on the Subject."

But "this method of reasoning will prove any one ignorant of the
Languages, who hath written when Translations were extant."--Shade of
Burgersdicius!--does it follow, because Shakespeare's early life was
incompatible with a course of Education--whose Contemporaries, Friends and
Foes, nay, and himself likewise, agree in his want of what is usually
called _Literature_--whose mistakes from equivocal Translations, and even
typographical Errors, cannot possibly be accounted for otherwise,--that
Locke, to whom not one of these circumstances is applicable, understood no
Greek?--I suspect, Rollin's Opinion of our Philosopher was not founded on
this argument.

Shakespeare wanted not the Stilts of Languages to raise him above all
other men. The quotation from Lilly in the _Taming of the Shrew_, if
indeed it be his, strongly proves the extent of his reading: had he known
Terence, he would not have quoted erroneously from his _Grammar_. Every
one hath met with men in common life, who, according to the language of
the _Water-poet_, "got only from _Possum_ to _Posset_," and yet will throw
out a line occasionally from their _Accidence_ or their _Cato de Moribus_
with tolerable propriety.--If, however, the old Editions be trusted in this
passage, our Author's memory somewhat failed him in point of _Concord_.

The rage of _Parallelisms_ is almost over, and in truth nothing can be
more absurd. "THIS was stolen from _one_ Classick,--THAT from
_another_";--and had I not stept in to his rescue, poor Shakespeare had
been stript as naked of ornament, as when he first _held Horses_ at the
door of the Playhouse.

The late ingenious and modest Mr. Dodsley declared himself

Untutor'd in the lore of Greece or Rome:

Yet let us take a passage at a venture from any of his performances, and a
thousand to one, it is stolen. Suppose it be his celebrated Compliment to
the _Ladies_, in one of his earliest pieces, _The Toy-shop_: "A good Wife
makes the cares of the World sit easy, and adds a sweetness to its
pleasures; she is a Man's best Companion in Prosperity, and his only
Friend in Adversity; the carefullest preserver of his Health, and the
kindest Attendant in his Sickness; a faithful Adviser in Distress, a
Comforter in Affliction, and a prudent Manager in all his domestic
Affairs."--_Plainly_, from a fragment of Euripides preserved by Stobaeus.

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