not being defigned for the reader's desk, was all that he defired it to be, if it conveyed his meaning to the audience.

Hanmer's care of the metre has been too violently cenfured. He found the measure reformed in fo many paffages, by the filent labours of fome editors, with the filent acquiefcence of the reft, that he thought himself allowed to extend a little further the licence, which had already been carried fo far without reprehenfion; and of his corrections in general, it must be confeffed, that they are often juft, and made commonly with the leaft poffible violation of the

text.

But, by inferting his emendations, whether invented or borrowed, into the page, without any notice of varying copies, he has appropriated the labour of his predeceffors, and made his own edition of little authority. His confidence indeed, both in himfelf and others, was too great; he fuppofes all to be right that was done by Pope and Theobald; he seems not to fufpect a critick of fallibility, and it was but reasonable that he should claim what he fo liberally granted.

As he never writes without careful enquiry and diligent confideration, I have received all his notes, and believe that every reader will wifh for more.

Of the last editor it is more difficult to fpeak. Respect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and veneration to genius and learning;

but

but he cannot be justly offended at that liberty of which he has himself fo frequently given an example, nor very folicitous what is thought of notes, which he ought never to have confidered as part of his ferious employments, and which, I suppose, fince the ardor of compofition is remitted, he no longer numbers among his happy effufions.

The original and predominant error of his commentary, is acquiefcence in his first thoughts; that precipitation which is produced by confcioufnefs of quick difcernment; and that confidence which prefumes to do, by furveying the furface, what labour only can perform, by penetrating the bottom. His notes exhibit fometimes perverse interpretations, and fometimes improbable conjectures; he at one time gives the author more profundity of meaning than the fentence admits, and at another discovers abfurdities, where the sense is plain to every other reader. But his emendations are likewise often happy and just, and his interpretation of obfcure paffages learned and fagacious.

Of his notes, I have commonly rejected thofe, against which the general voice of the publick has exclaimed, or which their own incongruity immediately condemns, and which, I fuppofe, the author himself would defire to be forgotten. Of the rest, to part. I have given the highest approbation, by inserting the offered reading in the text; part I have left to the judgment of the reader, as doubtful, though fpecious; and part I have cenfured without

reserve,

referve, but I am fure without bitternefs of malice, and, I hope, without wantonnefs of infult.

It is no pleasure to me, in revifing my volumes, to obferve how much paper is wafted in confutation. Whoever confiders the revolutions of learning, and the various queftions of greater or lefs importance, upon which wit and reafon have exercifed their powers, muft lament the unfuccefsfulness of enquiry, and the flow advances of truth, when he reflects, that great part of the labour of every writer is only the destruction of thofe that went before him. The first care of the builder of a new fyftem, is to demolifh the fabricks which are ftanding. The chief defire of him that comments an author, is to fhew how much other commentators have corrupted and obfcured him. The opinions prevalent in one age, as truths above the reach of controverfy, are confuted and rejected in another, and rife again to reception in remoter times. Thus the human mind is kept in motion without progrefs. Thus fometimes truth and error, and fometimes contrarieties of error, take each other's place by reciprocal invafion. The tide of feeming knowledge which is poured over one generation, retires and leaves another naked and barren; the sudden meteors of intelligence, which for a while appear to shoot their beams into the regions of obscurity, on a sudden withdraw their luftre, and leave mortals again to grope their way.

These elevations and depreffions of renown, and the contradictions to which all improvers of knowledge muft for ever be exposed, fince they are not VOL. I. escaped

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efcaped by the highest and brightest of mankind, may surely be endured with patience by criticks and annotators, who can rank themselves but as the fatellites of their authors. How canft thou beg for life, fays Homer's hero to his captive, when thou knowest that thou art now to fuffer only what must another day be fuffered by Achilles?

Dr. Warburton had a name fufficient to confer celebrity on thofe who could exalt themfelves into antagonists, and his notes have raised a clamour too loud to be diftinct. His chief affailants are the authors of The canons of criticism, and of The review of Shakespeare's text; of whom one ridicules his errors with airy petulance, suitable enough to the levity of the controverfy; the other attacks them with gloomy malignity, as if he were dragging to justice an affaffin or incendiary. The one ftings like a fly, fucks a little blood, takes a gay flutter, and returns for more ; the other bites like a viper, and would be glad to leave inflammations and gangrene behind him. When I think on one, with his confederates, I remember the danger of Coriolanus, who was afraid that girls with fpits, and boys with stones, should slay him in puny battle; when the other croffes my imagination, I remember the prodigy in Macbeth:

A falcon tow'ring in his pride of place,

Was by a moufing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. Let me however do them juftice. One is a wit, and one a scholar*. They have both fhewn acute

It is extraordinary that this gentleman fhould attempt fo voluminous a work, as the Revifal of Shakespeare's text, when he tells us in his preface, "he was not fo fortunate as to be "furnished

nefs fufficient in the difcovery of faults, and have both advanced fome probable interpretations of obfcure paffages; but when they afpire to conjecture and emendation, it appears how falfely we all estimate our own abilities, and the little which they have been able to perform might have taught them more candour to the endeavours of others.

Before Dr. Warburton's edition, Critical obfervations on Shakespeare had been published by Mr. Upton, a man skilled in languages, and acquainted with books, but who seems to have had no great vigour of genius or nicety of taste. Many of his explanations are curious and useful, but he likewife, though he profeffed to oppose the licentious confidence of editors, and adhere to the old copies, is unable to reftrain the rage of emendation, though his ardour is ill feconded by his skill. Every cold empirick, when his heart is expanded by a successful experiment, fwells into a theorist, and the laborious collator at fome unlucky moment frolicks in conjecture.

Critical, historical, and explanatory notes have been likewife published upon Shakespeare by Dr. Grey, whofe diligent perufal of the old English writers has enabled him to make fome useful observations. What he undertook he has well enough performed, but as he neither attempts judicial nor emendatory criticism, he employs rather his memory than his fagacity. It

"furnished with either of the folio editions, much less any of "the ancient quartos: and even Sir Thomas Hanmer's per"formance was known to him only by Dr. Warburton's repre"fentation." FARMER.