and not intelligible to an English audience, and yet that perhaps is the best thing that can be faid of it. There can be no doubt but a great deal more of that low ftuff, which difgraces the works of this great author, was foifted in by the players after his death, to please the vulgar audiences by which they fubfifted and though fome of the poor witticifms and conceits must be fuppofed to have fallen from his pen, yet as he hath put them generally into the mouths of low and ignorant people, fo it is to be remembered that he wrote for the ftage, rude and unpolished as it then was; and the vicious tafte of the age must stand condemned for them, fince he hath left upon record a fignal proof how much he defpifed them. In his play of The Merchant of VENICE, a clown is introduced quibbling in a miferable manner; upon which one, who bears the character of a man of fenfe, makes the following reflexion: How every fool can play upon a word! I think the best grace of wit will shortly turn into filence, and difcourfe grow commendable in none but parrots. He could hardly have found ftronger words to exprefs his indignation at thofe falfe pretences to wit then in vogue; and therefore though fuch trash is frequently interfperfed in his writings, it would be unjuft to caft it as an imputation upon his taste and judgment and character as a writer.

There being many words in Shakefpeare which are grown out of ufe and obfolete, and many borrowed from other languages which are not enough naturalized or known among us, a gloffary is added at the end of the work, for the explanation of all thofe terms which have hitherto been fo many ftumbling-blocks to the generality of readers; and where there is any obfcurity in the text, not arifing from the words, but from a reference to fome antiquated cuftoms now forgotten, or other caufes of that kind, a note is put at the bottom of the page to clear up the difficulty.

With these several helps, if that rich vein of sense which runs through the works of this author can be retrieved in every part, and brought to appear in its true light, and if it may be hoped, without prefumption, that this is here effected; they who love and admire him will receive a new pleasure, and all probably will be more ready to join in doing him juftice, who does great honour to his country as a rare and perhaps a fingular genius: one who hath attained an high degree of perfection in those two great branches of poetry, tragedy and comedy, different as they are in their natures from each other; and who may be faid without partiality to have equalled, if not excelled, in both kinds, the best writers of any age or country, who have thought it glory enough to diftinguifh themselves in either.

Since therefore other nations have taken care to dignify the works of their most celebrated poets with the fairest impreffions beautified with the ornaments of fculpture, well may our Shakespeare be thought to deferve no lefs confideration: and as a fresh acknowledgment hath lately been paid. to his merit, and a high regard to his name and memory, by erecting his ftatue at a publick expence; fo it is defired that this new edition of his works, which hath coft fome attention and care, may be looked upon as another finall monument defigned and dedicated to his honour,

Dr. WARBURTON's

PREFACE,

I

T hath been no unufual thing for writers, when diffatisfied with the patronage or judgment of their own times, to appeal to pofterity for a fair hearing. Some have even thought fit to apply to it in the first instance; and to decline acquaintance with the publick, till envy and prejudice had quite fubfided. But, of all the trufters to futurity, commend me to the author of the following poems, who not only left it to time to do him juftice as it would, but to find him out as it could. For, what between too great attention to his profit as a player, and too little to his reputation as a poet, his works, left to the care of door-keepers and prompters, hardly escaped the common fate of thofe writings, how good foever, which are abandoned to their own fortune, and unprotected by party or cabal. At length, indeed, they truggled into light; but fo difguifed and travefted, that no claffick author, after having run ten fecular ftages through the blind cloifters of monks and canons, ever came out in half fo maimed and mangled a condition. But for a full account of his diforders, I refer the reader to the excellent difcourfe which follows, and turn myself to confider the remedies that have been applied to them.

Shakespeare's works, when they escaped the players, did not fall into much better hands when they came amongt printers and bookfellers; who, to fay the truth, had at first but small encouragement for putting

him into a better condition. The ftubborn nonfenfe, with which he was incrufted, occafioned his lying long neglected amongft the common lumber of the ftage. And when that refiftlefs fplendor, which now fhoots all around him, had, by degrees, broke through the shell of thofe impurities, his dazzled admirers became as fuddenly infenfible to the extraneous fcurf that ftill ftuck upon him, as they had been before to the native beauties that lay under it. So that, as then he was thought not to deferve a cure, he was now fuppofed not to need any.

His growing eminence, however, required that he fhould be used with ceremony; and he foon had his appointment of an editor in form. But the bookfeller, whofe dealing was with wits, having learnt of them, I know not what filly maxim, that none but a poet fhould prefume to meddle with a poet, engaged the ingenious Mr. Rowe to undertake this employment. A wit indeed he was; but fo utterly unacquainted with the whole bufinefs of criticifm, that he did not even collate or confult the firft editions of the work he undertook to publifh; but contented himself with giving us a meagre account of the author's life, interlarded with fome common-place fcraps from his writings. The truth is, Shakespeare's condition was yet but ill understood. The nonfenfe, now, by confent, received for his own, was held in a kind of reverence for its age and author; and thus it continued, till another great poet broke the charm, by fhewing us, that the higher we went, the lefs of it was ftill to be found.

For the proprietors, not difcouraged by their firft unfuccessful effort, in due time, made a fecond; and, though they ftill ftuck to their poets, with infinitely more fuccefs in their choice of Mr. Pope, who, by the mere force of an uncommon genius, without any particular study or profeffion of this art, discharged the great parts of it fo well, as to make his edition

the

the best foundation for all further improvements. He separated the genuine from the fpurious plays; and, with equal judgment, though not always with the fame fuccefs, attempted to clear the genuine plays from the interpolated scenes: he then confulted the old editions; and, by a careful collation of them, rectified the faulty, and fupplied the imperfect reading in a great number of places: and Îaftly, in an admirable preface, hath drawn a general, but very lively sketch of Shakespeare's poetick character; and, in the corrected text, marked out thofe peculiar strokes of genius which were most proper to fupport and illuftrate that character. Thus far Mr. Pope. And although much more was to be done before Shakespeare could be reftored to himself (fuch as amending the corrupted text where the printed books afford no affiftance; explaining his licentious phrafeology and obfcure allufions, and illuftrating the beauties of his poetry) yet, with great modefty and prudence, our illuftrious editor left this to the critick by profeffion.

But nothing will give the common reader a better idea of the value of Mr. Pope's edition, than the two attempts which have been fince made by Mr. Theobald and Sir Thomas Hanmer in oppofition to it; who, although they concerned themselves only in the first of these three parts of criticifin, the restoring the text (without any conception of the fecond, or venturing even to touch upon the third) yet fucceeded fo very ill in it, that they left their author in ten times a worse condition than they found him. But, as it was my ill fortune to have fome accidental connexions with these two gentlemen, it will be incumbent on me to be a little more particular concerning them.

The one was recommended to me as a poor man; the other as a poor critick: and to each of them, at different times, I communicated a great number of obfervations,