se who had
the Direction and Management of the Company to which he belong'd, for new
Pieces which might be able to support them, and give them some Advantage
over the rest. And 'tis easie to judge what Time he was Master of, between
his laborious Employment of Acting and his continual Hurry of Writing. As
for Friends, they whom in all likelihood _Shakespear_ consulted most were
two or three of his Fellow-Actors, because they had the Care of publishing
his Works committed to them. Now they, as we are told by _Ben Johnson_ in
his _Discoveries_, were extremely pleas'd with their Friend for scarce
ever making a Blot; and were very angry with _Ben_ for saying he wish'd
that he had made a thousand. The Misfortune of it is that _Horace_ was
perfectly of _Ben_'s, mind.

----Vos, O
Pompilius sanguis, carmen reprehendite, quod non
Multa dies & multa litura coercuit, atque
Praesectum decies non castigavit ad unguem.

And so was my Lord _Roscommon_.

Poets lose half the Praise they should have got,
Could it be known what they discreetly blot.

These Friends then of _Shakespear_ were not qualify'd to advise him. As
for _Ben Johnson_, besides that _Shakespear_ began to know him late, and
that _Ben_ was not the most communicative Person in the World of the
Secrets of his Art, he seems to me to have had no right Notion of Tragedy.
Nay, so far from it, that he who was indeed a very great Man, and who has
writ Comedies, by which he has born away the Prize of Comedy both from
Ancients and Moderns, and been an Honour to _Great Britain_; and who has
done this without any Rules to guide him, except what his own incomparable
Talent dictated to him; This extraordinary Man has err'd so grossly in
Tragedy, of which there were not only stated Rules, but Rules which he
himself had often read, and had even translated, that he has chosen two
Subjects, which, according to those very Rules, were utterly incapable of
exciting either Compassion or Terror for the principal Characters, which
yet are the chief Passions that a Tragick Poet ought to endeavour to
excite. So that _Shakespear_ having neither had Time to correct, nor
Friends to consult, must necessarily have frequently left such faults in
his Writings, for the Correction of which either a great deal of Time or a
judicious and a well-natur'd Friend is indispensably necessary.

Vir bonus & prudens versus reprehendet inertes,