_Bossu._ René le Bossu (1631-1680), author of the _Traité du poème épique_
(1675). An English translation by “W. J.” was printed in 1695, and again
in 1719.
_Dacier._ See note, p. 18.
_Gildon_ showed himself to be of the same school as Rymer in his _Essay on
the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage_ (1710) and his _Art of Poetry_
(1718); yet his earliest piece of criticism was a vigorous attack on
Rymer. The title reads curiously in the light of his later pronouncements:
_Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer’s Short View of Tragedy, and an Attempt at
a Vindication of Shakespear_. It was printed in a volume of _Miscellaneous
Letters and Essays_ (1694).
87. _Anachronisms._ The passage referred to occurs on pp. 134, 135 of
_Shakespeare Restored_.
_this Restorer._ See the _Dunciad_ (1729), i. 106, note.
_it not being at all credible_, etc. See p. 56.
_Sir Francis Drake._ Pope had suggested in a note that the imperfect line
in _1 Henry VI._, i. 1. 56, might have been completed with the words
“Francis Drake.” He had not, however, incorporated the words in the text.
“I can’t guess,” he says, “the occasion of the Hemystic, and imperfect
sense, in this place; ’tis not impossible it might have been fill’d up
with—Francis Drake—tho’ that were a terrible Anachronism (as bad as
Hector’s quoting Aristotle in Troil. and Cress.); yet perhaps, at the time
that brave Englishman was in his glory, to an English-hearted audience,
and pronounced by some favourite Actor, the thing might be popular, though
not judicious; and therefore by some Critick, in favour of the author,
afterwards struck out. But this is a meer slight conjecture.” Theobald has
a lengthy note on this in his edition. He does not allude to the
suggestion which he had submitted to Warburton. See Introduction, p. xlvi.
88. _Odyssey._ This passage, to the end of the paragraph, appears in
Theobald’s letter to Warburton of March 17, 1729-30 (Nichols, ii., p.
566). In the same letter he had expressed his doubts as to whether he
should include this passage in his proposed pamphlet against Pope, as the
notes to the _Odyssey_ were written by Broome. He had cast aside these
scruples now. The preface does not bear out his profession to Warburton
that he was indifferent to Pope’s treatment.
89. David Mallet had just brought out his poem _Of Verbal Criticism_
(1733) anonymously. It is simply a paraphrase and expansion of Pope’s
statements. “As the design of the following poem is to rally the abuse of
_Verbal Criticism_, the author could not, without manifest partiality,
overlook the Editor of Milton and the Restorer of Shakespear”
(introductory note).
Boswell attributed this “contemptuous mention of Mallet” to Warburton
(Boswell’s Malone, 1821, i., p. 42, n). But it was not claimed by
Warburton, and there is nothing, except perhaps the vigour of the passage,
to support Boswell’s contention. In the same note Boswell points out that
the comparison of Shakespeare and Jonson in Theobald’s Preface reappears
in Warburton’s note on _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, Act i., Sc. 1.
_Hang him, Baboon_, etc. _2 Henry IV._, ii. 4. 261.
_Longinus_, _On the Sublime_, vi.
90. _Noble Writer_,—the Earl of Shaftesbury, in his _Characteristicks_:
“The British Muses, in this Dinn of Arms, may well lie abject and obscure;
especially being as yet in their mere Infant-State. They have hitherto
scarce arriv’d to any thing of Shapeliness or Person. They lisp as in
their Cradles: and their stammering Tongues, which nothing but their Youth
and Rawness can excuse, have hitherto spoken in wretched Pun and Quibble”
(1711, i., p. 217).
_Complaints of its Barbarity_, as in Dryden’s _Discourse concerning
Satire, ad fin_ (ed. W. P. Ker, ii., pp. 110, 113).
Sir Thomas Hanmer.
92. The “other Gentlemen” who communicated their observations to Hanmer
include Warburton (see Introduction), the “Rev. Mr. Smith of Harlestone in
Norfolk” (see Zachary Grey, _Notes on Shakespeare_, Preface), and probably
Thomas Cooke, the editor of Plautus (see _Correspondence of Hanmer_, ed.
Bunbury, p. 229).
93. _much obliged to them._ Amid the quarrels of Pope, Theobald, and
Warburton, it is pleasant to find an editor admitting some merit in his
predecessors.
_what Shakespeare ought to have written._ Cf. the following passage in the
_Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ attributed to Hanmer: “The former
[Theobald] endeavours to give us an author as he is: the latter [Pope], by
the correctness and excellency of his own genius, is often tempted to give
us an author as he thinks he ought to be.” Theobald, it is said, is
“generally thought to have understood our author best” (p. 4).
_Henry V._, iii. 4.