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neral, the Egyptians, Venetians, French, &c. are drawn with equal propriety. Whatever object of nature, or branch of science, he either speaks of or defcribes; it is always with competent, if not extenfive knowledge: his descriptions are ftill exact; all his metaphors appropriated, and remarkably drawn from the true nature and inherent qualities of each fubject. When he treats of Ethic or Politic, we may conftantly obferve a wonderful juftnefs of distinction, as well as extent of comprehenfion. No one is more a master of the Poetical story, or has more frequent allufions to the various parts of it: Mr. Waller (who has been celebrated for this laft particular) has not fhewn more learning this way than Shakespear. We have Tranflations from Ovid published in his name, among thofe Poerns which pass for his, and for fome of which we have undoubted authority, (being published by himfelf, and dedicated to his noble Patron the Earl of Southampton:) He appears alfo to have been converfant in Plautus, from whom he has taken the plot of one of his plays: he follows the Greek Authors, and particularly Dares Phrygius, in another: (altho' I will not pretend to fay in what language he read them.) The modern Italian writers of Novels he was manifeftly acquainted with; and we may conclude him to be no lefs converfant with the Ancients of his own country, from the ufe he has made of Chaucer in Troilus and Creffida, and in the Two Noble Kinfmen, if that Play be his, as there goes a Tradition it was, (and indeed it has little refemblance of Fletcher, and more of our Author than fome of those which have been receiv'd as genuine.)

I am inclined to think, this opinion proceeded ori ginally from the zeal of the Partizans of our Author and Ben Johnson as they endeavoured to exalt the one at the expence of the other. It is ever the nature of Patties to be in extremes and nothing is fo pro

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Mr. POPE'S PREFACE. xxxvii.

FACE.M_xxxviix**

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bable, wash that because Ben Johnson had much the
more learning, it was faid on the one hand that Shake!!
Spear 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 and
rowed nothing, it was faid that Ben Johnson borrowed vi
every thing. Becaufe Johnson did not write extems
pore, 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.i
Nay the fpirit of oppofition ran fo high, that what-
ever those of the one fide objected to the other, was
taken at the rebound, and turned into Praises; as ind
judicioufly, as their antagonists before had made them
Objections.p

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

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

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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 in
troduced upon the Stage, and his firft works encou
raged, by Shakespear. And after his death, that
Author writes To the memory of bis beloved Mr. Wil I
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 555
him

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him not only above all his Contemporaries, but above Chaucer and Spenfer, whom he will not allow to be great enough to be rank'd with him; and challenges the names of Sophocles, Euripides, and Efchylus, 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 Difcoveries feems to proceed from a personal kindness ; he tells us that he lov'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 applauses 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 those Monsters described 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 firft Publishers of his works. In thefe Editions their ignorance fhines in almost every page; nothing is more common than Altus tertia. Exit omnes. Exit omnes. Enter three Witches folus. Their French is as bad as their Latin, both in conftruction and fpelling: Their very Welb is falfe.

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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 leaft to have had fome Latin; which is utterly inconfiftent with mistakes like thefe. Nay the conftant blunders in proper names of perfons and places, are such as must have proceeded from a man, who had not fo much as read any hiftory, 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 Aristotle 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 published 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 falfe fpelled, 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 fhould 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 Creffida in 1609,

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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 seven 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 some of thefe, we meet with two or more editions by different 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.

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The folio edition (in which all the plays we now receive as his, were first collected) was published by two Players, Heminges and Condell, in 1623, seven years after his deceafe. 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 elfe it is far worse than the Quarto's. Firft, because the additions of trifling and bombaft: b paffages are in this edition far more numerous, Forex whatever had been added, fince thofe Quarto's, by r 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 himself complained of this ufage in Hamlet, where w he wishes that those who play the Clowns wou'd Speak i no more than is Jet down for them. (Act. 3. Sc. 4.) V But as a proof that he could not efcape it, in the old editions of Romeo and Juliet there is no hint of and 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 feen one in particular (which feems to have belonged to the play-houfe, by having the parts divided with lines, and the Actors names in the

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