from Lord Granville; which ended, however, in nothing effectual *. Mr. Pope appears also to have been very solicitous to bring Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. Warburton† together; and the meeting accordingly took place; but, we are told by Dr. Warton, they soon parted in mutual disgust with each other. A Letter which Mr. Warburton addressed to Dr. Doddridge, in the beginning of the year 1743, is so admirable a picture of the real goodness of his heart, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of transcribing the greater part of it. * Jan. 18, 1742-3, Mr. Pope tells Mr. Warburton, "I have again heard from Lord ** and another hand, that the Lord I writ to you of, declares an intention to serve you. My answer (which they related to him) was, that he would be sure of your acquaintance for life, if once he served or obliged you; but that, I was certain, you would never trouble him with your expectation, though he would never get rid of your gratitude." In a letter to Mr. Allen, Jan. 20, 1742-3, Mr. Pope says, "Lord Bolingbroke stays a month yet, and I hope Mr. Warburton will come to town before he goes. They will both be pleased to meet each other: and nothing in all my life has been so great a pleasure to my nature, as to bring deserving and knowing men together. It is the greatest favour that can be done, either to great geniuses or useful men. I wish too he were a while in town, if it were only to lie a little in the way of some proud and powerful persons, to see if they have any of the best sort of pride left, namely, to serve learning and merit, and by that means distinguish themselves from their predecessors."-Again, March 6, "I write thus early, that you may let me know if your day continues, and I will make every room in my house as warm for you as the owner always would be. It may possibly be, that I shall be taking the secret flight I speak of to Battersea, before you come, with Mr. Warburton, whom I have promised to make known to the only great man in Europe, who knows as much as He. And from thence we may return the 16th, or any day, hither, and meet you, without fail, if you fix your day." + "DEAR SIR, Feb. 14, 1742-3. "I should not have been so long in making my best acknowledgments for your last kind letter, had not your absence from home, and a late unhappy domestic affair, prevented me, and engrossed all my thoughts-the misfortunes of an excellent sister and her children, by her husband's ill success in trade, yet attended to with the utmost honesty and sobriety; so that, to his own ruin, he has been a considerable benefactor to the publick About the same time, at Mr. Pope's request, Mr. Warburton corrected the "Essay on Homer," as it now stands in the last edition *; and published while in trade, and his creditors at last no losers, but himself undone. I do not know whether this be an alleviation or aggravation of the misfortune. But I can tell you, with the utmost truth, that I share with this distressed sister and her children (who all live with me) the small revenue it has pleased God to bless me with, with much greater satisfaction than others spend theirs on their pleasures. I do not know how it is, but though I am far from being an hero, yet I find Brutus expresses my exact sentiments, when he says to Cicero, Aliter alii cum suis vivunt. Nihil ego possum in Sororis meæ Liberis facere, quo possit expleri voluntas mea, aut officium. But you will reprove me, I know for this false modesty in apologizing for this comparison; and say, Where is the wonder, that a man who pretends to be a Christian should not come behind a Pagan, how great soever, in the performance of moral duties? However this may be, I can assure you, my only concern on this occasion was for an incomparable Mother, whom I feared the misfortunes of a favourite Daughter would have too much affected. But, I thank God, Religion, that Religion which you make such amiable drawings of in all your writings, was more than a support to her. But I ask pardon for talking so long of myself. This is a subject I never choose to talk of, yet I could not forbear mentioning it to a man I so much esteem, and whose heart I know to be so right. I got home a little before Christmas, after a charming philosophical retirement in a palace with Mr. Pope and Mr. Allen for two or three months. The gentleman I mentioned last is, I verily believe, the greatest private character that ever appeared in any age of the world. You see his munificence to the Bath Hospital. This is but a small part of his charities, and charity but a small part of his virtues. I have studied his character even maliciously, to find where his weakness lies; but have studied it in vain. When I know it, the world shall know it too, for the consolation of the envious, especially as I suspect it will prove to be only a partiality he has entertained for me. In a word, I firmly believe him to have been sent by Providence into the world, to teach men what blessings they might expect from Heaven, would they study to deserve them." "It is very unreasonable after this, to give you a second trouble in revising the Essay on Homer. But I look upon you as one sworn to suffer no errors in me: and though the common way with a Commentator be to erect them into beauties, the best office of a Critic is to correct and amend them. There being a new edition coming out of Homer, I would willingly render it a little less defective, and the bookseller will not allow me time to do so myself." Mr. Pope to Mr. Warburton, June 5, 1743. See pp. 534. 546.-His mother died in 1748. the the first complete edition* of "The Dunciad," in which Theobald gave way to Cibber; and also complete editions of "The Essay on Man," and "The Essay on Criticism;" with his own Commentary and Notes, which was the last service he rendered Mr. Pope in his life-time; who, from the specimens which he had now had of his friend's abilities, it may be presumed, determined to commit to his care the future publication and property of his works. After a lingering and tedious illness, the event of which had been long foreseen, this great Poet * Nov. 27, 1742, Mr. Pope says, “À project has arisen in my head, to make you, in some measure, the Editor of this new edition of the Dunciad, if you have no scruple of owning some of the graver notes, which are now added to those of Dr. Arbuthnot. I mean it as a kind of prelude, or advertisement to the publick, of your Commentaries on the Essay on Man, and on Criticism, which I propose to print next in another volume proportioned to this. I only doubt whether an avowal of these notes to so ludicrous a poem be suitable to a character so established as yours for more serious studies."-" The Dunciad I have ordered to be advertised in quarto. Pray order as many of them as you will; and know that whatever is mine is yours.' Oct. 7, 1743.This Edition was followed by the vengeance of Cibber, hich Mr. Pope, Jan. 12, 1743-4, thus anticipates: "I am told the Laureat is going to publish a very abusive pamphlet. That is all I can desire; it is enough if it be abusive and if it be his. He threatens you; but, I think, you will not fear or love him so much as to answer him, though you have answered one or two as dull. He will be more to me than a dose of hartshorn; and as a stink revives one who has been oppressed with perfumes, his railing will cure me of a course of flatteries."-The threatened pamphlet was called, "Another Occasional Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope (dated Dec. 26, 1743); wherein the New Hero's Preferment to his Throne, in the Dunciad, seems not to be accepted; and the Author of that Poem his more rightful Claim to it is asserted; with an Expostulatory Address to the Rev. Mr. W. Warburton, Author of the new Preface, and Adviser in the curious Improvements of that Satire (dated Jan. 9, 1743-4). By Mr. Colley Cibber." ↑ «Ì don't wonder that the goodness of your heart, and your love of letters, should make you speak with so much tenderness of poor Mr. Pope's death; for it was a great loss both to the literary and moral world. In answer to your obliging question, what Works of Mr. Pope have been published with my Commentaries and Notes? I am to inform you, they are, the Dunciad, in quarto; and the Essay on Man and on Criticism, in the same Letter to Mrs. Cockburn, from Newark, Jan. 26, 1744-5. died on the 30th of May, 1744*; and, by his will, dated the 12th of the preceding December, bequeathed to Mr. Warburton one half of his library, and the property of all such of his Works already printed as he had not otherwise disposed of or alienated, and all the profits which should arise from any edition to be printed after his death; but at the same time directed that they should be published without any future alterations. The first thing which he published after Mr. Pope's death was a small but very neat edition of The Dunciad." * On the publication of Dr. Brown's "Essay on Satire," Mr. Warburton addressed the following Letter to Mr. Robert Dodsley: "I saw by accident on the road a Poem called "An Essay on Satire, occasioned by the Death of Mr. Pope;" and was surprized to see so excellent a piece of poetry, and, what was still more uncommon, so much good reasoning. I find it has been published some time. If it be not a secret, I should be glad to know the Author. If I have leisure, I shall give some account of it for the literary news of your Museum. It will be a better ornament to it than the dull book of Travels in the Second Number. I am, Your very humble servant, W. WARBURTON." + This new Edition contained the curious note on Dr. Burton of Eton, mentioned in a letter to Mr. Hurd, Feb. 24, 1749-50; but omitted, at the request of Bishop Hayter, in all the subsequent editions."Upton's offence," he says, "was well known; but it is not always so. For one does not care to trouble the publick with particularities, nor perpetuate the memory of impertinent and forgotten abuse; hence you gain the character, amongst those who neither know you, nor your provocations, of being unjustly censorious and satirical, I will give you an instance of what I said first, in the case of Burton, whom you will find in the Dunciad. This man, two or three years ago, came with his wife and family to Bath. They brought with them a letter of recommendation to Mr. Allen's notice, who received them here several times with distinguished civilities. And the first thing the puppy did afterwards was, to abuse the man, who received him so hospitably, with a saucy stupid joke. Hayter (you know whom I mean, I owe him' the ceremony of no other title) got a friend to excuse him to me, as meaning no ill, but the mere effect of dullness, which mistook it for a compliment. I thought this did not excuse him being laughed at. And I did no more. His intercessor had been a witness of the civilities he had received." In 1744 his assistance to Dr. Zachary Grey was handsomely acknowledged in that learned Editor's In this new edition of the Dunciad the four following lines (not in the quarto edition of 1743) were first inserted : "But (happy for him as the times went then) Appear'd Apollo's Mayor and Aldermen, On whom three hundred gold-capt youths await, These lines were added on occasion of Sir Thomas Hanmer's splendid edition of Shakspeare, printed at Oxford in six large and handsome quarto volumes, 1744; which occasioned a violent quarrel betwixt Sir Thomas and Dr. Warburton, as the Reader may judge by perusing the curious letters here annexed. "To the Rev. Dr. SMITH, President of All Souls College. Milden-hall near Newmarket, Suffolk, Oct. 28, 1742. "DEAR SIR, "I have much doubted with myself whether it were proper for me to return an answer to the favour of your Letter, till after hearing again from you or Dr. Shippen. There seem to arise some difficulties with respect to the design of printing a new edition of Shakspeare, and I beg it may be laid aside, if you are not fully satisfied that some advantage may arise from it to the University; for I have no end in view to myself to make me desire it. I am satisfied there is no edition coming, or likely to come, from Warburton; but it is a report raised to serve some little purpose or other, of which I see there are many on foot. I have reason to know that gentleman is very angry with me, for a cause of which I think I have no reason to be ashamed, or he to be proud. My acquaintance with him began upon an application from himself; and at his request the present Bishop of Salisbury introduced him to me for this purpose only, as was then declared, that as he had many observations upon Shakspeare then lying by him, over and above those printed in Theobald's book, he much desired to communicate them to me, that I might judge whether any of them were worthy to be added to those emendations which he understood I had long been making upon that author. I received his offer with all the civility I could upon which a long correspondence began by letters, in which he explained his sense upon many passages, which sometimes I thought just, but mostly wild and out of the way. Afterwards he made a journey hither on purpose to see my books; he staid about a week with me, and had the inspection of them; and all this while I had no suspicion of any other design, in all the pains he took, but to perfect a correct text in Shakspeare, of which he seemed very fond. But not long after, the views of interest began to shew themselves, several hints were dropt of the advantage he might receive from publishing the work thus corrected; but, as I had no thoughts at all of making it public, so I was more averse to yield to it in such a manner as was likely to produce a paltry edition, by making it the means only |