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I am sensible how unjustly the very best classical Critics have been treated. It is said that our great Philosopher spoke with much contempt of the two finest Scholars of this Age, Dr. Bentley and Bishop Hare, for squabbling, as he expressed it, about an old Play-book; meaning, I suppose, Terence‘s Comedies. But this Story is unworthy of him; tho’ well enough suiting the fanatic turn of the wild Writer that relates it; such censures are amongst the follies of men immoderately given over to one Science, and ignorantly undervaluing all the rest. Those learned Critics might, and perhaps did, laugh in their turn (tho’ still, sure, with the same indecency and indiscretion) at that incomparable Man, for wearing out a long Life in poring through a Telescope. Indeed, the weaknesses of Such are to be mentioned with reverence. But who can bear, without indignation, the fashionable cant of every trifling Writer, whose insipidity passes, with himself, for politeness, for pretending to be shocked, forsooth, with the rude and savage air of vulgar Critics; meaning such as Muretus, Scaliger, Casaubon, Salmasius, Spanheim, Bentley. When, had it not been for the deathless labours of such as these, the western World, at the revival of Letters, had soon fallen back again into a state of ignorance and barbarity as deplorable as that from which Providence had just redeemed it.

To conclude with an observation of a fine Writer and great Philosopher of our own; which I would gladly bind, tho’ with all honour, as a Phylactery, on the Brow of every awful Grammarian, to teach him at once the Use and Limits of his art: WORDS ARE THE MONEY OF FOOLS, AND THE COUNTERS OF WISE MEN.

NOTES:

96. the excellent Discourse which follows, i.e. Pope’s Preface, which was reprinted by Warburton along with Rowe’s Account of Shakespeare.

101. Essays, Remarks, Observations, etc. Warburton apparently refers to the following works:

Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written by Mr. William Shakespeare. London, 1736. Perhaps by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

An Essay towards fixing the true Standards of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule. To which is added an Analysis of the Characters of an Humourist, Sir John Falstaff, Sir Roger de Coverley, and Don Quixote. London, 1744. By Corbyn Morris, who signs the Dedication.

Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth: with Remarks on Sir Thomas Hanmer’s Edition of Shakespeare. To which is affixed Proposals for a new Edition of Skakespear, with a Specimen. London, 1745. By Samuel Johnson, though anonymous.

Critical Observations on Shakespeare. By John Upton, Prebendary of Rochester. London, 1746. Second edition, with a preface replying to Warburton, 1748.

An Essay upon English Tragedy. With Remarks upon the Abbe de Blanc’s Observations on the English Stage. By William Guthrie, Esq. [1747.]

The last of these may not have appeared, however, till after Warburton’s edition.

Johnson is said by Boswell to have ever entertained a grateful remembrance of this allusion to him “at a time when praise was of value.” But though the criticism is merited, is it too sinister a suggestion that it was prompted partly by the reference in Johnson’s pamphlet to “the learned Mr. Warburton”? When Johnson’s edition appeared in 1765, Warburton expressed a very different opinion (see Nichols, Anecdotes, v., p. 595).

101-105. whole Compass of Criticism. Cf. Theobald’s account of the “Science of Criticism,” pp. 81, etc., which Warburton appears to have suggested.

101. Canons of literal Criticism. This phrase suggested the title of the ablest and most damaging attack on Warburton’s edition,– The Canons of Criticism, and Glossary, being a Supplement to Mr. Warburton’s Edition of Shakespear. The author was Thomas Edwards (1699-1757), a “gentleman of Lincoln’s Inn,” who accordingly figures in the notes to the Dunciad, iv. 568. When the book first appeared in 1748 it was called A Supplement, etc…. Being the Canons of Criticism. It reached a seventh edition in 1765.