peculiar to Shakspeare, and have been too apt to impute to him as a blemish: but the quotations of this clafs do effectually purge him from fuch a charge, which is one reafon of their profufion; though another main inducement to it has been, a defire of fhewing the true force and meaning of the aforefaid unufual words and expreffions; which can no way be better ascertain'd, than by a proper variety of well-chofen examples. Now, to bring this matter home to the fubject for which it has been alledg'd, and upon whofe account this affair is now lay'd before the publick fomewhat before it's time, who is fo fhort-fighted as not to perceive, upon first reflection, that, without manifeft injuftice, the notes upon this author could not precede the publication of the work we have been defcribing; whofe choiceft materials would unavoidably and certainly have found a place in those notes, and fo been twice retail'd upon the world; a practice which the editor has often condemn'd in others, and could therefore not refolve to be guilty of in himself? By poftponing thefe notes a while, things will be as they ought: they will then be confin'd to that which is their proper fubject, explanation alone, intermix'd with fome little criticifm; and instead of long quotations, which would otherwife have appear'd in them, the School of Shakspeare will be referr❜d to occafionally; and one of the many indexes with which this fame School will be provided, will afford an ampler and truer Gloffary than can be made out of any other matter. In the mean while, and 'till fuch time as the whole can be got ready, and their way clear'd for them by publication of the book above-mention'd, the reader will please to take in good part fome few of thefe notes with which he will be pre

fented by and by: they were written at least four years ago, with intention of placing them at the head of the several notes that are defign'd for each play; but are now detach'd from their fellows, and made parcel of the Introduction, in compliance with fome friends' opinion; who having given them a perufal, will needs have it, that 'tis expedient the world should be made acquainted forthwith-in what fort of reading the poor poet himfelf, and his editor after him, have been unfortunately immers'd.

This difcourfe is run out, we know not how, into greater heap of leaves than was any ways thought of, and has perhaps fatigu'd the reader equally with the penner of it: yet can we not dismifs him, nor lay down our pen, 'till one article more has been enquir'd into, which seems no less proper for the difcuffion of this place, than one which we have inferted before, beginning at p. 333; as we there ventur'd to ftand up in the behalf of fome of the quarto's and maintain their authenticity, fo mean we to have the hardinefs here to defend fome certain plays in this collection from the attacks of a number of writers who have thought fit to call in queftion their genuinenefs: the plays contefted are-The Three Parts of Henry VI.; Love's Labour's Loft; The Taming of the Shrew; and Titus Andronicus; and the fum of what is brought against them, fo far at least as is hitherto come to knowledge, may be all ultimately refolv'd into the fole opinion of their unworthinefs, exclufive of fome weak furmifes which do not deserve a notice: it is therefore fair and allowable, by all laws of duelling, to oppose opinion to opinion; which if we can strengthen with reasons, and fomething

like proofs, which are totally wanting on the other fide, the last opinion may chance to carry the day.

To begin then with the first of them, the Henry VI. in three parts. We are quite in the dark as to when the first part was written; but fhould be apt to conjecture, that it was fome confiderable time after the other two; and, perhaps, when those two were re-touch'd, and made a little fitter than they are in their first draught to rank with the author's other plays which he has fetch'd from our English hiftory: and thofe two parts, even with all their re-touchings, being still much inferior to the other plays of that clafs, he may reasonably be fuppos'd to have underwrit himself on purpose in the firft, that it might the better match with thofe it belong'd to: now that these two plays (the first draughts of them, at least,) are among his early performances, we know certainly from their date; which is further confirm'd by the two concluding lines of his Henry V. fpoken by the Chorus; and (poffibly) it were not going too far, to imagine that they are his fecond attempt in hiftory, and near in time to his original King John, which is also in two parts: and, if this be fo, we may fafely pronounce them his, and even highly worthy of him; it being certain, that there was no English play upon the ftage, at that time, which can come at all in competition with them; and this probably it was, which procur'd them the good reception that is mention'd too in the Chorus. The plays we are now fpeaking of have been inconceiveably mangl'd either in the copy or the prefs, or perhaps both: yet this may be discover'd in them, that the alterations made afterwards

the author are nothing near fo confiderable as these in some other plays; the incidents, the characters, every principal outline in fhort being the fame in both draughts; fo that what we fhall have occafion to say of the fecond, may, in fome degree, and without much violence, be apply'd alfo to the firft and this we prefume to fay of it; that, low as it must be fet in comparifon with his other plays, it has beauties in it, and grandeurs, of which no other author was capable but Shakspeare only: that extreamly-affecting fcene of the death of young Rutland, that of his father which comes next it, and of Clifford the murtherer of them both; Beaufort's dreadful exit, the exit of King Henry, and a fcene of wondrous fimplicity and wondrous tenderness united, in which that Henry is made a fpeaker, while his laft decifive battle is fighting, are as fo many ftamps upon these plays; by which his property is mark'd, and himself declar'd the owner of them, beyond controversy as we think and though we have felected these paffages only, and recommended them to obfervation, it had been eafy to name abundance of others which bear his mark as ftrongly and one circumftance there is that runs through all the three plays, by which he is as furely to be known as by any other that can be thought of; and that is,-the prefervation of character: all the perfonages in them are diftinctly and truly delineated, and the character given them fuftain'd uniformly throughout; the enormous Richard's particularly, which in the third of thefe plays is feen rifing towards it's zenith and who fees not the future monfter, and acknowledges at the fame time the pen that drew it, in these two lines only, spoken over a king who lies ftab'd before him,

:

"What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster

"Sink in the ground? I thought, it would have mounted."

let him never pretend difcernment hereafter in any cafe of this nature.

It is hard to perfuade one's felf, that the objecters to the play which comes next are indeed ferious in their opinion; for if he is not visible in Love's Labour's Loft, we know not in which of his comedies he can be faid to be fo: the ease and fprightlinefs of the dialogue in very many parts of it; it's quick turns of wit, and the humour it abounds in; and (chiefly) in those truly comick characters, the pedant and his companion, the page, the conftable, Coftard, and Armado,-feem more than fufficient to prove Shakspeare the author of it and for the blemishes of this play, we must seek the true caufe in it's antiquity; which we may venture to carry higher than 1598, the date of it's firft impreffion: rime, when this play appear'd, was thought a beauty of the drama, and heard with fingular pleasure by an audience who but a few years before, had been accuftom'd to all rime; and the measure we call dogrel, and are fo much offended with, had no fuch effect upon the ears of that time: but whether blemishes or no, however this matter be which we have brought to exculpate him, neither of these articles can with any face of justice be alledg'd against Love's Labour's Loft, feeing they are both to be met with in feveral other plays, the genuineness of which has not been queftion'd by any one. And one thing more fhall be obferv'd in the behalf of this play;-that the author himself was fo little difpleas'd at least with some parts of it, that he has brought them a fecond time