[34]. Caesar. Cf. the criticism of Julius Caesar in Sewell's preface to the seventh volume of Pope's Shakespeare, 1725.
[36]. Haec igitur, etc. Cicero, Pro M. Marcello, ix.
[38]. Julius Caesar. Dennis alludes to the version of Julius Caesar by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, published in 1722. In the altered form a chorus is introduced between the acts, and the “play begins the day before Caesar's death, and ends within an hour after it.” Buckinghamshire wrote also the Tragedy of Marcus Brutus.
[39]. Dryden, Preface to the Translation of Ovid's Epistles (1680) ad fin.: “That of Œnone to Paris is in Mr. Cowley's way of imitation only. I was desired to say that the author, who is of the fair sex, understood not Latin. But if she does not, I am afraid she has given us occasion to be ashamed who do” (Ed. W. P. Ker, i., p. 243). The author was Mrs. Behn.
Hudibras, i. 1, 661. But Hudibras has it slightly differently,—“Though out of languages in which,” etc.
[39]. a Version of two Epistles of Ovid. The poems in the seventh volume of Rowe's edition of Shakespeare include Thomas Heywood's Amorous Epistle of Paris to Helen and Helen to Paris. They were attributed to Shakespeare, till Farmer proved their authorship (p. 203). Cf. Gildon, Essay on the Stage, 1710, p. vi.
[40]. Scriptor, etc. Ars poetica, 120.
[41]. The Menechmi. Dennis's “vehement suspicion” is justified. See above, note on p. [9].
Ben Johnson, “small Latin and less Greek” (Verses to the Memory of Shakespeare).
Milton, L'Allegro, 133: “Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child.” The same misquotation occurs in Sewell's preface, 1725.