g (whatsoever he penn'd) he never blotted out
a line. My answer hath been, _Would he had blotted a thousand_, which they
thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their
ignorance, who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by, wherein
he most faulted: And to justifie mine own candor (for I lov'd the man, and
do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any). He was,
indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature, had an excellent fancy,
brave notions, and gentle expressions; wherein he flow'd with that
facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopp'd:
_Sufflaminandus erat_, as _Augustus_ said of _Haterius_. His wit was in
his own power, would the rule of it had been so too. Many times he fell
into those things could not escape laughter; as when he said in the person
of _Caesar_, one speaking to him,

_Caesar_ thou dost me wrong.

He reply'd:

_Caesar_ did never wrong, but with just cause.

and such like, which were ridiculous. But he redeem'd his vices with his
virtues: There was ever more in him to be prais'd than to be pardon'd."

As for the passage which he mentions out of _Shakespear_, there is
somewhat like it in _Julius Caesar_, but without the absurdity; nor did I
ever meet with it in any edition that I have seen, as quoted by Mr.
_Johnson_. Besides his plays in this edition, there are two or three
ascrib'd to him by Mr. _Langbain_, which I have never seen, and know
nothing of. He writ likewise, _Venus_ and _Adonis_, and _Tarquin_ and
_Lucrece_, in stanza's, which have been printed in a late collection of
Poems. As to the character given of him by _Ben Johnson_, there is a good
deal true in it: But I believe it may be as well express'd by what
_Horace_ says of the first _Romans_, who wrote Tragedy upon the _Greek_
models (or indeed translated 'em), in his epistle to _Augustus_.

---- Natura sublimis & Acer,
Nam spirat Tragicum satis & feliciter Audet,
Sed turpem putat in Chartis metuitque Lituram.

There is a Book of Poems, publish'd in 1640, under the name of Mr.
_William Shakespear_, but as I have but very lately seen it, without an
opportunity of making any judgment upon it, I won't pretend to determine,
whether it be his or no.

JOHN DENNIS: ON THE GENIUS AND WRITINGS OF SHAKESPEARE. 1711.

Letter I.

_Sir_, Feb. 1. 1710/11.

I here send you the Tragedy of _Coriolanus_, which I have alter'd