Some are added
to shew, where there is a Suspicion of our Author having borrowed
from the Antients: Others, to shew where he is rallying his
Contemporaries; or where He himself is rallied by them. And some are
necessarily thrown in, to explain an obscure and obsolete _Term_,
_Phrase_, or _Idea_. I once intended to have added a complete and
copious _Glossary_; but as I have been importun'd, and am prepar'd,
to give a correct Edition of our Author's POEMS, (in which many
Terms occur that are not to be met with in his _Plays_,) I thought a
_Glossary_ to all _Shakespeare_'s Works more proper to attend that
Volume.
In reforming an infinite Number of Passages in the _Pointing_, where
the Sense was before quite lost, I have frequently subjoin'd Notes
to shew the _deprav'd_, and to prove the _reform'd_, Pointing: a
Part of Labour in this Work which I could very willingly have spared
myself. May it not be objected, why then have you burthen'd us with
these Notes? The Answer is obvious, and, if I mistake not, very
material. Without such Notes, these Passages in subsequent Editions
would be liable, thro' the Ignorance of Printers and Correctors, to
fall into the old Confusion: Whereas, a Note on every one hinders
all possible Return to Depravity; and for ever secures them in a
State of Purity and Integrity not to be lost or forfeited.
[Sidenote*: Causes of Obscurities in _Shakespeare_.]
Again, as some Notes have been necessary to point out the Detection
of the corrupted Text, and establish the Reiteration of the genuine
Readings; some others have been as necessary for the Explanation of
Passages obscure and difficult.
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