edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, has complimented the Philaster, which
he himself describes as inferior to the Maid's Tragedy by the same
writers, as but little below the noblest of Shakspeare's plays, Lear,
Macbeth, Othello, &c. and consequently implying the equality, at least,
of the Maid's Tragedy;--and an eminent living critic,--who in the manly
wit, strong sterling sense, and robust style of his original works, had
presented the best possible credentials of office as 'charge d'affaires'
of literature in general,--and who by his edition of Massinger--a work
in which there was more for an editor to do, and in which more was
actually well done, than in any similar work within my knowledge--has
proved an especial right of authority in the appreciation of dramatic
poetry, and hath potentially a double voice with the public in his own
right and in that of the critical synod, where, as 'princeps senatus',
he possesses it by his prerogative,--has affirmed that Shakspeare's
superiority to his contemporaries rests on his superior wit alone, while
in all the other, and, as I should deem, higher excellencies of the
drama, character, pathos, depth of thought, &c. he is equalled by
Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and Massinger! [1]

Of wit I am engaged to treat in another Lecture. It is a genus of many
species; and at present I shall only say, that the species which is
predominant in Shakspeare, is so completely Shakspearian, and in its
essence so interwoven with all his other characteristic excellencies,
that I am equally incapable of comprehending, both how it can be
detached from his other powers, and how, being disparate in kind from
the wit of contemporary dramatists, it can be compared with theirs in
degree. And again--the detachment and the practicability of the
comparison being granted--I should, I confess, be rather inclined to
concede the contrary;--and in the most common species of wit, and in the
ordinary application of the term, to yield this particular palm to