ledgment of I come now to speak of those kind Affif- Acknowtances which I have met with from particu- Afsfistance. lar Friends, towards forwarding and compleating this Work. Soon after my Design was known, I had the Honour of an Invitation to Cambridge; and a generous Promise from the Learned and ingenious Dr. Thirlby of Jesus-College, there, who had taken great Pains with my Author, that I should have the Liberty of collating his Copy of Shakespeare, mark'd thro' in the Margin with his own Manufcript References and accurate Observations. He not only made good this Promife, but favour'd me with a Set of Emendations, interspers'd and distinguish'd in his Name thro' the Edition, and which can need no Recommendation here to the judicious Reader. The next Assistance I receiv'd was from my ingenious Friend Hawley Bishop Esq; whose great Powers and extensive Learning are as well known, as his uncommon Modefty, to all who have the Happiness of his Acquaintance. This Gentleman was so generous, at the Expence both of his Pocket and Time, to run thro' all Shakespeare with me. We join'd Business and Entertainment together; and at every of our Meetings, which were conftantly once a Week, we read over a Play, and came mutually prepar'd to communicate our Conjectures upon it to each o ther. The Pleasure of these Appointments, I think, think, I may say, richly compenfated for the Labour in our own Thoughts: and I may venture to affirm, in the Behalf of my Afsistant, that our Author has deriv'd no little Improvement from them. To these, I must add the indefatigable Zeal and Industry of my most ingenious and everrespected Friend, the Reverend Mr. William Warburton of Newark upon Trent. This Gentleman, from the Motives of his frank and communicative Disposition, voluntarily took a confiderable Part of my Trouble off my Hands; not only read over the whole Author for me, with the exactest Care; but enter'd into a long and laborious Epistolary Correfpondence; to which I owe no small Part of my best Criticisms upon my Author. The Number of Passages amended, and admirably Explained, which I have taken care to diftinguish with his Name, will shew a Fineness of Spirit and Extent of Reading, beyond all the Commendations I can give them: Nor, indeed, would I any farther be thought to commend a Friend, than, in so doing, to give a Testimony of my own Gratitude. How great a share soever of Praise I must lose from my self, in confeffing these Assistances; and however my own poor Conjectures may be weaken'd by the Comparison with theirs; I am very well content to facrifice my Vanity to the Pride of being fo affifted, and the Pleasure of being just to their Merits. I beg leave to observe to my Readers, in one Word, here, that from the Confeffion of these successive Aids, and the Manner in which I deriv'd them, it appears, I have pretty well fill'd up the Interval, betwixt my first Proposals and my Publication, with having my Author always in View, and at Heart. Some Hints I have the Honour to owe to the Informations of Dr. Mead, and the late Dr. Friend: Others to the Kindness of the ingenious Martin Folkes, Esq; who likewise furnish'd me with the first folio Edition of Shakespeare, at a Time when I could not meet with it among the Booksellers; as my obliging Friend Thomas Coxeter, Esq; did with several of the old 4to fingle Plays, which I then had not in my own Collection. Some few Obfervations I likewise owe to F. Plumptree, Efq; Others to the Favour of anonymous Perfons: for all which I most gladly render my Acknowledgments. The Edi Pains As to what regards my felf singly, if the Edition do not speak for the Pains I have tor's partitaken about it, it will be very vain to plead cular my own Labour and Diligence. Besides a taken. faithful Collation of all the printed Copies, which I have exhibited in my Catalogue of Editions at the End of this Work; let it fuffice to say, that, to clear up several Errors in the Historical Plays, I purposely read over Hall and Holingshead's Chronicles in the Reigns concern'd; all the Novels in Italian, from from which our Author had borrow'd any of his Plots; such Parts of Plutarch, from which he had deriv'd any Parts of his Greek or Roman Story: Chaucer and Spenser's Works; all. the Plays of B. Jonfon, Beaumont and Fletcher, and above 800 old English Plays, to ascertain the obfolete and uncommon Phrafes in him: Not to mention some Labour and Pains unplea pleasantly spent in the dry Task of confulting Etymological Gloffaries. But as no Labour of Mine can be equivalent to the dear and ardent Love I bear for Shakespeare, so, if the Publick shall be pleas'd to allow that He owes any Thing to my Willingness and Endeavours of restoring Him; I shall reckon the Part of my Life so engag'd, to have been very happily employ'd: and put Myself, with great Submiffion, to be try'd by my Country in the Affair. Dramatick Poet, W. SHAKESPEARE. WHAT neede my Shakespeare for his honour'd Bones The Labour of an Age, in piled Stones? Deare Sonne of Memory, great Heire of Fame, N. + This Epitaph was written in 1630, when Milton was in his Two and Twentieth Year; for he was born in 1608. In Remembrance of Master WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. B ODE. Eware (delighted Poets!) when you fing The |