In his reports of copies and editions he is not to be trufted, without examination. He fpeaks fometimes indefinitely of copies, when he has only one. In his enumeration of editions, he mentions the two firft folios as of high, and the third folio as of middle authority; but the truth is, that the firft is equivalent to all others, and that the reft only deviate from it by the printer's negligence. Whoever has any of the folios has all, excepting thofe diverfities 'which mere reiteration of editions will produce. I collated them all at the beginning, but afterwards ufed only the first..

Of his notes I have generally retained those which The retained himself in his fecond edition, except when they were confuted by fubfequent annotators, or were too minute to merit prefervation. I have 'fometimes adopted his restoration of a comma, without inferting the panegyrick in which he celebrated himself for his atchievement. The exuberant excrefcence of his diction I have often lopped, his triumphant exultations over Pope and Rowe I have fometimes fuppreffed, and his contemptible oftenta. tion I have frequently concealed; but I have in fome places fhewn him, as he would have fhewn himself, for the reader's diverfion, that the inflated emptiness of some notes may juftify or excufe the contraction of the rest.

Theobald, thus weak and ignorant, thus mean and faithlefs, thus petulant and oftentatious, by the good

luck

luck of having Pope for his enemy, has escaped, and efcaped alone, with reputation, from this undertaking. So willingly does the world fupport those who folicite favour, against those who command reverence; and fo eafily is he praised, whom no man can envy.

Our authour fell then into the hands of Sir Tho mas Hanmer, the Oxford editor, a man, in my opinion, eminently qualified by nature for fuch ftudies. He had, what is the first requifite to emendatory criticism, that intuition by which the poet's intention is immediately discovered, and that dexterity of intellect which despatches its work by the easiest means. He had undoubtedly read much; his acquaintance with customs, opinions, and traditions, feems to have been large; and he is often learned without fhew. He feldom paffes what he does not understand, without an attempt to find or to make a meaning, and fometimes haftily makes what a little more attention would have found. He is folicitous to reduce to grammar, what he could not be fure that his authour intended to be grammatical. Shakespeare regarded more the feries of ideas, than of words; and his language, not being defigned for the reader's desk, was all that he defired it to be, if it conveyed his meaning to the audience.

Hanmer's care of the metre has been too violently cenfured. He found the measures reformed in fo many paffages, by the filent labours of fome editors, [D 2]

with

with the filent acquiefcence of the reft, that he thought himself allowed to extend a little further the licenfe, which had already been carried fo far without reprehenfion; and of his corrections in general, it must be confeffed, that they are often just, and made commonly with the least poffible violation of the text.

But, by inferting his emendations, whether invented or borrowed, into the page, without any notice of varying copies, he has appropriated the labour of his predeceffors, and made his own edition of little authority. His confidence indeed, both in himself and others, was too great; he fuppofes all to be right that was done by Pope and Theobald; he feems not to fufpect a critick of fallibility, and it was but reasonable that he fhould claim what he fo li berally granted.

As he never writes without careful enquiry and diligent confideration, I have received all his notes, and believe that every reader will wish for more.

Of the last editor it is more difficult to fpeak. Refpect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and veneration to genius and learning; but he cannot be justly offended at that liberty of which he has himself fo frequently given an example, nor very folicitous what is thought of notes, which he ought never to have confidered as part of his serious employments, and which, I fuppofe, fince the ardour

of compofition is remitted, he no longer numbers among his happy effufions.

The original and predominant errour of his commentary, is acquiefcence in his first thoughts; that precipitation which is produced by consciousness of quick difcernment; and that confidence which prefumes to do, by furveying the furface, what labour only can perform, by penetrating the bottom. His notes exhibit fometimes perverfe interpretations, and fometimes improbable conjectures; he at one time gives the authour more profundity of meaning, than the fentence admits, and at another discovers abfurdities, where the sense is plain to every other reader. But his emendations are likewife often happy and juft; and his interpretation of obfcure paffages learned and fagacious.

Of his notes, I have commonly rejected thofe, against which the general voice of the publick has exclaimed, or which their own incongruity immediately condemns, and which, I fuppofe, the authour himself would defire to be forgotten. Of the reft, to part I have given the highest approbation, by inferting the offered reading in the text; part I have left to the judgment of the reader, as doubtful, though fpecious; and part I have cenfured without referve, but I am fure without bitternefs of malice, and, I hope, without wantonnefs of infult.

It is no pleasure to me, in revifing my volumes, to obferve how much paper is wafted in confutation. [D 3] Who

Whoever confiders the revolutions of learning, and the various questions of greater or lefs importance, upon which wit and reafon have exercised their powers, muft lament the unfuccefsfulness of enquiry, and the flow advances of truth, when he reflects, that great part of the labour of every writer is only the deftruction of thofe that went before him. The first care of the builder of a new fyftem, is to demolish the fabricks which are ftanding. The chief defire of him that comments an authour, is to fhew how much other commentators have corrupted and obfcured him. The opinions prevalent in one age, as truths above the reach of controverfy, are confuted and rejected in another, and rife again to reception in remoter times. Thus the human mind is kept in motion without progrefs. Thus fometimes truth and errour, and fometimes contrarieties of errour, take each others place by reciprocal invafion. The tide of feeming knowledge which is poured over one generation, retires and leaves another naked and barren; the fudden meteors of intelligence which for a while appear to fhoot their beams into the regions of obscurity, on a fudden withdraw their luftre, and leave mortals again to grope their way.

Thefe elevations and depreffions of renown, and the contradictions to which all improvers of knowledge must for ever be expofed, fince they are not efcaped by the highest and brightest of mankind, may furely be endured with patience by criticks and annotators,

who