Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

I come now to fpeak of thofe kind Affif- Acknow tances which I have met with from particu-tance. ledgment of lar Friends, towards forwarding and compleating this Work. Soon after my Defign was known, I had the Honour of an Invitation to Cambridge; and a generous Promise from the Learned and ingenious Dr. Thirlby of Jefus-College, there, who had taken great Pains with my Author, that I should have the Liberty of collating his Copy of ShakeSpeare, mark'd thro' in the Margin with his own Manufcript References and accurate Obfervations. He not only made good this Promife, but favour'd me with a Set of Emendations, interfpers'd and diftinguifh'd in his Name thro' the Edition, and which can need no Recommendation here to the judicious Reader.

The next Affiftance I receiv'd was from my ingenious Friend Hawley Bishop Efq; whofe great Powers and extenfive Learning are as

ty well known, as his uncommon Modef

ty, to all who have the Happiness of his Acquaintance. This Gentleman was fo generous, at the Expence both of his Pocket and Time, to run thro' all Shakespeare with me. We join'd Bufinefs and Entertainment together; and at every of our Meetings, which were conftantly once a Week, we read over a Play, and came mutually prepar'd to communicate our Conjectures upon it to each other. The Pleasure of thefe Appointments, I

think,

think, I may fay, richly compenfated for the Labour in our own Thoughts and I may venture to affirm, in the Behalf of my Affiftant, that our Author has deriv'd no little Improvement from them.

To thefe, I must add the indefatigable Zeal and Industry of my moft ingenious and everrefpected Friend, the Reverend Mr. William Warburton of Newark upon Trent. This Gentleman, from the Motives of his frank and communicative Difpofition, voluntarily took a confiderable Part of my Trouble off my Hands; not only read over the whole Author for me, with the exactest Care; but enter'd into a long and laborious Epiftolary Correfpondence; to which I owe no small Part of my beft Criticisms upon my Author.

The Number of Paffages amended, and admirably Explained, which I have taken. care to diftinguish with his Name, will fhew a Fineness of Spirit and Extent of Reading, beyond all the Commendations I can give them: Nor, indeed, would I any farther be thought to commend a Friend, than, in fo doing, to give a Teftimony of my own Gratitude. How great a fhare foever of Praise I muft lofe from my felf, in confeffing thefe Affiftances; and however my own poor Conjectures may be weaken'd by the Comparison with theirs; I am very well content to facrifice my Vanity to the Pride of being fo affifted, and the Pleasure of being juft to

their Merits. I beg leave to obferve to my Rea ders, in one Word, here, that from the Confeffion of thefe fucceffive Aids, and the Manner in which I deriv'd them, it appears, I have pretty well fill'd up the Interval, betwixt my firft Proposals and my Publication, with having my Author always in View, and at Heart.

Some Hints I have the Honour to owe to the Informations of Dr. Mead, and the late Dr. Friend: Others to the Kindness of the ingenious Martin Folkes, Efq; who likewife furnish'd me with the firft folio Edition of Shakespeare, at a Time when I could not meet with it among the Bookfellers; the Bookfellers; as my obliging Friend Thomas Coxeter, Efq; did with several of the old 4to fingle Plays, which I then had not in my own Collection. Some few ObferIvations I likewife owe to F. owe to F. Plumptree, Efq; Others to the Favour of anonymous Perfons for all which I moft gladly render my Acknowledgments.

[ocr errors]

cular

As to what regards my felf fingly, if the The EdiEdition do not speak for the Pains I have tor's partitaken about it, it will be very vain to plead Pains my own Labour and Diligence. Befides a taken. faithful Collation of all the printed Copies, which I have exhibited in my Catalogue of Editions at the End of this Work; let it fuffice to fay, that, to clear up feveral Errors in the Hiftorical Plays, I purpofely read over Hall and Holing fhead's Chronicles in the Reigns concern'd; all the Novels in Italian,

from

from which our Author had borrow'd any of his Plots; fuch Parts of Plutarch, from which he had deriv'd any Parts of his Greek or Roman Story: Chaucer and Spenfer's Works; all the Plays of B. Jonfon, Beaumont and Fletcher, and above 800 old English Plays, to afcertain the obfolete and uncommon Phrafes in him. Not to ention fome Labour and Pains unpleasantly spent in the dry Task of confulting Etymological Gloffaries.

[ocr errors]

But as no Labour of Mine can be equiva lent to the dear and ardent Love I bear for Shakespeare, fo, if the Publick fhall be pleas'd to allow that He owes any Thing to my Willingness and Endeavours of reftoring Him; I fhall reckon the Part of my Life fo engag'd, to have been very happily employ'd and put Myfelf, with great Submiffion, to be try'd by my Country in the Affair.

[graphic]

Dramatick Poet, W. SHAKESPEARE.

W

HAT neede my Shakespeare for his bonour'd

Bones

The Labour of an Age, in piled Stones?

Or that his hallow'd Reliques should be hid
Under a farr-y-pointing Pyramid?

Deare Sonne of Memory, great Heire of Fame,
What needft thou fuch dull Witneffe of thy Name?
Thou in our Wonder and Aftonishment

Haft built thy felfe a live-long Monument:
For whilft to th' Shame of flow-endevouring Art
Thy eafie Numbers flow, and that each Heart
Hath from the Leaves of thy unvalued Booke,
Thofe Delphicke Lines, fuch deep Impreffion tooke
Then thou, our Fancy of her felfe bereaving,
Doft make us Marble with too much conceiving:
And, fo fepulcher'd, in fuch Pompe doft lie,
That Kings for fuch a Tombe would wish to die.

win 2.30\ction. MILTON.

+ This Epitaph was written in 1630, when Milton was in his Two and Twentieth Year; for he was born in 1608.

[blocks in formation]
« ПредишнаНапред »