Roman sentiment, that it is more
honourable to save a citizen, than to kill an enemy, and have been more
careful to protect than to attack.

I have preserved the common distribution of the plays into acts, though I
believe it to be in almost all the plays void of authority. Some of those
which are divided in the later editions have no division in the first
folio, and some that are divided in the folio have no division in the
preceding copies. The settled mode of the theatre requires four intervals
in the play, but few, if any, of our author's compositions can be properly
distributed in that manner. An act is so much of the drama as passes
without intervention of time, or change of place. A pause makes a new act.
In every real, and therefore in every imitative action, the intervals may
be more or fewer, the restriction of five acts being accidental and
arbitrary. This Shakespeare knew, and this he practised; his plays were
written, and at first printed in one unbroken continuity, and ought now to
be exhibited with short pauses, interposed as often as the scene is
changed, or any considerable time is required to pass. This method would
at once quell a thousand absurdities.

In restoring the author's works to their integrity, I have considered the
punctuation as wholly in my power; for what could be their care of colons
and commas, who corrupted words and sentences. Whatever could be done by
adjusting points is therefore silently performed, in some plays with much
diligence, in others with less; it is hard to keep a busy eye steadily
fixed upon evanescent atoms, or a discursive mind upon evanescent truth.

The same liberty has been taken with a few particles, or other words of
slight effect. I have sometimes inserted or omitted them without notice. I
have done that sometimes which the other editors have done always, and
which indeed the state of the text may sufficiently justify.

The greater part of readers, instead of blaming us for passing trifles,
will wonder that on mere trifles so much labour is expended, with such
importance of debate, and such solemnity of diction. To these I answer
with confidence, that they are judging of an art which they do not
understand; yet cannot much reproach them with their ignorance, nor
promise that they would become in general, by learning criticism, more
useful, happier, or wiser.

As I practised conjecture more, I learned to trust it less; and after I
had printed a few plays, re