fubfcribe (a circumftance of which we need not be afhamed) to the fuperior fagacity and judgement of Mr. Malone.

To conclude, though we are far from afferting that this republication, generally confidered, is preferable to its original, we muft ftill regard it as a valuable fupplement to that work; and no ftronger plea in its favour can be advanced, than the frequent use made of it by Mr. Malone. The numerous corrections from it admitted by that gentleman into his text,* and

*Amounting to (as we are informed by a very accurate compofitor who undertook to count them) 186.

Inftances wherein Mr. Malone has admitted the Corre&ions of the Second Folio.

pointed out in his notes, will, in our judgement, contribute to its eulogium; at least cannot fail to rescue it from his prefatory imputations of" being of no value whatever," and afterwards of “not being worth three fhillings. See this Vol. p. 398. and Vol. II. p. 3o. n. 5.

Our readers, it is hoped, will fo far honour us as to obferve, that the foregoing opinions were not fuggefted and defended through an ambitious fpirit of condradiction. Mr. Malone's Preface, indeed, p. 396, will abfolve us from that cenfure; for he allows them to be of a date previous to his own edition.

This doctrine, however, appears to have made few profelytes: at leaft, fome late catalogues of our good friends the bookfallers, have expreffed their diffent from it in terms of uncommon force.

He, therefore, on this subject, is the affailant, and not the conductors of the prefent republication.

But though, in the course of fucceeding ftrictures, feveral other of Mr. Malone's positions may be likewife controverted, fome with seriousness, and fome with levity, (for our difcuffions are not of quite fo folemn a turn as those which involve the interests of our country,) we feel an undiffembled pleasure in avowing that his remarks are at once fo numerous and correct, that when criticism "has done its worst,” their merit but in a small degree can be affected. We are confident, however, that he himself will hereafter join with us in confidering no small proportion of our contefted readings as a mere game at literary pushpin; and that if Shakspeare looks down upon our petty fquabbles over his mangled fcenes, it must be with feelings fimilar to thofe of Lucan's hero, ridetque fui ludibria trunci.

In the Preface of Mr. Malone, indeed, a direct cenfure has been levelled at incorrectness in the text of the edition 1778. The juftice of the imputation is unequivocally allowed; but, at the fame time, might not this acknowledgement be feconded by fomewhat like a retort? for is it certain that the collations, &c. of 1790 are wholly fecure from fimilar charges? Are they accompanied by no unauthorized readings, no omiffions of words, and tranfpofitions? Through all the plays, and especially those of which there is only a fingle copy, they have been with some diligence

retraced, and the frailties of their collator, fuch as they are, have been ascertained. They fhall not, however, be oftentatiously pointed out, and for this only reafon : That as they decrease but little, if at all, the vigour of Shakspeare, the critick who in general has performed with accuracy one of the heaviest of literary tasks, ought not to be molefted by a display of petty faults, which might have eluded the most vigilant faculties of fight and hearing that were ever placed as fpies over the labours of each other. They are not even mentioned here as a covert mode of attack, or as a "note of preparation" for future hoftilities. The office of "devifing brave punishments" for faithlefs editors, is therefore ftrenuously declined, even though their guilt fhould equal that of one of their number (Mr. Steevens) who ftands convicted of having given winds instead of wind, ftables instead of stable, feffions inftead of feffion, fins inftead of fin and (we fhudder while we recite the accufation) my inftead of mine. *

fuch fmall deer

"Have been our food for many a year;"

fo long, in truth, that any further purfuit of them is here renounced, together with all triumphs founded on the detection of harmlefs fynonymous particles that accidentally may have deferted their proper places and wandered into others, without injury to Shakspeare. A few chipped or disjointed ftones

See Mr. Malone's Preface, p. 423, & seq.

will not impair the fhape or endanger the stability of a pyramid. We are far from wishing to depreciate exactness, yet cannot perfuade ourselves but that a fingle lucky conjecture or illuftration, fhould outweigh a thousand fpurious haths depofed in favour of legitimate has's, and the like infignificant recoveries, which may not too degradingly be termed the haberdasheries of criticism; that "ftand in number, though in reckoning none;" and are as unimportant to the Poet's, fame,

"As is the morn-dew on the myrtle-leaf
"To his grand sea."

We shall venture alfo to affert, that, on a minute fcrutiny, every editor, in his turn, may be charged with omiffion of fome preferable reading; fo that he who drags his predeceffor to juftice on this fcore, will have good luck if he efcapes ungalled by recrimination.

If fomewhat, therefore, in the fucceeding volumes has been added to the correction and illuftration of our author, the purpose of his present editors is completely anfwered. On any thing like perfection in their labours they do not prefume, being too well convinced that, in defiance of their beft efforts, their own incapacity, and that of the original quarto and folio-mongers, have ftill left fufficient work for a race of commentators who are yet unborn.

Be it remembered alfo, that the affiftants and