CRITICAL, CONJECTURAL, AND NIA EXPLANATORY, UPON THE PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE; RESULTING FROM A COLLATION OF THE EARLY COPIES, WITH THAT OF JOHNSON AND STEEVENS, EDITED BY ISAAC REED, Esq. TOGETHER WITH SOME VALUABLE EXTRACTS FROM THE MSS. OF THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN, LORD CHEDWORTH. DEDICATED TO RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, Ése. By E. H. SEYMOUR. VOL. I. LONDON: Printed by J. Wright, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell; FOR LACKINGTON, ALLEN & Co.; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND TO RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, ESQ. SIR, WHEN I desired permission to dedicate these Remarks to you, I was not sufficiently aware how dangerous an honour I was seeking:-the Work is merely critical, with little room for genius, were I possessed of any, to display itself; and I am evoking the discernment of one who, placed by the grateful and according suffrage of this nation in the supreme chair of Wit, Taste, and Eloquence, is peculiarly endowed with a talent for detecting and exposing fallacy of every kind. This thought, indeed, would instantly have checked my presumption, if I did not, at the same time, reflect, that pre-eminent abilities are, naturally, associated with exemplary candour; and that he whom I address is not more distinguished for brilliancy of intellect, than for ardour of benevolence. I am, Sir, with great respect, E. H. SEYMOUR. 845649 ADVERTISEMENT. OF these Remarks the greater part were writ ten during the progress of a collation between the early copies, and that produced by Mr. Steevens, in 1793. The revisal of the manuscript, necessary, in order to adapt the references to the recent edition, by Mr. Reed, and with a view to the probable variations therein, occasioned, in many places, material alterations. The reviser often found himself anticipated, and, of course, obliged to withdraw what had now become superfluous. The new matter introduced in the last commentary, together with reiterated meditations on the text, induced, sometimes, fresh opinions, and, sometimes, chastened those before advanced. But what is principally to be noticed here is, that, so often as the remarker reperused the pages on which he had presumed to comment, the mutilations and corruptions which disfigure them, appeared the |