very judiciously; and indeed they are such as most people will agree, with him, to be faults: But I wish he would likewise have observ’d some of the beauties too; as I think it became an exact and equal Critique to do. It seems strange that he should allow nothing good in the whole: If the Fable and Incidents are not to his taste, yet the Thoughts are almost every where very noble, and the Diction manly and proper. These last, indeed, are parts of _Shakespear_’s praise, which it would be very hard to dispute with him. His Sentiments and Images of things are great and natural; and his Expression (tho’ perhaps in some instances a little irregular) just, and rais’d in proportion to his subject and occasion. It would be even endless to mention the particular instances that might be given of this kind: But his Book is in the possession of the publick, and ’twill be hard to dip into any part of it, without finding what I have said of him made good. The latter part of his life was spent, as all men of good sense will wish theirs may be, in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an estate equal to his occasion, and, in that, to his wish; and is said to have spent some years before his death at his native _Stratford_. His pleasurable wit, and good nature, engag’d him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Amongst them, it is a story almost still remember’d in that country, that he had a particular intimacy with Mr. _Combe_, an old gentleman noted thereabouts for his wealth and usury: It happen’d, that in a pleasant conversation amongst their common friends, Mr. _Combe_ told _Shakespear_ in a laughing manner, that he fancy’d he intended to write his Epitaph, if he happen’d to out-live him; and since he could not know what might be said of him when he was dead, he desir’d it might be done immediately: Upon which _Shakespear_ gave him these four verses. Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav’d, ’Tis a hundred to ten his soul is not sav’d: If any man ask, Who lies in this tomb? Oh! ho! quoth the devil, ’tis my _John-a-Combe_. But the sharpness of the Satyr is said to have stung the man so severely, that he never forgave it. He dy’d in the 53d year of his age, and was bury’d on the north side of the chancel, in the great church at _Stratford_, where a monument, as engrav’d in the plate, is plac’d in the wall. On his Grave-stone underneath is, Good friend, for Jesus sake, forbear To dig the dust inclosed here. Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.