_Paths of Nature._ Cf. Prior, _Charity_, line 25.
_one of the first criticks of the age._ Dr. Johnson: see Introduction, p.
xxvii.
_a brother of the craft._ “Mr. Seward, in his Preface to _Beaumont and
Fletcher_, 10 vols. 8vo., 1750” (Farmer). Cf. Theobald, Introduction to
_Shakespeare Restored_: “Shakespeare’s works have always appear’d to me
like what he makes his Hamlet compare the world to, an _unweeded Garden
grown to Seed_.”
_contrary to the statute._ See Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 136, etc.
166. _Small Latin and less Greek._ “This passage of Ben. Jonson, so often
quoted, is given us in the admirable preface to the late edition, with a
various reading, ‘Small Latin and _no_ Greek’; which hath been held up to
the publick as a modern sophistication: yet whether an error or not, it
was adopted above a century ago by W. Towers, in a panegyrick on
Cartwright. His eulogy, with more than fifty others, on this now forgotten
poet, was prefixed to the edit. 1651” (Farmer). Johnson corrected the
error in subsequent editions. See note, p. 135.
“_darling project_,” etc. Kenrick, _Review of Dr. Johnson’s New Edition of
Shakespeare_, 1765, p. 106: “Your darling project ... of invidiously
representing him as a _varlet_, one of the illiterate vulgar.”
166. _braying faction._ See _Don Quixote_, ii. 25 and 27. _those who
accuse him_, etc. Dryden, _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_.