ADVERTISEMENT.

HE intention of this advertisement is to

point out to the Reader the manner in which the Editors have executed the present work. It is not a new plan, but it is an approved one; and, they Aatter themselves, it will be no impeachment of their candour, that they fairly acknowledge, they have strictly followed an edi. tion formerly published in this place, which has been esteemed equal, if not superior, to any published in Britain.

The acts and scenes are divided and num. bered according to the editions of Pope and Warburton.-The passages which were thought most beautiful by Mr Pope and Mr Warburton, are particularly attended to in this edi.

tion; the beauties observed by the former be. ing marked with a single inverted comma, and thofe by the latter with a double one.-Besides these, the beauties, as regularly selected from each play by Mr Dodd, are pointed out, p. xlix. et seq. in the order of the volumes and plays, with directions to the pages and lines where each of them occur, together with Mr Warburton's general criticism on his plays.

Suspected passages or interpolations, upon the authorities of Mr Pope, the Oxford editor, and Mr Warburton, are thrown down to the bottom of the page, with proper marks refer

. ring to the places of their insertion.-Some lines in different places are inclosed within hooks or crotchets, as, in Mr Warburton's opi. nion, foifted into the text by the players, or of spurious issue, and noted as such at the bottom of the page; and several chasms or defects are pointed out by asterisks, with probable conjectures for supplying them.

The Glossary and Index are extremely copious, frce of blunders, and reduced to a strict alphabetical order.

It will not be expected, that the Editors hould enter into a discussion of the Author's character as a dramatic writer; but they have prefixed Mr Pope's Preface, Mr Rowe's account of his life and writings, and Ben Johnson's poem to his memory, which will answer that purpose better than any thing they could say on the subject.