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who does Honour to human Nature. The mention of whofe Relation to you, reminds me of my own Happiness; who enjoy fo equal and fo perfect a Share in both your Friendships. This too is my Fame and Reputation, as well as Happiness; for Ambition would lofe its Aim, were I to wish that any thing of me, or mine, should laft longer than the Memory of that Friendship. I am,

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PREFA C E.

T hath been no unufual thing for Writers, when diffatisfied with the Patronage or Judg

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ment of their own Times, to appeal to Pofterity for a fair Hearing. Some have even thought fit to apply to it in the first Inftance; and to decline Acquaintance with the Public till Envy and Prejudice had quite fubfided. But, of all the Trufters to Futurity, commend me to the Author of the following Poems, who not only left it to Time to do him Juftice as it would, but to find him out as it could. For, what between too great Attention to his Profit as a Player, and too little to his Reputation as a Poet, his Works, left to the Care of Door-keepers and Prompters, hardly efcaped the common Fate of thofe Writings, how good foever, which are abandoned to their own Fortune, and unprotected by Party or Cabal. At length, indeed, they ftruggled into Light; but fo disguised and travefted, that no claffic Author, after having run ten fecular Stages thro' the blind Cloisters of Monks and Canons, ever came out in half fo maimed and mangled a Condition. But for a full Ac count of his Disorders, I refer the Reader to the excellent Difcourfe which follows, and turn myfelf to confider the Remedies that have been ap plied to them. Shakespear's

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Shakespear's Works, when they escaped the Players, did not fall into much better Hands when they came amongst Printers and Bookfellers who, to fay the Truth, had, at first, but fmall Encouragement for putting him into a better Condition. The ftubborn Nonfenfe, with which he was incrufted, occafioned his lying long neglected amongst the common Lumber of the Stage. And when that refiftlefs Splendor, which now fhoots all around him, had, by degrees, broke thro' the Shell of those Impurities, his dazzled Admirers became as fuddenly infenfible to the extraneous Scurf that still ftuck upon him, as they had been before to the native Beauties that lay under it. So that, as then, he was thought not to deserve a Cure, he was now fuppofed not to need any.

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His growing Eminence, however, required that he fhould be ufed with Ceremony: And he foon had his Appointment, of an Editor in form. But the Bookfeller, whofe dealing was with Wits, having learnt of them, I know not what filly Maxim, that none but a Poet fhould prefume to meddle with a Poet, engaged the ingenious Mr. Rowe to undertake this Employment. A Wit indeed he was; but fo utterly unacquainted with the whole Bufinefs of Criticifin, that he did not even collate or confult the firft Editions of the Work he undertook to publish; but contented himself with giving us a meagre Account of the Author's Life, interlarded with fome common-place Scraps from his Writings. The Truth is, Shakespear's Condition was yet but ill understood.

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understood; The Nonfenfe, now, by confent, received for his own, was held in a kind of Reverence for its Age and Author: and thus it continued, till another great Poet broke the Charm by fhewing us, that the higher we went, the lefs of it was ftill to be found,

For the Proprietors, not difcouraged by their firft unsuccessful Effort, in due time, made a fecond; and, tho' they still stuck to their Poets, with infinitely more Success in their Choice of Mr. POPE. Who by the mere force of an uncommon Genius, without any particular Study or Profeffion of this Art, difcharged the great Parts of it fo well as to make his Edition the best Foundation for all further Improvements. He feparated the genuine from the fpurious Plays: And, with equal Judgment, tho' not always with the fame Succefs, attempted to clear the genuine Plays from the interpolated Scenes: He then confulted the old Editions; and, by a careful Collation of them, rectified the faulty, and fupplied the imperfect Reading, in a great number of Places And lastly, in an admirable Preface, hath drawn a general, but very lively, Sketch of ShakeSpear's poetic Character; and, in the corrected Text, marked out thofe peculiar Strokes of Genius which were moft proper to fupport and illuftrate that Character. Thus far Mr. POPE. And altho' much more was to be oneibe1fore Shakespear could be reftored to himself, (fuch as amending the corrupted Text where the printed Books afford no Affiftance explaining his licentious Phrafcology and jocobfcure Allufions; and illuftrating the Beauties

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of his Poetry) yet, with great Modesty and Prudence, our illuftrious Editor left this to the Critic by Profeffion.

But nothing will give the common Reader a better Idea of the Value of Mr. Pope's Edition, than the two Attempts which have been fince made, by Mr. Theobald and Sir Thomas Hanmer, in Oppofition to it. Who, altho' they concerned themfelves only in the first of thefe three Parts of Criticifm, the reftoring the Text, (without any Conception of the fecond, or venturing even to touch upon the third) yet fucceeded fo very ill in it, that they left their Author in ten times a worse Condition than they found him. But, as it was my ill Fortune to have fome accidental Connexions with these two Gentlemen, it will be incumbent on me to be a little more particular concerning them.

The One was recommended to me as a poor Man, the Other as a poor Critic and to each of them, at different times, I communicated a great number of Observations, which they managed, as they faw fit, to the Relief of their feveral Diftreffes. As to Mr. Theobald, who want→ ed Money, I allowed him to print what I gave him for his own Advantage: and he allowed himself in the Liberty of taking one Part for his own, and fequeftering another for the Benefit, as I fuppofed, of fome future Edition. But, as to the Oxford Editor, who wanted nothing, but what he might very well be without, the Re putation of a Critic, I could not fo eafily forgive him for trafficking with my Papers without

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