But all this avails me nothing: I have read Shakespear at Lincoln's Inn; and have published my Canons of Criticism; and for this I am to be degraded of my gentility. A fevere fentence this-Ifind, that reading of Shakespear is a greater crime than high-treafon: had I been guilty of the latter, I must have been in→ dicted by my addition, tried by my peers, and fhould not have loft my blood, till I had been attainted; whereas here the punishment is incurred ipfo facto, without jury or trial.

I might complain of Mr. Warburton to his Masters of the Bench, for degrading a Barister of their house by his fole authority; but I will only reafon coolly with him upon the equity of this new proceeding.

A Gentleman (if I do not mean myself, with Mr. Warburton's leave I may use that word) I fay, a gentleman, defigned for the fevere ftudy of the law, must not presume to read, much less to make any obfervations on Shakefpear; while a Minister of Christ, a Divine of the Church of England, and one, who, if either of the Universities would have given him that honour, would have been a Doctor in Divinity; or, as in his preface he decently expreffes it, *of the Occult Sciences; He, I fay, may leave the care of his living in the country, and his chapel in town, to curates; and spend his Heaven-devoted hours in writing obfcene and im*Pref. p. 26.

moral

moral notes on that author, and imputing to him fentiments which he would have been afhamed of.

Who is Mr. Warburton? what is his birth, or whence his privilege? that the reputations of men both living and dead, of men in birth, character, ftation, in every inftance of true worthiness, much his fuperiors, must lie at the mercy of his petulant fatire, to be hacked and mangled as his ill-mannered fpleen shall prompt him; while it fhall be unlawful for any body, under penalty of degradation, to laugh at the unfcholar-like blunders, the crude and far-fetch'd conceits, the illiberal and indecent reflections; which he has endeavoured with so much selffufficiency and arrogance to put-off upon the world as a standard of true criticism ?

ton;

After being degraded from my gentility, I am accused of dulnefs, of being engaged against Shakespear, and of perfonal abufe: for the first; if, as Audrey fays, the Gods have not made me poetical, I cannot help it; every body has not the wit of the ingenious Mr. Warburand I confess myself not to be his match in that species of wit, which he deals-out fo lavishly in his notes upon all occafions. As to the charge of being engaged against Shakespear; if he does not, by the moft fcandalous equivocation, mean His edition of Shakespear, it is maliciously false; for I defy him to prove, that I ever either wrote or spoke concerning Shake* As you like it.

fpear,

fpear, but with that esteem which is due to the greatest of our English Poets. And as to the imputation of perfonal abuse; I deny it, and, call upon him to produce any inftance of it. I know nothing of the man, but from his works; and from what he has fhewn of his temper in them, I do not defire to know more of him nor am I confcious of having made one remark, which did not naturally arise from the subject before me, or of having been in any instance fevere, but on occafions where every gentleman must be moved; I mean, where his notes feemed to me of an immoral tendency; or full of those illiberal, common-place reflections on the fair fex, which are unworthy of a gentleman or a man; much less do they become a divine and a married man; and if this is called perfonal abuse, I will repete it; till he is afhamed of fuch language, as none but libertines and the lowest of the vulgar can think to be wit; and this too flowing from the fulness of his heart, where honeft Shakespear gave not the least occafion for fuch reflexions.

If any applications are made, which I did not defign; I ought not to be answerable for them: if this is done by Mr. Warburton's friends, they pay him an ill complement; if by himself, he muft have reason from fome unlucky co-incidences, which fhould have made him more cautious of touching fome points; and he ought to have remembered, that a man, whose

house

houfe is made of glass, should never begin throw→ ing ftones.

But I have been told; that, whatever was my defign, my pamphlet has in fact done an injury both to Mr. Warburton, and his bookfeller. I hope, I am not guilty of this charge: to do him an injury in this cafe, I must have taken away from him, or hindered him from enjoying, fomething which he had a right to; if I have proved, that he had no real right to fomething which he clamed; this is not injuring him, but doing juftice to Shakespear, to the public, and to himself. I am juft in the cafe of a friend of mine, who going to vifit an acquaintance, upon entering his room met a perfon going out of it: Prithee Jack, fays he, what do you do with that fellow? Why, 'tis Don Pedro di Mondonge my Spanish master. Spanish master! replies my friend, why he's an errant Teague: I know the fellow well enough, 'tis Rory Gehagan; I have seen him abroad, where he waited on fome gentlemen; he may poffibly have been in Spain, but he knows little or nothing either of the language or pronunciation; and will fell you the Tipperary Brogue for pure Caftilian. Now honeft Rory had just the same reason of complaint against this Gentleman, as Mr. Warburton has against me; and I suppose abused him as heartily for it but nevertheless, the gentleman did both parties justice, In fhort, if a man will put himself off in the world for what he is not; he may be forry for being discovered,

but he has no right to be angry with the perfon who discovers him.

As to his bookfellers; it must be acknowleged, that thofe gentlemen paid very dear for the aukward complement he made them in his preface; of their being," not the worst judges,

or rewarders of merit;" but, as to my hindering the fale of the book, the fupplement did not come-out till a twelvemonth after the publication of Mr. Warburton's Shakespear; and in all that time it had fo little made its way, that I could meet with no-body, even among his admirers, who had read it over; nor would peo→ ple eafily believe, that the paffages produced as examples to the Canons were really there; fo that if it had merit, it was of the fame kind with that of Falstaff's; it was too thick to shine, and too heavy to mount; for people had not found it out only they took it for granted, that an edition by Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton must be a good one...

But the publication of the fupplement has prevented the fale, fince that time. If it has, it must be because the objections it contains against that performance are well grounded; otherwife, a little twelve-penny pamphlet could ne ver ftop the progrefs of eight large octavo vo lumes the impartial public would have condemned the pamphlet, and bought-up the book. If then those objections are juft, what have I done; but difcovered the faultinefs of a commodity, which Mr. Warburton had put-off

upon