Meanwhile the setting Sun descending slow— Level’d with _áspect_ right his ev’ning rays. Enough of such Commentators.—The celebrated Dr. Dee had a _Spirit_, who would sometimes condescend to correct him, when peccant in _Quantity_: and it had been kind of him to have a little assisted the _Wights_ above-mentioned.—Milton affected the _Antique_; but it may seem more extraordinary that the old Accent should be adopted in _Hudibras_. After all, the _Double Falshood_ is superior to Theobald. One passage, and one only in the whole Play, he pretended to have written: ——Strike up, my Masters; But touch the Strings with a religious softness: Teach sound to languish thro’ the Night’s dull Ear, Till Melancholy start from her lazy Couch, And Carelessness grow Convert to Attention. These lines were particularly admired; and his vanity could not resist the opportunity of claiming them: but his claim had been more easily allowed to _any other_ part of the performance. To whom then shall we ascribe it?—Somebody hath told us, who should seem to be a _Nostrum-monger_ by his argument, that, let _Accents_ be how they will, it is called _an original Play of William Shakespeare_ in the _Kings Patent_, prefixed to Mr. Theobald’s Edition, 1728, and consequently there _could_ be no fraud in the matter. Whilst, on the contrary, the _Irish_ Laureat, Mr. Victor, remarks (and were it true, it would be certainly decisive) that the Plot is borrowed from a Novel of Cervantes, not published ’till the year after Shakespeare’s death. But unluckily the same Novel appears in a part of _Don Quixote_, which was printed in Spanish, 1605, and in English by Shelton, 1612.—The same reasoning, however, which exculpated our Author from the _Yorkshire Tragedy_, may be applied on the present occasion. But you want _my_ opinion:—and from every mark of Style and Manner, I make no doubt of ascribing it to Shirley. Mr. Langbaine informs us that he left some Plays in MS.—These were written about the time of the _Restoration_, when the _Accent_ in question was more generally altered. Perhaps the mistake arose from an _abbreviation_ of the name. Mr. Dodsley knew not that the Tragedy of _Andromana_ was Shirley’s, from the very same cause. Thus a whole stream of Biographers tell us that Marston’s Plays were printed at London, 1633, “by the care of _William Shakespeare_, the famous Comedian.”—Here again I suppose, in some Transcript, the real Publisher’s name, _William Sheares_, was _abbreviated_. No one hath protracted the life of Shakespeare beyond 1616, except Mr. Hume; who is pleased to add a year to it, in contradiction to all manner of evidence.