Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/84

72 of hitory, can only be ought in the jet-book, the atire, or the play; and the novel, whoe ahion did not outlive a week, is ometimes neceary to throw light on thoe annals which take in the compas of an age. Thoe, therefore, who would wih to have the peculiarities of Nym familiarized to their ideas, mut cxcue the inertion of uch an epigram as bet uits the purpoe, however tedious in itelf; and uch as would be acquainted with the propriety of Faltaff’s alluion to tewed prunes, hould not be diguted at a multitude of intances, which, when proved, that the commentator on Spener, Jonon, and the ret of our elder poets, will in vain give pecimens of his claical erudition, unles, at the ame time, he brings to his work a mind intimately acquainted with thoe books, which, though now forgotten, were yet in common ue and high repute about the time in which his authors repectively wrote, and which they conequently mut have read. While thee are unknown, many alluions and many imitations will either remain obcure, or loe half their beauty and propriety: “as the figures vanih when the canvas is decayed.” “Pope laughs at Theobald for giving us, in his edition of, a ample of all uch as was never read. But thee trange and ridiculous books which Theobald quoted, were unluckily the very books which himelf had tudied; the knowledge of which enabled that ueful editor to explain o many difficult alluions and obolete cutoms in his poet, which otherwie could never have been undertood. For want of this ort of literature, Pope tells us that the dreadful Sagittary in Troilus and Creida, ignifies Teucer, o celebrated for his kill in archery. Had he deigned to conult an old hitory, called the Detruction of Troy, a book which was the delight of Shakespeare [sic] and of his age, he would have found that this formidable archer, was no other than an imaginary beat, which the Grecian army brought againt Troy. If is worth reading, he is worth explaining; and the reearches ued for o valuable and elegant a purpoe, merit the thanks of genius and candour, not the atire of prejudice and ignorance. That labour, which o eentially contributes to the ervice of true tate, deerves a more honourable repoitory than The Temple of Dullnes.” the