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 make you
interest yourself in me and my writings. It will cause both them and me to
make the better figure to posterity. A very mediocre poet, one Drayton, is
yet taken some notice of, because Selden writ a few notes on one of his
poems” (ed. Elwin and Courthope, ix., p. 225).
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.” _Francis
Hare_ (1671-1740), successively Dean of Worcester, Dean of St. Paul’s,
Bishop of St. Asaph, and Bishop of Chichester. For his quarrel with
Bentley, see Monk’s _Life of Bentley_, ii., pp. 217, etc. Hare is referred
to favourably in the _Dunciad_ (iii. 204), and was a friend of Warburton.
_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.”
Samuel Johnson.
113. _the poems of Homer._ Cf. Johnson’s remark recorded in the _Diary of
the Right Hon. William Windham_, August, 1784 (ed. 1866, p. 17): “The
source of everything in or out of nature that can serve the purpose of
poetry to be found in Homer.”
114. _his century._ Cf. Horace, _Epistles_, ii. 1. 39, and Pope, _Epistle
to Augustus_, 55, 56.
_Nothing can please many_, etc. This had been the theme of the 59th number
of the _Idler_.
115. _Hierocles._ See the _Asteia_ attributed to Hierocles, No. 9
(_Hieroclis Commentarius in Aurea Carmina_, ed. Needham, 1709, p. 462).