_Fuller_,—_Worthies of England_, 1662, “Warwickshire,” p. 126: “Indeed his
Learning was very little, so that as _Cornish diamonds_ are not polished
by any Lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out
of the Earth, so _nature_ it self was all the _art_ which was used upon
him.” The concluding phrase of Farmer’s quotation is taken from an earlier
portion of Fuller’s description: “William Shakespeare ... in whom three
eminent Poets may seem in some sort to be compounded, 1. _Martial_ ... 2.
_Ovid_ ... 3. _Plautus_, who was an exact comedian, yet never any scholar,
as our _Shakespeare_ (if alive) would confess himself.”
_untutored lines._ Dedication of the _Rape of Lucrece_.
_Mr. Glldon._ “Hence perhaps the _ill-starr’d rage_ between this critick
and his elder brother, John Dennis, so pathetically lamented in the
_Dunciad_. Whilst the former was persuaded that ‘the man who doubts of the
learning of Shakespeare hath none of his own,’ the latter, above regarding
the attack in his _private_ capacity, declares with great patriotick
vehemence that ‘he who allows Shakespeare had learning, and a familiar
acquaintance with the Ancients, ought to be looked upon as a detractor
from the glory of Great Britain.’ Dennis was expelled his college for
attempting to stab a man in the dark: Pope would have been glad of this
anecdote” (Farmer). Farmer supplied the details in a letter to Isaac Reed
dated Jan. 28, 1794: see the _European Magazine_, June, 1794, pp. 412-3.
_Sewell_, in the preface to the seventh volume of Pope’s Shakespear, 1725.
_Pope._ See p. 52.
_Theobald._ See p. 75.
_Warburton_, in his notes to Shakespeare, _passim_.