THE

CANONS or RULES

FOR

CRITICISM.

Extracted out of

Mr. Warburton's Notes on Shakespear.

CANON I,

A Profeffed Critic has a right to declare, that

his Author wrote whatever he thinks he should have written; with as much pofitiveness, as if he had been at his Elbow.

EXAMPLE I. Vol. 4. P. 330.

"Never went with his forces into France."

"Shakespear wrote the line thus ;

"Ne'er went with his full forces into France."

EXAMP. II. Ib. “Shakespear wrote, “as rich "with prize."

C 4

EXAMP

EXAMP. III. Vol. 8. P. 163. " "wrote, "fee too."

Shakespear

EXAMP. IV.-P. 339. "Shakespear wrote"make more virtuous," &c.

EXAMP. V. Vol. 4. P. 333.

"So many thousand actions once a foot" Shakespear must have wrote," Anglicè written; "'t once a foot," i. e. at once.

WARB.

Yet I doubt, Mr. Warburton cannot fhew an inftance, where at has fuffered this apoftrophe; before his Edition in 1747.

EXAMP. VI. Vol. 2. P. 444. We must read, as Shakespear without question wrote;

"And thyself, fellow Curtis." WARB.

EXAMP. VII. Vol. 5. P. 8. 2 HENRY VI.
Certainly Shakespear wrote, Eaft.

EXAMP. VIII. Vol. 2. P. 250. LoVE'S LABOR'S

LOST.

"It infinuateth me of infamy."

Mr. Theobald had corrected this to infanie: (from infania) Mr. Warburton's note is, "There is no need to make the Pedant worse than Shakespear "made him; who without doubt wrote infanity." WARB.

But why, without doubt? Shakespear understood the Characters he drew; and why might not this Pedant, as well as others, choose to coin a new word; when there was an old one as good? In short, why

might not Holofernes take the fame liberty, as Mr. Warburton fo frequently does?

EXAMP. IX. Vol. 1. P. 447. MEASURE FOR
MEASURE.

I do perceive,

"Those poor informal women are no more "But inftruments of fome more mightier member "That fets them on.”

i.e."women who have ill concerted their story. "Formal fignifies frequently, in our Author, a "thing put into form or method: fo informal, "out of Method, ill concerted. How eafy is it "to fay, that Shakespear might better have wrote "informing; i. e. accufing! But he, who (as the "Oxford Editor) thinks he did write so, knows "nothing of the character of his ftile."

WARB.

Whatever Shakespear wrote, he certainly meant (with the Oxford Editor) informing. He could not mean, that the ftory was ill concerted; because in the very next line Angelo fuppofes, that it was concerted by fome mighty perfon concealed; to whom these women were only inftruments: and it is treated throughout the fcene, by Angelo and the Duke too, not as folly; but as malicious wickedness.

EXAMP. X. Vol. 3. P. 49. ALL'S WELL THAT

ENDS WELL.

-many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing.

"We should read-speaks out."-WARE.

But Why? To fpeak out his undoing is awkward, if it be English at all. To bake-out is more expreffive; as it gives us the idea of rash and unadvised speaking: temere et leviter effutire.

EXAMP, XI. Vol. 8. P. 45. ROMEO and JULIET.

"Laura to his lady was but a kitchen-wench"Dido a dowdy-Thisbe a grey-eye or fo, but not "to the purpose.

"We should read and point it thus,

"Thisbe a grey-eye, or fo: But now to the purpofe.

"He here turns, from his difcourfe on the "effects of love, to enquire after Romeo. WARB.

Mercutio's (the speaker) next words are-Signior Romeo, bonjour; there's a French falutation to your French flop.

Very much to the purpose, truly!

EXAMP. XII. Vol. 8. P. 51. ROMEO and Ju

LIET.

"Though his face be better than any man's, yet his legs exceed all men's-&c. "We fhould read man's.-WARB.

be no better than another

In order, I fuppofe to fet the old Nurfe's thoughs and yets into a little better form; not confidering, that the confounds them again, in the very next Sentence-though they may not be talk'd-on, yet are they past compare.

EXAMP. XIII. Vol. 8. P. 282. OTHELLO.

t

-Gone fhe is :

"And what's to come of my defpifed time "Is nought but bitterness-"

Why defpifed time? We should read-deSpited, i. e. vexatious. WARB.

Why

Why defpifed? Why, because he would despise it himself: or perhaps, because this marriage was confidered by him as cafting fuch a reflexion on his family; as would render it, and him, contemptible for the rest of his life: as he fays afterwards of his daughter to Othello, that she

"to incur a general mock,

"Run from her guardage to the footy arms "Of fuch a Thing as Thou.

To produce all the examples Mr. Warburton has furnished us with to this Canon, would be to make an extract from a great part of his Notes; however, I cannot help adding one more, which fhews the true fpirit of a Profeffed Critic:

EXAMP. XIV. Vol. 4. P. 129. 1 HENRY IV. where lady Kate fays to Hotfpur, " and thou haft talk'd

"Of palifadoes, frontiers, parapets," &c. In the fpecimen of Mr. Warburton's performance, which was given us in the General Dictionary, under the article of Shakespear, note Q, his words on this paffage are as follows;

"All here is an exact recapitulation of the appa"ratus of a fiege and defence; but the impertinent "word frontiers, which has nothing to do in the "business, has crept in amongst them. SHAKE"SPEAR WROTE, Rondeurs; an old French word for "the round towers in the walls of ancient fortifi"cations. The Poet ufes the fame word englished "in King JOHN, Vol. 3. P. 408.

""Tis not the rounders of your old fac'd walls."