defired to bear in mind, that as the corruptions are more numerous, and of a groffer kind than can be well conceived but by thofe who have looked nearly into them; fo in the correcting them this rule hath been moft ftrictly obferved, not to give a loofe to fancy, or indulge a licentious spirit of criticism, as if it were fit for any one to prefume to judge what Shakspeare ought to have written, inftead of endeavouring to discover truly and retrieve what he did write: and fo great caution hath been used in this respect, that no alterations have been made, but what the fenfe neceffarily required, what the measure of the verse often helped to point out, and what the fimilitude of words in the falfe reading and in the true, generally speaking, appeared very well to justify.

Moft of those paffages are here thrown to the bottom of the page, and rejected as fpurious, which were ftigmatized as fuch in Mr. Pope's edition; and it were to be wifhed that more had then under

gone the fame fentence. The promoter of the prefent edition hath ventured to difcard but few more upon his own judgment, the most considerable of which is that wretched piece of ribaldry in King Henry the Fifth, put into the mouths of the French princefs and an old gentlewoman, improper enough as it is all in French, and not intelligible to an English audience, and yet that perhaps is the best thing that can be faid of it. There can

be no doubt but a great deal more of that low stuff, which difgraces the works of this great author, was foifted in by the players after his death, to please the vulgar audiences by which they fubfifled: and though fome of the poor witticifms and

conceits must be fuppofed to have fallen from his pen, yet as he hath put them generally into the mouths of low and ignorant people, fo it is to be remembered that he wrote for the ftage, rude and unpolished as it then was; and the vicious taste of the age muft ftand condemned for them, fince he hath left upon record a fignal proof how much he despised them. In his play of The Merchant of Venice, a clown is introduced quibbling in a miferable manner; upon which one, who bears the character of a man of fenfe, makes the following reflection: How every fool can play upon a word I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into filence, and difcourfe grow commendable in none but parrots. He could hardly have found ftronger words to exprefs his indignation at thofe falfe pretences to wit then in vogue; and therefore though fuch trafh is frequently interfperfed in his writings, it would be unjuft to caft it as an imputation upon his taste and judgment and character as a writer.

There being many words in Shakspeare which are grown out of ufe and obfolete, and many borrowed from other languages which are not enough naturalized or known among us, a gloffary is added at the end of the work, for the explanation of all those terms which have hitherto been fo many ftumbling-blocks to the generality of readers; . and where there is any obfcurity in the text, not arifing from the words, but from a reference to fome antiquated cuftoms now forgotten, or other caufes of that kind, a note is put at the bottom of the page, to clear up the difficulty.

With these feveral helps, if that rich vein of fense which runs through the works of this author

can be retrieved in every part, and brought to appear in its true light, and if it may be hoped, without prefumption, that this is here effected; they who love and admire him will receive a new pleasure, and all probably will be more ready to join in doing him juftice, who does great honour to his country as a rare and perhaps a fingular genius; one who hath attained an high degree of perfection in those two great branches of poetry, tragedy and comedy, different as they are in their natures from each other; and- who may be faid without partiality to have equalled, if not excelled, in both kinds, the best writers of any age or country, who have thought it glory enough to diftinguifh themselves in either.

Since therefore other nations have taken care to dignify the works of their most celebrated poets with the fairest impreffions beautified with the ornaments of sculpture, well may our Shakspeare be thought to deferve no lefs confideration: and as a fresh acknowledgment hath lately been paid to his merit, and a high regard to his name and memory, by erecting his flatue at a publick expence; fo it is defired that this new edition of his works, which hath coft some attention and care, may be looked upon as another small monument, defigned and dedicated to his honour.

Ir

DR. WARBURTON'S

PREFACE.

T hath been no unusual 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 inftance; and to decline acquaintance with the publick, 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 justice 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 claffick author, after having run ten fecular flages through 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 diforders, I refer the reader to the excellent difcourfe which follows, and turn myself to confider the remedies that have been applied to them.

VOL. I.

Mr. Pope's Preface. REED.

N

.

Shakspeare's works, when they escaped the players, did not fall into much better hands when they came among printers and bookfellers; who, to say the truth, had at firft 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 ftage. And when that refiftlefs fplendor, which now fhoots all around him, had, by degrees, broke through the fhell of those impurities, his dazzled admirers became as fuddenly infenfible to the extraneous fcurf that ftill fuck 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 should be used with ceremony; and he foon hađ 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 fhould 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 business of criticism, that he did not even collate or confult the first 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 fcraps from his writings. The truth is, Shakfpeare's condition was yet but ill underfood. The nonfenfe, now, by confent, received for his own, was held in a kind of re