_ vitia _ejus_, _sed_ ipsum _excidit_. He has attack'd him like an
unhandy _Slaughterman_; and not lopp'd off the _Errors_, but the _Poet_.

When this is found to be Fact, how absurd must appear the Praises of such
an Editor! It seems a moot Point, whether Mr. _Pope_ has done most Injury
to _Shakespeare_ as his Editor and Encomiast, or Mr. _Rymer_ done him
Service as his Rival and Censurer. They have Both shewn themselves in an
equal _Impuissance_ of suspecting, or amending, the corrupted Passages:
and tho' it be neither Prudence to censure, or commend, what one does not
understand; yet if a man must do one when he plays the Critick, the latter
is the more ridiculous Office: And by that _Shakespeare_ suffers most. For
the natural Veneration which we have for him, makes us apt to swallow
whatever is given us as _his_, and set off with Encomiums; and hence we
quit all suspicions of Depravity: On the contrary, the Censure of so
divine an Author sets us upon his Defence; and this produces an exact
Scrutiny and Examination, which ends in finding out and discriminating the
true from the spurious.

It is not with any secret Pleasure that I so frequently animadvert on Mr.
_Pope_ as a Critick; but there are Provocations which a Man can never
quite forget. His Libels have been thrown out with so much Inveteracy,
that, not to dispute whether they _should_ come from a _Christian_, they
leave it a Question whether they _could_ come from a _Man_. I should be
loth to doubt, as _Quintus Serenus_ did in a like Case,

Sive homo, seu similis turpissima bestia nobis,
Vulnera dente dedit.

The Indignation, perhaps, for being represented a _Block-head_, may be as
strong in us as it is in the Ladies for a Reflexion on their _Beauties_.
It is certain, I am indebted to Him for some _flagrant Civilities_; and I
shall willingly devote a Part of my Life to the honest Endeavour of
quitting Scores: with this Exception however, that I will not return those
Civilities in his _peculiar_ Strain, but confine myself, at least, to the
Limits of _common Decency_. I shall ever think it better to want _Wit_,
than to want _Humanity_: and impartial Posterity may, perhaps, be of my
Opinion.

But, to return to my Subject; which now calls upon me to inquire into
those Causes, to which the Depravations of my Author originally may be
assign'd. We are to consider him as a Writer, of whom no authentic
Manuscript was left extant; as a Writer, whose Piec