subordinate positions. His chance of error is renewed explanation. When his attention is strongly engagea at every attempt; an oblique view of the passage a slight misapprehension of a phrase, a casual inattention to the parties connected, is sufficient to make him not only fail, but fail ridiculously; and when he succeeds best, he produces perhaps but one reading of many probable, and he that suggests another will always be able to dispute his claims. It is an unhappy state, in which danger is hid under pleasure. The allurements of emendation are scarcely resistible. Conjecture has all the joy and all the pride of invention, and he that has once started a happy change, is too much delighted to consider what objections may rise against it. let it disdain alike to turn aside to the name of Theo bald and of Pope. Let him read on through brightness and obscurity, through integrity and corruption; let him preserve his comprehension of the dialogue, and his interest in the fable. And when the pleasures of novelty have ceased, let him attempt exactness, and read the commentators. Particular passages are cleared by notes, but the general effect of the work is weakened. The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principal subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book which he has too diligently studied. Parts are not to be examined till the whole has been surveyed; there is a kind of intellectual remoteness necessary for the comprehension of any great work in its full design and in its true propor tions; a close approach shews the smaller niceties, but the beauty of the whole is discerned no longer. Yet conjectural criticism has been of great use in the learned world; nor is it my intention to depreciate a study, that has exercised so many mighty minds, from the revival of learning to our own age, from the Bishop of Aleria to English Bentley. The critics on ancient authors have, in the exercise of their sagacity, many assistances, which the editor of It is not very grateful to consider how little the Shakspeare is condemned to want. They are em- succession of editors has added to this author's power ployed upon grammatical and settled languages, of pleasing. He was read, admired, studied, and whose construction contribute so much to perspi- imitated, while he was yet deformed with all the cuity, that Homer has fewer passages unintelligible improprieties which ignorance and neglect could acthan Chaucer. The words have not only a known cumulate upon him; while the reading was yet not regimen, but invariable quantities, which direct and rectified, nor his allusions understood; yet then did confine the choice. There are commonly more manu- Dryden pronounce, ".that Shakspeare was the man, scripts than one; and they do not often conspire in who, of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the same mistakes Yet Scaliger could confess to the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Salmasius how little satisfaction his emendations images of nature were still present to him, and he gave him. Illudunt nobis conjecturæ nostræ, quarum drew them not laboriously, but luckily when he denos pudet, posteaquam in meliores codices incidimus. scribes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it And Lipsius could complain, that critics were making too. Those, who accuse him to have wanted learnfaults, by trying to remove them, Ut olim vitiis, ita ing, give him the greater commendation; he was nanunc remediis laboratur. And indeed, when mere turally learned; he needed not the spectacles of conjecture is to be used, the emendations of Scaliger books to read nature; he looked inwards, and found and Lipsius, notwithstanding their wonderful saga-her there. I cannot say he is every where alike; city and erudition, are often vague and disputable, were he so, I should do him injury to compare him like mine or Theobald's. with the greatest of mankind. He is many times flat Perhaps I may not be more censured for doing and insipid; his comic wit degenerating into wrong, than for doing little; for raising in the pub-clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he lic expectations, which at last I have not answered. is always great, when some great occasion is pre The expectation of ignorance is indefinite, and that sented to him; no man can say, he ever had a fit of knowledge is often tyrannical. It is hard to satisfy subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as those who know not what to demand, or those who high above the rest of poets, demand by design what they think impossible to be done. I have indeed disappointed no opinion more than my own; yet I have endeavoured to perform my task with no slight solicitude. Not a single pas sage in the whole work has appeared to me corrupt, which I have not attempted to restore; or obscure, which I have not endeavoured to illustrate. In many I have failed like others; and from many, after all my efforts, I have retreated, and confessed the repulse. I have not passed over, with affected superiority, what is equally difficult to the reader and to myself, but where I could not instruct him, have owned my ignorance. I might easily have accumulated a mass of seeming learning upon easy scenes; but it ought not to be imputed to negligence, that where nothing was necessary, nothing has been done, or that, where others have said enough, I have said no more. Notes are often necessary, but they are necessary evils. Let him, that is yet unacquainted with the owers of Shakspeare, and who desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read every play from the first scene to the last, with utter negli gence of all his commentators. When his fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop at correction or 'Quantum lenta solent inter viburna capressi.'" It is to be lamented, that such a writer should want a commentary; that his language should be [come obsolete, or his sentiments obscure. But it is vain to carry wishes beyond the condition of human things; that which must happen to all, has happened to Shakspeare, by accident and time; and more than has been suffered by any other writer since the use of types, has been suffered by him through his own negligence of fame, or perhaps by that superiority of mind, which despised its own performances, when it compared them with its powers, and judged those works unworthy to be preserved, which the critics of following ages were to contend for the fame of restoring and explaining. Among these candidates of inferior fame, I am now to stand the judgment of the public: and wish that I could confidently produce my commentary as equal to the encouragement which I have had the honour of receiving. Every work of this kind is by its nature deficient, and I should feel little solicitude about the sentence, were it to be pronounced only by the skilful and the learned. press, sink, sub. atechism. e persons. or uphold. ing before its y accomplished, red. ar for. ation. tain. equital. tion by mute or accusation. litigious. es or descrip ke ready. addrest, ready. efer, to raise to trariety. , admonition. tentive. eration, discre ider, recollect. recipitant, cool, tation, imagiition, quality. fected. ions, inordinate *med. d. ›y affinity. t or face. in marriage. ainutive being. ledge, confess. 1 earnest. of an eagle or ncouragement, loved above all eeting. ve. robation. ex or confuse. lowest chance d dispirited. et. gn. ight. ion. cannibal, 1 of the old re.. d dens. ng, not real, or next clai -ed apparent. to, consider. paration. inion. ick to under ry on proba pprobation. ify, to make sh, to recomation. experienced, oof. s who try. -mine. Assured, affianced. Ates, instigation from Ate, the! Attended, waited for. Averring, confirming. Augurs, auguries or prognosti- Baccare, stand back, give Bale, misery, calamity. Balked, bathed or piled up. Bandog, village dog or mastiff. Banquet, a slight refection, a Barn, or bairn, a child. Base, a rustic game, called pri- Bases, a kind of dress used by Beard, to oppose in a hostile f great bur Bearing, carriage, demeanour. Bearing-cloth, a mantle used at christenings. Beat, in falconry, to flutter. Beating, hammering, dwelling passion. Benumbed, inflexible, immoveable. Beshrew, ill befall. Bestraught, distraught or distracted. Beteem, to give, to pour out, Bird-bolt, a species of arrow. Blank, the white mark at ters. Blood, ancestry, high spirits, Blown, puffed or swollen. Blunt, stupid, insensible. Bodged, boggled, made bungling work. Bodkin, a small dagger. Bombast, stuffing of clothes. Book, paper of conditions. Bore, the caliber of a gun, the Bosom, wish, heart's desire. Bots, worms in the stomach of a horse. Bourn, boundary, rivulet. Brace, armour for the arm, Bravery, showy dress. Breath, breathing, voice. Breathed, inured by constant practice. Breathing, complimentary. Bridal, the nuptial feast. or enumeration. Bring, to attend or accompany Brize, the gad, or horse-fly. Broached, spitted, transfixed. Brock, a badger. Broke, to deal with a pander. Broken, toothless. Broker, a matchmaker, a procuress or pimp. Brooch, an ornamental buckle. Brooched, adorned as with a brooch. Brotherhoods, confraternities. Brownist, the name of a sect. Bush, the sign of a public- Busky woody. See Bosky. Buxom, obedient, under good By, according to, by means of. By'rlakin, by our ladykin or little lady. Caddis, a narrow worsted gal- Cade, a barrel. Calculate, to foretell or pro- Caliver, a species of musket. Callet, a lewd woman. Canary, a sprightly nimble Candle-waisters, those who sit Capable, perceptible, intelli- Breach, of the sea, breaking of Care, inclination. Case, Contemptuously for skin, Clinquant, glittering, shining. Cassock, a horseman's great coat. Cast, to empty, as a pond, to mated. Centuries, companies of an Chamber, ancient name for Chamber, a species of great Chamberers, men of intrigue. Changeling, a child changed. Charge, to put to expense.. Clip, to embrace, to infold. Clown, a licensed jester in fa- Clubs, a popular cry on a Cobloaf, a crusty, uneven loaf. Coffin, the cavity of a raised Cog, to falsify, to lie, defraud. vation. Comforting, aiding. Commended, committed. Consent, to agree. Consent, conspiracy, will, as- Constant, firm, determined. Constantly, certainly, without fluctuation. Contemptible, contemptuous. Continent, the thing which contains. Continents, banks of rivers. Continuate, Eninterrupted. Contraction, marriage contract. Curious, scrupulous. | Contrarious, different. Curled, ostentatiously dressed. out. Convive, to feast. Cope, to encounter, to engage. Cope, covering. Copped, rising to a cop, or head. Copy, theme. Cursed, under the influence of a malediction. Curst, petulant, crabbed, shrewdish, or mischievous, Curstness, ill-humour. Custard coffin, the crust of a Cyprus, a transparent stuff. Daff or doff, to do off, to put aside. Dally, to play or trifle. Danger, reach or control. Coragio, an exclamation of en - Danskers, natives of Denmark. couragement Corinthian, a wencher Corky, dry, withered, husky. Corollary, surplus. Coster-monger, meanly, mer cenary. Cote, to overtake. Dare, to challenge or incite. Dark-house, a house made gloomy by discontent. Darkling, in the dark. Darraign, to arrange, put in order. Daub, to disguise. Daubery, falsehood and impo sition. Day-bed, a couch. Coted, quoted, observed, or Day woman, dairy maid. regarded. Cotsale, Cotswood in tershire. Covered, hollow. Dear, best, important, dire. Glouces-Dearn, lonely solitary. Count, to make account, to reckon upon. Count Confect, a specious nobleman. Comparative, a dealer in com- Countenance, false appearance, parisons. Compare, comparison. | Competitors, confederates or associates. | Complements, accomplish Composition, contract or bar- Composture, composition,com- Conceit, fanciful conception, Concent, connected harmony Conclusion, determination, re- Conclusions, experiments. hypocrisy. Counterfeit, a likeness, a portrait. Counterpoints, counterpanes. Cowl-staff, a staff for carrying Coystril, a coward cock, a Death tokens, spots appearing Deboshed, debauched. Defy, to refuse, to disdain Crack, a boy or child, a boy- Delay, to let slip Gentle, acole, high-minded, be- | Haught, haughty, longing to gentry. Gentry, complaisance Germins, seeds begun to sprout. Gifts, endowments. Gilder, a coin valued at 1s. 6d. or A. Gilt, gilding, golden money. Gird, a sarcasm or gibe, emotion. Gleek, to joke or scoff, to beguile. Glimmering, faintly illuminated by the stars. Glaze, to expound, to comment Haughty, high, elevated. Hay, a term in the fencingschool. Head, the source, the fountain. Heat, violence of resentment. Hebenon, benbane. Helmed, steered through. Hereby, as it may happen. Graves, or greaves, armour for Hungry, steril, unprolific. the legs. Greasily, grossly. Greek, a bawd, or pander. Green, unripe,not fully formed. Greenly, awkwardly, unskil fully. Greets, pleases. Grief, pain, grievances. affections. Grieve, to lament for. Guard, to fringe or lace. Guards, badges of dignity. Guerdon, reward. Guerdoned, rewarded. Guiled, treacherous. Gust, taste, rashness. Hack, to become cheap and vul Hunt-counter, base tyke,worthless dog. Hunts-up, the name of a tune, a morning song. Hurly, noise. Hurtling, merry with impetuosity. Husbandry, thrift, frugality. Huswife, a jilt. Inclining, compliant. Infinite, extent or power. Ingaged, sometimes for unengaged. Ingraft, rooted, settled, sane. Insconce, to fortify. Intention, eagerness of desire. Iron, clad in armour. Jack guardant, a jack in office. Jaded, treated with contempt, worthless. Ice-brook, a brook of icy quali- Jar, the noise made by the pen ties in Spain. I' fecks, in faith. -inhabited, ill-lodged. Ill-nurtured, ill-educated. Images, children, representa tives. Imaginary, produced by the power of imagination. Imbare, to lay open or display to view. Immanity, barbarity, savage- Importance, importunacy. Impress, to compel to serve. Impress, a device or motto. Impugn, oppose, controvert. Incapable, unintelligent. Incarnardine, to stain of a red colour. Incensed, incited, suggested. dulum of a clock. Jauncing, jaunting. Jesses. straps of leather by Jest, to play a part in a mask. Jovial, belonging to Jove. Justicer, justice, judge. Kam, awry, crooked. reside. Keisar, Cæsar. Kernes, light-armed Irish foot. manor. Legerity lightness,nimbleness. Leman, lover, mistress. Lewd, ignorant, idle, wicked. Libbard, or lubbar, a leopard. Liberal, licentious or gross in language. Liberty, libertinism. License, an appearance oflicentio isness. Lie, to reside, to be imprisoned. Liefe st, dearest. Lieger, an ambassador at a foreign court. Limits,estinates, calculations. Link, a torch of pitch. Linstock, the staff to which the match is fixed when ordi nance is fired. List, the bound or limit. Lither, flexible, yielding. Little, miniature. Livelihood, appearance of life. Livery, a law phrase belonging to the feudal tenures. living, estate, property. Living, speaking, manifest, actual. Loach, a small fish. Lob, looby, a term of contempt. Lockram, some kind of cheap |