feems to be that which is able to produce a feries of events. It is eafy when the thread of a story is once drawn, to diversify it with variety of colours; and when 2 train of action is prefented to the mind, a little acquaintance with life will fupply circumstances and reflexions, and a little knowledge of books furnish parellels and illuftrations. To tell over again a story that has been told already, and to tell it better than the first author, is no rare qualification; but to strike out the first hints of a new fable; hence to introduce a fet of characters fo diverfified in their feveral paffions and interests, that from the clashing of this variety may refult many neceffary incidents; to make thefe incidents furprizing, and yet natural, so as to delight the imagination without fhocking the judgment of a reader; and finally to wind up the whole in a pleafing catastrophe, produced by those very means which feem moft likely to oppofe and prevent it, is the utmost effort of the human mind.

To discover how few of those writers, who profefs to recount imaginary adventures, have been able to produce any thing by their own imagination, would require too much of that time which your lordship employs in nobler ftudies. Of all the novels and romances that wit or idleness, vanity or indigence, have pushed into the world, there are very few of which the end cannot be conjectured from the beginning; or where the authors have done more than to tranfpofe the incidents of other tales, or ftrip the circumftances from one event for the decoration of another.

In the examination of a poet's character, it is therefore first to be enquired what degree of invention has

been exerted by him. With this view I have very diligently read the works of Shakespear, and now prefume to lay the result of my fearches before your lordship, before that judge whom Pliny himself would have wifhed for his affeffor to hear a literary cause.

How much the tranflation of the following novels will add to the reputation of Shakespear, or take away from it, you, my lord, and men learned and candid like you, if any fuch can be found, muft now deter-.. mine. Some danger, as I am informed there is, left his admirers fhould think him injured by this attempt, and clamour as at the diminution of the honour of that nation which boasts herself the parent of fo great a poet. That no fuch enemies may arife againft me (though I am unwilling to believe it) I am far from being too confident, for who can fix bounds to bigotry and folly? My fex, my age, have not given me many opportunities of mingling in the world; there may be in it many a fpecies of abfurdity which I have never feen, and among them fuch vanity as pleases itfelf with faife praise beftowed on another, and fuch fuperftition as worships idols, without fuppofing them to be Gods.

But the truth is, that a very fmall part of the reputation of this mighty genius depends upon the naked plot or ftory of his plays. He lived in an age when the books of chivalry were yet popular, and when therefore the minds of his auditors were not accustomed to balance probabilities, or to examine nicely the proportion between caufes and effects. It was fufficient to recommend a story, that it was far removed from common

life, that its changes were frequent, and its clofe pathetic.

This difpofition of the age concurred fo happily with the imagination of Shakespear, that he had no defire to reform it, and indeed to this he was indebted for the licentious variety, by which he has made his plays more entertaining than those of any other author.

He had looked with great attention on the fcenes of nature; but his chief fkill was in human actions, paffions, and habits; he was therefore delighted with fuch tales as afforded numerous incidents, and exhibited many characters in many changes of fituation. These characters are fo copiously diversified, and fome of them fo justly pursued, that his works may be confidered as a map of life, a faithful miniature of human tranfactions; and he that has read Shakespear with attention will perhaps find little new in the crowded world.

Among his other excellencies it ought to be remarked, because it has hitherto been unnoticed, that his beroes are men, that the love and hatred, the hopes and fears of his chief perfonages are fuch as are common to other human beings, and not like those which later times have exhibited, peculiar to phantoms that ftrut upon the stage.

It is not perhaps very neceffary to inquire whether the vehicle of fo much delight and inftruction be a story probable or unlikely, native or foreign. Shakefpear's excellence is not the fiction of a tale, but the reprefentation of life; and his reputation is therefore fafe, till human nature shall be changed. Nor can he, who has fo many juft claims to praife, fuffer by lofing that

which ignorant admiration has unreasonably given him. To calumniate the dead is baseness, and to flatter them is furely folly.:

From flattery, my lord, either of the dead or the living I wish to be clear, and have therefore folicited the countenance of a patron, whom, if I knew how to praise him, I could praife with truth, and have the world on my fide; whofe candour and humanity are univerfally acknowledged, and whofe judgment perhaps was then first to be doubted, when he condefcended to admit this addrefs from

My lord,

Your lordship's most obliged

and most obedient humble servant, THE AUTHOR.

Dedication to PAYNE'S Introduction to the GAME at DRAUGHTS, 1756.

To the Right Hon. WILLIAM HENRY, Earl of ROCHFORD, &c.

MY LORD,

WHEN I take the liberty of addreffing to your lordship A Treatise on the Game of DRAUGHTS, I eafily foresee that I fhall be in danger of fuffering ridicule on one part, while I am gaining honour on the other, and that many who may envy me the distinction of approaching you, will deride the present I prefume to offer.

Had I confidered this little volume as having no purpofe beyond that of teaching a game, I fhould indeed have left it to take its fate without a patron. Triflers may find or make any thing a trifle; but fince it is the great characteristic of a wife man to fee events in their causes, to obviate confequences, and ascertain contingencies, your lordship will think nothing a trifle by which the mind is inured to caution, forefight, and circumfpection. The fame skill, and often the fame degree of skill, is exerted in great and little things, and your lordship may fometimes exercife, at a harmless game, thofe abilities which have been fo happily employed in the fervice of your country.

I am, my lord,

Your lordship's most obliged, moft obedient,
and most humble servant,

WILLIAM PAYNE.

Dedication to BARETTI'S DICTIONARY of the English and Italian Languages, 2 vols. 4to. 1760.

To his Excellency Don FELIX, Marquis of Abreu and Bertodano, Ambaffador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from his Catholic Majefty to the King of Great-Britain.

MY LORD,

THAT acuteness of penetration into characters and defigns, and that nice difcernment of human paffions

and