"own candor, (for I lov'd the man,and do honour "his memory, on this fide idolatry, as much as any.) He was, indeed, honeft, and of an open " and free nature, had an excellent fancy, brave "notions, and gentle expreffions; wherein he "flow'd with that facility, that fometimes it was "neceffary he fhould be ftopp'd: Sufflaminandus erat, as Auguftus faid of Haterius. His wit was in his own power, would the rule of it "had been fo too. Many times he fell into "thofe things which could not escape laughter; as when he said in the perfon of Cæfar, one fpeaking to him,

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"Cæfar thou doft me wrong.

"Cæfar did never wrong, but with just cause.

" and fuch like, which were ridiculous. But he "redeem'd his vices with his virtues; There was (( ever more in him to be prais'd than to be par "don'd.

As for the paffage which he mentions out of Shakespear, there is fomewhat likeit in Julius Cafar, but without the abfurdity; nor did I ever meet with it in any edition I that have feen, as quoted by Mr. Johnfon. Befides his plays in this edition, there are two or three afcrib'd to him by Mr. Langbain, which I have never feen, and know nothing of. He writ likewife, Venus and Adonis, and Tarquin and Lucrece, in ftanza's, which have been printed in a late collection of Poems. As to the character given of him by Ben Johnson there is a good deal true in it: But I believe it may be as well exprefs'd by what Horace fays of the first Romans,

Romans, who wrote Tragedy upon the Greek models, (or indeed tranflated 'em) in his epiftle to Auguftus.

Natura fublimis & Acer,

Nam fpirat Tragicam fatis & feliciter Audet, Sed turpem putat in Chartis metuitque Lituram.

As I have not propos'd to my felf to enter into a large and compleat Criticifm upon Shakespear's Works, fo I will only take the liberty, with all due fubmiffion to the judgment of others, to obferve fome of thofe things I have been pleas'd with in looking him over.

His Plays are properly to be diftinguifh'd only into Comedies and Tragedies. Thofe which are called Hiftories, and even fome of his Comedies, are really Tragedies, with a run or mixture of Comedy amongst 'em. That way of Trage-co medy was the common mistake of that age, and is indeed become fo agreeable to the English tafte, that tho' the feverer Critics among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our audiences feem to be better pleas'd with it than with an exact Tragedy. The Merry Wives of Windfor, the Comedy of Errors, and the Taming of the Shrew, are all pure Comedy; the reft, however they are call'd, have fomething of both kinds. 'Tis not very easy to determine which way of writing he was moft excellent in. There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comical humours; and tho they did not then ftrike at all ranks of people, as the Satire of the prefent age has taken the Liberty to do, yet there is a pleafing and a well-diftinguifh'd variety in thofe characters which he thought fit to meddle with. Falstaff is allow'd by every body to be a mafter-piece; the Character is al

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ways well-fuftain'd, tho' drawn out into the length of three Plays; and even the account of his death, given by his old landlady Mrs. Quickly, in the first act of Henry V. tho' it be extremely natural, is yet as diverting as any part of his life. If there be any fault in the draught he has made of this lewd old fellow, it is, that tho' he has made him a thief, lying, cowardly, vain-glorious, and in fhort every way vicious, yet he has given him fo much wit as to make him almost too agreeable; and I don't know whether fome people have not, in remembrance of the diverfion he had formerly afforded 'em, been forry to fee his friend Hal ufe him fo fcurvily, when he comes to the crown, in the end of the fecond part of Henry the fourth. Amongst other extravagances, in the Merry Wives of Windfor, he has dmade him a Deer-ftealer, that he might at the fame time remember his Warwickshire profecutor, unnd der the name of Justice Shallow; he has given him very near the fame coat of arms which Dugdale, in his antiquities of that county, defcribes for a family there, and makes the Welsh parfon defcant very pleasantly upon 'em. That whole play is admirable; the humours are various and well oppos'd; the main defign, which is to cure Ford of his unreafonable jealoufy, is extremely well conducted. In Twelfth-Night there is fomething fingularly ridiculous and pleasant in the fantaftical fteward Malvolio. The parafite and the vain-glorious in Parolles, in All's Well that Ends Well, is as good as any thing of that kind in Plautus or Terence. Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew, is an uncommon piece of humour. The converfation of Benedick and Beatrice, in Much Ado about Nothing, and of Rofalind in As you like it, have much wit and fprightlinefs all along.