his Author, had but his Industry been equal to his Talents. The fame mangled Condition has been acknowledg'd too by Mr. Pope, who publish'd him likewife, pretended to have collated the old Copies, and yet feldom has corrected the Text but to its Injury. I congratulate with the Manes of our Poet, that this Gentleman has been fparing in indulging bis private Senfe; for He, who tampers with an Author whom he does not understand, muft do it at the Expence of his Subject. I have made it evident throughout my Remarks, that he has frequently inflicted a Wound where he intended a Cure. He has acted with regard to our Author, as an Editor, whom LIPSIUS mentions, did with regard to MARTIAL; Inventus eft nefcio quis Popa, qui non vitia ejus, fed ipfum, excidit. He has attack'd him like an unhandy Slaughterman; and not lopp'd off the Errors, but the Poet.

When this is found to be the Fact, how Praise abfurd must appear the Praises of fuch an E-Sometimes an Injury. ditor? It seems a moot Point, whether Mr. Pope has done most Injury to Shakespeare as his Editor and Encomiaft; or Mr. Rymer done him Service as his Rival and Cenfurer. Were it every where the true Text, which That Editor in his late pompous Edition gave us, the Poet deferv'd not the large Encomiums beftow'd by him: nor, in that Cafe, is Rymer's Censure of the Barbarity of his Thoughts,

and

and the Impropriety of his Expreffions, groundless. They have Both fhewn themselves in an equal Impuifance of fufpecting or amending the corrupted Paffages: and tho' it be neither Prudence to cenfure, or commend, what one does not understand; yet if a Man must do one when he plays the Critick, the latter is the more ridiculous Office. And by That Shakespeare fuffers moft. For the natural Veneration, which we have for him, makes us apt to swallow whatever is given us as his, and let off with Encomiums; and hence we quit all Sufpicions of Depravity: On the contrary, the Censure of fo divine an Author fets us upon his Defence; and this produces an exact Scrutiny and Examination, which ends in finding out and difcriminating the true from the fpurious.

It is not with any fecret Pleasure, that I fo frequently animadvert on Mr. Pope as a Critick; but there are Provocations, which a Man can never quite forget. His Libels have been thrown out with fo much Inveteracy, that, not to difpute whether they should come from a Chriftian, they leave it a Question whether they could come from a Man. I should be loth to doubt, as Quintus Serenus did in a like Cafe,

Sive homo, feu fimilis turpiffima beftia nobis,
Vulnera dente dedit.

The Indignation, perhaps, for being reprefented a Blockhead, may be as ftrong in Us as

it is in the Ladies for a Reflexion on their Beauties. It is certain, I am indebted to Him for fome flagrant Civilities; and I shall willingly devote a part of my Life to the honest Endeavour of quitting Scores: with this Exception however, that I will not return those Civilities in his peculiar Strain, but confine myself, at least, to the Limits of common Decency. I fhall ever think it better to want Wit, than to want Humanity: and impartial Pofterity may, perhaps, be of my Opinion.

faulty,

But, to return to my Subject; which now The old calls upon me to inquire into those Causes, to Editions which the Depravations of my Author origiorigi-hence. nally may be affign'd. We are to confider him as a Writer, of whom no authentic Manuscript was extant; as a Writer, whofe Pieces were difperfedly perform'd on the feveral Stages then in Being. And it was the Cuftom of thofe Days for the Poets to take a Price of the Players for the Pieces They from time to time furnish'd; and thereupon it was fuppos'd, they had no farther Right to print them without the Confent of the Players. As it was the Intereft of the Companies to keep their Plays unpublish'd, when any one fucceeded, there was a Contest betwixt the Curiofity of the Town, who demanded to fee it in Print, and the Policy of the Stagers, who wish'd to fecrete it within their own Walls. Hence, many Pieces were taken down in Short-hand, and imperfectly copied

by

by Ear, from a Reprefentation: Others were printed from piece-meal Parts furreptitiously obtain'd from the Theatres, uncorrect, and without the Poet's Knowledge. To fome of thefe Caufes we owe the train of Blemishes, that deform thofe Pieces which ftole fingly into the World in our Author's Life-time.

There are still other Reafons, which may be fuppos'd to have affected the whole Set. When the Players took upon them to publish his Works intire, every Theatre was ranfack'd to fupply the Copy; and Parts collected which had gone thro' as many Changes as Performers, either from Mutilations or Additions made to them. Hence we derive many Chafms and Incoherences in the Senfe and Matter. Scenes were frequently tranfpofed, and fhuffled out of their true Place, to humour the Caprice or fuppos'd Convenience of fome particular Actor. Hence much Confufion and Impropriety has attended, and embarras'd, the Business and Fable. For there ever have been, and ever will be in Playhouses, a Set of affuming Directors, who know better than the Poet himself the Connexion and Dependance of his Scenes; where Matter is defective, or Superfluities to be retrench'd; Perfons, that have the Fountain of Inspiration as peremptorily in them, as Kings have That of Honour. To thefe obvious Caufes of Corruption it must be added, that our Author has lain under the Disadvan

tage

tage of having his Errors propagated and multiplied by Time: becaufe, for near a Century, his Works were republish'd from the faulty Copies without the affiftance of any intelligent Editor: which has been the Cafe likewise of many a Claffic Writer.

and Me

The Nature of any Diftemper once found has generally been the immediate Step to a tor's Drift Cure. Shakespeare's Cafe has in a great Mea-thod. fure refembled. That of a corrupt Claffic; and, confequently, the Method of Cure was likewife to bear a Refemblance. By what Means, and with what Succefs, this Cure has been effected on ancient Writers, is too well known, and needs no formal Illuftration. The Reputation confequent on Tasks of that Nature invited me to attempt the Method here; with this View, the Hopes of restoring to the Publick their greatest Poet in his Original Purity: after having fo long lain in a Condition that was a Difgrace to common Senfe. To this End I have ventur'd on a Labour, that is the first Affay of the kind on any modern Author whatsoever. For the late Edition of Milton by the Learned Dr. Bentley is, Difference in the main, a Performance of another Spe-betwixt cies. It is plain, it was the Intention of that Great Man rather to correct and pare off the Dr. BentExcrefcencies of the Paradife Loft, in the ley's Milmanner that Tucca and Varius were employ'd to criticize the Aneis of Virgil, than to reftore corrupted Paffages. Hence, therefore,

tion and

ton.