h some reserve, insinuating his uncorrectness, 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 conscience of); _and that if he would produce any one Topick
finely treated by any one 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 _Menaechmi_ 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