to be grammatical. Shakeſpeare regarded more the ſeries of ideas, than of words; and his language, not being deſigned for the reader’s deſk, was all that he deſired it to be, if it conveyed his meaning to the audience.
Hanmer’s care of the metre has been too violently cenſured. He found the meaſure reformed in ſo many paſſages, by the ſilent labours of ſome editors, with the ſilent acquieſcence of the reſt, that he thought himſelf allowed to extend a little further the licence, which had already been carried ſo far without reprehenſion; and of his corrections in general, it muſt be confeſſed, that they are often juſt, and made commonly with the leaſt poſſible violation of the text.
But, by inſerting his emendations, whether invented or borrowed, into the page, without any notice of varying copies, he has appropriated the labour of his predeceſſors, and made his own edition of little authority. His confidence indeed, both in himſelf and others, was too great; he ſuppoſes all to be right that was done by Pope and Theobald; he ſeems not to ſuſpect a critick of fallibility, and it was but reaſonable that he ſhould claim what he ſo liberally granted.
As he never writes without careful enquiry and diligent conſideration, I have received all his notes, and believe that every reader will wiſh for more.
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