the Bermuda Islands. Cf. Theobald's note on “the still-vext Bermoothes,” vol. i., p. 13 (1733). Though Shakespeare is probably indebted to the account of Sir George Somers's shipwreck on the Bermudas, Theobald is wrong, as Farmer pointed out, in saying that the Bermudas were not discovered till 1609. A description of the islands by Henry May, who was shipwrecked on them in 1593, is given in Hakluyt, 1600, iii., pp. 573-4.
[70]. Mr. Pope, or his Graver. So the quotation appears in the full-page illustration facing p. xxxi of Rowe's Account in Pope's edition; but the illustration was not included in all the copies, perhaps because of the error. The quotation appears correctly in the engraving in Rowe's edition.
[72]. New-place. Queen Henrietta Maria's visit was from 11th to 13th July, 1643. Theobald's “three weeks” should read “three days.” See Halliwell-Phillips, Outlines, 1886, ii., p. 108.
We have been told in print, in An Answer to Mr. Popes Preface to Shakespear.... By a Stroling Player [John Roberts], 1729, p. 45.
[73]. Complaisance to a bad Taste. Cf. Rowe, p. 6, Dennis p. 46, and Theobald's dedication to Shakespeare Restored; yet Theobald himself had complied to the bad taste in several pantomimes.
Nullum sine venia. Seneca, Epistles, 114. 12.
[74]. Speret idem. Horace, Ars Poetica, 241.
Indeed to point out, etc. In the first edition of the Preface, Theobald had given “explanations of those beauties that are less obvious to common readers.” He has unadvisably retained the remark that such explanations “should deservedly have a share in a general critic upon the author.” The “explanations” were omitted probably because they were inspired by Warburton.
[75]. And therefore the Passages ... from the Classics. Cf. the following passage with Theobald's letter to Warburton of 17th March, 1729-30 (see Nichols, Illustrations, ii., pp. 564, etc.). The letter throws strong light on Theobald's indecision on the question of Shakespeare's learning.
“The very learned critic of our nation” is Warburton himself. See his letter to Concanen of 2nd January, 1726 (Malone's Shakespeare, 1821, xii., p. 158). Cf. Theobald's Preface to Richard II., 1720, and Whalley's Enquiry, 1748, p. 51.