[10.] Dr Johnson told Burney that Warburton, as a critic, ‘would make two-and-fifty Theobalds cut into slices.’ (Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Vol. ii. p. 85. Ed. 1835). From this judgment, whether they be compared as critics or editors, we emphatically dissent.
[11.] We trust that in our edition the matter which Capell discarded has been presented in a well-printed book. We have found no trace of the Manuscripts here spoken of.
[12.] In Lowndes’s Manual (Bohm), p. 2316, we find ‘Notes and Various Readings to Shakespeare. By Edward Capell, Lond. 1759.’ No such book of this date is in the Capell collection, nor is it ever mentioned elsewhere, so far as we know. In the preface to the work of 1783, it is mentioned that the first volume had been printed in 1774, but no allusion is made to any former edition.
[13.] These volumes, together with the whole of Shakespeare’s Plays and Milton’s Paradise Lost, written out in Capell’s own regular, but not very legible hand, are among his collection in Trinity College Library.
[14.] Steevens was accused of giving, under fictitious names, notes which he was afraid to sign himself.
[15.] The two last-named books, as well as some suggestions from correspondents, did not reach us till the first Volume was partly printed. We propose to supply all omissions in an Appendix to the whole work.
[16.] Aber man läuft ein gefährliches Spiel, wenn man nicht überall offen und bescheiden bekennt, dass man ganz von den Engländern abhange: ja man scheitert gewiss, wenn man mit der einen Hand allen Stoff von dem man lebt und athmet ihnen entnimmt, und mit der andern zum Dank Hohn und Beleidigung auf ihren Namen wirft. Vorrede, pp. vi. vii.