By the admiſſion of this negation and affirmation, has any new idea been gained?
The labours of preceding editors have not left room for a boaſt, that many valuable readings have been retrieved; though it may be fairly aſſerted, that the text of Shakeſpeare is reſtored to the condition in which the author, or rather his firſt publiſhers appear to have left it, ſuch emendations as were abſolutely neceſſary, alone admitted: for where a particle, indiſpenſably neceſſary to the ſenſe, was wanting, ſuch a ſupply has been ſilently adopted from other editions; but where a ſyllable, or more, had been added for the ſake of the metre only, which at firſt might have been irregular, ſuch interpolations are here conſtantly retrenched, ſometimes with, and ſometimes without notice. Thoſe ſpeeches, which in the elder editions are printed as proſe, and from their own conſtruction are incapable of being compreſſed into verſe, without the aid of ſupplemental ſyllables, are reſtored to proſe again; and the meaſure is divided afreſh in others, where the maſs of words had been inharmoniouſly ſeparated into lines.
The ſcenery, throughout all the plays, is regulated in conformity to a rule, which the poet, by his general practice ſeems to have propoſed to himſelf. Several of his pieces are come down to us, divided into ſcenes as well as acts. Theſe diviſions were probably his own, as they are made on ſettled principles, which would hardly have been the caſe, had the taſk been executed by the players. A change of ſcene, with Shakeſpeare, moſt commonly implies a change of place, but always, an entire evacuation of
