Note 363 — PROLOGUE
Reading edition
i.e., The play of that name attributed to Shakespeare. Perhaps a sneer was designed. To say that a dramatic piece was fortunate, is not to say that it was deserving; and why of all the pieces supposed to be written by our great author was this particularised?—Steevens.
There is good reason to dispute this interpretation of the word fortunate, but Mr Steevens seems to have discovered many sneers at Shakespeare that were never intended. Mr Malone, quoting the two last lines from the above prologue, observes: "By fortunate I understand highly successful," and he is warranted in this understanding by the following passage directly in point, which he might have quoted from lines prefixed by Richard Woolfall to Lewis Sharpe's "Noble Stranger," 1640—
"Yet do not feare the danger Of critick readers, since thy 'Noble Stranger,' With pleasing strains has smooth'd the rugged fate Of oft cram'd Theatres, and prov'd fortunate."
—Collier.
Malone, after quoting a passage from "Pymlico or Runne Red-cap," 1609, disputes the notion that a sneer at "Pericles" was intended by Tailor. It appears that "Pericles" drew crowds, and that it was as successful as a play called "Shore." See Malone's Shakespeare, xxi. p. 4, edit. 1821.—Idem (additional notes to Dodsley).