112 OK EKGLIfill PLAYSi; May 1^, 



Rer.arks ui foric E?!gJ;J}j riays, fioin Mifcellanies in 

 Pi'ofc and Vff/e, contitiued. 



Much ado ahovt Nothing, a Comedy. 

 Therp. is not, on the Eritifti theatre, a more entertaining play than 

 this; and I ah\r.ys tlioughi Binediifl was Garrick's mafttrpiece, but 

 grof4y injured by Garrick's alterations. The curious and judicirms read- 

 er, who has a true tafte for Shakefpeare's genuine works, will be, in 

 fonie nicafi:re, inuiicd, and ftill more offended, with the modern alte- 

 rations and additions wliich I have pretty exa(5Hy traced out on the mar- 

 gin of tl'e text *. The reader will, with me, abhor the ftage-manag- 

 crs, whe have vilely perverted, and never once reformed, or improved 

 our divine aiithcr. 



In A& iV. Scene 3. Beatrice, fpeaking t>f Clodio's treacher)', cries out. 



Beat. Is he not approved in the hcijrht a villain, that hath fiander'd, 

 fcon.'d, difhcnoured my kirfwoman ! (), that I were a man! what! 

 bear her in hand untiil ti.ey come to take hands, and then with j'uhlk 

 accufation, uiicovcr'd ilaiider, unmirigated rancour — O God, that I were 

 a man ! I would eat hi» heart rn die market-place. 



Bent. Hear me, Beatrice. 



Biat. Talk with a man out at a windiw? — a proper faying! 



Baie. Kay, but Beatrice. 



Beat, ."^wcet Hero ! Ihe is wronjjtd, fhe is flandcred, flie is undone. 



Bene Beat 



Beat. Princes and counts ! furely a princely teitimony, a goodly count- 

 conifecl, a f%Yeet gallant, furely ! O that I were a man foi hislal^t I or 

 that I had any friend would be a man for my fake ! \lfc. 



Keie the judiiious ed'tor, inftead of feeing tiie beauty of the break in 

 the r.anie of Beatrice. has altered it for that eloquent monyfyllable but %.• 

 By this fample, yu may judge of the davock made among Shakefpear's 

 other plays, and in your own libiary, preferve the original author. I 

 look on it as one cvidtiice of degeneracy in fetife and good tafte, that 

 thefe deteftable alterations have been fuffered, and are flili allowed on the 

 ftage. A judicious eiitic, yet to come, may retrench fome parts of 

 JhakefueKre. The greatnefs and force of his imaginatioo fometimes fly 

 into ' lifcurity, perhaps frem defc<5l of our fight. But it is impoffible 

 botb to alter and amend him. There is, in page .■?4th of this pliy, a 

 curi'us alte'ation of the text, where the critic makes the clown laugh 

 mcfr improperly. Vide Shakefpf are's advice to players in Hamlet — 

 " l^er lliofe that play the clown, fpeak no more than is /et down for 

 " tiitm. For there he of them that will themfclves Uugh, to fct on font 

 " ^uc).t:l\ 'f barren ffidiilois to lauf;h too ; tliough, in the mean time, 

 " fome ncceffary q\:eftion of the play be then to be confidered. That's 

 " \i!!ainous, and fliews a moft pitiful ambition in the fool that ufes it." 



* T.ila can only he fccn or. t:;r marked plars. 



\ Vide Bell's edition, printed in I7;4, Vol. II. p. 336, ** reulgatcd from the jproinft buul.5*' o£, 

 tile two 'i'll«.acie:> Kt'^ai ill Li^nilou. 



