Preface To The Works Of Shakespeare (1734) Part 3

II. There is another more egregious Error still subsisting in this instructive Fragment, which has likewise escaped the Notice of the Learned. The Author is saying, that, in the _old Comedy_, the _Masks_ were made so nearly to resemble the Persons to be satirized, that before the Actor spoke a Word, it was known whom he was to personate. But, in the _New Comedy_, when _Athens_ was conquered by the _Macedonians_, and the Poets were fearful lest their Masks should be construed to resemble any of their New Governors, they formed them so preposterously as only to move Laughter; ???e? ????

(says He) t?? ?f??? ?? t??? p??s?p??? t?? ?e???d??? ???d?a? ?p??a?

??e?, ?a? ?p?? ??est?a???? t? SO??. ?a? ??de ?at? ?????p?? f?s??.

"We see therefore what strange Eyebrows there are to the Masks used in_ Menander_'s Comedies; and how the _Body_ is distorted, and unlike any human Creature alive." But the Author, 'tis evident, is speaking abstractedly of _Masks_; and what Reference has the _Distortion_ of the _Body_ to the Look of a _Visor_? I am satisfied, _Platonius_ wrote; ?a?

?p?? ??est?a???? t? ????, _i.e._ "and how the _Eyes_ were _goggled_ and _distorted_." This is to the Purpose of his Subject: and _Jul.

Pollux_, in describing the Comic Masques, speaks of some that had S??????? t? ????: Others, that were ???S???F?? t?? ????.

PERVERSIS _oculis_, as _Cicero_ calls them, speaking of _Roscius_.

[Sidenote: _Camerarius_ and _Keuster_, mistaken.]

III. _Suidas_, in the short Account that he has given us of _Sophocles_, tells us, that, besides Dramatic Pieces, he wrote Hymns and Elegies; ?a? ????? ?ata????d?? pe?? t?? ????? p???

T?sp?? ?a? ???????? ???????e???. This the Learned _Camerarius_ has thus translated: _Scripsit Oratione soluta de _Choro_ contra _Thespin_ & _Chrilum_ quempiam._ And _Keuster_ likewise understood, and render'd, the Pa.s.sage to the same Effect. He owns, the Place is obscure, and suspected by him. "For how could _Sophocles_ contend with _Thespis_ and _Chrilus_, who liv'd long before his Time?" The Scholiast upon [C]_Aristophanes_, however, expresly says, as _Keuster_ might have remember'd, that _Sophocles_ actually did contend with _Chrilus_. But that is a Point nothing to the Pa.s.sage in Question; which means, as I have shewn in another Place, That _Sophocles_ declaimed in Prose, contending to obtain a _Chorus_ for reviving some Pieces of _Thespis_ and _Chrilus_.

Is This contending against Them, as rival Poets?

[Footnote C: In Ranis, v. 73.]

[Sidenote: _Meursius_, and _Camerarius_ mistaken.]

IV. Some other Learned Men have likewise been mistaken in Particulars with regard to _Sophocles_. In the Synopsis of his Life, we find these Words; ?e?e?t? d? et? ????p?d?? ?t?? ?'. _Meursius_, as well as _Camerarius_, have expounded This, as if _Sophocles_ surviv'd _Euripides_ six Years. But the best Accounts agree that they died both in the same Year, a little before the _Frogs_ of _Aristophanes_ was play'd; _scil._ Olymp. 93, 3. The Meaning, therefore, of the Pa.s.sage is, as some of the Commentators have rightly observ'd; _That _Sophocles_ died after _Euripides_, at 90 Years of Age._ The Mistake arose from hence, that, in Numerals, ?? signifies as well 6 as 90.

[Sidenote: Father _Brumoy_ mistaken.]

V. The Learned Father _Brumoy_ too, who has lately given us three Volumes upon the _Theatre_ of the _Greeks_, has slipt into an Error about _Sophocles_; for, speaking of his _Antigone_, he tells us, it was in such Request as to be perform'd Two and Thirty times; _Elle fut representee trente deux fois._ The Account, on which This is grounded, we have from the Argument prefix'd to _Antigone_ by _Aristophanes_ the Grammarian: and the _Latin_ Translator of this Argument, probably, led Father _Brumoy_ into his Mistake, and he should have referr'd to the Original. The _Greek_ Words are; ???e?ta? d? t? d??a t??t? t??a??st?? de?te???. i. e. "_This _Play_ is said to have been the _Thirty Second_, in Order of Time, produced by_ Sophocles."

The Mistakes, that I have mentioned, (tho' they necessarily lead into Error, from the Authority with which they come into the World;) yet are such, 'tis obvious, as have been the Effects of Inadvertence; and therefore I do not quote them to the Dishonour of their Learned Authors. I shall point out Two or Three, which seem to have sprung from another Source: either a due Want of Sagacity, or an absolute Neglect of _literal Criticism_.

[Sidenote: Sir _George Wheler_ corrected.]

VI. Sir _George Wheler_, who, in his JOURNEY into GREECE, has traded much with _Greek_ Antiquities and Inscriptions, and who certainly was no mean Scholar, has shewn himself very careless in this Respect. When he was at _Sardis_, he met with a Medal of the Emperor _Commodus_ seated in the Midst of the Zodiack with Celestial Signs engraven on it; and, on the other Side, a Figure with a Crown-Mure with these Letters about it, S??d?? ?s?a?, ?????S, ???ad??, a ?t??p????: __Sardis_, the first Metropolis of _Asia_, _Greece_, and _Audia_._--But where and what _Audia_ was, (_says He_) I find not. Now is it not very strange, that this Gentleman should not remember, that _Sardis_ was the Capital City of _Lydia_; and, consequently, that for ?????S we should read ?????S? Tho' my Correction is too obvious to want any Justification, yet, I find, it has One from the Learned Father [D]_Harduin_; who produces another Coin of _Sardis_ (in the _French_ King's Cabinet) which bears the very same Inscription, only exhibited as it ought to be.

[Footnote D: In his _Nummi Antiqui ill.u.s.trati_.]

Nor was This a single Inaccuracy in Sir _George_. I'll instance in Two pretty Inscriptions, the One an _Epitaph_, the other a _Votive Table_, which He has given Us, but in a very corrupt Condition. Tho'

I have never been in _Greece_, nor seen the Inscriptions any where but in _his_ Book, I think, I can restore them to their true Sense and Numbers: And, as they are particularly elegant, some Readers will not be displeas'd to see them in a State of Purity.

[Sidenote: An _Epitaph_ corrected and explained.]

VII. _Of the Antiquities of _Philadelphia_ (says he) I had but a slender Account; only I have the Copy of one Inscription, being the Monument of a _Virgin_, in these three Couplets of Verses_. But she was so far from being a _Virgin_, that the Epitaph shews her to have been a _Wife_; that it was put up in Memory of Her by her _Husband_; and that she dy'd in the Flower of her Youth at the Age of twenty three.

?a?t?pp?? ????a ???? [1]??? pa??d????

??? [2]te??sa? se?? ta?t?? ???????

?a?????? ?? ?p???se ?t??? ?S????? ????s.

?s?e? ?? ??te?e? pa?sae??? ?a???.

??e?? ?a? ?p? e???s???? te?e?se [3]??? ???a?t???, ?a? et? t??sde ???e? [4]t??t?? ??p??safa??.

[Notes: 1 ??t?? pa??d??e?.

2 t??sa? se??t?t??.

3 ???s?.

4 t??t? ??p??sa f???. ]

I have, for Brevity's sake, mark'd the general Corrections, which I have made, at the Side. The third Verse is neither true in Quant.i.ty, nor Language: ?S????? is a Monster of a Word, which never could be the Reading of any Marble. As I correct it, we recover a most beautiful Couplet.

?a??????, ?? ?p???se ?t???? ?S ?????? ?????.

?s?e? ?? ??te?e? pa?s?e??? ?a???.

Puellam, cujus Zonam solvit; cujus _VERNUS_ Flos Praepropero tabuit in Thalamo.

[Sidenote: A _Votive Table_ corrected.]

VIII. I come now to the _Votive Table_, which is rich in poetick Graces, however overwhelm'd with Depravation: and Sir _George_ seems as much to have mistaken the Purport, as the Words, of the Inscription. _At _Chalcedon_, _says he_, I found an Inscription in the Wall of a private House near the Church; which signifieth, that _Evante_, the Son of _Antipater_, having made a prosperous Voyage, and desiring to return by the _aegean_ Sea, offered Cakes at a Statue, which he had erected to _Jupiter_, which had sent him such good Weather, as a Token of his good Voyage._

[1]?????? ?p? [2]??????S t?? ?d???t??a ?a?e?t?, ???a ?at? [3]p??t?? O??st??? ??pet?sa?

[4]??? ??????S ????S ??????S ???a ??se?d??

?ap???? e???sse? ??a pa?? ?aa????.

??ta ?at? ???a?a? p??t?? p???a [5]??S ??e????, ?e?s??? t? d? [6]????O? ?a?st? pa?? [7]?O ?O??O.

[8]??? t?? [9]?????? t?? ?e? ?e?? ??t?p?t??? pa??

St?se [10]f???? ??a??? s????? e?p?????.

[Notes: 1 ?????.

2 p?????.

3 p??t??, ?st???.

4 ??a?ea?? d???s?? ?p?d????.

5 ??st??.

6 a???.

7 ?????

8 ?sd?.

9 e?a???.

10 F????. ]

I have mark'd, as before, my Corrections at the Side; and I may venture to say, I have supported the faltring Verses both with _Numbers_ and _Sense_. But who ever heard of _Evante_, as the Name of a Man, in _Greece_? Neither is this Inscription a Piece of Ethnic Devotion, as Sir _George_ has suppos'd it, to a Statue erected to _Jupiter_: On the contrary, it despises those fruitless Superst.i.tions.

_Philo_ (a _Christian_, as it seems to me;) sets it up, in Thanks for a safe Voyage, to the _true G.o.d_. That all my Readers may equally share in this little Poem, I have attempted to put it into an _English_ Dress.

Invoke who Will the prosp'rous Gale _behind_, _Jove_ at the _Prow_, while to the guiding Wind O'er the blue Billows he the Sail expands, Where _Neptune_ with each Wave heaps Hills of Sands: Then let him, when the Surge he backward plows, Pour to his Statue-G.o.d unaiding Vows: But to the G.o.d of G.o.ds, for Deaths o'erpast, For Safety lent him on the watry Waste, To native Sh.o.r.es return'd, thus _Philo_ pays His Monument of Thanks, of grateful Praise.

I shall have no Occasion, I believe, to ask the Pardon of _some_ Readers for these _Nine_ last Pages; and Others may be so kind to pa.s.s them over at their Pleasure. (Those Discoveries, which give Light and Satisfaction to the truly Learned, I must confess, are Darkness and Mystery to the less capable: F????? ?? ???et???, ????et??? d? ??e??.) Nor will they be absolutely foreign, I hope, to a Preface in some Measure critical; especially, as it could not be amiss to shew, that I have read other Books with the same Accuracy, with which I profess to have read _Shakespeare_. Besides, I design'd this Inference from the Defence of Literal Criticism.

If the _Latin_ and _Greek_ Languages have receiv'd the greatest Advantages imaginable from the Labours of the Editors and Criticks of the two last Ages; by whose Aid and a.s.sistance the Grammarians have been enabled to write infinitely better in that Art than even the preceding Grammarians, who wrote when those Tongues flourish'd as living Languages: I should account it a peculiar Happiness, that, by the faint a.s.say I have made in this Work, a Path might be chalk'd out, for abler Hands, by which to derive the same Advantages to our own Tongue: a Tongue, which, tho' it wants none of the fundamental Qualities of an universal Language, yet as a _n.o.ble Writer_ says, lisps and stammers as in its Cradle; and has produced little more towards its polis.h.i.+ng than Complaints of its Barbarity.

[Sidenote: The Delay of this Edition excused.]

Having now run thro' all those Points, which I intended should make any Part of this Dissertation, it only remains, that I should account to the Publick, but more particularly to my Subscribers, why they have waited so long for this Work; that I should make my Acknowledgments to those Friends, who have been generous a.s.sistants to me in the conducting it: and, lastly, that I should acquaint my Readers what Pains I have myself taken to make the Work as complete, as faithful Industry, and my best Abilities, could render it.

In the middle of the Year 1728, I first put out my _Proposals_ for publis.h.i.+ng only _Emendations_ and _Remarks_ on our Poet: and I had not gone on many Months in this Scheme, before I found it to be the unanimous Wish of those who did me the Honour of their Subscriptions, that I would give them the Poet's Text corrected; and that I would subjoin those Explanatory Remarks, which I had purpos'd to publish upon the Foot of my first Proposals. Earnest Sollicitations were made to me, that I would think of such an Edition; which I had as strong Desires to listen to: and some _n.o.ble_ Persons then, whom I have no Privilege to name, were pleased to interest themselves so far in the Affair, as to propose to Mr. _Tonson_ his undertaking an Impression of _Shakespeare_ with my Corrections. The throwing my whole Work into a different Form, to comply with this Proposal, was not the slightest Labour: and so no little Time was unavoidably lost. While the Publication of my Remarks was thus respited, my Enemies took an unfair Occasion to suggest, that I was extorting Money from my Subscribers, without ever designing to give them any Thing for it: an Insinuation levell'd at once to wound me Reputation and Interest. Conscious, however, of my own just Intentions, and labouring all the while to bring my wish'd Purpose to bear, I thought these anonymous Slanderers worthy of no Notice.

A Justification of myself would have been giving them Argument for fresh Abuse; and I was willing to believe that any unkind Opinions, entertain'd to my Prejudice, would naturally drop and lose their Force, when the Publick should once be convinc'd that I was in Earnest, and ready to do them Justice. I left no Means untry'd to put it in my Power to do this: and I hope, without Breach of Modesty, I may venture to appeal to all candid Judges, whether I have not employ'd all my Power to be just to them in the Execution of my Task. I must needs have been in the most Pain, who saw myself daily so barbarously outraged. I might have taken advantage of the favourable Impressions entertain'd of my Work, and hurried it crudely into the World: But I have suffer'd, for my Author's sake, those Impressions to cool, and perhaps, be lost; and can now appeal only to the _Judgment_ of the Publick. If I succeed in this Point, the Reputation gain'd will be the more solid and lasting.

[Sidenote: Acknowledgment of a.s.sistance.]

I come now to speak of those kind a.s.sistances which I have met with from particular Friends, towards forwarding and compleating this Work. Soon after my Design was known, I had the Honour of an Invitation to _Cambridge_; and a generous Promise from the Learned and ingenious Dr. _Thirlby_ of _Jesus_-College, there, who had taken great Pains with my Author, that I should have the Liberty of collating his Copy of _Shakespeare_, mark'd thro' in the Margin with his own Ma.n.u.script References and accurate Observations. He not only made good this Promise, but favour'd me with a Set of Emendations, interspers'd and distinguish'd in his Name thro' the Edition, and which can need no Recommendation here to the judicious Reader.

The next a.s.sistance I receiv'd was from my ingenious Friend _Hawley Bishop_ Esq; whose great Powers and extensive Learning are as well known, as his uncommon Modesty, to all who have the Happiness of his Acquaintance. This Gentleman was so generous, at the Expence both of his Pocket and Time, to run thro' all _Shakespeare_ with me. We join'd Business and Entertainment together; and at every of our Meetings, which were constantly once a Week, we read over a _Play_, and came mutually prepar'd to communicate our Conjectures upon it to each other. The Pleasure of these Appointments, I think, I may say, richly compensated for the Labour in our own Thoughts: and I may venture to affirm, in the Behalf of my a.s.sistant, that our Author has deriv'd no little Improvement from them.