ectness, a careless manner of Writing,
and want of Judgment; the Praise of seldom altering or blotting out what
he writ, which was given him by the Players who were the first
Publishers of his Works after his Death, was what _Johnson_ could not
bear; he thought it impossible, perhaps, for another Man to strike out
the greatest Thoughts in the finest Expression, and to reach those
Excellencies of Poetry with the Ease of a first Imagination, which
himself with infinite Labour and Study could but hardly attain to.
_Johnson_ was certainly a very good Scholar, and in that had the
advantage of _Shakespear_; tho' at the same time I believe it must be
allow'd, that what Nature gave the latter, was more than a Ballance for
what Books had given the former; and the Judgment of a great Man upon
this occasion was, I think, very just and proper. In a Conversation
between Sir _John Suckling_, Sir _William D'Avenant_, _Endymion Porter_,
Mr. _Hales_ of _Eaton_, and _Ben Johnson_; Sir _John Suckling_, who was
a profess'd Admirer of _Shakespear_, had undertaken his Defence against
_Ben Johnson_ with some warmth; Mr. _Hales_, who had sat still for some
time, hearing _Ben_ frequently reproaching him with the want of
Learning, and Ignorance of the Antients, told him at last, _That if Mr.
_Shakespear_ had not read the Antients, he had likewise not stollen any
thing from 'em;_ (a Fault the other made no Confidence of) _and that if
he would produce any one Topick finely treated by any of them, he would
undertake to shew something upon the same Subject at least as well
written by_ Shakespear. _Johnson_ did indeed take a large liberty, even
to the transcribing and translating of whole Scenes together; and
sometimes, with all Deference to so great a Name as his, not altogether
for the advantage of the Authors of whom he borrow'd. And if _Augustus_
and _Virgil_ were really what he has made _'em_ in a Scene of his
_Poetaster_, they are as odd an Emperor and a Poet as ever met.
_Shakespear_, on the other Hand, was beholding to no body farther than
the Foundation of the Tale, the Incidents were often his own, and the
Writing intirely so. There is one Play of his, indeed, _The Comedy of
Errors_, in a great measure taken from the _Menoechmi_ of _Plautus_.
How that happen'd, I cannot easily Divine, since, as I hinted before, I
do not take him to have been Master of _Latin_ enough to read it in the
Original, and I know of no Translation of _Plautus_ so Old