ld he have seen all the Harmony
and the Beauty of their great and their just Designs. He would have seen
enough to have stirr'd up a noble Emulation in so exalted a Soul as his.
How comes it then that we hear nothing from him of the _OEdipus_, the
_Electra_, the _Antigone_ of _Sophocles_, of the _Iphigenia_'s, the
_Orestes_, the _Medea_, the _Hecuba_ of _Euripides_? How comes it that we
see nothing in the Conduct of his Pieces, that shews us that he had the
least Acquaintance with any of these great Masterpieces? Did _Shakespear_
appear to be so nearly touch'd with the Affliction of _Hecuba_ for the
Death of _Priam_, which was but daub'd and bungled by one of his
Countrymen, that he could not forbear introducing it as it were by
Violence into his own _Hamlet_, and would he make no Imitation, no
Commendation, not the least Mention of the unparallell'd and inimitable
Grief of the _Hecuba_ of _Euripides_? How comes it that we find no
Imitation of any ancient Play in Him but the _Menechmi_ of _Plautus_? How
came he to chuse a Comick preferably to the Tragick Poets? Or how comes he
to chuse _Plautus_ preferably to _Terence_, who is so much more just, more
graceful, more regular, and more natural? Or how comes he to chuse the
_Menechmi_ of _Plautus_, which is by no means his Master-piece, before all
his other Comedies? I vehemently suspect that this Imitation of the
_Menechmi_ was either from a printed Translation of that Comedy which is
lost, or some Version in Manuscript brought him by a Friend, or sent him
perhaps by a Stranger, or from the original Play it self recommended to
him, and read to him by some learned Friend. In short, I had rather
account for this by what is not absurd than by what is, or by a less
Absurdity than by a greater. For nothing can be more wrong than to
conclude from this that _Shakespear_ was conversant with the Ancients;
which contradicts the Testimony of his Contemporary and his familiar
Acquaintance _Ben Johnson_, and of his Successor _Milton_;

Lo _Shakespear_, Fancy's sweetest Child,
Warbles his native Wood-notes wild;

and of Mr. _Dryden_ after them both; and which destroys the most glorious
Part of _Shakespear_'s Merit immediately. For how can he be esteem'd equal
by Nature or superior to the Ancients, when he falls so far short of them
in Art, tho' he had the Advantage of knowing all that they did before him?
Nay it debases him below those of common Capacity, by reason of the Er