whether he had been able to procure them for the fervice of it or not.

For these reasons I thought it would not be unacceptable to the lovers of SHAKESPEARE to collate all the Quartos I could find, comparing one copy with the rest, where there were more than one of the fame play; and to multiply the chances of their being preserved, by collecting them into volumes, instead of leaving the few that have escaped, to fhare the fate of the rest, which was probably haftened by their remaining in the form of pamphlets, their use and value being equally unknown to thofe into whofe hands they fell.

Or fome I have printed more than one copy; as there are many perfons, who not contented with the poffeffion of a finished picture of fome great master, are defirous to procure the first sketch that was made for it, that they may have the pleasure of tracing the progress of the artist from the first light colouring to the finishing stroke. To fuch the earlier editions of KING JOHN, HENRY THE FIFTH, HENRY THE SIXTH, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, and RoMEO AND JULIET, will, I apprehend, not be unwelcome; fince in these we may difcern as much as will be found in the hafty outlines of the pencil, with a fair profpect of that perfection to which He brought every performance He took the pains to retouch.

THE

THE general character of the Quarto editions may more advantageously be taken from the words of Mr. POPE, than from any recommendation of my

own.

"THE folio edition (fays he) in which all the plays we now receive as his, were first collected, "was published by two players, HEMINGES and CON

DELL, in 1623, seven years after his decease. They "declare that all the other editions were ftolen and furreptitious, and affirm theirs to be purged from "the errors of the former. This is true as to the « literal errors, and no other; for in all refpects elfe "it is far worse than the quartos.

"FIRST, because the additions of trifling and bom"baft paffages are in this edition far more numerous. "For whatever had been added fince thofe quartos, by "the actors, or had ftolen from their mouths into the "written parts, were from thence conveyed into the

printed text, and all stand charged upon the author. "He himself complained of this ufage in HAMLet, "where he wishes THOSE WHO PLAY THE CLOWNS 66 WOULD SPEAK NO MORE THAN IS SET DOWN FOR THEM

66

(Act. 3. Sc. 4.) But as a proof that he could not escape "it, in the old editions of ROMEO AND JULIET, there " is no hint of the mean conceits and ribaldries now "to be found there. In others the scenes of the mobs,

plebeians, and clowns are vastly shorter than at pre«fent; and I have feen one in particular (which

" seems

"feems to have belonged to the playhouse, by hav

ing the parts divided by lines, and the actors names "in the margin) where feveral of those very paffages 66 were added in a written hand, which fince are to be "found in the folio.

"In the next place, a number of beautiful paffages "were omitted which were extant in the firft fingle "editions; as it seems without any other reason than "their willingness to shorten fome scenes."

To this I must add, that I cannot help looking on the Folio as having fuffered other injuries from the licentious alteration of the players; as we frequently find in it an unufual word changed into one more popular; fometimes to the weakening the fenfe, which rather feems to have been their work, who knew that plainnefs was neceffary for the audience of an illiterate age, than that it was done by the consent of the author: for he would hardly have unnerved a line in his written copy, which they pretend to have tranferibed, however he might have permitted many to have been familiarized in the representation. Were I to indulge my own private conjecture, I should fuppofe that his blotted manuscripts were read over by one to another among those who were appointed to transcribe them; and hence it might easily happen, that words of fimilar founds, though of fenfes directly oppofite, might be confounded with each other. They themfelves declare that SHAKESPEARE's time of blotting was

VOL. I.

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past,

past, and yet half the errors we find in their edition could not be merely typographical. Many of the Quarto's (as our own printers affure me) were far from being unfkilfully executed, and fome of them were much more correctly printed than the Folio, which was published at the charge of the fame proprietors, whofe names we find prefixed to the older copies: and I cannot join with Mr. Pope in acquitting that edition of more literal errors than those which went before it. The particles in it seem to be as fortuitoufly difpofed, and

proper names as frequently undistinguished by Italic or capital letters from the rest of the text. The punctuation is equally accidental; nor do I fee on the whole any greater marks of a skilful revifal, or the advantage of being printed from unblotted originals in the one, than in the other. One reformation indeed there feems to have been made, and that very laudable; I mean the fubftitution of more. general terms for a name too often unneceffarily invoked on the stage; but no jot of obscenity is omitted: and their caution against prophanenefs is, in my. opinion, the only thing for which we are indebted to the judgment of the editors of the Folio.

How much may be done by the affiftance of the old copies will now be easily known; but a more difficult. task remains behind, which calls for other abilities than are requifite in the laborious collator.

FROM a diligent perufal of the comedies of contemporary authors, I am perfuaded that the meaning of

many

many expreffions in SHAKESPEARE might be retrieved; for the language of converfation can only be expected to be preserved in works, which in their time affumed the merit of being pictures of men and manners. The stile of converfation we may fuppofe to be as much altered as that of books; and in confequence of the change we have no other authorities to recur to in either cafe. Should our language ever be recalled to a ftrict examination, and the fashion become general of ftriving to maintain our old acquifitions instead of gaining new ones, which we fhall be at last obliged to give up, or be incumbered with their weight; it will then be lamented that no regular collection was ever formed of the old ENGLISH books; from which, as from antient repofitories, we might recover words and phrafes as often as caprice or wantonness should call for variety; instead of thinking it neceffary to adopt new ones, or barter folid strength for feeble fplendor, which no language has long admitted, and retained its purity.

WE wonder that before the time of SHAKESPEARE, we find the stage in a state so barren of productions, but forget that we have hardly any acquaintance with the authors of that period, though fome few of their dramatic pieces may remain. The fame might be almost faid of the interval between that age and the age of DRYDEN, the performances of which, not being preserved in fets, or diffused as now, by the greater number printed, must lapfe apace into the fame obfcurity.

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