Dacier. See note, p. [18].
Gildon showed himself to be of the same school as Rymer in his Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage (1710) and his Art of Poetry (1718); yet his earliest piece of criticism was a vigorous attack on Rymer. The title reads curiously in the light of his later pronouncements: Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, and an Attempt at a Vindication of Shakespear. It was printed in a volume of Miscellaneous Letters and Essays (1694).
[87]. Anachronisms. The passage referred to occurs on pp. 134, 135 of Shakespeare Restored.
this Restorer. See the Dunciad (1729), i. 106, note.
it not being at all credible, etc. See p. [56].
Sir Francis Drake. Pope had suggested in a note that the imperfect line in 1 Henry VI., i. 1. 56, might have been completed with the words “Francis Drake.” He had not, however, incorporated the words in the text. “I can't guess,” he says, “the occasion of the Hemystic, and imperfect sense, in this place; 'tis not impossible it might have been fill'd up with—Francis Drake—tho' that were a terrible Anachronism (as bad as Hector's quoting Aristotle in Troil. and Cress.); yet perhaps, at the time that brave Englishman was in his glory, to an English-hearted audience, and pronounced by some favourite Actor, the thing might be popular, though not judicious; and therefore by some Critick, in favour of the author, afterwards struck out. But this is a meer slight conjecture.” Theobald has a lengthy note on this in his edition. He does not allude to the suggestion which he had submitted to Warburton. See Introduction, p. [xlvi].
[88]. Odyssey. This passage, to the end of the paragraph, appears in Theobald's letter to Warburton of March 17, 1729-30 (Nichols, ii., p. 566). In the same letter he had expressed his doubts as to whether he should include this passage in his proposed pamphlet against Pope, as the notes to the Odyssey were written by Broome. He had cast aside these scruples now. The preface does not bear out his profession to Warburton that he was indifferent to Pope's treatment.
[89]. David Mallet had just brought out his poem Of Verbal Criticism (1733) anonymously. It is simply a paraphrase and expansion of Pope's statements. “As the design of the following poem is to rally the abuse of Verbal Criticism, the author could not, without manifest partiality, overlook the Editor of Milton and the Restorer of Shakespear” (introductory note).
Boswell attributed this “contemptuous mention of Mallet” to Warburton (Boswell's Malone, 1821, i., p. 42, n). But it was not [pg 317] claimed by Warburton, and there is nothing, except perhaps the vigour of the passage, to support Boswell's contention. In the same note Boswell points out that the comparison of Shakespeare and Jonson in Theobald's Preface reappears in Warburton's note on Love's Labour's Lost, Act i., Sc. 1.
Hang him, Baboon, etc. 2 Henry IV., ii. 4. 261.