top of the profession were then meer
Players, not Gentlemen of the stage: They were led into the Buttery by the
Steward, not plac'd at the Lord's table, or Lady's toilette: and
consequently were intirely depriv'd of those advantages they now enjoy, in
the familiar conversation of our Nobility, and an intimacy (not to say
dearness) with people of the first condition.

From what has been said, there can be no question but had _Shakespear_
published his works himself (especially in his latter time, and after his
retreat from the stage) we should not only be certain which are genuine;
but should find in those that are, the errors lessened by some thousands.
If I may judge from all the distinguishing marks of his style, and his
manner of thinking and writing, I make no doubt to declare that those
wretched plays, _Pericles_, _Locrine_, _Sir John Oldcastle_, _Yorkshire
Tragedy_, _Lord Cromwell_, _The Puritan_, and _London Prodigal_, cannot be
admitted as his. And I should conjecture of some of the others
(particularly _Love's Labour's Lost_, _The Winter's Tale_, and _Titus
Andronicus_), that only some characters, single scenes, or perhaps a few
particular passages, were of his hand. It is very probable what occasion'd
some Plays to be supposed _Shakespear_'s was only this; that they were
pieces produced by unknown authors, or fitted up for the Theatre while it
was under his administration: and no owner claiming them, they were
adjudged to him, as they give Strays to the Lord of the Manor: A mistake
which (one may also observe) it was not for the interest of the House to
remove. Yet the Players themselves, _Hemings_ and _Condell_, afterwards
did _Shakespear_ the justice to reject those eight plays in their edition;
tho' they were then printed in his name, in every body's hands, and acted
with some applause (as we learn from what _Ben Johnson_ says of _Pericles_
in his Ode on the _New Inn_). That _Titus Andronicus_ is one of this class
I am the rather induced to believe, by finding the same Author openly
express his contempt of it in the _Induction_ to _Bartholomew-Fair_, in
the year 1614, when _Shakespear_ was yet living. And there is no better
authority for these latter sort, than for the former, which were equally
published in his lifetime.

If we give into this opinion, how many low and vicious parts and passages
might no longer reflect upon this great Genius, but appear unworthily
charged upon him? And even in those which a