preferved, which the criticks of following ages were to contend for the fame of reftoring and explaining.

Among thefe candidates of inferior fame, I am now to ftand the judgment of the publick; 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 fhould feel little folicitude about the fentence, were it to be pronounced only by the fkilful and the learned.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

ON THE

PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE.

IT

TEMPEST.

T is obferved of The Tempest, that its plan is regular; this the author of The Revifal thinks, what I think too, an accidental effect of the story, not intended or regarded by our author. But whatever might be Shakespeare's intention in forming or adopting the plot, he has made it inftrumental to the production of many characters, diverfified with boundless invention, and preferved with profound skill in nature, extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate observation of life. In a single drama are here exhibited princes, courtiers, and failors, all fpeaking in their real characters. There is the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin; the operations of magick, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desart island, the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the final happiness of the pair for whom our paffions and reafon are equally interested..

*Mr. Heath, who wrote a revifal of Shakespeare's text, published in 8vo. circa 1760.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

In this play there is a ftrange mixture of knowledge and ignorance, of care and negligence. The verification is often excellent, the allufions are learned and juft, but the author conveys his heroes by fca from one inland town to another in the faine country; he places the emperor at Milan, and fends his young men to attend him, but never mentions him more; he makes Protheus, after an interview with Silvia, fay he has only feen her picture; and, if we may credit the old copies, he has, by mistaking places, left his fcenery inextricable. The reafon of all this confufion feems to be, that he took his story from a novel, which he fometimes followed, and fometimes forfook, fometimes remembered, and fometimes forgot.

That this play is rightly attributed to Shakespeare, I have little doubt. If it be taken from him, to whom fhall it be given? This queftion may be afked of all the difputed plays, except Titus Andrenicus; and it will be found more credible, that Shakespeare might fometimes fink below his highest flights, than that any other fhould rife up to his loweit.

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

Of this play there is a tradition preferved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was fo delighted with the character of Falstaff, that fhe wifhed it to be diffused through more plays; but fufpecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diverfify

his manner, by fhewing him in love. No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakespeare knew what the queen, if the story be true, feems not to have known, that by any real paffion of tenderness, the felfifh craft, the carelefs jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have fuffered fo much abatement, that little of his former caft would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceafing to be Falstaff. He could only counterfeit Tove, and his profeffions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet having perhaps in the former plays com→ pleted his own idea, feems not to have been able to give Falstaff all his former power of entertainment.

This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the perfonages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and difcriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play.

Whether Shakespeare was the first that produced upon the English ftage the effect of language diftorted and depraved by provincial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide. This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praife only on him, who originally difcovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgment: its fuccefs must be derived almoft wholly from the player, but its power in a fkilful mouth, even he that defpifes it, is unable to refift.

The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often before the conclufion, and the different parts might change places without inconvenience; but its general power, that power by VOL. IX. X

which

which all works of genius fhall finally be tried, is fuch, that perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator, who did not think it too foon at an end.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

There is perhaps not one of Shakespeare's plays more darkened than this, by the peculiarities of its author, and the unfkilfulness of its editors, by diftortions of phrafe, or negligence of tranfcrip-.

tion.

The novel of Giraldi Cynthio, from which ShakeSpeare is fupposed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in Shakespeare illuftrated, elegantly tranflated, with remarks, which will affift the enquirer to difcover how much abfurdity Shakespeare has admitted or avoided.

I cannot but fufpect that fome other had newmodelled the novel of Cynthio, or written a story which in fome particulars refembled it, and that Cynthio was not the author whom Shakespeare immediately followed. The emperor in Cynthio is named Maximine; the duke, in Shakespeare's enumeration of the perfons of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very flight remark; but fince the duke has no name in the play, nor is ever mentioned but by his title, why fhould he be called Vincentio among the perfons, but becaufe the name was copied from the ftory, and placed fuperfluously at the head of the lift by the mere habit of tranfcription? It is therefore likely that there was then a ftory of Vineontio duke of Vienna, different from that of Maximine emperor of the Romans.

of