[Of all the remaining plays the most authentick edition is the folio 1623; yet that of 1632 is not without value; for though it be in some places more incorrectly printed than the preceding one, it has likewise the advantage of various readings, which are not merely such as reiteration of copies will naturally produce. The curious examiner of Shakspeare's text, who possesses the first of these, ought not to be unfurnished with the second. As to the third and fourth impressions (which include the seven rejected plays) they are little better than waste paper, for they differ only from the preceding ones by a larger accumulation of errors. I had inadvertently given a similar character of the folio 1632; but take this opportunity of confessing a mistake into which I was led by too implicit a reliance on the assertions of others. Steevens.

Enough has been already said on this question. Mr. Steevens, I believe, stood nearly alone in the high opinion he expressed of the second folio; but the reader may judge for himself from the perusal of the arguments which have been brought forward by the two criticks in their respective prefaces in 1790 and 1793. Mr. Malone was of opinion that probably Thomas Randolph was the person who superintended the publication of the second folio. Randolph [as he observes] was born in 1600, and consequently when he became a writer must have been some years removed from the date of many of Shakspeare's earlier plays. His Aristippus was printed for Robert Allot in

1630, who would probably select a poet as the editor of Shakspeare's works. It has been absurdly argued (says Mr.Malone) “that the language could not have undergone so great a change in nine years, that is from 1623 to 1632; but this is a mis-statement. The question is not when Shakspeare's plays were printed, but when they were written. That alterations had taken place in the language is evident from the alterations which were made by D'Avenant in The Tempest and Macbeth from the sophistications that are to be met with in the latter editions of Spenser, from our author's own poems, and from almost every work of that age which underwent several impressions.” Boswell.]