not be imputed to Ignorance: since as often we may find him, when
Occasion serves, reasoning up to the Truth of History; and throwing
out Sentiments as justly adapted to the Circumstances of his
Subject, as to the Dignity of his Characters, or Dictates of Nature
in general.

Then, to come to his Knowledge of the _Latin_ Tongue, ’tis certain,
there is a surprising Effusion of _Latin_ Words made _English_, far
more than in any one _English_ Author I have seen; but we must be
cautious to imagine, this was of his own doing. For the _English_
Tongue, in his Age, began extremely to suffer by an Inundation of
_Latin_; and to be overlaid, as it were, by its Nurse, when it had
just began to speak by her before-prudent Care and Assistance. And
this, to be sure, was occasion’d by the Pedantry of those two
Monarchs, _Elizabeth_ and _James_, Both great _Latinists_. For it
is not to be wonder’d at, if both the Court and Schools, equal
Flatterers of Power, should adapt themselves to the Royal Taste.
This, then, was the Condition of the _English_ Tongue when
_Shakespeare_ took it up: like a Beggar in a rich Wardrobe. He found
the pure native _English_ too cold and poor to second the Heat and
Abundance of his Imagination: and therefore was forc’d to dress it
up in the Robes, he saw provided for it: rich in themselves, but
ill-shaped; cut out to an air of Magnificence, but disproportion’d
and cumbersome. To the Costliness of Ornament, he added all the
Graces and Decorum of it. It may be said, this did not require, or
discover a Knowledge of the _Latin_. To the first, I think, it did
not; to the second, it is so far from discovering it, that, I think,
it discovers the contrary. To make This more obvious by a modern
Instance: The great MILTON likewise labour’d under the like
Inconvenience; when he first set upon adorning his own Tongue, he