[4] Compare the Incantations of the Erichtho of Lucan, the Canidie of
    Horace, the Cantata of Salvator Rosa, “all’ incanto all’ incante,”
    and the Eumenides of AEschylus.  The Gothic wildness of Shakespeare’s
    “weird sisters” will thence be better appreciated.—­Ed.

[5] These excellent observations extorted praise from the supercilious
    Warburton himself.  In the Preface to his Shakespeare, published two
    years after the appearance of Johnson’s anonymous pamphlet, he thus
    alludes to it:  “As to all those things which have been published
    under the titles of Essays, Remarks, Observations, &c. on
    Shakespeare, (if you except some critical notes on Macbeth, given as
    a specimen of a projected edition, and written, as appears, by a man
    of parts and genius,) the rest are absolutely below a serious
    notice.”  According to Boswell, Johnson ever retained a grateful
    remembrance of this distinguished compliment; “He praised me,” said
    he, “at a time when praise was of value to me.”  Boswell, I. Johnson
    affixed to this tract, proposals for a Shakespeare in 10 volumes,
    18mo. price, to subscribers, 1_l_ 5_s_. in sheets, half-a-guinea of
    which moderate sum was to be deposited at the time of subscription. 
    The following fuller proposals were published in 1756; but they were
    not realized until the lapse of nine years from that period. 
    Boswell, I.—­Ed.

PROPOSALS
FOR PRINTING THE
DRAMATICK WORKS
OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1756.

When the works of Shakespeare are, after so many editions, again offered to the publick, it will, doubtless, be inquired, why Shakespeare stands in more need of critical assistance than any other of the English writers, and what are the deficiencies of the late attempts, which another editor may hope to supply?

The business of him that republishes an ancient book is, to correct what is corrupt, and to explain what is obscure.  To have a text corrupt in many places, and in many doubtful, is, among the authors that have written since the use of types, almost peculiar to Shakespeare.  Most writers, by publishing their own works, prevent all various readings, and preclude all conjectural criticism.  Books, indeed, are sometimes published after the death of him who produced them; but they are better secured from corruption than these unfortunate compositions.  They subsist in a single copy, written or revised by the author; and the faults of the printed volume can be only faults of one descent.