literal. Here we clearly perceive such corrections and changes as may be supposed to have proceeded from the author; nor is it necessary to discuss the hasty conclusion of Mr Pinkerton, which he himself deliberately abandoned, that Philotus must have been written long before the date of the first impression, that it must have been written during the reign of James the Fifth. The indecency of this early drama rendered it a matter of no small doubt and hesitation, whether we could venture to reprint it without suppressing the most flagrant passages; of which we do not feel inclined to adopt the defence urged by a learned writer, to whom we have already referred. "The recent editor of a Biographia Dramatica," he states, "has attacked this piece violently on the score of immodesty. This writer's philosophy, it would seem, is exactly equal to his learning. Had he the smallest share of philosophy, he would know that our bashfulness, so remarkable to foreigners, is a weakness, and not a virtue; and that it is this bashfulness alone which makes us so nice about matters so freely discoursed by other nations. If the generation of man be a matter of shame and infamy, it follows that man is the child of shame and infamy. Now nothing excites vice so much as low ideas of human nature; and those nice writers, while they are preaching virtue, are from mere ignorance opening the door to every vice. Had this writer any learning, he would know that the comedies of Aristophanes, written in the brightest period of Athenian politeness, are quite indecent to British ears. Are we wiser than the Athenians? Are we not far more foolish in this respect than all modern nations ?" Of the validity of this extraordinary defence he seems however to have felt a secret distrust, or perhaps his abstract science was encountered by the bookseller's homely prejudice; for, after an interval of six years, when he republished the same comedy, he suppressed those very passages which he here represents as so consonant to the dictates of sound philosophy, as well as Attic taste. Without entertaining the faintest wish to study moral science under so great a master, we have been induced to hope that the peculiar circumstances of such a reprint as this, overshadowed by the decent veil of Gothic characters, and confined to a narrow and select circulation, might be considered as affording some justification of our departure from the plan of a family Philotus. 1 Pinkerton's List of the Scotish Poets, (p. cxi.) prefixed to Ancient Scotish Poems. Lond. 1786, 2 vols. 8vo. * Scotish Poems, reprinted from scarce editions, vol. iii. p. 1. Lond. 1792, 3 vols. 8vo. |