ertaker: and I shall be pleas'd to
see it the Employment of a masterly Pen.

It must necessarily happen, as I have formerly observ'd, that where the
Assistance of Manuscripts is wanting to set an Author's Meaning right, and
rescue him from those Errors which have been transmitted down thro' a
series of incorrect Editions, and a long Intervention of Time, many
Passages must be desperate, and past a Cure; and their true Sense
irretrievable either to Care or the Sagacity of Conjecture. But is there
any Reason therefore to say, That because All cannot be retriev'd, All
ought to be left desperate? We should shew very little Honesty, or Wisdom,
to play the Tyrants with an Author's Text; to raze, alter, innovate, and
overturn, at all Adventures, and to the utter Detriment of his Sense and
Meaning: But to be so very reserved and cautious, as to interpose no
Relief or Conjecture, where it manifestly labours and cries out for
Assistance, seems, on the other hand, an indolent Absurdity.

As there are very few pages in _Shakespeare_, upon which some Suspicions
of Depravity do not reasonably arise; I have thought it my Duty, in the
first place, by a diligent and laborious Collation to take in the
Assistances of all the older Copies.

In his _Historical Plays_, whenever our _English_ Chronicles, and in his
Tragedies when _Greek_ or _Roman_ Story, could give any Light; no Pains
have been omitted to set Passages right by comparing my Author with his
Originals; for as I have frequently observed, he was a close and accurate
Copier where-ever his _Fable_ was founded on _History_.

Where-ever the Author's Sense is clear and discoverable (tho', perchance,
low and trivial), I have not by any Innovation tamper'd with his Text, out
of an Ostentation of endeavouring to make him speak better than the old
Copies have done.

Where, thro' all the former Editions, a Passage has labour'd under flat
Nonsense and invincible Darkness, if, by the Addition or Alteration of a
Letter or two, or a Transposition in the Pointing, I have restored to Him
both Sense and Sentiment; such Corrections, I am persuaded, will need no
Indulgence.

And whenever I have taken a greater Latitude and Liberty in amending, I
have constantly endeavour'd to support my Corrections and Conjectures by
parallel Passages and Authorities from himself, the surest Means of
expounding any Author whatsoever. _Cette voie d'interpreter un Autheur par
lui-meme est plus sure que tous les