had, one that halting
could only seem to make more reasonable, not more honourable. The
inference arising from the fact, I shall leave to the reader. It is surely
a circumstance highly advantageous to _Falstaff_ (I speak of the pensions
of former days), whether he be considered in the light of a soldier or a
gentleman.

I cannot foresee the temper of the reader, nor whether he be content to go
along with me in these kind of observations. Some of the incidents which I
have drawn out of the Play may appear too minute, whilst yet they refer to
principles which may seem too general. Many points require explanation;
something should be said of the nature of _Shakespeare_'s Dramatic
characters;(44) by what arts they were formed, and wherein they differ
from those of other writers; something likewise more professedly of
_Shakespeare_ himself, and of the peculiar character of his genius. After
such a review we may not perhaps think any consideration arising out of
the Play, or out of general nature, either as too minute or too extensive.

_Shakespeare_ is, in truth, an author whose mimic creation agrees in
general so perfectly with that of nature, that it is not only wonderful in
the great, but opens another scene of amazement to the discoveries of the
microscope. We have been charged indeed by a Foreign writer with an
overmuch admiring of this _Barbarian_: Whether we have admired with
knowledge, or have blindly followed those feelings of affection which we
could not resist, I cannot tell; but certain it is, that to the labours of
his Editors he has not been overmuch obliged. They are however for the
most part of the first rank in literary fame; but some of them had
possessions of their own in Parnassus, of an extent too great and
important to allow of a very diligent attention to the interests of
others; and among those Critics more professionally so, the ablest and the
best has unfortunately looked more to the praise of ingenious than of just
conjecture. The character of his emendations are not so much that of
_right_ or _wrong_, as that, being in the extreme, they are always
_Warburtonian_. Another has since undertaken the custody of our author,
whom he seems to consider as a sort of wild Proteus or madman, and
accordingly knocks him down with the butt-end of his critical staff, as
often as he exceeds that line of sober discretion, which this learned
Editor appears to have chalked out for him: Yet is this Editor
notwithstan