ppy in an
Essay on Shakespeare!

You have long known my opinion concerning the literary acquisitions of our
immortal Dramatist; and remember how I congratulated myself on my
coincidence with the last and best of his Editors. I told you, however,
that his _small Latin and less Greek_ would still be litigated, and you
see very assuredly that I was not mistaken. The trumpet hath been sounded
against "the darling project of representing Shakespeare as one of the
illiterate vulgar"; and indeed to so good purpose, that I would by all
means recommend the performer to the army of the _braying Faction_,
recorded by Cervantes. The testimony of his contemporaries is again
disputed; constant tradition is opposed by flimsy arguments; and nothing
is heard but confusion and nonsense. One could scarcely imagine this a
topick very likely to inflame the passions: it is asserted by Dryden, that
"those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greatest
commendation"; yet an attack upon an article of faith hath been usually
received with more temper and complacence, than the unfortunate opinion
which I am about to defend.

But let us previously lament, with every lover of Shakespeare, that the
Question was not fully discussed by Mr. Johnson himself: what he sees
intuitively, others must arrive at by a series of proofs; and I have not
time to _teach_ with precision: be contented therefore with a few cursory
observations, as they may happen to arise from the Chaos of Papers you
have so often laughed at, "a stock sufficient to set up an _Editor in
form_." I am convinced of the strength of my cause, and superior to any
little advantage from sophistical arrangements.

General positions without proofs will probably have no great weight on
either side, yet it may not seem fair to suppress them: take them
therefore as their authors occur to me, and we will afterward proceed to
particulars.

The testimony of Ben stands foremost; and some have held it sufficient to
decide the controversy: in the warmest Panegyrick that ever was written,
he apologizes for what _he_ supposed the only defect in his "beloved
friend,--

----Soul of the age!
Th' applause! delight! the wonder of our stage!--

whose memory he honoured almost to idolatry": and conscious of the worth
of ancient literature, like any other man on the same occasion, he rather
carries his acquirements _above_ than _below_ the truth. "Jealousy!"