expression or allusion, and for the purposes of illustrative commentary generally, he brought a stock of learning such as has never perhaps been found united in any other commentator on Shakspeare. . . . The proper monument of Theobald is not that cairn of dishonour which the sensitive vanity of Pope, the ignoble and impudent devices of Warburton to build his own reputation on the ruin of another, the careless injustice of Johnson, the mean stratagems of Malone, and the obsequious parrotry of tradition on the part of subsequent writers, have succeeded in accumulating. It is the settled text of Shakspeare. It should be the gratitude of all to whom that text is precious, the gratitude of civilised mankind.-COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON, 1895, The Porson of Shakspearian Criticism, Essays and Studies, pp. 275, 315.

GENERAL

Theobald was one of the worms of literature, a painful antiquarian, devoting his feeble powers to the illustration of obscure passages in Shakspeare's writings; useful, indeed, but certainly humble enough to have escaped the martyrdom of a "Dunciad" immorality. The truth is, that private pique had animated Pope in placing Theobald at the head of the dunces. The great poet had himself published an edition of Shakspeare, in which his want of that minute antiquarian knowledge which Theobald undoubtedly possessed was glaringly apparent, a defect which the latter was naturally but too willing to point out. The character given to Theobald in the "Dunciad," though of course exaggerated with all the ingenuity of a rich imagination and an intense jealousy, was in the main appropriate. SHAW, THOMAS, B., 1847, Outlines of English Literature, p. 220.

Lewis Theobald was a type of the class whom Pope was resolved to crush. He was pedantic, poor, and somewhat malignant. He had attempted with equal illsuccess original poetry, translation, and play-writing; and had, indeed, no disqualification for the throne of Dulness except his insignificance. Pope, as we have seen, admits this drawback, and candidly avows that the sole reason for Theobald's sudden elevation to the unwelcome dignity was the attack which the latter had made on his edition of "Shakespeare." At first

sight, even this personal reason seems inadequate, for Theobald, in his preface to "Shakespeare Restored," speaks of the poet with studied respect. There was, however, a sting in his title, "Shakespeare Restored, or an Exposure of the Blunders Committed and Unamended in Mr. Pope's late edition," which might not unfairly be cited by the poet as a proof of wanton malignity. To this we must add that it was malignity triumphant. Theobald was by nature better qualified than Pope for the task which both had undertaken; and he had exhibited. Pope to the world in a position of somewhat ridiculous inferiority.-COURTHOPE, WILLIAM JOHN, 1882, ed., The Works of Alexander Pope, Introduction to the Dunciad, vol. IV, p. 27.

The fate of Lewis Theobald is without parallel in literary history. It may be said with simple truth that no poet in our own or in any language has ever owed so great a debt to an editor as Shakspeare

owes to this man. He found the text of the tragedies and comedies, which is now so intelligible and lucid, in a condition scarcely less deplorable than that in which. Aldus found the choruses of Eschylus, and Musurus the parabases of Aristophanes, and he contributed more to its certain and permanent settlement than all the other editors from Rowe to Alexander the "Dunciad" to the present day he has Dyce. From the publication of been the butt of almost every critic and biographer of Shakspeare and Pope. Indeed, the shamelessness of the injustice. with which he has been treated by his brother commentators on Shakspeare exceeds belief. Generation after generation it has been the same story. After plundering his notes and appropriating his emendations, some times with, but more generally without, acknowledgment, they all contrive, each in his own fashion, to reproduce Pope's portrait of him. Whenever they mention him, if they do not couple with their remarks some abusive or contemptuous expression, it is with a sort of half-apology for introducing his name. They refer to him, in fact, as a gentleman might refer among his friends to a shoeblack who had just amused him with some witticism while polishing his boots. COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON, 1895, Essays and Studies, pp. 263, 264, 265.

volumes of the Iliads in 4to. being already come out,) was born in the parish of Binfield, near Ockingham, in Berks. He is a papist, as is also his father, who is a sort of a broken merchant. The said Mr. Pope was patronized and encouraged by the late sir William Trumbull. He lived in Binfield parish till of late, when he removed to Chiswick, in Surrey. He is most certainly a very ingenious man. He is deformed.-HEARNE, THOMAS, 1717, Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, ed. Bliss, Aug. 7, vol. II, p. 50.

Tuneful Alexis on the Thames' fair side,
The Ladies' play-thing, and the Muses' pride;
With merit popular, with wit polite,
Easy, tho' vain, and elegant tho' light:
Desiring, and deserving others' praise,
Poorly accepts a fame he ne'er repays;
Unborn to cherish, sneakingly approves,
And wants the soul to spread the worth he
loves.

-HILL, AARON, 1728, The Progress of
Wit.

Pope, the monarch of the tuneful train!

To whom be Nature's, and Britannia's praise!
All their bright honours rush into his lays!
And all that glorious warmth his lays reveal,
Which only poets, kings, and patriots feel!
Tho' gay as mirth, as curious though sedate,
As elegance polite, as pow'r elate;
Profound as reason, and as justice clear;
Soft as compassion, yet as truth severe;
As bounty copious, as persuasion sweet,
Like Nature various, and like Art complete;
So fine her morals, so sublime her views,
His life is almost equall'd by his Muse.
-SAVAGE, RICHARD, 1729, The Wanderer,
Canto I.

Mr. Alexander Pope, the poet's father, was a poor ignorant man, a tanner at Binfield in Berks. This Mr. Alex. Pope had a little house there, that he had from his father, but hath now sold it to one Mr. Tanner, an honest man. This Alexander Pope, though he be an English poët, yet he is but an indifferent scholar, mean at Latin, and can hardly read Greek. is a very ill-natured man and covetous, and excessively proud.-HEARNE, THOMAS,

He

Whatever Grecian story tells;
A genius for all stations fit,
Whose meanest talent is his wit:
His heart too great, though fortune little,
To lick a rascal statesman's spittle:
Appealing to the nation's taste,
Above the reach of want is placed:
By Homer dead was taught to thrive,
Which Homer never could alive;
And sits aloft on Pindus' head,
Despising slaves that cringe for bread.
-SWIFT, JONATHAN, 1729, A Libel on the
Reverend Dr. Delany, and His Excellency,
John Lord Carteret.

Nor thou the justice of the world disown,
That leaves thee thus an outcast and alone:
For though in law the murder be to kill,
In equity the murder is the will.

Then while with coward hand you stab a

name,

And try at least to assassinate our Fame,
Like the first bold assassin be thy lot,
Ne'er be thy guilt forgiven or forgot;
But as thou hat'st be hated by mankind,
And with the emblem of thy crooked mind
Marked on thy back, like Cain, by God's

own hand,

Wander like him accursed through the land. -ANON, 1733, Verses Addressed to the Imitator of Horace.

Whose life, severely scann'd, transcends his lays;

Fcr wit supreme is but his second praise. -MALLET, DAVID, 1733, Epistle on Verbal Criticism.

To believe nothing is yours but what you own, would be merely ridiculous. Did you not deny the Dunciad for seven years? Did you not offer a reward of three guineas, by an advertisement in the Post-man, to know the publisher of your version of the First. Psalm? and when you were informed, did you ever pay the premium? Did you not publish the Worms yourself? And do you own any of these in the preface of the second volume of your works? In short, sir, your conduct as to your poetical productions is exactly of a piece with what I once met with at the Old Bailey. A most flagrant offender was put upon his trial for a notorious theft, and by his egre

18, vol. III, p. 23.

Hail, happy Pope! whose generous mind Detesting all the statesman kind, Contemning courts, at courts unseen, Refused the visits of a queen.

A soul with every virtue fraught,

By sages, priests, or poets taught;
Whose filial piety excels

into a violent passion. into a violent passion.

Sirrah, says he,

you have got a trick of denying what you ought to own, and by owning what you might as well deny. "An' please your honour," quoth culprit, "that's the way not to be hanged."-CURLL, EDMUND, 1735, Epistle, Pope's Literary Correspondence, vol. II,