ftance) partly from his own nature, and partly from judgment. For men of judgment think they do any man more fervice 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 ftate, as with those monsters defcribed by the poets; and that their heads at leaft 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 almoft 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 Welfh is falfe. 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 fchool, or the leaft converfation 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 thefe: Nay the conftant blunders in proper names of perfons and places, are fuch as muft have proceeded from a man, who had not fo much as read any hiftory, in any language: fo could not be Shakefpear's.

I fhall now lay before the reader fome of those almoft 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 fay that not Skakefpear only, but Ariftotle or Cicero, had their works undergone the fame. fate, might have appeared 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 moft of thefe were not published by him, is the exceffive carelefinefs of the prefs: every page is fo fcandaloufly 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 himfelf, I fhould fancy the two parts of Henry IV. and Midfummer Night's Dream might have been fo: becaufe 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, 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 lifetime, amounts but to eleven. And of fome of

thefe, we meet with two or more editions by different printers, each of which has whole heaps of trafh different from the other: which I fhould

fancy

fancy was occafioned 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, seven years after his decease. They declare, that all the other editions were ftolen 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.

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 ftand charged upon the Author. He himself complained of this ufage in Hamlet, where he wishes that those who play the Clowns would fpeak no more than is fet down for them. (Act. iii. Sc. iv.) But as a proof that he could not efcape 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 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 margin) where several 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 firft fingle editions, are omitted in this: as it feems without any other reafon, than their willingness to fhorten fome fcenes: These men (as it was faid of Procruftes)

either lopping, or stretching 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 piece-meal parts written out for the use of the actors: For in fome places their very * names are through carelefsnefs fet down inftead of the perfonæ 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 diftinguished by acts and fcenes, they are in this edition divided according as they played them; often where there is no pause in the action, or where they thought fit to make a breach in it, for the fake of mufick, mafques, or monsters.

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

Many verfes are omitted entirely, and others tranfpofed; from whence invincible obfcurities have arifen, paft the guess of any commentator to clear up, but juft where the accidental glimpse of an old edition enlightens us,

*Much ado about nothing, Act ii. Enter Prince Leonato, Claudio, and Jack Wilson, instead of Balthafar. And in Act iv. Cowley, and Kemp, conftantly thro' a whole fçene.

Edit. Fol. of 1623, and 1632.

Some characters were confounded and mix'd, or two put into one, for want of a competent number of actors. Thus in the quarto edition of MidSummer Night's Dream, Act v. Shakespear introduces a kind of Mafter of the revels called Philoftrate; all whofe part is given to another character (that of Egeus) in the fubfequent editions: So alfo in Hamlet and King Lear. This too makes it probable, that the prompter's books were what they called the original copies.

From liberties of this kind, many speeches also were put into the mouths of wrong perfons, where the Author now feems chargeable with making them fpeak out of character: Or fometimes perhaps for no better reason, than that a governing player, to have the mouthing of fome favourite fpeech himself, would fnatch it from the unworthy lips of an underling.

Profe from verfe they did not know, and they accordingly printed one for the other throughout the volume.

Having been forced to fay fo much of the players, I think I ought in justice to remark, that the judgment, as well as condition, of that clafs of people was then far inferior to what it is in our days. As then the best playhouses were inns and taverns (the Globe, the Hope, the Red Bull, the Fortune, etc.) fo the top of the profeffion were then meer players, not gentlemen of the ftage: They were led into the buttery by the fteward, not placed at the lord's table, or lady's toilette: and confequently were entirely deprived of those advantages they now enjoy, in the familiar conversation of our nobility, and an intimacy (not to say dearness) with people of the firft condition.

From what has been faid, there can be no queftion but had Shakespear published his works him‡Z 4

felf

་