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Page 14
[Sidenote: The Editor's Drift and Method.]
[Sidenote*: Difference betwixt this Edition and Dr. _Bentley_'s
_Milton_.]
The Nature of any Distemper once found has generally been the
immediate Step to a Cure. _Shakespeare_'s Case has in a great
Measure resembled That of a corrupt _Classic_; and, consequently,
the Method of Cure was likewise to bear a Resemblance. By what
Means, and with what Success, this Cure has been effected on ancient
Writers, is too well known, and needs no formal Illustration. The
Reputation consequent on Tasks of that Nature invited me to attempt
the Method here; with this View, the Hopes of restoring to the
Publick their greatest Poet in his Original Purity: after having so
long lain in a Condition that was a Disgrace to common Sense. To
this End I have ventur'd on a Labour, that is the first Assay of
the kind on any modern Author whatsoever. For the late Edition of
_Milton_ by the Learned *Dr. _Bentley_ is, in the main, a Performance
of another Species. It is plain, it was the Intention of that
Great Man rather to Correct and pare off the Excrescencies of
the _Paradise Lost_, in the manner that _Tucca_ and _Varius_ were
employ'd to criticize the _�neis_ of _Virgil_, than to restore
corrupted Passages. Hence, therefore, may be seen either the
Iniquity or Ignorance of his Censurers, who, from some Expressions,
would make us believe, the _Doctor_ every where gives us his
Corrections as the Original Text of the Author; whereas the chief
Turn of his Criticism is plainly to shew the World, that if _Milton_
did not write as He would have him, he ought to have wrote so.
I thought proper to premise this Observation to the Readers, as it
will shew that the Critic on _Shakespeare_ is of a quite different
Kind. His genuine Text is religiously adher'd to, and the numerous
Faults and Blemishes, purely his own, are left as they were found.
Nothing is alter'd, but what by the clearest Reasoning can be
proved a Corruption of the true Text; and the Alteration, a real
Restoration of the genuine Reading. Nay, so strictly have I strove
to give the true Reading, tho' sometimes not to the Advantage of my
Author, that I have been ridiculously ridicul'd for it by Those, who
either were iniquitously for turning every thing to my Disadvantage;
or else were totally ignorant of the true Duty of an Editor.
The Science of Criticism, as far as it affects an Editor, seems
to be reduced to these three Classes; the Emendation of corrupt
Passages; the Explanation of obscure and difficult ones; and an
Inquiry into the Beauties and Defects of Composition. This Work is
principally confin'd to the two former Parts: tho' there are some
Specimens interspers'd of the latter Kind, as several of the
Emendations were best supported, and several of the Difficulties
best explain'd, by taking notice of the Beauties and Defects of
the Composition peculiar to this Immortal Poet. But This was but
occasional, and for the sake only of perfecting the two other Parts,
which were the proper Objects of the Editor's Labour. The third lies
open for every willing Undertaker: and I shall be pleas'd to see it
the Employment of a masterly Pen.
It must necessarily happen, as I have formerly observ'd, that where
the Assistance of Manuscripts is wanting to set an Author's Meaning
right, and rescue him from those Errors which have been transmitted
down thro' a Series of incorrect Editions, and a long Intervention
of Time, many Passages must be desperate, and past a Cure; and
their true Sense irretrievable either to Care or the Sagacity of
Conjecture. But is there any Reason therefore to say, That because
All cannot be retriev'd, All ought to be left desperate? We should
shew very little Honesty, or Wisdom, to play the Tyrants with an
Author's Text; to raze, alter, innovate, and overturn, at all
Adventures, and to the utter Detriment of his Sense and Meaning:
But to be so very reserved and cautious, as to interpose no Relief
or Conjecture, where it manifestly labours and cries out for
Assistance, seems, on the other hand, an indolent Absurdity.
But because the Art of Criticism, both by Those who cannot form a
true Judgment of its Effects, nor can penetrate into its Causes,
(which takes in a great Number besides the Ladies;) is esteem'd only
an arbitrary capricious Tyranny exercis'd on Books; I think
proper to subjoin a Word or two about those Rules on which I have
proceeded, and by which I have regulated myself in this Edition. By
This, I flatter myself, it will appear, my Emendations are so far
from being arbitrary or capricious, that They are establish'd with
a very high Degree of moral Certainty.
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