[Sidenote:  Acknowledgment of Assistance.]

I come now to speak of those kind Assistances which I have met with from particular Friends, towards forwarding and compleating this Work.  Soon after my Design was known, I had the Honour of an Invitation to Cambridge; and a generous Promise from the Learned and ingenious Dr. Thirlby of Jesus-College, there, who had taken great Pains with my Author, that I should have the Liberty of collating his Copy of Shakespeare, mark’d thro’ in the Margin with his own Manuscript References and accurate Observations.  He not only made good this Promise, but favour’d me with a Set of Emendations, interspers’d and distinguish’d in his Name thro’ the Edition, and which can need no Recommendation here to the judicious Reader.

The next Assistance I receiv’d was from my ingenious Friend Hawley Bishop Esq; whose great Powers and extensive Learning are as well known, as his uncommon Modesty, to all who have the Happiness of his Acquaintance.  This Gentleman was so generous, at the Expence both of his Pocket and Time, to run thro’ all Shakespeare with me.  We join’d Business and Entertainment together; and at every of our Meetings, which were constantly once a Week, we read over a Play, and came mutually prepar’d to communicate our Conjectures upon it to each other.  The Pleasure of these Appointments, I think, I may say, richly compensated for the Labour in our own Thoughts:  and I may venture to affirm, in the Behalf of my Assistant, that our Author has deriv’d no little Improvement from them.

To these, I must add the indefatigable Zeal and Industry of my most ingenious and ever-respected Friend, the Reverend Mr. William Warburton of Newark upon Trent.  This Gentleman, from the Motives of his frank and communicative Disposition, voluntarily took a considerable Part of my Trouble off my Hands; not only read over the whole Author for me, with the exactest Care; but enter’d into a long and laborious Epistolary Correspondence; to which I owe no small Part of my best Criticisms upon my Author.

The Number of Passages amended, and admirably Explained, which I have taken care to distinguish with his Name, will shew a Fineness of Spirit and Extent of Reading, beyond all the Commendations I can give them:  Nor, indeed, would I any farther be thought to commend a Friend, than, in so doing, to give a Testimony of my own Gratitude.  How great a share soever of Praise I must lose from my self, in confessing these Assistances; and however my own poor Conjectures may be weaken’d by the Comparison with theirs; I am very well content to sacrifice my Vanity to the Pride of being so assisted, and the Pleasure of being just to their Merits.  I beg leave to observe to my Readers, in one Word, here, that from the Confession of these successive Aids, and the Manner in which I deriv’d them, it appears, I have pretty well fill’d up the Interval, betwixt my first Proposals and my Publication, with having my Author always in View, and at Heart.