Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/71

Rh Such criticim I have attempted to practie, and, where any paage appeared inextricably perplexed, have endeavoured to dicover how it may be recalled to ene, with leat violence. But my firt labour is, always to turn the old text on every ide, and try if there be any intertice, through which light can find its way; nor would Huetius himelf condemn me, as refuing the trouble of reearch, for the ambition of alteration. In this modet indutry I have not been unuccesful. I have requed many lines from the violations of temerity, and ecured many cene from the inroads of correction. I have adopted the Roman entiment, that it is more honourable to ave a citizen, than to kill an enemy, and have been more careful to protect than to attack.

I have preerved the common ditribution of the plays into acts, though I believe it to be in almot all the plays void of authority. Some of thoe which are divided in the later editions have no diviion in the firt folio, and ome that are divided in the folio have no diviion in the preceding copies. The ettled mode of the theatre requires four intervals in the play, but few, if any, of our author’s compoitions can be properly ditributed in that manner. An act is o much of the drama as paes without intervention of time, or change of place. A paue makes a new act. In every real, and therefore in every imitative action, the intervals may be more or fewer, the retriction of five acts being accidental and arbitrary. This Shakepeare knew, and this he practied; his plays were written, and at firt printed in one unbroken continuity, and ought now to be exhibited with