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commentators; and it has again and again been repeated by the taftelefs and the dull, "that notes, though often neceffary, are neceffary evils." There is no perfon, I believe, who has an higher refpect for the authority of Dr. Johnson than I have; but he has been mifunderftood, or mifreprefented, as if these words contained a general caution to all the readers of this poet. Dr. Johnson, in the part of his preface here alluded to, is addreffing the young. reader, to whom Shakspeare is new; and him he very judiciously counfels, to "read every play from the firft fcene to the laft, with utter negligence of all his commentators. Let him read on, through brightness and obfcurity, through integrity and corruption; let him preserve his comprehenfion of the dialogue, and his intereft in the fable." But to much the greater and more enlightened part of his readers, (for how few are there comparatively to whom Shakspeare is new?) he gives a very different advice: Let them to whom the pleasures of novelty have ceafed, "attempt exactnefs, and read the commentators."

During the era of conjectural criticifm and capricious innovation, notes were indeed evils; while one page was covered with ingenious fophiftry in fupport of fome idle conjecture, and another was walled in its overthrow, or in erecting a new fabrick equally unfubftantial as the former. But this era is now happily past away; and conjecture and emendation have given place to rational explanation. We fhall never, I hope, again be told, that "as the best gueffer was the best diviner, fo he may be faid in fome meafure to be the best

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editor of Shakspeare." Let me not, however, be fuppofed an enemy to all conjectural emendation; fometimes undoubtedly we must have recourse to it; but, like the machinery of the ancient drama, let it not be reforted to except in cafes of difficulty; nifi dignus vindice nodus. I wifh (fays Dr. Johnfon,) we all conjectured lefs, and explained more.' When our poet's entire library fhall have been difcovered, and the fables of all his plays traced to their original fource, when every temporary allufion fhall have been pointed out, and every obfcurity elucidated, then, and not till then, let the accumulation of notes be complained of. I scarcely emember ever to have looked into a book of the age of Queen Elizabeth, in which I did not find fomewhat that tended to throw a light on these plays. While our object is, to fupport and eftablish what the poet wrote, to illuftrate his phrafeology by comparing it with that of his contemporaries, and to explain his fugitive allufions to customs long fince disused and forgotten, while this object is kept fteadily in view, if even every line of his plays were accompanied with a comment, every intelligent reader would be indebted to the industry of him who produced it. Such uniformly has been the object of the notes now presented to the publick. Let us then hear no more of this barbarous jargon concerning Shakfpeare's having been elucidated into obfcurity, and buried under the load of his commentators. Dryden is faid to have regretted the fuccefs of his own instructions, and to have lamented that at length,

5 Newton's Preface to his edition of Milton.
VOL. I.

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in confequence of his critical prefaces, the town had become too skilful to be eafily fatisfied. The fame obfervation may be made with refpect to many of these objectors, to whom the meaning of fome of our poet's moft difficult paffages is now become fo familiar, that they fancy they originally understood them "without a prompter;" and with great gravity exclaim against the unneceffary illuftrations furnifhed by his Editors: nor ought we much to wonder at this; for our poet himself has told us,

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Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
"But when he once attains the upmoft round,
"He then unto the ladder turns his back;
"Looks in the clouds.".

I have conftantly made it a rule in rèvifing the notes of former editors, to compare fuch paffages as they have cited from any author, with the book from which the extract was taken, if I could procure it; by which fome inaccuracies have been rectified. The incorrect extract made by Dr. Warburton from Saviolo's treatife on Honour and Honourable Quarrels, to illufirate a paffage in As you like it, fully proves the propriety of fuch a collation.

At the end of the tenth volume I have added an Appendix, containing corrections, and fupplemental observations, made too late to be annexed to the plays to which they belong. Some object to an Appendix; but, in my opinion, with very little reafon. No book can be the worfe for fuch

a fupplement; fince the reader, if fuch be his caprice, need not examine it. If the objector means, that he wishes that all the information contained in an Appendix, were properly difpofed in the preceding volumes, it must be acknowledged that fuch an arrangement would be extremely defirable: but as well might he require from the elephant the fprightlinefs and agility of the fquirrel, or from the fquirrel the wifdom and firength of the elephant, as expect, that an editor's latest thoughts, fuggefted by difcurfive reading while the fheets that compofe his volumes were paffing through the prefs, fhould form a part of his original work; that information acquired too late to be employed in its proper place, fhould yet be found there.

That the very few flage-directions which the old copies exhibit, were not taken from our author's manuscripts, but furnifhed by the players, is proved by one in Macbeth, A& IV. fc. i. where "A fhow of eight kings", is directed, "and Banquo laft, with a glafs in his hand;" though from the very words which the poct has written for Macbeth, it is manifeft that the glafs ought to be borne by the eighth king, and not by Banquo. All the ftagedirections therefore throughout this work I have confidered as wholly in my power, and have regulated them in the beil manner I could. The reader will alfo, I think, be pleafed to find the place in which every scene is fuppofed to pafs, precifely afcertained a fpecies of information, for which, though it often throws light on the dialogue, we look in vain in the ancient copies, and which has been too much neglected by the modern editors.

The play of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, which is

now once more reftored to our author, I originally intended to have fubjoined, with Titus Andronicus, to the tenth volume; but, to preserve an equality of fize in my volumes, have been obliged to give it a different place. The hand of Shakspeare being indubitably found in that piece, it will, I doubt not, be confidered as a valuable acceffion; and it is of little confequence where it appears.

It has long been thought that Titus Andronicus was not written originally by Shakspeare; about feventy years after his death, Ravenscroft having mentioned that he had been "told by fome anciently converfant with the flage, that our poet only gave fome mafter-touches to one or two of the principal parts or characters." The very curious papers lately discovered in Dulwich College, from which large extracts are given at the end of the Hiftory of the Stage, prove, what I long fince suspected, that this play, and The First Part of King Henry VI, were in poffeffion of the fcene when Shakspeare began to write for the ftage; and the fame manufcripts fhew, that it was then very common for a dramatick poet to alter and amend the work of a preceding writer. The queftion therefore is now decifively fettled; and undoubtedly fome additions vere made to both these pieces by Shakfpeare. It is obfervable that the fecond fcene of the third act of Titus Andronicus is not found in the quarto copy printed in 1611. It is therefore highly probable that this fcene was added by our author; and his hand may be traced in the preceding act, as well as in a few other places. 6 The

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6 If ever the account-book of Mr. Heminge fhall be difcovered, we fhall probably find in it · Paid to William Shakspeare for mending Titus Andronicus."See Vol.III. Additions.

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