Correction, from Various Reading. Bear Hamlet like a foldier OFF the stage; As Errors made their Appearance very early in this Play, so they keep their Ground to the very Clofe of it. Why bear Hamlet OFF the Stage? I meet with this Reading no where but in the fourth Folio Edition; and in the Duodecimo publish'd by Mr. ToNSON, which does not much out-do the Other in Correctness. Surely, Fortinbras cannot be fuppofed to confider either himself, or Hamlet, here, as Actors before an Audience; and upon the Stage of a Theatre. The Poet muft very strangely forget himself, to be guilty of fuch an Abfurdity: But I dare fay, he may be clear'd from a Sufpicion of it. In fhort, the Cafe is This Hamlet, upon the Point of Death, conjures Horatio, who was defirous to have poison'd himself, to relinquish those Thoughts, and to live, and by a true Representation of Occurrences, rescue his Character and Memory from Scandal. Page 469. Oh, good Horatio, what a wounded Name, Things Standing thus unknown, shall live behind Me! Abfent thee from Felicity awhile, And in this harsh World draw thy Breath in Pain, Horatio, Horatio, in Obedience to this Command, defires Fortinbras will order, that the dead Bodies may be placed on a publick Stage, or Scaffold, and he will speak to the Business of their difaftrous Deaths. Page 470. Give Order that thefe Bodies High ON A STAGE be placed to the View, And let Me Speak to th' yet unknowing World How thefe Things came about. Nay, and he defires that This may be done with al poffible Dispatch, lest, thro' a Delay, any farther accidental Mifchief might intervene. Page 471. But let this fame be prefently perform'd, Ev'n while Mens Minds are wild, leaft more Mifchance Fortinbras likes the Propofal, expreffes himself in Hafte to hear what Horatio has to fay; and is for convening the Nobleft Perfons of the State to the Audience of it. There is no doubt, therefore, but we ought to restore this Paffage, as all the better Editions have it; It is in Mr. Pope's Edition, by a Fault of the Prefs, men minds. T2 Fortinb. that is, to the Stage, or Scaffold, from whence Horatio defired to explain the cafual and plotted Calamities, that had befall'n them in the Perfons of their Princes. THE THE APPENDIX. HE Examination of this fingle Play has drove out into fuch a Length, that I am almoft afraid to think of an Appendix to it. But I have tied my felf down by exprefs Engagement, at my fetting out; and I am fatisfied, unless an Author acquits himfelf very badly, the Publick never care to bate him his Promifes. I undertook, I think, boldly to prove, That, whatever Errors occurr'd in HAMLET, Errors of the fame Sorts fhould be found in the other Plays, throughout all the Volumes. 'Tis evident, the Faults of that Play have branched out into many Claffes: And Í have an ample Stock of Matter before Me, to make good my Affertion upon every individual Species. As this is but a Specimen, I fhall be excufed from pointing out thofe innumerable literal Faults of the Prefs, which every Reader can correct, that does but throw his Eye over the Paffages. As to the Faults of Pointing too, I shall confine my felf to remark on Such only, in which the Senfe is palpably injured; in which the Editor has followed the old printed Copies, and in which he has either not feem'd to fufpect a Fault, or not understood how to rectify it. The Defign of this Work was an honeft Endeavour to restore SHAKESPEARE from the Corruptions, that have taken Place in all his Editions: And, to this End, I gave it as my Opinion, that an Editor of Him, ought to be a Critick upon him too. The Want of Originals reduces us to a Neceffity of guefling, in order to amend him; but thefe Guelles change into Something of a more fubftantial Nature, when they are tolerably fupported by Reafon or Authorities. There is certainly a Degree of Merit in a good Conjecture; tho' it be not fo thoroughly fatisfactory and convincing, as the Party, who advances it, flatters himfelf it must be. This calls to my Mind a Sentiment in an old Latin Verfe, though I do not remember at present to what Author we owe it; Benè qui conjiciet, Vatem hunc perhibebo optimum. I am far from entertaining fo vain an Hope, that every Conjecture, which I have ventur'd to make, thall be followed with the Concurrence and Applaufe of the Readers: But I may dare to affert, Some of them are fo well-grounded and certain, that They renew in Me a Wish, that Mr. POPE had propofed to himfelf to enter upon this Province. This would naturally have led him to weigh every Line of his Author with that Care and Judgment, that, I believe, Then he would have retracted fome few of thofe Conjectures which he has made; and in which he feems to have err'd, either from Want of duly confidering the Poet, or of a competent Knowledge of the Stage. The Caufe of SHAKESPEARE is here engaged, and the Reftitution of Him concern'd; and therefore I muft beg Mr. POPE's Pardon for contradicting Some of his Conjectures, in which he has mistaken the Meaning of Our our Author. No other Caufe, but This, fhould provoke me to run fo bold a Rifque; and if I have the ill Fortune to deceive my felf in the Attempt, I fhall willingly fubmit to own my felf, (as HAMLET fays to LAERTES,) his Foil in my Ignorance. The exceptionable Conjectures of the Editor, I think, may be ranged under these Heads; as, where he has fubftituted a fresh Reading, and there was no Occafion to depart from the Poet's Text; where he has maim'd the Author by an unadvis'd Degradation; where he has made a bad Choice in a Various Reading, and degraded the better Word; and where he, by mistaking the Glofs of any Word, has given a wrong Turn to the Poet's Sense and Meaning. Of the firft Species of Thefe I fhall produce but a fingle Inftance, because my Defence of the Poet will take up fome Room: But, I am in hopes, the Novelty of the Subje&, and the Variety of the Matter, will make it not appear too tedious. The Paffage, upon which I make my Obfervation, is This: New Reading I. TROILUS and CRESSIDA, p. 42. difputed, and Text defended. * Vid. infrà. 4 Page 22. Anachronism confider'd. 14. Paris and Troilus, you have Both faid well: Have glofs'd but fuperficially; not much Unlike Young Men, whom GRAVER SAGES think The EDITOR, I remember, in his Preface, † fpeaking of the Method taken in his Edition, tells us that the Various Readings are fairly put in the Margin, fo that every one may compare them; and thofe he has preferr'd into the Text are CONSTANTLY ex fide Codicum, upon Authority. I heartily beg the Pardon of this Gentleman, if, thro' Ignorance, I fhall affert a Falfhood here, in being bold to fay, that This may be call'd an Exception to his Rule; that Graver Sages is preferr'd into the Text without any Authority, and that all the printed Copies read the Paffage thus; not much Unlike Young Men, whom ARISTOTLE thought Unfit to hear moral Philofophy. 'Tis certain, indeed, that Ariftotle was at leaft 800 Years fubfequent in Time to Hector; and therefore the Poet makes a remarkable Innovation upon Chronology. But Mr. POPE will have this to be One of those palpable Blunders, which the Illiteracy of the first Publishers of his Works has father'd upon the Poet's Memory, and is of Opinion that it could not be of our Author's penning; it not being at all credible, that these could be the Errors of any Man who had the leaft Tincture of a School, or the leaft Converfation with fuch as had.* 'Tis Pref. Page for this Reason, and to fhelter our Author from fuch an Abfurdity, that the Editor has expung'd the Name of ARISTOTLE, and fubftituted in its place graver Sages. But, with Submiffion, even herein he has made at beft but half a Cure. If the Poet must be fetter'd down ftrictly to the Chronology of Things, it is every whit as abfurd for Hector, to talk of PHI+Diogenes La- LOSOPHY, as for him to talk of Ariftotle. We have fufficient Proofs, † that Pythagoras was ertius, and Ci- the first who invented the Word Philofophy, and call'd himself Philofopher: And he was cero, from He- near 600 Years after the Date of Hector, even from his beginning to flourish. 'Tis true, raelides Ponti- the Thing, which we now understand by Philofophy, was then known; but it was only cus; Iambli- till then call'd Knowledge and Wifdom. But to difmifs this Point; I believe this Anachrochus, in the Life nifm of our Poet, (and, perhaps, all the Others that he is guilty of,) was the Effect of Poof Pythagoras, etick Licence in him, rather than Ignorance. &c. It has been very familiar with the Poets, of the Stage especially, upon a Suppofition that Anachronisms familiar with their Audience were not fo exactly inform'd in Chronology, to anticipate the Mention of Shakespeare. Perfons and Things, before either the first were born, or the latter thought of. SHAKE*Troilus, Page SPEARE again, in the fame Play * compares the Nerves of AJAX with those of bull-bearing MILO of Crotona, who was not in Being till 600 Years after that Greek; and was a DifciStrabo, Au- ple of Pythagoras. Again, Pandarus, at the Conclufion of the Play, talks of a Winlus Gellius,. chefter-Goofe: Indeed, it is in an Addrefs to the Audience; and then there may be an AlPage 120. lowance, and greater Latitude for going out of Character. Again, in § CORIOLANUS, Page 123. Menenius talks of Galen, who was not born till the fecond Century of the Chriftian Era: 51. And |