fpear himfelf made, are taken notice of as they Occur. Some fufpected paffages which are excef fively bad (and which feem interpolations by being fo inferted that one can intirely omit them without any chaẩm, or deficience in the context) are degraded to the bottom of the page; with an afterisk referring to the places of their infertion. The scenes are marked fo distinctly that every removal of place is fpecify'd; which is more neceffary in this Author than any other, fince he shifts them more frequently and fometimes without attending to this particular, the reader would have met with obfcurities. The more obfolete or unufual words are explained. Some of the most shining paffages are diftinguished by comma's in the margin: and where the beauty lay not in particulars but in the whole, a ftar is prefixed to the fcene. This feems to me a fhorter and lefs oftentatious method of performing the better half of Criticism (namely the pointing out an Author's excellencies) than to fill a whole paper with citations of fine paffages, with general applauses, or empty exclamations at the tail of them. There is alfo fubjoined a catalogue of thofe firft editions by which the greater part of the various readings and of the corrected paffages are authorifed (most of which are such as carry their own evidence along with them.) Thefe editions now hold the place of originals, and are the only materials left to repair the deficiencies or reftore the corrupted fenfe of the Author: I can only wish that a greater number of them (if a greater were ever published) may yet be found, by a fearch more fuccefsful than mine, for the better accomplishment of this end.

I will conclude by faying of Shakespear, that with all his faults, and with all the irregularity of his drama, one may look upon his works, in com

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parison of those that are more finished and regular, as upon an ancient majestick piece of Gothic architecture, compared with a neat modern building: The latter is more elegant and glaring, but the former is more ftrong and more folemn. It must be allowed, that in one of these there are materials enough to make many of the other. It has much the greater variety, and much the nobler apartments; tho' we are often conducted to them by dark, odd, and uncouth paffages. Nor does the whole fail to ftrike us with greater reverence, tho' many of the parts are childish, ill-placed, and unequal to its grandeur.