Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

bable, as that because Ben Johnson had much the more learning, it was faid on the one hand that ShakeSpear had none at all; and because Shakespear had much the moft wit and fancy, it was retorted on the other, that Johnson wanted both. Because Shakespear bor-v rowed nothing, it was faid that Ben Johnson borrowed every thing. Becaufe Johnfon did not write extempore, he was reproached with being a year about every piece; and because Shakespear wrote with ease and rapidity, they cry'd, he never once made a blot. Nay the spirit of oppofition ran fo high, that whatever thofe of the one fide objected to the other, was taken at the rebound, and turned into Praises; as injudiciously, as their antagonists before had made them Objections.

Poets are always afraid of Envy; but fure they have as much reason to be afraid of Admiration. They are the Scylla and Charybdis of Authors; those who escape one, often fall by the other. Peffimum genus inimicorum Laudantes, fays Tacitus: and Virgil defires to wear a charm against those who praise a Poet with out rule or reason.

-Si ultra placitum laudârit, baccare frontem
Cingito, ne Vati noceat

But however this contention might be carried on by the Partizans on either fide, I cannot help thinking these two great Poets were good friends, and lived on amicable terms and in offices of fociety with each other. It is an acknowledged fact, that Ben Johnson was introduced upon the Stage, and his firft works encouraged, by Shakespear. And after his death, that Author writes To the memory of his beloved Mr. Wil liam Shakespear, which fhows as if the friendship had continued thro' life. I cannot for my own part find any thing Invidious or Sparing in thofe verfes, but wonder Mr. Dryden was of that opinion. He exalts

b 3

him

him not only above all his Contemporaries, but above Chaucer and Spenser, whom he will not allow to be great enough to be rank'd with him; and challenges the names of Sophocles, Euripides, and Æfchylus, nay all Greece and Rome at once, to equal him; and (which is very particular) exprefly vindicates him from the imputation of wanting Art, not enduring that all his excellencies fhou'd be attributed to Nature. It is remarkable too, that the praise he gives him in his Discoveries feems to proceed from a perfonal kindness; he tells us that he loy'd the man, as well as honoured his memory; celebrates the honefty, opennefs, and franknefs of his temper; and only diftinguishes, as he reasonably ought, between the real merit of the Author, and the filly and derogatory applaufes of the Players. Ben Johnson might indeed be fparing in his Commendations (tho? certainly he is not fo in this inftance) partly from his own nature, and partly from judgment. For men of judgment think they do any man more service in praifing him juftly, than lavishly. I fay, I would fain believe they were Friends, tho the violence and ill-breeding of their Followers and Flatterers were enough to give rife to the contrary report. I would hope that it may be with Parties, both in Wit and State, as with thofe Monsters defcribed by the Poets; and that their Heads at least may have fomething human, tho' their Bodies and Tails are wild beafts and ferpents.

As I believe that what I have mentioned gave rife to the opinion of Shakespear's want of learning; fo what has continued it down to us may have been the many blunders and illiteracies of the first Publishers of his works. In thefe Editions their ignorance fhines in almost every page; nothing is more common than Actus tertia. Exit omnes. Enter three Witches folus. Their French is as bad as their Latin, both in conftruction and fpelling: Their very Welsh is falfe. Nothing

Nothing is more likely than that those palpable blunders of Hector's quoting Ariftotle, with others of that grofs kind, fprung from the fame root: it not being at all credible that thefe could be the errors of any man who had the leaft tincture of a School, or the least conversation with fuch as had. Ben Johnson (whom they will not think partial to him) allows him at least to have had fome Latin; which is utterly inconfiftent with mistakes like these. Nay the conftant blunders in proper names of perfons and places, are fuch as must have proceeded from a man, who had not so much as read any history, in any language: fo could not be Shakespear's.

I fhall now lay before the reader fome of thofe almost innumerable Errors, which have rifen from one fource, the ignorance of the Players, both as his actors, and as his Editors. When the nature and kinds of these are enumerated and confidered, I dare to say that not Shakespear only, but Ariftotle or Cicero, had their works undergone the fame fate, might have appear'd to want fenfe as well as learning.

It is not certain that any one of his Plays was publifhed by himself. During the time of his employment in the Theatre, feveral of his pieces were printed feparately in Quarto. What makes me think that most of these were not publish'd by him, is the exceffive carelessness of the prefs: every page is fo fcandalously false spelled, and almost all the learned or unufual words fo intolerably mangled, that it's plain there either was no Corrector to the prefs at all, or one totally illiterate. If any were fupervised by himself, I should fancy the two parts of Henry the 4th, and MidfummerNight's Dream might have been fo: because I find no other printed with any exactnefs; and (contrary to the reft) there is very little variation in all the fubfequent editions of them. There are extant two Prefaces, to the first quarto edition of Troilus and Cressida in 1609, b 4 and

and to that of Othello; by which it appears, that the firft was published without his knowledge or confent, and even before it was acted, fo late as feven or eight years before he died and that the latter was not printed 'till after his death. The whole number of genuine plays which we have been able to find printed in his life-time, amounts but to eleven. And of fome of these, we meet with two or more editions by dif ferent printers, each of which has whole heaps of trash different from the other: which I fhould fancy was occafion'd by their being taken from different copies, belonging to different Play-houses.

The folio edition (in which all the plays we now receive as his, were firft collected) was published by two Players, Heminges and Condell, in 1623, feven years after his decease. They declare, that all the other editions were stolen and furreptitious, and affirm theirs to be purged from the errors of the former. This is true as to the literal errors, and no other; for in all refpects else it is far worse than the Quarto's.

First, because the additions of trifling and bombaft paffages are in this edition far more numerous. For whatever had been added, fince thofe Quarto's, by the actors, or had ftolen from their mouths into the written parts, were from thence conveyed into the printed text, and all stand charged upon the Author. He himfelf complained of this ufage in Hamlet, where he wishes that thofe who play the Clowns wou'd fpeak no more than is fet down for them. (A&. 3. Sc. 4.) But as a proof that he could not escape it, in the old editions of Romeo and Juliet there is no hint of a great number of the mean conceits and ribaldries now to be found there. In others, the low fcenes of Mobs, Plebeians and Clowns, are vaftly fhorter than at prefent: And I have seen one in particular (which feems to have belonged to the play-house, by having the parts divided with lines, and the Actors names in the margin)

margin) where feveral of thofe very paffages were added in a written hand, which are fince to be found in the folio.

In the next place, a number of beautiful paffages which are extant in the first single editions, are omit ted in this as it feems without any other reason, than their willingness to shorten fome scenes: Thefe men (as it was faid of Procruftes) either lopping, or ftretching an Author, to make him juft fit for their Stage.

This edition is faid to be printed from the Original Copies; I believe they meant those which had lain ever fince the Author's days in the play-house, and had from time to time been cut, or added to, arbitrarily. It appears that this edition, as well as the Quarto's, was printed (at least partly) from no better copies than the Prompter's Book, or Piecemeal Parts written out for the use of the actors: For in fome places their very (a) names are thro' carelessnefs fet down instead of the Perfona Dramatis: And in others the notes of direction to the Property-men for their Moveables, and to the Players for their Entries, are inferted into the Text, thro' the ignorance of the Transcribers.

The Plays not having been before fo much as diftinguish'd by Alts and Scenes, they are in this edition divided according as they play'd them; often where there is no paufe in the action, or where they thought fit to make a breach in it, for the fake of Mufick, Mafques, or Monsters.

Sometimes the scenes are tranfpofed and fhuffled backward and forward; a thing which could no other. wife happen, but by their being taken from feparate and piece-meal-written parts.

(a) Much ado about nothing. At 2. Enter Prince Leonato, Claudio, and Jack Wilfon, instead of Balthafar. And in Act. 4. Cowley, and Kemp, conflantly thro' a whole Scene. Edit. Fol. of 1623, and 1632.

Many

« ПредишнаНапред »