most beautiful and ftriking, are distinguished with inverted commas. In imitation of him, Mr. Warburton did the fame by many others as he thought most deserving of the reader's attention. All thefe have been attended to in this edition; the Beauties obferved by Mr. Pope being marked with a fingle comma, and thofe by Mr. Warburton with a double one. Befides thefe, the Beauties, as regularly felected from each play by Mr. Dodd, are pointed out, p. xlix. & feqq. Thefe beauties are here marked in the order of the volumes and plays; and the reader is directed to the pages and lines where every one of them occur. Upon examination, he will find many of them coincide with those which had been before obferved by Pope and Warburton. Mr. Dodd's titles of the beauties are likewife given, generally in his own words, and fome notes are added.

Sufpected paffages or interpolations are degraded to the bottom of the page, with proper marks referring to the places of their infertion. The greateft part are fo ftigmatized on the authority of Mr. Pope; and a few on that of the Oxford editor, and Mr. Warburton. Some lines in different places are inclosed within hooks or crotchets, as, in Mr. Warburton's opinion, foifted into the text by the players, or of fpurious iffue, and noted as fuch at the bottom of the page; and a few chafms or defects are pointed out by afterifks, with probable conjectures for fupplying fome of them.

Several fhort notes are put at the bottom of the pages in all the volumes, tending to explain licentious terms, uncouth phrafes, quaint allufions, antiquated cuftoms, and obfcure paffages. Thefe have been chiefly taken from Pope, Hanmer, and Warburton; and but a very few from Theobald and Dodd. Though moft of them are given in the words of the authors; yet fome have been abridged, in order to adapt them to this edition, in which brevity has been all along ftudied.

The Gloffary annexed, is confiderably improved, by the addition of many words and phrases; errors are corrected, and false interpretations thrown out. Words not

to

to be met with in SHAKESPEARE, but evidently the editor's interpolations into the text, have been difcarded, and additions made to the meanings of words ftill retained. Warburton's and Popes's notes have been confulted for that purpose; and some affistance has been got from Mr. Dodd's notes on the Beauties.

The Index, befides being here reduced to a ftrict alphabetical order, and put into a quite different form, has been confiderably enlarged, especially in the first section, and cleared from several blunders. To all which is added, an Index of the Beauties as felected by Mr. Dodd, more full and correct than his own.

This preface fhall be concluded with prefenting to the reader a few of the many encomiums bestowed upon our author by his critics; from which a perfon unacquainted with his writings, may form some judgment of his merit.

66

"As in great piles of building, (fays Mr. Theobald,) "fome parts are often finished up to hit the tafte of the ❝connoiffeur; others more negligently put together, to "ftrike the fancy of a common and unlearned beholder; "fome parts are made ftupendously magnificent and "grand, to furprise with the vast defign and execution "of the architect; others are contracted, to amufe you "with his neatness and elegance in little: So, in SHAKE"SPEARE, we find traits that will ftand the teft of the "fevereft judgment; and strokes as carelessly hit off, to "the level of the more ordinary capacities: fome descriptions raised to that pitch of grandeur, as to a "ftonish you with the compafs and elevation of his "thought; and others copying nature within fo narrow, "fo confined a circle, as if the author's talent lay only at "drawing in miniature. —In how many points of light "must we be obliged to gaze at this great poet! in how "many branches of excellence to confider and admire "him! Whether we view him on the fide of art or na"ture, he ought equally to engage our attention: whether we refpect the force and greatnefs of his genius, "the extent of his knowledge and reading, the power and addrefs with which he throws out and applies " either

66

either nature or learning, there is ample scope both for "our wonder and pleasure. If his diction and the cloath"ing of his thoughts attract us, how much more must "we be charmed with the richnefs and variety of his images and ideas! If his images and ideas fteal into "our fouls, and ftrike upon our fancy, how much are "they improved in price, when we come to reflect with "what propriety and juftness they are applied to cha"racter! If we look into his characters, and how they "are furnished and proportioned to the employment he "cuts out for them, how are we taken up with the "mastery of his portraits! What draughts of nature! "what variety of originals, and how differing each from "the other! How are they dreffed from the stores of his "own luxurious imagination; without being the apes of "mode, or borrowing from any foreign wardrobe! Each ❝ of them are the standards of fashion for themselves; "like gentlemen that are above the direction of their "tailors, and can adorn themselves without the aid of "imitation. If other poets draw more than one fool or coxcomb, there is the fame resemblance in them; as in "that painter's draughts, who was happy only at form"ing a rofe: you find them all younger brothers of the "fame family, and all of them have a pretence to give "the fame creft. But SHAKESPEARE'S clowns and fops "come all of a different house: they are no farther allied ❝to one another, than as man to man, members of the "fame fpecies; but as different in features and linea"ments of character, as we are from one another in face "or complexion.”

"SHAKESPEARE, (fays Mr. Warburton,) widely ex"celling in the knowledge of human nature, hath gi"ven to his infinitely-varied pictures of it, fuch truth “of defign, fuch force of drawing, fuch beauty of co"louring, as was hardly ever equalled by any writer, "whether his aim was the ufe, or only the entertain-' "ment of mankind. -And (fays he) of all the litera "ry exercitations of fpeculative men, whether defign"ed for the ufe or entertainment of the world, there "are none of fo much importance, or what are more " our immediate concern, than those which let us into

"the

"the knowledge of our nature. Others may exercise the "reason, or amufe the imagination; but thefe only can 66 improve the heart, and form the human mind to wif"dom. Now, in this fcience, our SHAKESPEARE is con"feffed to occupy the foremost place; whether we con"fider the amazing fagacity with which he investigates every hidden spring and wheel of human action; or his "happy manner of communicating this knowledge, in "the juft and living paintings which he has given us of "all our paffions, appetites, and purfuits. Thefe afford "a leffon which can never be too often repeated, or too "conftantly inculcated."

"I fhall not (fays Mr. Dodd) attempt any laboured "encomiums on SHAKESPEARE, or endeavour to set "forth his perfections, at a time when fuch univerfal "and just applaufe is paid him, and when every tongue "is big with his boundlefs fame. He himself tells us, "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, "To throw a perfume on the violet, "Tofmooth the ice, or add another hue "Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light"To feek the beauteous eye of heav'n to garnish, "Is wasteful and ridiculous excefs, vol. 3. P, 334.

66

"And wafteful and ridiculous indeed it would be, to say. any thing in his praife, when presenting the world "with fuch a collection of BEAUTIES, as perhaps is no "where to be met with, and, I may very fafely affirm, "cannot be parallelled from the productions of any other «fingle author, ancient or modern. There is fcarcely "a topic, common with other writers, on which he has "not excelled them all; there are many nobly peculiar "to himself, where he fhines unrivalled, and, like the "eagle, propereft emblem of his daring genius, foars be-"yond the common reach, and gazes undazzled on the "fun. His flights are fometimes fo bold, frigid criti"cifm almoft dares to disapprove them; and those nar"row minds which are incapable of elevating their ideas "to the fublimity of their author's, are willing to bring "them down to a level with their own. Hence many

"fine paffages have been condemned in SHAKESPEARE,

as rant and fuftian, intolerable bombast, and turgid nonfenfe; which, if read with the leaft glow of the fame "imagination that warmed the writer's bofom, would

blaze in the robes of fublimity, and obtain the com"mendations of a Longinus. And unlefs fome little of "the fame spirit that elevated the poet, elevate the read"er too, he muft not prefume to talk of tafte and ele 86 gance; he will prove but a languid reader, an indiffer"ent judge, but a far more indifferent critic and com❝mentator." And again (fays he,) "I doubt not every

reader will find [in SHAKESPEARE's beauties] fo large "a fund for obfervation, so much excellent and refined "morality, and, I may venture to fay, fo much good di"vinity, that he will prize the work as it deferves, and 766 pay, with me, all due adoration to the manes of

"SHAKESPEARE."

"Longinus (continues Mr. Dodd) tells us, that the "moft infallible teft of the true fublime, is the impreffion "a performance makes upon our minds, when read or "recited." "If, fays he, a perfon finds, that a perform"ance transports not his foul, nor exalts his thoughts;

that it calls not up into his mind ideas more enlarged "than the mere founds of the words convey, but on at"tentive examination its dignity leffens and declines, he "may conclude, that whatever pierces no deeper than the "eare, can never be the true fublime. That, on the con"trary, is grand and lofty, which the more we confider, "the greater ideas we conceive of it; whofe force we "cannot poffibly withftand; which immediately finks "deep, and makes fuch impreffion on the mind, as can"not eafily be worn out or effaced. In a word, you "may pronounce that fublime, beautiful, and genuine, "which always pleafes, and takes equally with all forts ❝ of men. For when perfons of different humours, ages, "profeffions, and inclinations, agree in the fame joint ap"probation of any performance, then this union of af

fent, this combination of fo many different judgments, "ftamps an high and indifputable value on that perform"ance, which meets with fuch general applause." This "fine obfervation of Longinus is moft remarkably verified "in SHAKESPEARE: for all humours, ages, and inclina

❝tions,