pocrify does against the Practice of Religion, But Adulation no fooner began to belye its Subject, than it perverted the very Purpose of its Application ; while, amongst its many artful traverses, it would now beg Protection for the Book; and, now again, conftitute the Patron the fovereign Judge of its Merit.

In this Light, Madam, you might reasonably wonder to fee a Collection of Plays dedicated to one who reads few Books befides thofe of Piety and Moral; and will think, the Addrefs might have been made with fomewhat less Impropriety even to a Bishop. This is true: but, as I faid, this literary Connexion is not, of right, between the Patron and the Work; but between him and the Author. Who, to carry on his Commerce with a good Conscience, must therefore fearch narrowly for a Subject which will not difhonour

Letters,

Letters, while he is giving that to Merit, which only Letters can beftow. But I need not be asham'd to say, that the Knowledge of you, has, at the fame time, abridged my Labour, and rewarded the Integrity of my Purpose. For if Friendship, Generofity, and the Benevolence of Charity, added to every female Virtue that most adorns your Sex, demand this Acknowledgment, it would be hard to find where it should be earlier paid, or to whom, in fuller Measure, returned.

If any now should affect to ask, What Stranger this is, of whom so much is faid? Let him know, that this his Ignorance is your fupreme Praise; whose Matron-modesty of Virtue declines all Notice, but where the Influence of your domestic Character extends. If, haply, you have any further Ambition, it is only this, the being known to constitute the domestic Happiness of a Man who

A 3

who does Honour to human Nature. The mention of whofe Relation to you, reminds me of my own Happiness; who enjoy fo equal and fo perfect a Share in both your Friendships. This too is my Fame and Reputation, as well as Happiness; for Ambition would lofe its Aim, were I to wish that any thing of me, or mine, fhould laft longer than the Memory of that Friendship. I am,

MADAM,

Your most obliged

and most faithful Servant,

W. WARBURTON.

PREFAC E.

I

T hath been no unufual thing for Writers, when diffatisfied with the Patronage or Judg

ment of their own Times, to appeal to Pofterity for a fair Hearing. Some have even thought fit to apply to it in the first Instance; and to decline Acquaintance with the Public till Envy and Prejudice had quite fubfided. But, of all the Trufters to Futurity, commend me to the Author of the following Poems, who not only left it to Time to do him Juftice as it would, but to find him out as it could. For, what between too great Attention to his Profit as a Player, and too little to his Reputation as a Poet, his Works, left to the Care of Door-keepers and Prompters, hardly escaped the common Fate of thofe Writings, how good foever, which are abandoned to their own Fortune, and unprotected by Party or Cabal. At length, indeed, they struggled into Light; but fo difguifed and travefted, that no claffic Author, after having run ten fecular Stages thro' the blind Cloifters of Monks and Canons, ever came out in half fo maimed and mangled a Condition. But for a full Account of his Disorders, I refer the Reader to the excellent Difcourfe which follows, and turn myfelf to confider the Remedies that have been applied to them. Shakespear's

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Shakespear's Works, when they escaped the Players, did not fall into much better Hands when they came amongst Printers and Bookfellers: who, to say the Truth, had, at first, but fmall Encouragement for putting him into a better Condition. The stubborn Nonfense, with which he was incrusted, occafioned his lying long neglected amongst the common Lumber of the Stage. And when that refiftless Splendor, which now shoots all around him, had, by degrees, broke thro' the Shell of those Impurities, his dazzled Admirers became as fuddenly infenfible to the extraneous Scurf that ftill ftuck upon him, as they had been before to the native Beauties that lay under it. So that, as then, he was thought not to deserve a Cure, he was now fuppofed not to need any.

His growing Eminence, however, required that he should be used with Ceremony: And he foon had his Appointment, of an Editor in form. But the Bookfeller, whofe dealing was with Wits, having learnt of them, I know not what filly Maxim, that none but a Poet fhould pre-. fume to meddle with a Poet, engaged the ingenious Mr. Rowe to undertake this Employment. A Wit indeed he was; but fo utterly unacquainted with the whole Bufinefs of Criticism, that he did not even collate or confult the firft Editions of the Work he undertook to publish; but contented himself with giving us a meagre Account of the Author's Life, interlarded with fome common-place Scraps from his Writings. The Truth is, Shakespear's Condition was yet but il understood,