( 7 )
to every intelligent reader of this poet; not only as the era when that gentleman firſt undertook the arduous taſk of illuſtrating his dramas by the contemporary writers, a taſk which he executed with great ability, but becauſe the moſt concluſive Eſſay[1] that ever appeared on a ſubject of criticiſm, was then written, and the long-agitated queſtion concerning the learning of Shakſpeare was for ever decided. In the year 1780, fourteen years after Mr. Steevens's work was firſt undertaken, and two years after the ſecond edition of it had appeared, I publiſhed a Supplement to that edition in two volumes, in the preface to which is the paragraph above quoted. Having a very high opinion of the diligence, acuteneſs, and learning of Mr. Steevens, to whom all the admirers of Shakſpeare have great obligations, I in common with the reſt of the publick conſidered myſelf as much indebted to his labours; and therefore did not then heſitate to ſay that the text of the author on which he had been above twelve years employed, ſeemed to be finally ſettled. If I had uſed a ſtill ſtronger phraſe, ſome allowance might be made for the partiality of friendſhip, and for that reſpect which is due from every ſcholar to ac-
- ↑ An Eſſay on the Learning of Shakſpeare, by the Rev. Richard Farmer; publiſhed in January, 1767; reprinted, with great additions, in the ſame year.
