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The Life and Death of King John.* [a & f.] The Life & Death of Richard the fecond.* [a & f.] The First part of King Henry the fourth. [a & S.] The Second Part of K. Henry the fourth.* [a & f.]

The Life of King Henry the Fift.

The First part of King
Henry the Sixt.
The Second part of King
Hen. the Sixt.

The Third part of King
Henry the Sixt.
The Life & Death of
Richard the Third.*
[a & f.]
The Life of King Henry
the Eight. [a & f.]

TRAGEDIES.

[Troylus and Crefsida] from the fecond folio; omitted in the first. The Tragedy of Coriolanus. [a.] Titus Andronicus.* [a.] Romeo and Juliet.* Timon of Athens. The Life and death of Julius Cæfar. [a.] The Tragedy of Macbeth. [a & f.] The Tragedy of Hamlet. King Lear. [a & f.]

would move (I thinke) Phalaris the tyraunt, and terrifie all tyrānous minded men, fro following their foolish ambitious humors, feeing how his ambition made him kill his brother, his nephews, his wife, befide infinit others; and laft of all after a fhort and troublesome raigne, to end his miferable life, and to have his body harried after his death."

Othello, the Moore of Ve-
nice. [a & f.]
Antony and Cleopater.

Cymbeline King of Britaine. [a & f.]

Having premis'd thus much about the ftate and condition of thefe firft copies, it may not be improper, nor will it be abfolutely a digreffion, to add fomething concerning their authenticity: in doing which, it will be greatly for the reader's eafe, and our own, to confine ourselves to the quarto's: which, it is hop'd, he will allow of; efpecially, as our intended vindication of them will alfo include in it (to the eye of a good obferver) that of the plays that appear'd first in the folio: which therefore omitting, we now turn ourselves to the quarto's.

We have seen the flur that is endeavour'd to be thrown upon them indifcriminately by the player editors, and we fee it too wip'd off by their having themselves follow'd the copies that they condemn. A modern editor, who is not without his followers, is pleas'd to affert confidently in his preface, that they are printed from " piece-meal parts, and copies of prompters :" but his arguments for it are fome of them without foundation, and the others not conclufive; and it is to be doubted, that the opinion is only thrown out to countenance an abufe that has been carry'd to much too great lengths by himself and another editor,-that of putting out of the text paffages that they did not like. Thefe cenfures then, and this opinion being fet afide, is it criminal to try another conjecture, and fee what can be made of it? It is known, that Shakspeare liv'd to no great age, being taken off in his fifty-third year; and yet his works are

fo numerous, that, when we take a furvey of them, they feem the productions of a life of twice that length for to the thirty-fix plays in this collection, we must add feven, (one of which is in two parts,) perhaps written over again; feven others that were publish'd fome of them in his life-time, and all with his name; and another feven, that are upon good grounds imputed to him; making in all, fifty-eight plays; befides the part that he may reasonably be thought to have had in other men's labours, being himself a player and a manager of theatres: what his profe productions were, we know not but it can hardly be fuppos'd, that he, who had fo confiderable a fhare in the confidence of the Earls of Effex and Southampton, could be a mute fpectator only of controverfies in which, they were fo much interested; and his other poetical works, that are known, will fill a volume the fize of thefe that we have here. When the number and bulk of thefe pieces, the fhortness of his life, and the other bufy employments of it are reflected upon duly, can it be a wonder that he fhould be fo loofe a tranfcriber of them? or why fhould we refufe to give credit to what his companions tell us, of the ftate of thofe tranfcriptions, and of the facility with which they were pen'd? Let it then be granted, that thefe quarto's are the poet's own copies, however they were come by; haftily written at firft, and iffuing from preffes moft of them as corrupt and licentious as can any where be produc'd, and not overfeen by himself, nor by any of his friends: and there can be no ftronger reafon for fubfcribing to any opinion, than may be drawn in favour of this from the condition of

Vide, this Introduction, p. 327.

all the other plays that were firft printed in the folio; for, in method of publication, they have the greatest likeness poffible to thofe which preceded them, and carry all the fame marks of hafte and negligence; yet the genuineness of the latter is attefted by thofe who publifh'd them, and no proof brought to invalidate their teftimony. If it be ftill afk'd, what then becomes of the accufation brought against the quarto's by the player editors, the answer is not fo far off as may perhaps be expected it may be true that they were "ftoln;" but ftoln from the author's copies, by tranfcribers who found means to get at them : and " maim'd" they must needs be, in refpect of their many alterations after the first performance: and who knows, if the difference that is between them, in fome of the plays that are common to them both, has not been ftudiously heighten'd by the player editors,who had the means in their power, being matters of all the alterations,-to give at once a greater currency to their own lame edition, and fupport the charge which they bring against the quarto's ? this, at least, is a probable opinion, and no bad way of accounting for those differences.3

2 But fee a note at p. 330, which seems to infer that they were fairly come by: which is, in truth, the editor's opinion, at least of fome of them; though, in way of argument, and for the fake of clearness, he has here admitted the charge in that full extent in which they bring it.

* Some of thefe alterations are in the quarto's themselves; (another proof this, of their being authentick,) as in Richard II: where a large scene, that of the king's depofing, appears first in the copy of 1608, the third quarto impreflion, being wanting in the two former: and in one copy of 2 Henry IV. there is a fcene too that is not in the other, though of the fame year; it is the firft of A&t the third. And Hamlet has fome ftill more confiderable; for the copy of 1605 has these words :

It were eafy to add abundance of other argua ments in favour of these quarto's ;-Such as, their exact affinity to almost all the publications of this fort that came out about that time; of which it will hardly be afferted by any reafoning man, that they are all clandeftine copies, and publifh'd without their authors' confent: next, the high improbability of fuppofing that none of these plays were of the poet's own fetting-out: whofe cafe is render'd fingular by fuch a fuppofition; it being certain, that every other author of the time, without exception, who wrote any thing largely, publifh'd fome of his plays himself, and Ben Jonfon all of them: nay, the very errors and faults of these quarto's,-of fome of them at least, and those fuch as are brought against them by other arguers,-are, with the editor, proofs of their genuineness; for from what hand, but that of the author himself, could come thofe feemingly-ftrange repetitions which are spoken of at p. 329 ? thofe imperfect exits, and entries of perfons who have no concern in the play at all, neither in the scene where they are made to enter, nor in any other part of it? yet fuch there are in feveral of these quarto's; and fuch might well be expected in the hafty draughts of fo negligent an author, who neither faw at once all he might want, nor, in fome inftances, gave himself fufficient time to confider the fitness

Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppie :" now though no prior copy has yet been produc'd, it is certain there was fuch by the teftimony of this title-page: and that the play was in being at least nine years before, is prov'd by a book of Doctor Lodge's printed in 1596; which play was perhaps an imperfect one; and not unlike that we have now of Romeo and Juliet, printed the year after; a fourth inftance too of what the note advances.

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