Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner
(November, 1797, to July, 1798), he supported the political views of Canning and his friends. As editor of the
Quarterly Review
, from its foundation (February, 1809) to his resignation in September, 1824, he did yeoman's service to sound literature by his good sense and adherence to the best models. It was a period when all criticism was narrow, and, to some degree, warped by political prejudice. In these respects, Gifford's work may not have risen above — it certainly did not fall below — the highest standard of contemporary criticism. His editions of
Massinger
(1805), which superseded that of Monck Mason and Davies (1765), of
Ben Jonson
(1816), of
Ford
(1827), are valuable. To his translation of