gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together: and what
he thought he uttered with that easiness, that we have scarce
received from him a blot in his papers."

This may be meant to SUGGEST, but does not AFFIRM, that the actors
HAVE "all the rest" of the plays in Shakespeare's own handwriting.
They may have, or may have had, some of his manuscripts, and believed
that other manuscripts accessible to them, and used by them, contain
his very words. Whether from cunning or design, or from the
Elizabethan inability to tell a plain tale plainly, the authors or
author of the Preface have everywhere left themselves loopholes and
ways of evasion and escape. It is not possible to pin them down to
any plain statement of facts concerning the sources for the hitherto
unpublished plays, "the rest" of the plays.

These, at least, were from manuscript sources which the actors
thought accurate, and some may have been "fair copies" in
Shakespeare's own hand. (Scott, as regards his novels, sent his prima
cura, his first writing down, to the press, and his pages are nearly
free from blot or erasion. In one case at least, Shelley's first
draft of a poem is described as like a marsh of reeds in water, with
wild ducks, but he made very elegant fair copies for the press.) Let
it be supposed that Ben Jonson wrote all this Preface, in accordance
with the wishes and instructions of the two actors who sign it. He
took their word for the almost blotless MSS. which they received from
Shakespeare. He remarks, in his posthumously published Discoveries
(notes, memories, brief essays), "I remember the players have OFTEN
mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing
(whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line." And Ben gives,
we shall later see, his habitual reply to this habitual boast.