My Lord,

The work which I have the honour of presenting to your Lordship had long been prepar'd for the press, and was nearly printed, when the Author was suddenly cut off by a violent attack of that painful disorder, which, for several years, had kept him prisoner to his chamber: What remain'd has been faithfully finish'd from his MSS. which are now deposited, agreeably to his direction, in the library of Trinity College in Cambridge. His intention has indeed been departed from, in one instance, by adding an Index of Words and Phrases to the “School,”—a liberty which perhaps scarce needs an apology; yet it is requisite

that the smallest deviation from the Author's design should be accounted for, and the motive that led to it be produc'd. That Index then was nearly compleated when his papers came into my hands; and, it's object being glossary explanation, and that only, it was consider'd,—that such an addition might be acceptable and useful to many readers, at the same time that it was not affected by the reasons given for withholding some others, which were once intended to have accompany'd it. A Print of the Author is likewise added to his work; not in consequence of any direction from him, who had no such design, but merely to gratify a regard to his memory.

It was intended, in this place, to have vindicated him,— and he had prepar'd materials, now in my hands, which would effectually vindicate him,—from some injurious and ill-grounded suggestions which have been thrown out against him, in the way of criticism, by one from whom any disingenuous or uncandid treatment might least have been expected, but whose station in life and literary reputation may gain them notice, and give them a currency to which they are no otherwise entitl'd* ^note.

The reader ought also to be made acquainted, in detail, with the unwarrantable, and, I believe, unexampl'd proceedings of a late editor of Shakespeare, who, notwithstanding the assertions which have been confidently and repeatedly made by him to the contrary, has nevertheless dress'd up his volumes throughout, by appropriating to himself, without reserve, whatever suited his purpose from the present Author's edition, with which he disclaims the slightest acquaintance* ^note. Without this detail, the claim of the true owner to what has been obtruded upon the Public as the property of another is left at large, undecided, and unasserted: But a sudden and most severe stroke of affliction has left my mind too much distracted to be capable, at present, of engaging in such a task, though I am prompted to it by inclination as well as duty.

I wish I could excuse myself for thus making the Public, or your Lordship, party to a matter that respects only myself: Events of daily occurrence and mere domestic concern, I am well aware, are no fit objects of public attention, however deeply they may affect the interest and happiness of individuals; nor should your Lordship's humanity have receiv'd a wound from the most distant allusion

to any sorrow of mine, had it not been necessary towards exculpating myself from the imputation of willingly declining to pay a just debt to the memory of a departed and injur'd friend.

However, to supply this omission, in some degree, by pointing out the means of ascertaining the truth of what I have advanc'd, I must beg leave to refer your Lordship to the edition of Shakespeare, publish'd in ten volumes, octavo, 1773, and re-publish'd in 1779, with notes by D^r. Sam. Johnson and M^r. Geo. Stevens, requesting you will take the trouble of comparing it with one publish'd by the Doctor alone, in eight volumes, 1765: You will then find, my Lord, a regular system of plagiarism, upon a settl'd plan, pervading those later editions throughout, and that, —not the Doctor's former publication, as one would naturally suppose, but—M^r. Capell's, in ten volumes, 1768, is made the ground-work of what is to pass for the genuine production of these combin'd editors, and is usher'd to the world upon the credit of their names. Either of their editions will afford full proof of this assertion, which is evidently deduc'd not only from the many conjectural emendations adopted into the text, or propos'd in the notes; but,—from the new Order in which the Plays are arrang'd; the new regulation of the Scene division, and sometimes that of the Acts; the new adjustment of the

metre, in many places; the changes made in the scenical directions respecting places, persons, and actions, as well as in the pointing, &c. in all which particulars they differ from D^r. Johnson's first work, as much as they agree with that of the present Author. But the re-publication of their work, as it “is revised and augmented,” makes farther advances upon the same plan, abounding with fresh matter and accumulated evidence in proof of the industry with which the purloining trade has been pursu'd, and of the latitude to which it has been extended, in each of the above-mention'd particulars: For differing as it does from it's former self in numberless instances, in all of them it is still found to agree with that edition, which, we are gravely told in so many words by the apparent manager of the business,—“has not been examin'd beyond one Play.” In short, every page of his work might be adduc'd in flat contradiction to his repeated assertions already refer'd to, the changes made even in the mode of printing, throughout his new production, being such as must strike the eye of the most superficial observer, and can leave little doubt in any one at all conversant in such matters, from what original the text of it was form'd, or what copy was follow'd at the press.

Having stated the fact, I leave it with your Lordship to make your own reflections upon so extraordinary an instance

of the good faith of editors, and the honest regard shewn by them to the credit and property of another. But I cannot help observing,—that such injustice, as requir'd the united efforts of effrontery and falsehood to conceal it, amounts to a full acknowledgment of the superior worth of the person injur'd, and is an undeniable argument of as much indigence on the one hand as of abundance on the other. He indeed, who has been thus honour'd, was a person of another stamp; without the necessity, and above the meanness, of seeking reputation by the disingenuous arts and shifts of fraud, and with whom it was a point of conscience, upon all occasions, freely to acknowledge obligation, and to render to every one his due.

In conformity therefore with a rule so religiously observ'd by him, it is necessary that I should return particular thanks, in his name, to your Lordship, and to each of those noble and worthy persons by whose encouragement he was prevail'd upon to proceed with his labours, at a time when some interested attempts to suppress or defeat them had nearly determin'd him to lay them wholly aside.

Having discharg'd this duty let me hope for your pardon, my Lord, if I abruptly take my leave, and add only my most thankful acknowledgments, for being permitted to introduce those labours to the Public under the very respectable

sanction of your Lordship's name. And indeed, my Lord, the esteem and friendship with which you honour'd the Author would have left me without excuse, if, in rendering an account of my executing the trust repos'd in me by him, I had neglected to address myself particularly to your Lordship: His credit is concern'd in it; and it would be injustice to him to let slip so proper an occasion of bearing testimony to the high estimation in which he held the honour of such a friendship, who well knew how to value the slightest favour receiv'd from a generous and judicious hand.

With the same sentiments of obligation to your Lordship, I have the honour to be, my Lord,

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