entertain a fincere Veneration, but to which he could not have so ready a Recourse.

In touching on another Part of his Learning, as it related to the Knowledge of History and Books, I shall advance something, that, at first fight, will very much wear the Appearance of a Paradox. For I shall find it no hard Matter to prove, that from the grossest Blunders in History, we are not to infer his real Ignorance of it: Nor from a greater Use of Latin Words, than ever any other English Author used, must we infer his Knowledge of that Language.

A Reader of Taste may easily observe, that tho' Shakespeare, almost in every Scene of his historical Plays, commits the grossest Offences against Chronology, History, and Antient Politicks; yet This was not thro Ignorance, as is generally supposed, but thro the too powerful Blaze of his Imagination; which, when once raised, made all acquired Knowledge vanish and disappear before it. For Instance, in his Timon, he turns Athens, which was a perfect Democrasy, into an Aristocrafy; while he ridiculously gives a Senator the Power of banishing Alcibiades. On the contrary, in Coriolanus, he makes Rome, which at that time was a perfect Aristocrafy, a Democrafy full as ridiculously, by making the People choose Coriolanus Conful: Whereas, in Fact, it was not till the Time of Manlius Torquatus,

:

Torquatus, that the People had a Right of choosing one Conful. But this Licence in him, as I have faid, must not be imputed to Ignorance: fince as often we may find him, when Occasion serves, reasoning up to the Truth of History; and throwing out Sentiments as justly adapted to the Circumstances of his Subject, as to the Dignity of his Characters, or Dictates of Nature in general.

Then, to come to his Knowledge of the Latin Tongue, 'tis certain, there is a furprifing Effufion of Latin Words made English, far more than in any one English Author I have seen; but we must be cautious to imagine, this was of his own doing. For the English Tongue, in his Age, began extremely to fuffer by an Inundation of Latin; and to be overlaid, as it were, by its Nurse, when it had just began to speak by her before-prudent Care and Afsistance. And this, to be sure, was occafion'd by the Pedantry of those two Monarchs, Elizabeth and James, Both great Latinists. For it is not to be wonder'd at, if both the Court and Schools, equal Flatterers of Power, should adapt themselves to the Royal Taste. This, then, was the Condition of the English Tongue when Shakespeare took it up: like a Beggar in a rich Wardrobe. He found the pure native English too cold and poor to second the Heat and Abundance of his Imagination: and therefore was forc'd

to

to dress it up in the Robes, he saw provided for it: rich in themselves, but ill-shaped ; cut out to an air of Magnificence, but difproportion'd and cumbersome. To the Coftliness of Ornament, he added all the Graces and Decorum of it. It may be faid, this did not require, or discover a Knowledge of the Latin. To the first, I think, it did not; to the second, it is so far from discovering it, that, I think, it discovers the contrary. To make This more obvious by a modern Instance: The great MILTON likewise labour'd under the like Inconvenience; when he first set upon adorning his own Tongue, he likewise animated and enrich'd it with the Latin, but from his own Stock: and so, rather by bringing in the Phrases, than the Words: And This was natural; and will, I believe, always be the Cafe in the same Circumstances. His Language, especially his Profe, is full of Latin Words indeed, but much fuller of Latin Phrases: and his Maftery in the Tongue made this unavoidable. On the contrary, Shakespeare, who, perhaps, was not so intimately vers'd in the Language, abounds in the Words of it, but has few or none of its Phrafes: Nor, indeed, if what I affirm be true, could He. This I take to be the truest Criterion to determine this long agitated Question.

It may be mention'd, tho' no certain Con-

clusion can be drawn from it, as a probable

Argument

Argument of his having read the Antients;
that He perpetually expresses the Genius of
Homer, and other great Poets of the Old
World, in animating all the Parts of his
Descriptions; and, by bold and breathing
Metaphors and Images, giving the Properties
of Life and Action to inanimate Things. He
is a Copy too of those Greek Masters in the
infinite use of compound and de-compound Epi-
thets. I will not, indeed, aver, but that One
with Shakespeare's exquifite Genius and Ob-
servation might have traced these glaring
Characteristics of Antiquity by reading Ho-
mer in Chapman's Version.

and

An additional Word or two naturally falls B. Jonson in here upon the Genius of our Author, as Shakecompared with that of Jonfon his Contem-fpeare porary. They are confefsedly the greatest compar'd. Writers our Nation could ever boast of in the Drama. The first, we say, owed all to his prodigious natural Genius; and the other a great deal to his Art and Learning. This, if attended to, will explain a very remarkable Appearance in their Writings. Besides those wonderful Masterpieces of Art and Genius, which each has given Us; They are the Authors of other Works very unworthy of them: But with this Difference; that in Jonfon's bad Pieces we don't discover one fingle Trace of the Author of the Fox and Alchemist : but in the wild extravagant Notes of Shakespeare, you every now and then encounter Strains that

that recognize the divine Composer. This Difference may be thus accounted for. Jonfon, as we faid before, owing all his Excellence to his Art, by which he sometimes strain'd himself to an uncommon Pitch, when at other times he unbent and play'd with his Subject, having nothing then to support him, it is no wonder he wrote so far beneath himself. But Shakespeare, indebted more largely to Nature, than the Other to acquired Talents, in his most negligent Hours could never so totally divest himself of his Genius, but that it would frequently break out with aftonishing Force and Splendor.

His Repu

As I have never propos'd to dilate farther tation un- on the Character of my Author, than was dan Difad- neceffary to explain the Nature and Use of

vantages.

this Edition, I shall proceed to confider him as a Genius in Poffeffion of an Everlasting Name. And how great that Merit must be, which could gain it against all the Disadvantages of the horrid Condition in which he has hitherto appear'd! Had Homer, or any other admir'd Author, first started into Publick fo maim'd and deform'd, we cannot determine whether they had not funk for ever under the Ignominy of such an ill Appearance. The mangled Condition of Shakespeare has been acknowledg'd by Mr. Rowe, who publish'd him indeed, but neither corrected his Text, nor collated the old Copies. This Gentleman had Abilities, and a fufficient Knowledge of