The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 by Gilfillan, George, 1813-1878, Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744

[206] Life, p. 23, 8vo.

[207] Alluding to these lines in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot:

'And has not Colley still his lord and whore, His butchers, Henley, his freemasons, Moore?'

[208] Letter to Mr Pope, p. 46.

[209] P. 31.

[210] Life, p. 23, 24.

[211] Letter, p. 8.

[212] Letter, p. 53.

[213] Letter, p. 1.

[214] Don Quixote, Part ii. book ii. ch. 22.

[215] See Life, p. 148.

[216] Life, p. 149.

[217] p. 424.

[218] p. 366.

[219] p. 457.

[220] p. 18.

[221] p. 425.

[222] pp. 436, 437.

[223] p. 52.

[224] p. 47.

[225] p. 57.

[226] pp. 58, 59.

[227] A statuary.

[228] Life, p. 6.

[229] p. 424.

[230] p. 19.

[231] Life, p. 17.

[232] Ibid. p. 243, 8vo edition.

[233] Ovid, of the serpent biting at Orpheus's head.

[234] 'The Dunciad:' _sic_ MS. It may well be disputed whether this be a right reading. Ought it not rather to be spelled Dunceiad, as the etymology evidently demands? Dunce with an _e_, therefore Dunceiad with an _e_? That accurate and punctual man of letters, the restorer of Shakespeare, constantly observes the preservation of this very letter _e_, in spelling the name of his beloved author, and not like his common careless editors, with the omission of one, nay, sometimes of two _e's_ (as Shakspear), which is utterly unpardonable. 'Nor is the neglect of a single letter so trivial as to some it may appear; the alteration whereof in a learned language is an achievement that brings honour to the critic who advances it; and Dr Bentley will be remembered to posterity for his performances of this sort, as long as the world shall have any esteem for the remains of Menander and Philemon.'--_Theobald_.

This is surely a slip in the learned author of the foregoing note, there having been since produced by an accurate antiquary, an autograph of Shakspeare himself, whereby it appears that he spelled his own name without the first _e_. And upon this authority it was, that those most critical curators of his monument in Westminster Abbey erased the former wrong reading, and restored the true spelling on a new piece of old Egyptian granite. Nor for this only do they deserve our thanks, but for exhibiting on the same monument the first specimen of an edition of an author in marble; where (as may be seen on comparing the tomb with the book), in the space of five lines, two words and a whole verse are changed, and it is to be hoped will there stand, and outlast whatever hath been hitherto done in paper; as for the future, our learned sister University (the other eye of England) is taking care to perpetuate a total new Shakspeare, at the Clarendon press.--_Bentl_.

It is to be noted, that this great critic also has omitted one circumstance: which is, that the inscription with the name of Shakspeare was intended to be placed on the marble scroll to which he points with his hand; instead of which it is now placed behind his back, and that specimen of an edition is put on the scroll, which indeed Shakspeare hath great reason to point at.--_Anon_.