ABSTRACT
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 authours 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 corruptions than these unfortunate compositions. They subsist in a single copy, written or revised by the authour, and the faults of the printed volume can be only faults of one descent.
