THE

WORK S

O F

SHAKESPEAR:

VOLUME the FIRST.

CONTAINING,

The TEMPEST.

A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.
The Two GENTLEMEN of VERONA.
The MERRY WIVES of WINDSOR.
MEASURE for MEASURE.

JOHET DHE RESE

LONDON:

Printed for 7. and P. Knapton, S. Birt, T. Longman and
T.Shewell, H. Lintot, C. Hitch, J. Brindley, J. and R. Ton-
Jen and S. Draper, R. Wellington, E. New, and B. Dod.

MDCCXLVII.

807

5.10

ERRATA.

Page . ult. for would catch read would I catch. P. 103. 1. 6. for this read his. 265. 1. 1. for gords read gord. p. 356. 1. 23. for word read words. p. 442. l. 16. for with read wish'd.

"

то

MRS. ALLEN

MADAM,

OF

PRIO R-P A R K

NEAR BA T H.

DDRESSES of this Nature have been long the customary Tribute of Letters to fuperior

Merit: And tho' Flattery may have thrown them into Difrepute, yet this concludes no more against the Continuance of honest Praise, than HyA 2

VOL. I.

pocrify

pocrify does against the Practice of Religion, But Adulation no fooner began to belye its Subject, than it perverted the very Purpose of its Application; while, amongst its many artful traverses, it would now beg Protection for the Book; and, now again, conftitute the Patron the fovereign Judge of its

Merit.

In this Light, Madam, you might reasonably wonder to fee a Collection of Plays dedicated to one who reads few Books befides thofe of Piety and Moral; and will think, the Address might have been made with fomewhat less Impropriety even to a Bishop. This is true: but, as I faid, this literary Connexion is not, of right, between the Patron and the Work; but between him and the Author. Who, to carry on his Commerce with a good Conscience, muft therefore fearch narrowly for a Subject which will not dishonour Letters,