'd: either by reason of their frequency, or difficulty of fubjecting them to the rules under which the others are brought they have been spoken of before at p. 133, where the corruptions are all enumerated, and are as follows;—a want of proper exits and entrances, and of many scenical directions, throughout the work in general, and, in fome of the plays, a want of divifion; and the errors are thofe of measure, and punctuation: all thefe are mended, and fupplied, without notice and filently: but the reasons for fo doing, and the method obferved in doing it, fhall be a little enlarged upon, that the fidelity of the editor, and that which is chiefly to diftinguish him from thofe who have gone before, may ftand facred and unimpeachable; and, first, of the divifion.

The thing chiefly intended in reprinting the lift of titles that may be seen at p. 136, was-to fhew which plays were divided into acts, which into acts and fcenes, and which of them were not divided at all; and the number of the first clafs is eight, of the third- eleven; for though in "Henry V, 1. Henry VI, Love's Labour's loft, and The Taming of the Shrew," there is fome divifion aimed at; yet it is fo lame and erroneous, that it was thought best to

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felf weak enough to like a well-printed book: in the next place, he does declare that his only object has been, to do fervice to his great author; which provided it be done, he thinks it of small importance by what hand the fervice was adminifter'd: if the partifans of former éditors shall chance to think them injur'd by this fuppref

.confider them as totally undivided, and to rank them accordingly: now when these plays were to be divided, as well those of the first class as those of the third, the plays of the fecond class were ftudiously attended to; and a rule was picked out from them, by which to regulate this divifion: which rule might easily have been discovered before, had but any the leaft pains been bestow'd upon it; and certainly it was very well worth it, fince neither can the representation be managed, nor the order and thread of the fable te properly conceived by the reader, till this article is adjusted. The plays that are come down to us divided, must be looked upon as of the author's own settling; and in them, with regard to acts, we find him following established precepts, or, rather, conforming himself to the practice of some other dramatick writers of his time; for they, it is likely, and nature, were the books he was acquainted with: his scene divifions he certainly did not fetch from writers upon the drama; for, in them, he obferves a method in which perhaps he is fingular, and he is invariable in the use of it: with him a change of fcene implies generally a change of place, though not always; but always an entire evacuation of it, and a fucceffion of new perfons: the liaison of the fcenes, which Jonfon feems to have attempted, and upon which the Fren h ftage prides itself, he does not appear to have had any idea of; of the other unities he was perfectly well apprized; and has followed them, in one of his plays, with as great ftrictness and greater happiness than can perhaps be met with in any other writer: the play meant is,

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fion, he must upon this occafion violate the rules of modefty, by declaring that he himself is the most injured by it; whofe emendations are equal, at leaft in number, to all theirs if put together; to fay nothing of his recover'd readings, which are more confiderable Still.