AND IN THE REPROOF OF THIS [Inquiry] LIES THE JEST. POINS. LONDON: Printed for THOMAS EGERTON, Whitehall. THE ADVERTISEMENT. F Mr. Malone, in his zeal for detecting the Mifcellaneous IF Papers, which were exhibited as Shakspeare's; and which, with little help from others, had already detected themselves, had written, instead of his INQUIRY, a pamphlet in plain profe; ftating his objections, without irony, and fubmitting his documents, without fcoffs; thereby impugning fraud, without afferting fiction, and convincing opponents, without roufing adverfaries; no one would have answered what few would have read; fince a cheat exploded is a cheat no more. But, in his high-blown pride, he was little folicitous to diffemble his free contempt for those, who, for a time, thought differently from him on difputable points; while they were influenced by reasonings, which will not foon be confuted. He was, by those motives, induced to scatter his wilful abuse, with a ready pen, throughout his Inquiry, against thofe, whom he terms "partizans of fraud," ❝ringleaders of impofition," "hardened offenders;" thus, turning his pens to lances; and, by a scornful rhime, endeavouring to make their names fixed figures for the time of fcorn, to point his flow unmoving finger at. Amidst this tempest of provocation, he sent them a roifting challenge to defend, or retract, their opinions; thinking, doubtlefs, to Strike amazement to their drowsy spirits. The Believers, indeed, felt, that extremity is the trier of fpirits. Nevertheless; as men attacked, they merely act on the the defensive, in making this Apology; as Englishmen, who had received many a blow, they, in their defperate turn, barely fend back his arrows, but without their venom; and as fcholars, antiquaries, and heralds, they only act agreeably to their charter, and their customary rights, when they refift the tyranny of a Dictator in the republic of letters; without vindicating the Mifcellaneous Papers, which they acknowledge to be spurious: yet; they do not admit Mr. Malone's principle, that our whole Archæology may be mifrepresented, for the purpose of detecting a literary fraud; nor, do they allow, that the faid republic ought to be invaded in its limits, or disturbed in its quiet, by his dif charge of this inundation of mistempered humour, for the gratification of an indifcreet zeal. They will only add what Johnson remarked of Hanmer: But, I may, WITHOUT INDECENCY, OBSERVE, THAT NO MAN SHOULD ATTEMPT TO TEACH WHAT HE HAS NEVER LEARNED HIMSELF. [MACBETH. MDCCXLV.] POSTSCRIPT: The ftamp in the Title-page fhows to the curious eye. the arms of the Revels: and, the Tail-piece exhibits to the inquifitive dramatift the feal of the office of the Revels, during the reigns of five fovereigns, under the KILLI GREWS. AN APOLOGY FOR THE BELIEVERS OF THE I SHAKSPEARE-PAPERS. HAVE the honour to appear at the bar of this critical (a) court; in order to fhew cause, why an information fhall not be filed, by the public accufer, against the believers of the papers, which have been attributed to Shakspeare, for having committed the aggravated crimes of being "the credulous "partizans of folly and (b) imposture;" of thinking for themselves; and judging from (a) See the Seffion of the Poets, in the State Poems, 1703, vol. i, p. 206. Apollo, concern'd to fee the tranfgreffions, That our paultry fcribblers daily commit, (b) Mal. Inquiry, 366. |