To Mifs

SWEE

WEET Modefty, the third of that fair band,

Whom virtuous friendship, ill by churls deny'd To Ladies' gentle bofoms, hath ally'd;

May I unblam'd your favoring voice demand,

While arm'd with Truth's good Shield alone I stand
In Shakespear's caufe determin'd to abide
Th' outrageous efforts of insulting pride,
And marks of Calumny's detefted brand?

Deep are the wounds fhe gives, and hard to heal,
Yet though enrag'd her hundred tongues she join
With canker'd spite to blast my honest name,
I reck not much, nor bate my pious zeal;

But to the Fair and Good my cause resign, Who fmile on Virtue, and whofe fmiles are Fame.

Mr. WARBURTON.

SIR,

IF

F Fame is one of the ingredients, or, as you elegantly call them, • Entremes of happinefs; I am more obliged to You, whom I do not know; than to any person whom I do. Had not you called him forth to the public notice, the OTHER Gentleman of Lincoln's-Inn might have died in the obfcurity, which, You say, his modefty affected; and the few people, who had read the last Edition of Shakespear, and the Supplement to it, after having fighed over the one, and laughed at the other, would foon have forgotten both.

As I have no reason to repent the effects of that Curiofity, which you

The Dedication and the Preface were added to the later editions of the Canons, on occafion of a Note on the Dunciad B. IV. 1. 567.

MACBETH, Vol. VI. Page 392.

have raised on my Subject; to borrow another expreffion of yours; I take this opportunity of thanking You for that civil treatment, fo becoming a Gentleman and a Clergyman, which I have received at your Hands; and offer to your protection a work, "from “which, if Shakespear, or good Let"ters, have received any advantage, "and the Public any benefit or en"tertainment; the thanks are due to "Mr. Warburton."

I am, Sir,

Not your enemy; though you have given me no great reason to be

Your

very

humble Servant;

Thomas Edwards.

See Mr. Warburton's Preface, Page 20.

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PREFACE.

Now appear in public, not a little against my inclination; for I thought, I had been quit of the talk of reading the last edition of Shakespear any more; at left till thofe, who disapprove of what I have published concerning it, fhould be as well acquainted with it as I am; and that perhaps might have been a reprieve for life: but Mr. Warburton has dragged me from my obscurity; and by infinuating that I have written a libel against him, (by which he muft mean the CANONS of CRITICISM, because it is the only book I have written; I fay, by this unfair infinuation) he has obliged me to fet my name to a pamphlet ; which if I did not in this manner own before, it was I must confefs owing to that fault Mr. Warburton accuses me of; a fault, which He, who like Cato can have no remorfe for weakneffes in others, which his upright foul was never guilty of, thinks utterly unpardonable; and that is Modefty: Not that I was either afhamed of the pamphlet, or afraid of my adverfary; for I knew that my cause was juft; and that truth would fupport me even against a more tremendous antagonist, if fuch there be;

but

I