all such reading as was never read. Dunciad, i., line 156, first edition (see Introduction, p. xliv.; iv., line 250, edition of 1742).
Natale solum. “This alludes to an intended publication of the Antiquities of the Town of Leicester. The work was just begun at the press, when the writer was called to the principal tuition of a large college, and was obliged to decline the undertaking. The plates, however, and some of the materials have been long ago put into the hands of a gentleman who is every way qualified to make a proper use of them” (Farmer). This gentleman was John Nichols, the printer, whose History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester appeared from 1795 to 1815.
[215]. primrose path. Hamlet, i. 3. 50; cf. Macbeth, ii. 3. 21.
Age cannot wither. Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2. 240.
Maurice Morgann.
[221]. Candide, chapters 9 and 15.
[225]. general criticism is uninstructive. Cf. Joseph Warton, Adventurer, No. 116: “General criticism is on all subjects useless and unentertaining; but it is more than commonly absurd with respect to Shakespeare, who must be accompanied step by step, and scene by scene, in his gradual developments of characters and passions,” etc.
[239]. line 28. which. The original has who.