ed as an object of laudable curiosity. Nothing history. The industry of his illustrators for the could be more highly gratifying, than an account last forty years, has been such as probably never of the early studies of this wonderful man, the was surpassed in the annals of literary investigaprogress of his pen, his moral and social qualities, tion; yet so far are we from information of the his friendships, his failings, and whatever else con- conclusive or satisfactory kind, that even the order stitutes personal history. But on all these topics in which his plays are written rests principally on his contemporaries, and his immediate successors, conjecture, and of some of the plays usually printed have been equally silent; and if aught can hereaf-among his works, it is not yet determined whether ter be discovered, it must be by exploring sources he wrote the whole, or any part. We are, howwhich have hitherto escaped the anxious researches ever, indebted to the labours of his commentators, of those who have devoted their whole lives, and not only for much light thrown upon his obscuritheir most vigorous talents, to revive his memory, ties, but for a text purified from the gross blunders and illustrate his writings. of preceding transcribers and editors; and it is almost unnecessary to add, that the text of the fol It is equally unfortunate, tha. we know as little lowing volumes is that of the last corrected edition of the progress of his writings, as of his personal of Johnson and Steevens. |