Sóon he foóth'd his | foul to | pleasure. Dryd. The trochaic tetrameter catalectic of fix feet, and closing with a trochee and a semiped, what the Greeks call κατακλείς. Aristoph. Τηδε, τῇ πόλει πρόσ, ειναι ταῦτα, μὲν τοῖ τες θε, ες, This dancing measure is very proper to the character of Polonius, a droll humourous old courtier; and the mixture of the trochaic has no bad effect. The verfes are thus to be ordered. In Hamlet, Act II. As As are companions noted and most known So far. R. My Lord, thou would dishonour bim. Nor is Shakespeare without inftances of the anapestic verse; which verfes confift of anapests, fpondees, dactyls; and fometimes is intermixed the pes proceleufmaticus; as οι ὁ μὲν οἱ χομενος | φυγας ὅ δὲ νεκυς ῶν. Eurip. Oreft. The anapestic monometer acatalectic, of two feet. Midfummer's Night's Dream, A&t III. on the ground | fleep found. I'll apply to your eye When thou wākst | thōu tākst of thy former | lădy's eye. These verses are in the Midfummer Night's Dream, Act III. and ought to have been printed according to this measure. These measures are all fo agreeable to the genius of our language, that Shakespeare's fine ear and skill are seen in what he gives us, as well as in what he omits. Sir Philip Sydney, who was a scholar (as noblemen were in Queen Elizabeth's reign) but wanted Shakespeare's ear, has dragged into our language verses, that are enough to set one's ear an edge: thus for inftance the elegiac verses, Förtüne nature love long | have cōn | tended ǎ | boūt mē Which should mōft mise |ries | caft on ă | wōrme thắt ĭ |ām. Sir Philip Sydney thought, like Voffius, that such a number of fyllables was the only thing want ing, and that we had no long or fhort words in our language; but he was much mistaken. His saphics are worse, if poffible, than his elegiacs : if mine eys can speak to do hearty ērrind. So much mistaken oftentimes are learned men, when they don't fufficiently confider the peculiar genius, and diftinguishing features, as it were, of one language from another. THE reader has now a plan exhibited before him, partly intended to fix, if poffible, the volatil fpirit of criticism; and partly to do justice to Shakespeare, as an artist in dramatic poetry. How far I have fucceeded in this attempt muft be left to his judgment. But it is to be remember'd, that things are not as we judge of them, but as they exift in their own natures, independent of whim and caprice. So that I except against all fuch judges, as talk only from common vogue and fashion; "why, really 'tis just "as people like-we have different taftes now, "and things must be accommodated to them." They who are advanced to this pitch of barbarism, have much to unlearn, before they can have ears to hear. Again, I can hardly allow those for judges, who ridicule all rules in poetry; for whatever is beautiful and proper is agreeable to rule nor those, who are for setting at variance art and nature. And here I have Shakefpeare's authority, who, in the Winter's Tale, fays very finely, The art itself is nature: for what is the office of art, but to fhew nature in its perfection? Those only therefore seem to me to be judges, who knowing what is truly fair and good in general, have science and art fufficient to apply this knowledge to particulars. If the plan likewise here proposed were followed, the world might expect a much better, at least a lefs altered edition from Shakespeare's own words, than has yet been published. In order for this, all the various readings of authority should faithfully and fairly be collated, and exhibited before the reader's eyes; and, with fome little ingenuity, the best of these fhould be chofen, and placed in the text. As to conjectural emendations, I have said enough of these already. Nor can I but think, that a short interpretation would be not amiss, when the conftruction is a little embarraffed, or where words are used not strictly according to the common acceptation, or fetched from other languages and fome remarks could not but appear requifite, to explain the poet's allufions to the various customs and manners, either of |