der'd fingular by such a supposition; it being certain, that every other author of the time, with out exception, who wrote any thing largely, publish'd some of his plays himself, and Ben Jonson all. of them: nay, the very errors and faults of these quarto's, of some of them at least, and those fuch as are brought against them by other arguers, ---are, with the editor, proofs of their genuineness ; for from what hand, but that of the author himself, could come those seemingly-strange repetitions which are fpoken of at p. 280 ? those imperfect entries, and entries of persons who have no concern in the play at all, neither in the scene where they are made to enter, nor in any other part of it? yet such there are in several of these quarto's; and such might well be expected in the hafty draughts of fo negligent an author, who neither saw at once all he might want, nor, in some instances, gave himself fafficient tiine to consider the fitness of what he was then penning.

These and other like arguments might, as is said before, be col. lected, and urg'd for the plays that were first publish'd in the quarto's; that is, for fourteen of them, for the other six are out of the question: but what has been enlarg’d upon above, of their being fol. low'd by the 'folio, and their apparent general likeness to all the other plays that are in that collection, is so very forcible as to be sufficient of itself to satisfy the unprejudic'd, that the plays of both impressions spring all frçm the same stock, and owe their numerous imperfections to one common origin and cause, the 100-great negligence and haste of their over-careless producer. VOL. I.

V

But to return to the thing immediately treated, the late of the old editions. The quarto's went through many impressions, as may be seen in the Table: and, in each play, the last is generally taken from the impression next before it, and so onward to the first; the few that come not within this rule are taken notice of in the Table: and this further is to be observ'd of them: that, geneTally speaking, the more distant they are from the original, the more they abound in faults; 'till, in the end, the corruptions of the last copies become fo excessive, as to make them of hardly any worth. The folio too had it's re-impressions, the dates and notices of which are likewise in the Table, and they tread the famë round as did the quarto's: only that the third of them has seven plays more, (see their titles below,') in which it is follow'd by

• Locrine; The London Prodigal; Pericles, Prince of Tyre ; The Puritan, or, the Widow of Watling Street; Sir John Oldcastle; Thomas Lord Cromwell; and The Yorkshire Tragedy: and the imputed ones, mention'd a little above, are thefe ; – The Arraignment of Paris; Birth of Merlin; Fair Em; Edward III. Merry Devil of Edmonton ; Mucedorus; and The Two Noble Kinsmen; but in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, Rowley is call'd his partner in the title-page ; and Fletcher, in The Two Woble Kinsmen. What external proofs there are of their coming from Shakspeare, are gather'd all together, and put down in the Table; and further it not concerns us to engage: but let those who are inclin’d to dispute it, carry this along with them;-that London in Shakspeare's time, had a multitude of playhouses ; erected some in inn-yards, and such like places, and frequented by the lowest of the people; such audiences' might have been seen some years ago in Southwark and Bartholomew, and may be seen at this day in the country; to which it was also a custom for players to make excursion, at wake times and festivals : and for such places, and such occasions, might these pieces be compos'd in the author's early time; the worit of them fuiting well enough to the parties they

the last; and that again by the first of the moa dern impressions, which now comic to be spoken of.

If the stage be a mirror of the times, as undoubtedly it is, and we judge of the age's temper by what we fee prevailing there, what must we think of the times that succeeded Shakspeare ? Jonson favour'd by a court that delighted only in masques, had been gaining ground upon him even in his life-time; and his death put him in full possession of a poft he had long aspir'd to, the empire of the drania: the props of this new king's throne, were— Fletcher, Shirley, Middleton, Maffinger, Broome, and others; and how unequal they all were, the monarch and his subjects too, to the poet they came after, let their works testify: yet they had the vogue on their fide, during all those blessed times that preceded the civil war, and Shakspeare was held in disesteem. The war, and medley government that follow'd, swept all these things away: but they were restor’d with the king; and another stage took place, in which Shakspeare had little share. Dryden had then the lead, and maintain'd it for half a century: though his government was sometimes disputed by Lee, Tate, Shadwell, Wytcherley, and others; weaken'd much by The Rehearsal; and quite overthrown in the end by Otway, and Rowe: what the cast of their plays was, is known to every one: but that Shakspeare, the true and genuine Shakspeare, was not much relish'd, is plain from the many alterations of him, that were brought upon the stage by some of those gentlenien, and by others within that period. might be made for:- and this, or fomething nearly of this sort, may have been the case too of some plays in his great collection, which shall be fpoken of in their place.

But from what has been said, we are not to conclude that the poet had no admirers: for the contrary is true; and he had in all this interval no inconsiderable party amongst men of the greatest understanding, who both saw his merit, in despite of the darkness it was then wrapt up in, and spoke loudly in his praise; but the stream of the publick favour ran the other way. But this too coming about at the time we are speaking of, there was a demand for his works, and in a form that was more convenient than the folio's: in consequence of which the gentleman laft mentioned was set to work by the booksellers; and, in 1709, he put out an edition in fix volumes, octavo, which, unhappily, is the basis of all the other moderns: for this editor went no further than to the edition nearest to him in time, which was the folio of 1685, the last and worst of those impressions: this he republish'd with great exa&ness; correcting here and there some of it's grossest mistakes, and dividing into acts and scenes the plays that were not divided before.

But no sooner was this edition in the hands of the publick, than they saw in part its deficiences, and one of another fort began to be required of them; which accordingly was set about some years after by two gentlemen at once, Mr. Pope and Mr. Theobald. The labours of the first came out in 1725, in six volumes quarto: and he has the merit of having first improved his author, by the insertion of many large passages, speeches, and fingle lines, taken from the quarto's; and of amending him in other places, by readings fetch'd from the same: but his materials were few, and

his collation of them not the most careful; which, join'd to other faults, and to that main one-of making his predecessor's the copy himself follow'd, , brought his labours in disrepute, and has finally funk them in neglect.

His publication retarded the other gentleman, and he did not appear 'till the year 1733, when his work too came out in feven volumes, octavo. The opposition that was between them seems to have enflam'd him, which was heighten’d by other motives, and he declaims vehemently against the work of his antagonist; which yet ferv'd him for a model; and his own is made only a little better, by his having a few more materials; of which he was not a better collator than the other, nor did he excel him in the use of them; for, in this article, both their judgments may be equally call'd in question; in what he has done that is conjectural, he is rather more happy; but in this he had so large ass/ fıstances. But the gentleman that

next, critick of another stamp; and pursues a track, in which it is greatly to be hop'd he will never be follow'd in the publication of any authors whatfoever: for this were, in effect, to annihilate them, if carry'd a little further; by destroying all marks of peculiarity and notes of time, all easiness of expression and numbers, all justness of thought, and the nobility of not a few of their conceptions: The manner in which his author is treated, excités! an indignation that will be thought by some to vent itself too strongly; but terms weaker would do injustice to my feelings, and the censure shall be hazarded. Mr. Pope's edition was the ground,