made a fort of an effay towards it in his Discoveries, I will give it in his words: "I remember the players have often mentioned it " as an honour to Shakespeare, that in writing (what"foever he penned) he never blotted out a line. My "anfwer hath been, Would he had blotted a thousand! "which they thought a malevolent fpeech. I had "not told pofterity this, but for their ignorance, who "chofe that circumftance to commend their friend by, "wherein he most faulted: and to juftify mine own "candour, for I loved 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 ર gentle expreffions; wherein he flowed with that "facility, that fometimes it was neceffary he should "be ftopped: Sufflaminandas 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 faid in the perfon of Cæfar, one fpeak❝ing to him, "Cæfar thou doft me wrong. "He replied: "Cafar did never wrong, but with just cause. "And fuch like, which were ridiculous. But he re"deemed his vices with his virtues: there was ever "more in him to be praised than to be pardoned." As for the paffage which he mentions out of Shakefpeare, there is fomewhat like it in Julius Cæfar, but without the abfurdity; nor did I ever meet with it in any edition that I have feen, as quoted by Mr. Jonfon. Befides his plays in this edition, there are two or three afcribed 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 ftanzas, ftanzas, which have been printed in a late collection of poems. As to the character given of him by Ben Jonfon, there is a good deal in it: but I believe it may be as well expreffed by what Horace fays of the firit Romans, who wrote tragedy upon the Greek models (or indeed tranflated them) in his epiftle to Auguftus. Natura fublimis & acer, Nam fpirat tragicum fatis & feliciter audet, As I have not propofed to myfelf to enter into a large and complete collection upon Shakespeare's works, fo I will only take the liberty, with all due fubmiffion to the judgment of others, to obferve fome of those things I have been pleased with in locking him over. His plays are properly to be diftinguished only into comedies and tragedies. Those which are called hiftories, and even fome of his comedies, are really tragedies, with a run or mixture of comedy amongst them. That way of tragi-comedy was the common mistake of that age, and is indeed become fo agreeable to the English tafte, that though the feverer criticks among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our audiences feem to be better pleafed 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 called, have fomething of both kinds. It is not very eafy to determine which way of writing he was most excellent in. There is certainly a great deal of entertainment in his comical humours; and though they did not then strike at all ranks of people, as the fatire of the prefent age has taken the liberty to do, yet there is a pleafing and a well-diftinguished variety in thofe characters which he thought fit to meddle with. Falftaff is allowed by every body to be a mafter-piece; the character is always well fuftained, though drawn out out into the length of three plays; and even the ac count of his death, given by his old landlady Mrs. Quickly, in the first act of Henry the Fifth, though 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 though 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 almoft too agreeable; and I do not know whether fome people have not, in remembrance of the diverfion he had formerly afforded them, been forry to fee his friend Hal ufe him fo fcurvily, when he comes to the crown in the end of The Second Part of Henry the Fourth. Amongst other extravagancies, in The Merry Wives of Windfor he has made him a deer-stealer, that he might at the fame time remember his Warwickshire profecutor, under the name of Juftice 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 Welfh parfon defcant very pleasantly upon them. That whole play is admirable; the humours are various and well op pofed; the main defign, which is to cure Ford of his unreasonable jealoufy, is extremely well conducted. In Twelfth Night there is fomething fingularly ridiculous and pleasant in the fantaftical steward 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 Benedict and Beatrice, in Much Ado about Nothing, and of Rofalind in As you like it, have much wit and fprightlinefs all along. His clowns, without which character there was hardly any play writ in that time, are all very entertaining: and, I believe, Therfites in Troilus and Creffida, and Apemantus in Timon, will be allowed to be mafter-pieces of of ill-nature, and fatirical fnarling. To thefe I might add, that incomparable character of Shylock the Jew, in The Merchant of Venice; but though we have feen that play received and acted as a comedy, and the part of the Jew performed by an excellent comedian, yet I cannot but think it was defigned tragically by the author. There appears in it a deadly fpirit of revenge, fuch a favage fiercenefs and fellness, and fuch a bloody defignation of cruelty and mifchief, as cannot agree either with the ftile or characters of comedy. The play itself, take it altogether, feems to me to be one of the most finished of any of Shakespeare's. The tale indeed, in that part relating to the cafkets, and the extravagant and unufual kind of bond given by Antonio, is too much removed from the rules of probability; but taking the fact for granted, we muft allow it to be very beautifully written. There is fomething in the friendship of Antonio to Baffanio very great, generous, and tender. The whole fourth act (fuppofing, as I faid, the fact to be probable) is extremely fine. But there are two paffages that deferve a particular notice. The firft is, what Portia fays in praise of mercy, and the other on the power of mufick. The melancholy of Jaques, in As you like it, is as fingular and odd as it is diverting. And if, what Horace fays, Difficile eft proprie communia dicere, It will be a hard tafk for any one to go beyond him in the defcription of the feveral degrees and ages of man's life, though the thought be old, and common enough. -All the world is a ftage, And all the men and women merely players; Mewling Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms : Ev'n in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice His images are indeed every where fo lively, that the thing he would reprefent ftands full before you, and you poffefs every part of it. I will venture to point out one more, which is, I think, as ftrong and as uncommon as any thing I ever faw; it is an image of patience. Speaking of a maid in love, he fays, She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud, Smiling at grief. What |