hakespeare_, who, perhaps, was not so intimately vers'd in the
_Language_, abounds in the Words of it, but has few or none of its
Phrases: Nor, indeed, if what I affirm be true, could He. This I
take to be the truest _Criterion_ to determine this long agitated
Question.

It may be mention'd, tho' no certain Conclusion can be drawn from
it, as a probable Argument of his having read the Antients; that He
perpetually expresses the Genius of _Homer_, and other great Poets
of the Old World, in animating all the Parts of his Descriptions;
and, by bold and breathing Metaphors and Images, giving the
Properties of Life and Action to inanimate Things. He is a Copy
too of those _Greek_ Masters in the infinite use of _compound_ and
_de-compound Epithets_. I will not, indeed, aver, but that One with
_Shakespeare_'s exquisite Genius and Observation might have traced
these glaring Characteristics of Antiquity by reading _Homer_ in
_Chapman_'s Version.

[Sidenote: _B. Jonson_ and _Shakespeare_ compar'd.]

An additional Word or two naturally falls in here upon the Genius of
our Author, as compared with that of _Jonson_ his Contemporary. They
are confessedly the greatest Writers our Nation could ever boast
of in the _Drama_. The first, we say, owed all to his prodigious
natural Genius; and the other a great deal to his Art and Learning.
This, if attended to, will explain a very remarkable Appearance in
their Writings. Besides those wonderful Masterpieces of Art and
Genius, which each has given Us; They are the Authors of other Works
very unworthy of them: But with this Difference; that in _Jonson_'s
bad Pieces we don't discover one single Trace of the Author of
the _Fox_ and _Alchemist_: but in the wild extravagant Notes
of _Shakespeare_, you every now and then encounter Strains that
recognize the divine Composer. This Difference may be thus accounted
for. _Jonson_, as we said before, owing all his Excellence to his
Art, by which he sometimes strain'd himself to an uncommon Pitch,
when at other times he unbent and play'd with his Subject, having
nothing then to support him, it is no wonder he wrote so far beneath
himself. But _Sbakespeare_, indebted more largely to Nature, than
the Other to acquired Talents, in his most negligent Hours could
never so totally divest himself of his Genius, but that it would
frequently break out with astonishing Force and Splendor.

[Sidenote: His Reputation under Disadvantages.]

As I have n