This compact edition of SHAKESPEARE is offered you as a grateful, tho' fmall, return, for the infinite pleafure, and extenfive information, derived from your exquifite performance, and judicious remarks, by,

SIR,

Your moft obedient

humble fervants,

THE EDITORS.

ADVERTISEMENT.

SHA

HAKESPEARE's admirers, even the enthusiastic ones, who worship him as the god of their idolatry, have never fcru pled to admit that his moft regular pieces. produce fome scenes and paffages, highly derogatory to his incomparable general merit; he frequently trifles, is now and then obfcure, and, fometimes, to gratify a vitiated age, indelicate: but can any degree of critical tafte wish the prefervation of dark spots, because they have grown upon dramatic funfhine? is not the corrective hand frequently proved to be the kindest? critics, like parents, fhould neither spare the rod, nor use it wantonly.

There is no doubt but all our author's faults may juftly be attributed to the loose, quibbling, licentious tafte of his time; he, no doubt, upon many occafions, wrote wildly, merely to gratify the public; as DRYDEN Wrote bombastically, and CoNGREVE obfcenely, to indulge the humour, and engage the favour of their audiences: no man can fuppofe that the former confidered his rhiming dialogues as marks of fublimity, nor that the latter imagined his

A 3.

double

double entendres were wit; one wanted money, the other fame; for which, pompous founds and grofs ideas, were then popular baits; confequently chafte criticism and delicacy were without fcruple, facrificed to their feveral views.

Our author did not go quite fo far, but very frequently preferved himself free from taint, reining his fiery PEGASUS with an able masterly hand; why then fhould not the noble monuments he has left us, of unrivalled ability, be restored to due proportion and natural luftre, by fweeping off thofe cobwebs, and that duft of depraved opinion, which SHAKESPEARE was unfortunately forced to throw on them; forced, we fay, for it is no ftrain of imagination, to fuppofe that the Goths and Vandals of criticifm, who frequented the theatre, in his days, would, like those who over-ran the Roman empire, have destroyed and configned to barbarous oblivion, the fublime beauties which they could not relifh; and it is matter of great question with us, whether the fool, in King Lear, was not a more general favourite, than the old monarch himself.

The above confiderations firft ftarted the idea, and induced the undertaking, of this edition; and as the THEATRES, especially

of

of late, have been generally right in their omiffions, of this author particularly, we have printed our text after their regulations; and from this part of our defign, an evident ufe will arife; that those who take books to the THEATRE, will not be fo puzzled themfelves to accompany the fpeaker; nor fo apt to condemn performers of being imperfect, when they pass over what is defignedly omitted. Upon this point, however, it is to be obferved, that the difference of power, of voice and execution, between different performers, may make one erafe more than another; nevertheless we come fo near the mark of all, that scarce any perplexity can arise, in tracing them; befides we would hope, that a reasonable ftandard being thus laid down, profeffors of the drama will not be fo forward, as capriciously and arbitrarily to deviate from it; it is commendable to confult the extent of expreffion, but thro' idlenefs to retrench what is beautiful and neceffary, or through vanity to retain what is heavy and unessential to action, we deem an affront to the public, and a difgrace to the performer.

As an author, replete with spirited ideas, and a full flow of language, especially one poffeffing a mufe of fire, cannot stop exactly where ftage utterance and public attention

require;

require; fome paffages, of great merit for the closet, are never fpoken; fuch, though omitted in the text, we have carefully preserved in the notes.

And now, being upon this part of our fubject, we hold ourselves bound in justice and gratitude to Mr. Garrick, to mention a delicate fear, which he fuggefted, when we firft folicited his fanction and affiftance. This fear was, left the prunings, tranfpofitions, or other alterations, which, in his province as a manager he had often found neceffary to make, or adopt, with regard to the text, for the convenience of representation, or accommodation to the powers and capacities of his performers, might be mifconftrued into a critical prefumption of offering to the literati a reformed and more correct edition of our author's works; this being by no means his intention, we hope it will not become liable to fuch an unmerited mifconftruction. In juftification of ourselves alfo, we take this opportunity of declaring, that to expect any thing more of this work, than as a companion to the theatre, is to mistake the pose of the editors.

pur

Having been long convinced that multiplying conjectural verbal criticisms, tends rather to perplex, than inform readers; we