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this Mafter-piece of Shakespear diftinguish it felf upon the Stage, by Mr. Betterton's fine Performance of that Part. A Man, who tho' he had no other good Qualities, as he has a great many, must have made his way into the Esteem of all Men of Letters, by this only Excellency. No Man is better acquainted with Shakespear's manner of Expreffion, and indeed he has ftudy'd him fo well, and is fo much a Master of him, that whatever Part of his he performs, he does it as if it had been written on purpose it for him, and that the Author had exactly conceiv'd it as he plays it. "I must own a particuobta lar Obligation to him, for the most confiderable part of the Paffages relating to his Life, which I have here tranfmitted to the Publick; his Veneration for the Memory of Shakespear Kaving engag'd him to make a Journey into Warwickshire, on purpose to gather up what Remains he could of a Name for which he had fo Cor Vale. Since I had at first resolv'd great a not to enter into any Critical Controverfie, I won't pretend to enquire into the Juftness of

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Rhymer's Remarks on Othello; he has certainly pointed out fome Faults very judicioufly; and indeed they are fuch as most People will agree, with him, to be Faults: But I wish he would likewife have obferv'd fome of the "Beauties

Beauties too; as I think it became an Exact and Equal Critique to do. It feems strange that he fhould allow nothing Good in the whole: If the Fable and Incidents are not to his Tafte, yet the Thoughts are almost every where very Noble, and the Diction manly and proper. These laft, indeed, are Parts of Shakespear's Praife, which it would be very hard to Difpute with him. His Sentiments and Images of Things are Great and Natural; and his Expreffion (tho' perhaps in fome Inftances a little Irregular) juft, and rais'd in Proportion to his Subject and Occafion. It would be even endless to mention the particular Instances that might be given of this Kind: But his Book is in the Poffeffion of the Publick, and 'twill be hard to dip into any Part of it, without finding what I have faid of him made good.

The latter Part of his Life was spent, as all Men of good Sense will wish theirs may be, in Eafe, Retirement, and the Conversation of his Friends. He had the good Fortune to gather an Estate equal to his Occafion, and, in that, to his Wifh; and is faid to have spent fome Years before his Death at his native Stratford. His pleafurable Wit, and good Nature, engag'd him in the Acquain

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tance, and entitled him to the Friendship of the Gentlemen of the Neighbourhood. Amongst them, it is a Story almoft ftill remember'd in that Country, that he had a particular Intimacy with Mr. Combe, an old Gentleman noted thereabouts for his Wealth and Ufury It happen'd, that in a pleasant Converfation amongst their common Friends, Mr. Combe told Shakespear in a laughing manner, that he fancy'd, he intended to write his Epitaph, if he happen'd to out-live him; and fince he could not know what might be faid of him when he was dead, he defir'd it might be done immediately: Upon which Shakespear gave him these four Verses.

Ten in the Hundred lies here ingrav'd,
'Tis a Hundred to Ten, his Soul is not fav'd:

If any
Man ask, Who lies in this Tomb?
Oh! bo! quoth the Devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe.

But the Sharpness of the Satyr is faid to have ftung the Man fo feverely, that he never forgave it.

He Dy'd in the 53d Year of his Age, and was bury'd on the North fide of the Chancel, in the Great Church at Stratford, where

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