In like manner dazzled is ufed by Shakspeare as a trifyllable in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. fc. iv :

"And that hath dazzled my reafon's light.",

instead of which, we find in the second folio, "And that hath dazzled fo my reafon's light."

The words neither, rather, &c. are frequently ufed by Shakspeare as words of one fyllable. So, in King Henry VI. P. III:

"And neither by treafon, nor hoftility,

"To feek to put me down-."

for which the editor of the second folio has given

us,

"Neither by treason, nor hoftility," &c.

In Timon of Athens, Act III. fc. v. Alcibiades afks,

"Is this the balfam, that the usuring fenate

"Pours into captains' wounds? banishment?"

The editor of the fecond folio, not knowing that pours was used as a diffyllable, to complete the fuppofed defect in the metre, reads:

"Is this the balfam, that the usuring senate

"Pours into captains' wounds! ha! banishment ?”

Tickled is often used by Shakspeare and the contemporary poets, as a word of three fyllables. So, in King Henry VI. P. II :

"She's tickled now; her fume needs no fpurs."

instead of which, in the fecond folio we have,

"She's tickled now; her fume can need no fpurs."

So, in Titus Andronicus, Act II. fc. i:

"Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge."

This editor, not knowing that worn was ufed as a diffyllable, reads:

"Better than he have yet worn Vulcan's badge."

Again, in Cymbeline, Act II. fc. v:

"All faults that name, nay, that hell knows, why hers, "In part, or all; but rather all: for even to vice," &c.

Thefe lines being thus carelessly diftributed in the original copy,

"All faults that name, nay, that hell knows,

Why hers, in part, or all; but rather all :" &c.

the editor of the fecond folio, to fupply the defect of the first line, arbitrarily reads, with equal ignorance of his author's metre and phrafeology,

"All faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows, 66 Why hers," &c.

In King Henry IV. P. II. Act I. fc. iii. is this

line:

"And being now trimm'd in thine own defires,-." instead of which the editor of the fecond folio, to remedy a fuppofed defect in the metre, has given

us

"And being now trimm'd up in thine own defires,-." Again, in As

you

like it, Act II. fc. i:

he pierceth through

"The body of city, country, court,-."

instead of which we find in the fecond folio, (the editor not knowing that country was used as a trifyllable,)

he pierceth through

"The body of city, the country, court."

In like manner, in The Winter's Tale, Act I. fc. i. he has given us :

"The doctrine of ill-doing, no nor dream'd
"That any did :-

instead of

we knew not

"The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd," &c.

doctrine being used as a word of three fyllables. "Pay him fix thousand," &c. fays Portia in The Merchant of Venice,

"Before a friend of this defcription

"Should lose a hair through Baffanio's fault."

the word hair being used as a diffyllable, or Baffanio as a quadrifyllable. Of this the editor of the fecond folio was wholly ignorant, and therefore reads:

"Should lofe a hair through my Baffanio's fault."

In The Winter's Tale, Act IV. fc. iii. Florizel, addreffing Perdita, fays,

my defires

"Run not before mine honour ; nor my lufts
"Burn hotter than my faith."

To complete the laft hemiftich, Perdita is made to reply,

"O but, fir,

"Your refolution cannot hold."

Here again this editor betrays his ignorance of Shakspeare's metre; for not knowing that burn was ufed as a diffyllable, he reads

"O but, dear fir," &c.

Again, in King Henry VIII. Act II. fc. iii. the Old Lady declares to Anne Boleyn,

"'Tis ftrange; a three-pence bow'd would hire me, "Old as I am, to queen it.'

But instead of this, hire not being perceived to be ufed as a word of two fyllables, we find in the fecond folio,

"'Tis ftrange; a three-pence bow'd now would hire me," &c.

This editor, indeed, was even ignorant of the author's manner of accenting words, for in The Tempeft, where we find,

Spirits, which by mine art

"I have from their confines call'd to enact

"My prefent fancies,-"

he exhibits the second line thus:

"I have from all their cónfines call'd to enact," &c.

Again, in King Lear, A&t II. fc. i. inftead of

"

"To have the expence and waste of his revénues,— the latter word, being, I fuppofe, differently accented after our poet's death, the editor of the fecond folio has given us,

"To have the expence and waste of révenues."

Various other inftances of the fame kind might be produced; but that I may not weary my readers, I will only add, that no perfon who wishes to perufe the plays of Shakspeare fhould ever open the Second Folio, or either of the fubfequent copies, in which all these capricious alterations were adopted, with many additional errors and inno

vations.

It may feem ftrange, that the perfon to whom the care of supervising the second folio was configned, fhould have been thus ignorant of our poet's language: but it fhould be remembered, that in the beginning of the reign of Charles the First many words and modes of speech began to be difufed, which had been common in the age of Queen Elizabeth. The editor of the fecond folio was probably a young man, perhaps born in the year 1600. That Sir William D'Avenant, who was born in 1605, did not always perfectly understand our author's language, is manifeft from various alterations which he has made in fome of his pieces. The fucceffive Chronicles of English hiftory, which were compiled between the years 1540 and 1630, afford indubitable proofs of the gradual change in our phrafeology during that period. Thus a narrative which Hall exhibits in what now appears to us as very uncouth and ancient diction, is again exhibited by Holinshed, about forty years afterwards, in fomewhat a lefs rude form; and in the chronicles of Speed and Baker in 1611 and 1630, affumes a fomewhat more polifhed air. In the fecond edition of Gascoigne's Poems printed in 1587, the editor thought it neceffary to explain many of the words by placing more familiar terms in the margin, though not much more than twenty years had elapfed