mon to him with
all Poets of the same Species; there are Others, the Issue of the Times he
liv'd in; and there are others, again, peculiar to himself. The Nature of
Comic Poetry being entirely satirical, it busies itself more in exposing
what we call Caprice and Humour, than Vices cognizable to the Laws. The
_English_, from the Happiness of a free Constitution, and a Turn of Mind
peculiarly speculative and inquisitive, are observ'd to produce more
_Humourists_ and a greater Variety of original _Characters_, than any
other People whatsoever: And These owing their immediate Birth to the
peculiar Genius of each Age, an infinite Number of Things alluded to,
glanced at, and expos'd, must needs become obscure, as the _Characters_
themselves are antiquated and disused. An Editor therefore should be well
vers'd in the History and Manners of his Author's Age, if he aims at doing
him a Service in this Respect.

Besides, _Wit_ lying mostly in the Assemblage of _Ideas_, and in the
putting Those together with Quickness and Variety, wherein can be found
any Resemblance, or Congruity, to make up pleasant Pictures, and agreeable
Visions in the Fancy; the Writer, who aims at Wit, must of course range
far and wide for Materials. Now, the Age in which _Shakespeare_ liv'd,
having, above all others, a wonderful Affection to appear Learned, They
declined vulgar Images, such as are immediately fetch'd from Nature, and
rang'd thro' the Circle of the Sciences to fetch their Ideas from thence.
But as the Resemblances of such Ideas to the Subject must necessarily lie
very much out of the common Way, and every Piece of Wit appear a Riddle to
the Vulgar; This, that should have taught them the forced, quaint,
unnatural Tract they were in (and induce them to follow a more natural
One), was the very Thing that kept them attach'd to it. The ostentatious
Affectation of abstruse Learning, peculiar to that Time, the Love that Men
naturally have to every Thing that looks like Mystery, fixed them down to
this Habit of Obscurity. Thus became the Poetry of DONNE (tho' the
wittiest Man of that Age) nothing but a continued Heap of Riddles. And our
_Shakespeare_, with all his easy Nature about him, for want of the
Knowledge of the true Rules of Art, falls frequently into this vicious
Manner.

The third Species of _Obscurities_ which deform our Author, as the Effects
of his own Genius and Character, are Those that proceed from his peculiar
Manner of _Thinking_,