of a work, and when their very features betray their bastardy, one may venture not only to mark them for not being genuine, but entirely to remove them. In K. Henry the fifth, there is a fcene between Katharine and an old woman, where Mr. Pope has this remark, " I "have left this ridiculous scene as I found it ; "and am forry to have no colour left, from of the editions, to imagine it interpoany "lated." But with much less colour Mr. Pope has made many greater alterations; and this fcene is rightly omitted in the late elegant edition printed at Oxford. But 'tis a hard matter to fix bounds to criticifm. However in our fubfequent book we will try whether or no, by the help of fome rules, we cannot regulate a little its rage.

1. BOOK III.

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HEN one confiders the various tribes of thetoricians, grammarians, etymologists, &c. of ancient Greece: and here find the wifeft and beft of philofophers inculcating grammatical niceties to his fcholars; not fo foreign to his grand defign of bettering mankind, as we now perhaps may imagine when again we confider that the Romans followed the Grecian steps; and here fee a Scipio and Laelius joining with an African flave in polishing the Latin language, and translating the politeft of the Attic authors; and fome time after read of Cicero himself, that he, when his country was distracted with civil commotions, fhould trouble his head with fuch pedantic accuracies, as whether he should write ad Piraeea, Piraeeum, or in Piraeeum-When, I fay all this is confidered, and then turn our eyes ward, and behold every thing the reverfe; can we wonder that the ancients should have a polite language, and that we should hardly emerge out of our priftine and Gothic barbarity?

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1 See Plato in Cratyl and Xen. o. L. III. c. 13. and L. IV. c. 6.

2 Cicer. in Epift. ad Att. VII. 3.

Amongst

Amongst many other things we want a good grammar and dictionary: we must know what is proper, before we can know what is elegant and polite: by the use of these, the meaning of words might be prefixed, the Proteus-nature, if poffible, of ever-fhifting language might in some measure be afcertained, and vague phrafes and ambiguous fentences brought under fome rule and regulation. But a piece of idle wit fhall laugh all fuch learning out of doors and the notion of being thought a dull and pedantic fellow, has made many a man continue a blockhead all his life. Neither words nor grammar are fuch arbitrary and whimsical things, as fome imagine and for my own part, as I have been taught from other kind of philofophers, so I believe, that right and wrong, in the minutest fubjects, have their standard in nature, not in whim, caprice or arbitrary will: fo that if our grammarian, or lexicographer, fhould by chance be a difciple of modern philosophy; fhould he glean from France and the court his refinements of our tongue, he would render the whole affair, bad as it is, much worse by his ill manage ment. No one can write without fome kind of rules and for want of rules of authority, many learned men have drawn them up for themselves.

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themselves. Ben Johnfon printed his English Grammar. If Shakespeare and Milton never published their rules, yet they are not difficult to be traced from a more accurate confideration of their writings. Milton's rules I shall omit at prefent; but fome of Shakespeare's, which favour of peculiarity, I fhall here mention: because when these are known, we fhall be less liable to give a loose to fancy, in indulging the licentious fpirit of criticifm; nor fhall we then, fo much prefume to judge what Shakespeare ought to have written, as endeavour to discover and retrieve what he did write.

RULE I.

Shakespeare alters proper names according to the English pronunciation.

Concerning this liberty of altering proper names, Milton thus apologizes in Smectymnuus,

If in dealing with an out-landifh name, they "thought it beft not to screw the English mouth "to a harsh foreign termination, fo they kept "the radical word, they did no more than the

elegant authors among the Greeks, Romans, and at this day the Italians in fcorn of fuch a fervility ufe to do. Remember how they « mangle

"mangle our British names abroad; what tref"pafs were it if we in requital fhould as much "neglect theirs? And our learned Chaucer did "not stick to do fo, writing Semyramus for Semiramis, Amphiorax for Amphiaraus, K. Seies "for K. Ceyx the hufband of Alcyone, with 66 many other names ftrangely metamorphis'd "from true orthography, if he had made any ແ account of that in these kind of words." Milton's obfervation is exceeding true; and to this affectation of the Romans is owing the difficulty of antiquarians tracing the original names and places. Our Cafwell, Bowdich and Cotes, in a Roman mouth are Caffivellanus, Boadicia and Cotifo. The Portus Itius mention'd in Cae

I Chaucer's tranfcribers have plainly corrupted fome words, as AE they have turned into G. In the house of Fame, p. 466. y. 116, Edit.. Urry.

1. Achilles and Chiron: both famous for their skill in Mufick. Again Senior they have changed into Semor. In the Chanon's Yeman's tale. 1471. p. 127. edit. Urry. "As in his bokę Semor [r. Senior] will bear witness." Senior de Chemia. viz, Senior Zadith.

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