Dr. Thomas Leland was born in Dublin in 1722, and was educated in Trinity College, in that city. Having obtained a Fellowship there, he depended on that alone, and devoted a long life to study, and the production of various historical and theological works; as well as a “History of Ireland,” published in 1773. He died in 1785.—Ed.
In a rough attack on Warburton, respecting Pope’s privately printing 1500 copies of the “Patriot King” of Bolingbroke, which I conceive to have been written by Mallet, I find a particular account of the manner in which the “Essay on Man” was written, over which Johnson seems to throw great doubts.
The writer of this angry epistle, in addressing Warburton, says: “If you were as intimate with Mr. Pope as you pretend, you must know the truth of a fact which several others, as well as I, who never had the honour of a personal acquaintance with Lord Bolingbroke or Mr. Pope, have heard. The fact was related to me by a certain Senior Fellow of one of our Universities, who was very intimate with Mr. Pope. He started some objections, one day, at Mr. Pope’s house, to the doctrine contained in the Ethic Epistles: upon which Mr. Pope told him that he would soon convince him of the truth of it, by laying the argument at large before him; for which purpose he gave him a large prose manuscript to peruse, telling him, at the same time, the author’s name. From this perusal, whatever other conviction the doctor might receive, he collected at least this: that Mr. Pope had from his friend not only the doctrine, but even the finest and strongest ornaments of his Ethics. Now, if this fact be true (as I question not but you know it to be so), I believe no man of candour will attribute such merit to Mr. Pope as you would insinuate, for acknowledging the wisdom and the friendship of the man who was his instructor in philosophy; nor consequently that this acknowledgment, and the dedication of his own system, put into a poetical dress by Mr. Pope, laid his lordship under the necessity of never resenting any injury done to him by the poet afterwards. Mr. Pope told no more than literal truth, in calling Lord Bolingbroke his guide, philosopher, and friend.” The existence of this very manuscript volume was authenticated by Lord Bathurst, in a conversation with Dr. Blair and others, where he said, “he had read the MS. in Lord Bolingbroke’s handwriting, and was at a loss whether most to admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke’s prose, or the beauty of Mr. Pope’s verse.”—See the letter of Dr. Blair in “Boswell’s Life of Johnson.”
Of many instances, the following one is the most curious. When Jarvis published his “Don Quixote,” Warburton, who was prompt on whatever subject was started, presented him with “A Dissertation on the Origin of the Books of Chivalry.” When it appeared, it threw Pope, their common friend, into raptures. He writes, “I knew you as certainly as the ancients did the gods, by the first pace and the very gait.” True enough! Warburton’s strong genius stamped itself on all his works. But neither the translating painter, nor the simple poet, could imagine the heap of absurdities they were admiring! Whatever Warburton here asserted was false, and whatever he conjectured was erroneous; but his blunders were quite original.—The good sense and knowledge of Tyrwhitt have demolished the whole edifice, without leaving a single brick standing. The absurd rhapsody has been worth preserving, for the sake of the masterly confutation: no uncommon result of Warburton’s literary labours!
It forms the concluding note in Shakspeare’s Love’s Labour Lost.
Of Theobald he was once the companion, and to Sir Thomas Hanmer he offered his notes for his edition. [Hanmer’s Shakspeare was given in 1742 to the University of Oxford, for its benefit, and was printed at the University Press, under the management of Dr. Smith and Dr. Shippon. Sir Thomas paid the expenses of the engravings by Gravelot prefixed to each play. The edition was published in 4to. in 1744, it was printed on the “finest royal paper,” and does not warrant the severity of Pope, whose editing was equally faulty.] Sir Thomas says he found Warburton’s notes “sometimes just, but mostly wild and out of the way.” Warburton paid a visit to Sir Thomas for a week, which he conceived was to assist him in perfecting his darling text; but hints were now dropped by Warburton, that he might publish the work corrected, by which a greater sum of money might be got than could be by that plaything of Sir Thomas, which shines in all its splendour in the Dunciad; but this project did not suit Hanmer, whose life seemed greatly to depend on the magnificent Oxford edition, which “was not to go into the hands of booksellers.” On this, Warburton, we are told by Hanmer, “flew into a great rage, and there is an end of the story.” With what haughtiness he treats these two friends, for once they were such! Had the Dey of Algiers been the editor of Shakspeare, he could not have issued his orders more peremptorily for the decapitation of his rivals. Of Theobald and Hanmer he says, “the one was recommended to me as a poor man, the other as a poor critic: and to each of them at different times I communicated a great number of observations, which they managed, as they saw fit, to the relief of their several distresses. Mr. Theobald was naturally turned to industry and labour. What he read he could transcribe; but as to what he thought, if ever he did think, he could but ill express, so he read on: and by that means got a character of learning, without risking to every observer the imputation of wanting a better talent.”—See what it is to enjoy too close an intimacy with a man of wit! “As for the Oxford Editor, he wanted nothing (alluding to Theobald’s want of money) but what he might very well be without, the reputation of a critic,” &c. &c.—Warburton’s Preface to Shakspeare.