  96. the excellent Discourse which follows, i.e. Pope's Preface, which was reprinted by Warburton along with Rowe's Account of Shakespeare. 101. Essays, Remarks, Observations, etc. Warburton apparently refers to the following works: Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written by Mr. William Shakespeare. London, 1736. Perhaps by Sir Thomas Hanmer. An Essay towards fixing the true Standards of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule. To which is added an Analysis of the Characters of an Humourist, Sir John Falstaff, Sir Roger de Coverley, and Don Quixote. London, 1744. By Corbyn Morris, who signs the Dedication. Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth: with Remarks on Sir Thomas Hanmer's Edition of Shakespeare. To which is affixed Proposals for a new Edition of Skakespear, with a Specimen. London, 1745. By Samuel Johnson, though anonymous. Critical Observations on Shakespeare. By John Upton, Prebendary of Rochester. London, 1746. Second edition, with a preface replying to Warburton, 1748. An Essay upon English Tragedy. With Remarks upon the AbbÉ de Blanc's Observations on the English Stage. By William Guthrie, Esq. [1747.] The last of these may not have appeared, however, till after Warburton's edition. Johnson is said by Boswell to have ever entertained a grateful remembrance of this allusion to him “at a time when praise was of value.” But though the criticism is merited, is it too sinister a suggestion that it was prompted partly by the reference in Johnson's pamphlet to “the learned Mr. Warburton”? When Johnson's edition appeared in 1765, Warburton expressed a very different opinion (see Nichols, Anecdotes, v., p. 595). 101-105. whole Compass of Criticism. Cf. Theobald's account of the “Science of Criticism,” pp. 81, etc., which Warburton appears to have suggested. [pg 319]101. Canons of literal Criticism. This phrase suggested the title of the ablest and most damaging attack on Warburton's edition,—The Canons of Criticism, and Glossary, being a Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear. The author was Thomas Edwards (1699-1757), a “gentleman of Lincoln's Inn,” who accordingly figures in the notes to the Dunciad, iv. 568. When the book first appeared in 1748 it was called A Supplement, etc.... Being the Canons of Criticism. It reached a seventh edition in 1765. 103. Rymer, Short View of Tragedy (1693), pp. 95, 6. 105. as Mr. Pope hath observed. Preface, p. 47. Dacier, Bossu. See notes, pp. 18 and 86. RenÉ Rapin (1621-1687). His fame as a critic rests on his RÉflexions sur la PoÉtique d' Aristote et sur les Ouvrages des PoÈtes anciens et modernes (1674), which was Englished by Rymer immediately on its publication. His treatise De Carmine Pastorali, of which a translation is included in Creech's Idylliums of Theocritus (1684), was used by Pope for the preface to his Pastorals. An edition of The Whole Critical Works of Monsieur Rapin ... newly translated into English by several Hands, 2 vols., appeared in 1706; it is not, however, complete. John Oldmixon (1673-1742), who, like Dennis and Gildon, has a place in the Dunciad, was the author of An Essay on Criticism, as it regards Design, Thought, and Expression in Prose and Verse (1728) and The Arts of Logick and Rhetorick, illustrated by examples taken out of the best authors (1728). The latter is based on the ManiÈre de bien penser of Bouhours. A certain celebrated Paper,—The Spectator. semper acerbum, etc. Virgil, Aeneid, v. 49. 106. Note, “See his Letters to me.” These letters are not extant. 108. Saint Chrysostom ... Aristophanes. This had been a commonplace in the discussions at the end of the seventeenth century, in England and France, on the morality of the drama. Ludolf Kuster (1670-1716) appears also in the Dunciad, iv., l. 237. His edition of Suidas was published, through Bentley's influence, by the University of Cambridge in 1705. He also edited Aristophanes (1710), and wrote De vero usu Verborum Mediorum apud Graecos. Cf. Farmer's Essay, p. 176. who thrust himself into the employment. Hanmer's letters to the University of Oxford do not bear out Warburton's statement. 109. Gilles MÉnage (1613-1692). Les PoÉsies de M. de Malherbe avec les Observations de M. MÉnage appeared in 1666. Selden's “Illustrations” or notes appeared with the first part of Polyolbion in 1612. This allusion was suggested by a passage in a letter from Pope of 27th November, 1742: “I have a particular reason to [pg 320] 110. Verborum proprietas, etc. Quintilian, Institut. Orat., Prooem. 16. Warburton alludes to the edition of Beaumont and Fletcher “by the late Mr. Theobald, Mr. Seward of Eyam in Derbyshire, and Mr. Sympson of Gainsborough,” which appeared in ten volumes in 1750. The long and interesting preface is by Seward. Warburton's reference would not have been so favourable could he have known Seward's opinion of his Shakespeare. See the letter printed in the Correspondence of Hanmer, ed. Bunbury, pp. 352, etc. The edition of Paradise Lost is that by Thomas Newton (1704-1782), afterwards Bishop of Bristol. It appeared in 1749, and a second volume containing the other poems was added in 1752. In the preface Newton gratefully acknowledges this recommendation, and alludes with pride to the assistance he had received from Warburton, who had proved himself to be “the best editor of Shakespeare.” Some dull northern Chronicles, etc. Cf. the Dunciad, iii. 185-194. 111. a certain satyric Poet. The reference is to Zachary Grey's edition of Hudibras (1744). Yet Warburton had contributed to it. In the preface “the Rev. and learned Mr. William Warburton” is thanked for his “curious and critical observations.” Grey's “coadjutor” was “the reverend Mr. Smith of Harleston in Norfolk,” as Grey explains in the preface to the Notes on Shakespeare. In his preface to Hudibras, Grey had given Smith no prominence in his long list of helpers. Smith had also assisted Hanmer. In 1754 Grey brought out his Critical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes on Shakespeare, and in 1755 retaliated on Warburton in his Remarks upon a late edition of Shakespear ... to which is prefixed a defence of the late Sir Thomas Hanmer. Grey appears to be the author also of A word or two of advice to William Warburton, a dealer in many words, 1746. our great Philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton. His remark is recorded by William Whiston in the Historical Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Samuel Clarke (1730), p. 143: “To observe such laymen as Grotius, and Newton, and Lock, laying out their noblest Talents in sacred Studies; while such Clergymen as Dr. Bentley and Bishop Hare, to name no others at present, have been, in the Words of Sir Isaac Newton, fighting with one another about a Playback [Terence]: This is a Reproach upon them, their holy Religion, and holy Function plainly intolerable.” Warburton's defence of himself in the previous pages must have been inspired partly by the “fanatical turn” of this “wild writer.” Whiston would hardly excuse Clarke for editing Homer till he “perceived that the pains he had taken about Homer were when he was much younger, and the notes rather transcrib'd than made new”; and Warburton is careful to state that his Shakespearian studies were amongst his “younger amusements.” [pg 321] Words are the money, etc. Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I., ch. iv.: “For words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.” |
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