as, a Note on every one hinders all poffible Return to Depravity; and for ever fecures them in a State of Purity and Integrity not to be loft or forfeited.

in Shake

Again, as fome Notes have been neceffary to point out the Detection of the corrupted Text, and establish the Restoration of the genuine Readings; fome others have been as neceffary for the Explanation of Paffages obfcure and difficult. To understand the Ne-Causes of ceffity and Ufe of this Part of my Task, fome burities Particulars of my Author's Character are pre- fpeare. viously to be explain'd. There are Obfcurities in him, which are common to him with all Poets of the fame Species; there are Others, the Iffue of the Times he liv'd in; and there are Others, again, peculiar to himself. The Nature of Comic Poetry being entirely fatyrical, it bufies itself more in expofing what we call Caprice and Humour, than Vices cognizable to the Laws. The English, from the Happiness of a free Conftitution, and a Turn of Mind peculiarly fpeculative and inquifitive, are obferv'd to produce more Humourists and a greater Variety of Original Characters, than any other People whatfoever: And Thefe owing their immediate Birth to the peculiar Genius of each Age, an infinite Number of Things alluded to, glanced at, and expos'd, muft needs become obfcure, as the Characters themselves are antiquated, and disused. An Editor therefore should be well vers'd in the History

C' 4

History and Manners' of his Author's Age, if he aims at doing him a Service in this Rel de i spect,

30

Befides, Wit lying moftly in the Affemblage of Ideas, and in the putting Those together with Quickness and Variety, wherein can be found any Refemblance, or Congruity, to make up pleafant Pictures, and agreeable Vifions in the Fancy; the Writer, who aims at We must of courfe" range far and wide for aterials. Now, the Abe Age, in which ShakeJpcare liv'd, having, above all others, a wonderful Affection to appear Learned, They declined vulgar Images, fuch as are immediately fetch'd from Nature, and rang'd thro' the Circle of the Sciences to fetch their Ideas from thence. But as the Refemblances of Juch Ideas to the Subject must neceffarily tie ry much out of the common Way, very Quand every piece of Wit appear a Riddle to the Vulgar, This, that should have taught them, the forced, quaint, unnatural Tract they were in (and induce them to follow a more natural One) was the very Thing that kept them attach'd to it. The oftentatious Affectation of abstruse Learning, peculiar, to that Time, the Love that Men naturally have to every Thing that looks like Mystery, fixed them down to this Habit of Obfcurity. Thus became the U Poetry of DONNE (tho the wittieft Man of that Age,) nothing but a continued Heap of Riddles. And our Shakelpeare, with all his

n

eafy

eafy Nature about him, for want of the Knowledge of the true Rules of Art, fal Rules of Art, falls frequently into this vicious Manner.

The third Species of Obfcurities, which deform our Author, as t the the Effects of his own Genius and Character, are Thofe that proceed from his peculiar Manner of Thinking, and as peculiar a Manner of cloathing thofe Thoughts. With regard to his Thinking, it is certain, that he had a general Knowledge of all the Sciences: But his Acquaintance was rather That of a Traveller, than a Native. Nothing in Philofophy was unknown to him to him; but every Thing in it had the Grace and Force of Novelty. And as Novelty is one main Source of Admiration, we are not to wonder that He has perpetual Allufions to the most recondite Parts of the Sciences: and This was done not fo much out of Affectation, as the Effect of Admiration begot by Novelty. Then, as to his Style and Diction, we may much more justly apply to SHAKESPEARE, what a celebrated Writer has faid of MILTON; Our Language funk under him, and was unequal to that Greatness of Soul which furnish'd him with fuck glorious Conceptions. He therefore frequently, ufes old Words, to give his Diction an Air of Solemnity; as he coins others, to exprefs the Novelty and Variety of his Ideas.

Upon every diftinct Species of thefe Obfcurities I have thought it my Province to employ a Note, for the Service of my Author,

and

and the Entertainment of my Readers. A few tranfient Remarks, too I have not forupled to intermix, uppn the Poet's Negligences and Amifions in point of Art, but I have done lis

always in fuch a Manner, as will reftify my Deference and Veneration for the Immortals Author. Some Cenfurers of Shakespeare, and particularly Mr. Rymer, have taught me to diftinguish betwixt the Railer and Critick. The Qutrage of his Quotations is fo remarkably violent, fo push'd beyond all Bounds of Decency and fober Reasoning, that it quite carries over the Mark at which it was levell'd Extravagant Abufe throws off the Edge of the intended Disparagement, and turns the Madman's Weapon into his own Bosom. In short, as to Rymen, This is my Opinion of him from his Criticifms on the Tragedies of So the Laft Age. He writes with great Vivacity, 25th and appears to have been a Scholar: but, as ob zmi for his knowledge of the Art of Poetry, I hobr can't perceive it was any deeper than his Ac

quaintance with Baffu and Dacier, from whom hethaa tranfcribed many of his beft Reflexions. The late Mr. Gildon was One attached to Rymer by a fimilar Way of Thinking and Studies. They were Both of that Species of Criticks, who are defirous of difplaying their Powers rather in finding Faults, than in confulting the Improvement of the World: the hypercritical Part of the Science of Criticism.

E

AI had not mentioned the modent Liberty T have here and there taken of animadverting on my Author, but that I was willing to oby viate in time the fplenetick Exaggerations of my Adversaries on this Head. From paft Experiments I have Reason to be confcious, in what Light this Attempt may be placed : and that what I call a modeft Liberty, will; by a little of their Dexterity, be inverted into downright Impudence. From a hundred mean and difhoneft Artifices employ'a to difcredit this Edition, and to ery down its Editor, I have all the Grounds in Nature to be aware of Attacks. But tho the Malice of Wit join'd to the Smoothness of Verfification may furnish fome Ridicule; Fact, I hope, will be able to ftand its Ground against Ban ter and Galety no and at mid XP has been my Fate, it feems, as 4 thought ShakeAmy ay Duty, to difcover fome Anachronisms in peare' our Author which might have flept in Ob- nims defcurity but for this Restorer, as Mr. Pope is fended. pleas'a affectionately to style me; as, for Inftance, where Aristotle is mentioned by Hector in Troilus and Cressida and Galen, Cato, and Alexander the Grear, in Coriolanus. These, in Mr. Pope's Opinion, are Blunders, which the Illiteracy of the firft Publishers of his Works has father'd upon the Poet's Memory it not being at all credible, that Thefe could be the Errors of any Man who had the leaft Tincture of a School, or the leaft Conversation with

Such

Anachro