Chapter XXVII: Part 27

These facts will sufficiently establish this disgraceful principle of the personal motives which have influenced the quarrels of authors, and which they have only disguised by giving them a literary form. Those who are conversant in literary history can tell how many works, and some considerable ones, have entirely sprung out of the vengeance of authors. Johnson, to whom the feelings of the race were so well known, has made a curious observation, which none but an author could have made:--"The best advice to authors would be, that they should keep out of the way of one another." He says this in the "Life of Rowe," on the occasion of Addison's Observations on Rowe's Character. Rowe had expressed his happiness to Pope at Addison's promotion; and Pope, who wished to conciliate Addison towards Rowe, mentioned it, adding, that he believed Rowe was sincere. Addison replied, "That he did not suspect Rowe feigned; but _the levity of his heart is such, that he is struck with any new adventure_: and it would affect him just in the same manner as if he heard I was going to be hanged." Warburton adds that Pope said he could not deny but Addison understood Rowe well. Such is the fact on which Johnson throws out an admirable observation:--"This censure time has not left us the power of confirming or refuting; but observation daily shows that much stress is not to be laid on hyperbolical accusations and pointed sentences, which even he that utters them desires to be applauded, rather than credited. Addison can hardly be supposed to have meant all that he said. _Few characters can bear the microscopic scrutiny of WIT quickened by ANGER._" I could heap up facts to demonstrate this severe truth. Even of Pope's best friends, some of their severities, if they ever reached him, must have given the pain he often inflicted. His friend Atterbury, to whom he was so partial, dropped an expression, in the heat of conversation, which Pope could never have forgiven; that our poet had "a crooked mind in a crooked body." There was a rumour, after Pope's death, that he had left behind him a satirical "Life of Dean Swift." Let genius, whose faculty detects the foibles of a brother, remember he is a rival, and be a generous one. In that extraordinary morsel of literary history, the "Conversations of Ben Jonson with his friend Drummond of Hawthornden," preserving his opinions of his contemporaries, if I err not in my recollection, I believe that he has not spoken favourably of a single individual!

The personal motives of an author, influencing his literary conduct, have induced him to practise meannesses and subterfuges. One remarkable instance of this nature is that of Sir John Hawkins, who indeed had been hardly used by the caustic pleasantries of George Steevens. Sir John, in his edition of Johnson, with ingenious malice contrived to suppress the acknowledgment made by Johnson to Steevens of his diligence and sagacity, at the close of his preface to Shakspeare. To preserve the panegyric of Steevens mortified Hawkins beyond endurance; yet, to suppress it openly, his character as an editor did not permit. In this dilemma he pretended he reprinted the preface from the edition of 1765; which, as it appeared before Johnson's acquaintance with Steevens, could not contain the tender passage. However, this was unluckily discovered to be only a subterfuge, to get rid of the offensive panegyric. On examination, it proved not true; Hawkins did not reprint from this early edition, but from the latest, for all the corrections are inserted in his own. "If Sir John were to be tried at Hicks's Hall (long the seat of that justice's glory), he would be found guilty of _clipping_," archly remarks the periodical critic.

A fierce controversial author may become a dangerous neighbour to another author: a petulant fellow, who does not write, may be a pestilent one; but he who prints a book against us may disturb our life in endless anxieties. There was once a dean who actually teased to death his bishop, wore him out in journeys to London, and at length drained all his faculties--by a literary quarrel from personal motives.

Dr. THOMAS PIERCE, Dean of Sarum--a perpetual controversialist, and to whom it was dangerous to refuse a request, lest it might raise a controversy--wanted a prebend of Dr. WARD, Bishop of Salisbury, for his son Robert. He was refused; and now, studying revenge, he opened a controversy with the bishop, maintaining that the king had the right of bestowing all dignities in all cathedrals in the kingdom, and not the bishops. This required a reply from the bishop, who had been formerly an active controversialist himself. Dean Pierce renewed his attack with a folio volume, entitled "A Vindication of the King's Sovereign Right, &c.," 1683.--Thus it proceeded, and the web thickened around the bishop in replies and rejoinders. It cost him many tedious journeys to London, through bad roads, fretting at "the King's Sovereign Right" all the way; and, in the words of a witness, "in unseasonable times and weather, that by degrees his spirits were exhausted, his memory quite gone, and he was totally unfitted for business."[431] Such was the fatal disturbance occasioned by Dean Pierce's folio of "The King's Sovereign Right," and his son Bob being left without a prebend!

I shall close this article with a very ludicrous instance of a literary quarrel from personal motives. This piece of secret history had been certainly lost, had not Bishop Lowth condescended to preserve it, considering it as necessary to assign a sufficient reason for the extraordinary libel it produced.

Bohun, an antiquarian lawyer, in a work entitled "The English Lawyer," in 1732, in illustrating the origin of the Act of _Scandalum Magnatum_, which arose in the time of William of Wykeham, the chancellor and bishop of Edward III. and the founder of New College, in Oxford; took that opportunity of committing the very crime on the venerable manes of Wykeham himself. He has painted this great man in the darkest colours. Wykeham is charged with having introduced "Alice Piers, his niece or," &c., for the truth is he was uncertain who she was, to use his peculiar language, "into the king's bosom;" to have joined her in excluding the Black Prince from all power in the state; and he hints at this hero having been poisoned by them; of Wykeham's embezzling a million of the public money, and, when chancellor, of forging an Act of Parliament to indemnify himself, and thus passing his own pardon. It is a singularity in this libellous romance, that the contrary of all this only is true. But Bohun has so artfully interwoven his historical patches of misrepresentations, surmises, and fictions, that he succeeded in framing an historical libel.

Not satisfied with this vile tissue, in his own obscure volume, seven years afterwards, being the editor of a work of high reputation, Nathaniel Bacon's "Historical and Political Discourse of the Laws and Government of England," he further satiated his frenzy by contriving to preserve his libel in a work which he was aware would outlive his own.

Whence all this persevering malignity? Why this quarrel of Mr. Bohun, of the Middle Temple, with the long-departed William of Wykeham?

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?

He took all these obscure pains, and was moved with this perpetual rancour against William of Wykeham, merely to mortify the Wykehamists; and slandered their founder, with the idea that the odium might be reflected on New College. Bohun, it seems, had a quarrel with them concerning a lease on which he had advanced money; but the holder had contrived to assign it to the well-known Eustace Budgell: the college confirmed the assignment. At an interview before the warden, high words had arisen between the parties: the warden withdrew, and the wit gradually shoved the antiquary off the end of the bench on which they were sitting: a blow was struck, and a cane broken. Bohun brought an action, and the Wykehamites travelled down to give bail at Westminster Hall, where the legal quarrel was dropped, and the literary one then began. Who could have imagined that the venerable bishop and chancellor of Edward III. was to be involved in a wretched squabble about a lease with an antiquary and a wit? "Fancying," says Bishop Lowth, "he could inflict on the Society of New College a blow which would affect them more sensibly by wounding the reputation of their founder, he set himself to collect everything he could meet with that was capable of being represented to his discredit, and to improve it with new and horrible calumnies of his own invention." Thus originated this defamatory attack on the character of William of Wykeham! And by arts which active writers may practise, and innocent readers cannot easily suspect, a work of the highest reputation, like that of Nathaniel Bacon's, may be converted into a vehicle of personal malignity, while the author himself disguises his real purpose under the specious appearance of literature! The present case, it must be acknowledged, is peculiar, where a dead person was attacked with a spirit of rancour to which the living only appear subject; but the author was an antiquary, who lived as much with the dead as the living: his personal motive was the same as those already recorded, and here he was acting with a double force on the dead and the living!

But here I stop my hand, my list would else be too complete. Great names are omitted--Whitaker and Gibbon;[432] Pope and Lord Hervey;[433] Wood and South;[434] Rowe, Mores, and Ames;[435] and George Steevens and Gough.[436]

This chapter is not honourable to authors; but historians are only Lord Chief Justices, who must execute the laws, even on their intimate friends, when standing at the bar. The chapter is not honourable--but it may be useful; and that is a quality not less valuable to the public. It lets in their readers to a kind of knowledge, which opens a necessary comment on certain works, and enlarges our comprehension of their spirit.

If in the heat of controversy authors imprudently attack each other with personalities, they are only scattering mud and hurling stones, and will incur the ridicule or the contempt of those who, unfriendly to the literary character, feel a secret pleasure in its degradation; but let them learn, that to open a literary controversy from mere personal motives; thus to conceal the dagger of private hatred under the mantle of literature, is an expedient of short duration, for the secret history is handed down with the book; and when once the dignity of the author's character sinks in the meanness of his motives, powerful as the work may be, even Genius finds its lustre diminished, and Truth itself becomes suspicious.

FOOTNOTES:

[431] Lansdowne MSS. 1042-1316.

[432] GIBBON'S _Miscellaneous Works_, vol. i. 243.

[433] WALPOLE'S _Memoirs_, vol. iii. 40.

[434] The Life of Wood, by GUTCH, vol. i.

[435] NICHOLS'S _Literary Anecdotes_.

[436] "Curiosities of Literature," vol. iii. p. 303-4.

INDEX.

ADDISON, quarrels with Pope, 313
disapproves of his satire on Dennis, 315
aids a rival version of Homer, 316
satirized by Pope as _Atticus_, _n._ 317
his nervous fear of criticism, 317
his last interview with Pope, 318-320
quarrels with Steele on political grounds, 433
his disbelief in Rowe, 535

AKENSIDE exhibited as a ludicrous personage by Smollett; his real
character cast in the mould of antiquity, _n._ 114
severely criticised by Warburton, 264

ALDRICH, Dean, secretly fosters the attacks on Bentley, 378, _n._
383

AMHURST, a political author, his history, 11

ARNALL, a great political scribe, 10

ASCHAM, Roger, the founder of English Prose, 19

ATHENAE BRITANNICAE, one of the rarest works, account of, _n._ 31

ATHENAE OXONIENSES, an apology for, 89

ATTERBURY, Bp., on terrors of conscience, 451
severe remarks on Pope, 535

AUBREY, gives the real reason for the fears of Hobbes the
philosopher, _n._ 452
minutely narrates the mode in which he composed his "Leviathan,"
_n._ 459

AUTHORS by profession, a phrase of modern origin, 8
original letter to a Minister from one, _ib._
Fielding's apology for them, 11

AUTHORS, Horace Walpole affects to despise them, 43
their maladies, 78
case of, stated, 15
incompetent remuneration of, 21
who wrote above the genius of their own age, 84
ill reception from the public of their valuable works, 85
who have sacrificed their fortunes to their studies, _ib._
who commenced their literary life with ardour, and found their
genius obstructed by numerous causes, 87
who have never published their works, 90
provincial, liable to bad passions, 128

AYRE'S Memoirs of Pope, _n._ 318, 319

BAKER and his microscopical discoveries, _n._ 366-367
Rev. Thomas, his collection, 93

BALGUY, Dr. Thos., _n._ 273

BARNES, Joshua, wrote a poem to prove Solomon was the author of the
"Iliad," and why, 97
his pathetic letter descriptive of his literary calamities, _ib._
hints at the vast number of his unpublished works, 98

BAYLE, his use of paradox, 247
his theory of apparitions, _n._ 451

BAYNE, Alexander, died of intense application, 72

BENTLEY, Dr., his controversy with Boyle, 378, 390
his haughtiness, _n._ 379
his dissertation on "Phalaris", 380
satirized by Dr. Middleton, 531

BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA in danger of being left unfinished, 84

BIRKENHEAD, Sir J., a newspaper-writer, 416

BLACKSTONE investigates the quarrel between Pope and Addison, 314

BOHUN, his unjustifiable attack on William of Wykeham, 537

BOLINGBROKE, his share in Pope's "Essay on Man,", 256
quarrel with Pope, 321-328
his "Patriot King" secretly printed by Pope, 321
his hatred of Warburton, 323-328

BOOKSELLERS in the reign of Elizabeth, 23
why their interest is rarely combined with the advancement of
literature, _n._ 87
why they prefer the crude to the matured fruit, 210

BOYLE, his controversy with Bentley, 378-390
his edition of "Phalaris", 378-381
his literary aids, _n._ 382

BRAMHALL opposes Hobbes' philosophy, 449

BRERETON, Sir W., characterised by Clarendon and Cleveland, _n._
418

BROOKE attacks errors in Camden's "Britannia", 492
his work unfairly suppressed, 495
his severe remarks on Camden, _ib._
humorous rhymes on a horse, 497
his self-defence, 498
his real motives vindicated, 499
biographical note, _ib._

BROWN, Dr., his panegyric on Warburton, and his sorrow for writing
it, _n._ 235
account of, _n._ 273

BROWN, Robt., founder of a sect of Puritans, _n._ 518

BURNET, Bp., his character attacked, 426

BURTON, his laborious work, 83
his constitutional melancholy, _n._ 182

CAESALPINUS, originally the propounder of a theory of the circulation
of the blood, 335

CALVIN'S opinions on government, _n._ 447

CALVIN, his narrowed sectarianism, 502

CAMDEN recommends Jonson to Raleigh, _n._ 476
his industry, and his great work the "Britannia", 491
Brooke points out its errors, 492
his works suppressed through Camden's interest, 495
his exasperation, _ib._
his powerful picture of calumny, 496
his quiet adoption of Brooke's corrections, 499

CAMPANELLA and his political works, 351-352

CAREY, Henry, inventor of "Namby Pamby", 101
"Carey's Wish," a patriotic song on the Freedom of Election, by
the author of "God save the King," _n._ 102
"Sally in our Alley," a popular ballad, its curious origin, 103
author of several of our national poems, 104
his miserable end, _ib._

CARTE, Thomas, his valuable history, 110-111
the first proposer of public libraries, 111
its fate from his indiscretion, 112

CARTWRIGHT, Thomas, chief of the Puritan faction, 505
progress of his opinions, 506
his great popularity, _ib._
forsakes his party, 508-509

CARYLL'S voluminous commentary on Job, _n._ 392

CASTELL, Dr., ruined in health and fortune by the publication of his
Polyglott, _n._ 189

CHARLES THE SECOND'S jest at the Royal Society, _n._ 311
an admirer of Hobbes's ability in disputation, _n._ 448

CHATTERTON, his balance-sheet on the Lord Mayor's death, _n._ 25

CHURCHILL'S satire on Warburton, 240, 242, 243, 246

CHURCHYARD, Thomas, an unhappy poet, describes his patrons, 26
his pathetic description of his wretched old age, _ib._

CIBBER, his easy good-nature, 306
his reasonable defence of himself, _n._ 305-307
his "Essay on Cicero," _n._ 306
apology for his Life, 307
attacks on himself, 305, 308
unjustly degraded, 312

CLARENDON, Lord, his prejudice against May, 434
his opinion of Hobbes's philosophy, _n._ 438

CLERGY fight in the great civil wars, _n._ 422

CLELAND, biographical note on, 282

CLEVELAND'S character of a journal-maker, 416

COLE, Rev. William, his character, 90
his melancholy confession on his lengthened literary labours,
92
his anxiety how best to dispose of his collections, 93

COLLINS, Arthur, historian of the Peerage, 85

COLLINS, Wm., the poet, quits the university suddenly with romantic
hopes of becoming an author, 172
publishes his "Odes" without success, and afterwards indignantly
burns the edition, 180
defended from some reproaches of irresolution, made by Johnson,
181
anecdote of his life in the metropolis, 182
anecdotes of, when under the influence of a disordered intellect,
183
his monument described, 184
two sonnets descriptive of Collins, 185
his poetical character defended, 186

CONTEMPORARIES, how they seek to level genius, 206

COOPER, author of "Life of Socrates," attacked by Warburton, _n._
272

COOPER, Bishop, attacked by Mar-Prelates, _n._ 513, 514

COPYRIGHTS, Lintot's payments for, 328-333

CORBET, his humorous introduction to Ben Jonson, _n._ 475

COTGRAVE, Randle, falls blind in the labour of his "Dictionary",
73

COURT of Charles II. satirised by Marvell, 393
its characteristics, 414

COWEL incurs by his curious work "The Interpreter" the censure of
the King and the Commons on opposite principles, 193

COWLEY, original letter from, _n._ 36
his essays form a part of his confessions, 37
describes his feelings at court, _ib._
his melancholy attributed to his "Ode to Brutus," by which he
incurred the disgrace of the court, 40
his remarkable lamentation for having written poetry, 41
his Epitaph composed by himself, 42

CRITIC, poetical, without any taste, how he contrived to criticise
poems, 143

CRITICISMS, illiberal, some of its consequences stated, 140

CROSS attacks the Royal Society, 344-346

CROUSAZ dissects Pope's "Essay on Man", 256

CURLL, and his publication of Pope's letters, 292

D'AVENANT, his poem of "Gondibert", 404
history of its composition, _n._ 404
its merits and defects, 405-408
a club of wits satirize it, 409
and its author, 412
and occasion it to be left unfinished, 413

DAVIES, Myles, a mendicant author, his life, 30

DECKER quarrels with Ben Jonson for his arrogance, 475-487
ridicules him in his "Satiromastix", 482-487

DEDICATION, composed by a patron to himself, _n._ 30

DEDICATIONS, used in an extraordinary way, _n._ 30

DE LOLME'S work on the Constitution could find no patronage, and the
author's bitter complaints, 200
relieved by the Literary Fund, _n._ 201

DENHAM falsely satirized, _n._ 429

DENNIS, John, distinguished as "The Critic", 52
his "Original Letters" and "Remarks on Prince Arthur," his best
productions, 52
anecdotes of his brutal vehemence, 53
curious caricature of his personal manners, 54
a specimen of his anti-poetical notions, _n._ 55
his frenzy on the Italian Opera, 57
acknowledges that he is considered as ill-natured, and complains
of public neglect, _ib._
more the victim of his criticisms than the genius he insulted,
58
his insatiable vengeance toward Pope, 286
his attack on Addison's "Cato", 315
his account with the bookseller Lintot, 331

DRAKE, Dr. John, a political writer, his miserable life, 11

DRAYTON'S national work, "The Polyolbion," ill received, and the
author greatly dejected, 210
angry preface addressed "To any that will read it", 211

DRUMMOND of Hawthornden, his love of poetry, 213
conversation with Jonson, 475

DRYDEN, in his old age, complains of dying of over-study, 204
his dramatic life a series of vexations, 205
regrets he was born among Englishmen, 206
remarkable confession of the poet, _ib._
vilified by party spirit, 427
compares his quarrel with Settle to that of Jonson with Decker,
_n._ 477

DUNCIAD, Pope's collections for, 278
early editions of, _n._ 283
rage of persons satirized in, _n._ 284
satire on naturalists in, 342

DUNTON the bookseller satirized by Swift, 430

DYSON defends Akenside, 265

EACHARD'S satire on Hobbes and his sect, _n._ 439

EDWARDS, Thomas, author of "Canons of Criticism", 261
biographical notice, _n._ 532
anecdotes of his critical sagacity, _n._ 262-263
origin of his "Canons of Criticism", 532

EVANS, Arise, a fanatical Welsh prophet, patronised by Warburton,
_n._ 240

EVELYN defends the Royal Society, 340

EXERCISE, to be substituted for medicine by literary men, and which
is the best, _n._ 68

FALSE rumours in the great Civil War, 421

FARNEWORTH'S Translation of Machiavel, 84

FELL, Dr., an opponent of the Royal Society, 350
ungenerous to Hobbes, 450
rhymes descriptive of his unpopularity, 451

FIELDING attacks Sir John Hill, 368-369

FILMER, Sir R., writes to establish despotism, _n._ 449

FOLKES, Martin, President of the Royal Society, _n._ 364
attacked by Sir John Hill, _n._ 366

FULLER'S "Medicina Gymnastica," _n._ 71

GARTH, Dr., and his Dispensary, 429

GAY acts as mediator with Pope and Addison, 320
his account with Lintot the bookseller, 330

GIBBON, Ed., price of his copyright, 87

GILDON supposed by Pope to have been employed by Addison to write
against him, 316

GLANVILL a defender of the Royal Society, 244

GLOVER, Leonidas, declines to write a Life of Marlborough, _n._
325

GOLDSMITH'S remonstrance on illiberal criticism, from which the law
gives no protection, 142

GRANGER'S complaint of not receiving half the pay of a scavenger,
85

GREENE, Robert, a town-wit, his poverty and death, 23
awful satirical address to, _n._ 119

GREY, Dr. Zachary, the father of our commentators, ridiculed and
abused, 104
the probable origin of his new mode of illustrating Hudibras,
_ib._
Warburton's double-dealing with him, _n._ 259

GUTHRIE offers his services as a hackney-writer to a minister, 8

HACKETT executed for attacks on the church, _n._ 518

HANMER, Sir T., his edition of Shakespeare, _n._ 242, _n._ 258

HARDOUIN supposes the classics composed by monks in the Middle Ages,
249-252

HARRINGTON and his "Oceana", 449

HARVEY, Dr., and his discovery of the circulation of the blood,
335

HARVEY, Gabriel, his character, 117
his device against his antagonist, _n._ 119
his portrait, 121
severely satirised by Nash for his prolix periods, 122
cannot be endured to be considered as the son of a rope-maker,
123
his pretended sordid manners, 124
his affectation of Italian fashions, _ib._
his friends ridiculed, 125
his pedantic taste for hexameter verses, &c., 127
his curious remonstrance with Nash, 126
his lamentation on invectives, 129
his books, and Nash's, suppressed by order of the Archbishop of
Canterbury for their mutual virulence, 120

HAWKESWORTH, Dr., letter on presenting his MS. of Cook's Voyages for
examination, the publication of which overwhelmed his
fortitude and intellect, 199

HENLEY, Orator, this buffoon an indefatigable student, an elegant
poet, and wit, 59
his poem of "Esther, Queen of Persia", 60
sudden change in his character, 62
seems to have attempted to pull down the Church and the
University, 63
some idea of his lectures, _n._ 64
his projects to supply a Universal School, _ib._
specimens of his buffoonery on solemn occasions, 66
his "Defence of the Oratory," _n._ _ib._
once found his match in two disputants, 67
specimen of the diary of his "Oratory Transactions", _ib._
close of his career, _n._ 68
his character, 69
parallel between him and Sir John Hill, 363

HENRY, Dr., the Historian, the sale of his work, on which he had
expended most of his fortune and his life, stopped, and
himself ridiculed, by a conspiracy raised against him, 136

HENRY, Dr., caustic review of his history, _n._ _ib._

HERON, Robert, draws up the distresses of a man of letters living by
literary industry, in the confinement of a sponging-house,
from his original letter, 81

HERRICK, Robert, petulant invective against Devonshire, 215

HILL, Aaron, and his quarrel with Pope, 290

HILL, Sir John, 362-396
parallel between him and Orator Henley, 383
his great work on Botany, _n._ _ib._
his personalities, 364
attacks the Royal Society, 365
his _Inspector_, 367
war of wit with Fielding, 368
and Smart, 370-372
attacks Woodward, who replies with some ridiculous anecdotes, _n._
372
proposes himself as keeper of the Sloane collection, 374
manufactures _Travels_, _n._ 374
his death, 375

HOBBES contemns the Royal Society, 342
praises D'Avenant's poem of "Gondibert", 408-412
his quarrels, 436
peculiarities of his character, 437
his sect, 438
his real opinions, 439
his "Leviathan", 440-448
feared and suspected by both parties, _n._ 442
no atheist, _n._ 445
his continual disputations, 448-450
his terror of death, 451
the real solution of his fears, 452
his disciples in literature, _n._ 455
his pride, 456
his mode of composition, _n._ 459
his contented poverty, and consistent conduct, _ib._
characteristics of his writings, 461
his passion for mathematics, 464
leads to a quarrel with Dr. Wallis, 465-473

HOME and his tragedy of "Douglas", 79

HOWEL, nearly lost his life by excessive study, 74

HUME, his literary life mortified with disappointments, 202
wished to change his name and his country, 204
his letter to Des Maiseaux requesting his opinion of his
philosophy, 202

HURD, Bishop, biographical note on, 253
imitates Warburton's style, _n._ 269

_Icon Libellorum._ See _Athenae Britannicae_.

JOHNSON, Dr., his aversion to Milton's politics, 425

JONES, Inigo, ridiculed by Ben Jonson, _n._ 477

JONSON, Ben, his quarrel with Decker, 475
his conversation with Drummond of Hawthornden, 475, 535
his general conviviality, _n._ 475
his play "The Poetaster", 476-481
his powerful satire on Decker, 482-487
his bitter allusions to his enemies, 487-488

KENNET'S, Bishop, Register and Chronicle, 87

KENRICK, Dr., a caustic critic, treats our great authors with the
most amusing arrogance, 141
an epigram on himself, by himself, _n._ 142

KING, Dr., his payments as an author, 332
biographical notice of, _n._ 358
ridicules the Transactions of the Royal Society, 358, 361
aids in attacking Bentley, 384
his satirical Index to Bentley's Characteristics, _n._ 386

LAWSON, Dame, a noted female Puritan, _n._ 519, 525

LEE, Nat., his love of praise, 213

LELAND, the antiquary, an accomplished scholar, 172
his "Strena," or New Year's Gift to Henry VIII.; an account of his
studies, and his magnificent projects, 174
doubts that his labours will reach posterity, 175
he values "the furniture" of his mind, _ib._
his bust striking from its physiognomy, 177
the ruins of his mind discovered in his library, _ib._
the inscription on his tomb probably had been composed by himself,
before his insanity, 178
thoughts on Eloquence, 255

LIBELS abounded in the age of Elizabeth, 503

LIGHTFOOT could not procure the printing of his work, 192

LINTOT'S account-book, 328-333

LITERARY PROPERTY, difficulties to ascertain its nature, 16
history of, _ib._
value of, _n._ _ib._

LITERARY quarrels from personal motives, 529-539

LLOYD'S, Bishop, collections and their fate, 93

LOGAN, the history of his literary disappointments, 78
dies broken-hearted, _ib._
his poetic genius, 80

LOWTH, Bishop, attack on pretensions of Warburton, _n._ 235-246,
_n._ 252-268

M'DONALD, or Matthew Bramble, his tragical reply to an inquiry after
his tragedy, 77

MACDIARMID, John, died of over-study and exhaustion, 74

MALLET, his knowledge of Pope and Warburton, _n._ 242
his attacks on Warburton, _n._ 271
employed by Bolingbroke to libel Pope, _ib._
anecdote of his egotism, 324
employed by the Duchess of Marlborough on a Life of the Duke, _n._
325

M'MAHON and his anti-social philosophy, _n._ 456

MARSTON, John, satirised by Ben Jonson, _n._ 477

MARTIN MAR-PRELATE'S libels issuing from a moveable press carried
about the country, 116
a party-name for satirists of the Church, 510
their popularity, 513-516
their secret printings, 515
opposed by other wits, 517
authors of these satires, _n._ 505, _n._ 518, 520, 523
curious rhymes against, 524-528

MARVELL attacks the intolerant tenets of Bishop Parker, 392
severity of his satire on the Court of Charles II., _n._ 393
comments on the early career of Parker, 394-395
origin of quarrel, 396
his noble defence of Milton, 399
his rencontre with Parker in the streets, 401
his political honesty, 402
his generous criticism on Butler, 434

MASKELL, Rev. W., history of the Mar-Prelate controversy, _n._
503
date of its origin, and opinion on its authors, _n._ 505

MELANCHOLY persons frequently the most delightful companions, _n._
182

MENASSAH, Ben Israel, his treatise "De Resurrectione Mortuorum,"
_n._ 252

MICKLE'S pathetic address to his muse, 207
his disappointments after the publication of the "Lusiad" induce
him to wish to abandon his native country, 208

MIDDLETON, Dr. Conyers, quarrel with Bentley, 530
and with Warburton, 532

MILTON'S works the favourite prey of booksellers, 17
vilified by party spirit, 424-425

MORTIMER, Thomas, his complaint in old age of the preference given
to young adventurers, 75

MOTTEUX, Peter, and his patron, 30

MUGHOUSE, political clubs, _n._ 32

NASH, Tom, the misery of his literary life, 23
threatens his patrons, 24
silences Mar-Prelate with his own weapons, 116
his character as a Lucianic satirist, 120
his "Have with you to Saffron Walden," a singular literary
invective against Gabriel Harvey, 120

NEEDHAM, Marchmont, a newspaper writer in the great Civil War,
420

NEWSPAPERS of the great Civil War, 415, 422

NEWTON, of a fearful temper in criticism, _n._ 140

NEWTON'S "Optics" first favourably noticed in France, 84

OCKLEY, Simon, among the first of our authors who exhibited a great
nation in the East in his "History of the Saracens", 163
his sufferings expressed in a remarkable preface dated from gaol,
187
dines with the Earl of Oxford; an original letter of apology for
his uncourtly behaviour, 189
exults in prison for the leisure it affords for study, _n._ _ib._
neglected, but employed by ministers, 196

OLDMIXON asserts Lord Clarendon's "History" to have been interpolated,
while himself falsifies Daniel's "Chronicle," _n._ 10

PALERMO, Prince of; and his Palace of Monsters, _n._ 243

PAPER-WARS of the Civil Wars, 415, 422

PARKER, Bishop of Oxford, his early career, 394-395
the intolerance of his style, 397
attacks Milton, 399
and Marvell in the streets, 401
his posthumous portrait of Marvell, 402

PARR, Dr., his talent and his egotism, _n._ 236
his defence of Warburton, _n._ 239
in revenge for Bishop Hurd's criticism, publishes his early works
of irony, 531

PATIN, Guy, his account of Hobbes, _n._ 445

PATTISON, a young poet, his college career, 98
his despair in an address to Heaven, and a pathetic letter, 101

PENRY, one of the writers of Mar-Prelate tracts, _n._ 505, _n._
518
his career, 520
his execution, 521
his petition and protest, _n._ 521
rhymes on his death, _ib._

PHALARIS, Epistles of, 378

PHILLIPS asperses Pope, 316

PIERCE, Dr. T., his controversies, 537

POETS, _mediocre_ Critics are the real origin of _mediocre_, 212
Nat. Lee describes their wonderful susceptibility of praise,
213
provincial, their situation at variance with their feelings,
214

POPE, Alex., his opinion of "the Dangerous Fate of Authors", 214
the Poet Prior, 216

POPE, Alexander, his high estimation of Warburton, 257, 273
Warburton's edition of his works, 263, 270
his miscellaneous quarrel, 278, 291
collects libels on himself, _n._ 273
literary stratagems, 280
early neglect of his "Essay on Criticism," _n._ 280
the real author of the "Key to the Lock," _n._ 280
hostilities between him and others, 282
the finest character-painter, _n._ 283
his personal sufferings on Cibber's satire, 285
his first introduction to Dennis, _n._ 286
narrative of the publication of his letter to Curll, 292, 300
his attacks on Cibber, 301, 312
his condemned comedy, _n._ 301, 307
quarrels with Addison, 313
urges an attack on his _Cato_, _n._ 315
believes him to have employed adverse critics, _n._ 316-317
satirizes Addison as Atticus, _n._ 317
his last interview with Addison, 318, 320
surreptitiously prints Bolingbroke's "Patriot King", 321
his bookselling account with Lintot, 329
his earliest satire, 333-335
his satires and their effects, 535

PRIDEAUX'S "Connection of Old and New Testament", 84

PRINCE'S "Worthies of Devon", _ib._

PRIOR, curious character of, from a Whig satire, 216
felicitated himself that his natural inclination for poetry had
been checked, 217
attacked for his political creed, 429

PROCLAMATION issued by James I. against Cowel's book, "The
Interpreter," a curious document in literary history, 195

PRYNNE, a voluminous author without judgment, but the character of
the man not so ridiculous as the author, 146
his intrepid character, 147
his curious argument against being debarred from pen and ink, _n._
148
his interview with Laud in the Tower, _n._ 149
had a good deal of cunning in his character, _n._ 150
grieved for the Revolution in which he himself had been so
conspicuous a leader, 148
his speeches as voluminous as his writings, _n._ 151
seldom dined, _n._ 152
account of his famous "Histriomastix", _ib._
Milton admirably characterises Prynne's absurd learning, _n._
_ib._
how the "Histriomastix" was at once an elaborate work of many
years, and yet a temporary satire--the secret history of the
book being as extraordinary as the book itself, 153

PURITANS, origin of their name, _n._ 504

RALEIGH, Sir W., an opposer of Puritanism, _n._ 508

REFORMATION, the, under Elizabeth, 501

RIDICULE described, 114
it creates a fictitious personage, _ib._
a test of truth, 264, 267

RITSON, Joseph, the late poetical antiquary, carried criticism to
insanity, 51

RITSON, Isaac, a young Scotch writer, perishes by attempting to
exist by the efforts of his pen, 75
his extemporary rhapsody descriptive of his melancholy fate, 76

ROYAL SOCIETY, the, 335, 361
encounters much opposition when first established, _ib._

RUFFHEAD'S Life of Pope, 290

RUSHWORTH dies of a broken heart, having neglected his own affairs
for his "Historical Collections", 85

RYMER'S distress in forming his "Historical Collections", 85

RYVES, Eliza, her extraordinary literary exertions and melancholy
end, 107

SALE, the learned, often wanted a meal while translating the Koran,
_n._ 189

SAVAGE the Poet employed by Pope to collect materials for notes to
the _Dunciad_, _n._ 279

SCOT, Reginald, persecuted for his work against Witchcraft, 198

SCOTT, of Amwell, the Quaker and poet, offended at being compared to
Capt. Macheath by the affected witticism of a Reviewer, 143
his extraordinary "Letter to the Critical Reviewers," in which he
enumerates his own poetical beauties, _ib._

SELDEN compelled to recant his opinions, and not suffered to reply
to his calumniators, 198
refuses James I. to publish his defence of the "Sovereignty of the
Seas" till Grotius provoked his reply, _ib._
opinions on bishops, _n._ 502

SETTLE, Elkanah, the ludicrous close of a scribbler's life, 146
the hero of Pope's earliest satire, 333
manages Pope burnings, 334

SHAFTESBURY, Lord, on the origin of irony, _n._ 436
his character of Hobbes, _n._ 437
his conversation with Hobbes in Paris on his work, "The
Leviathan," _n._ 441

SHUCKFORD, "Sacred and Profane History Connected", 85

SLOANE, Sir Hans, his peculiarities of style, 358-360

SMART and his satire, "The Hilliad", 371-372

SMOLLETT confesses the incredible labour and chagrin he had endured
as an author, 13

SOCRATES ridiculed by Aristophanes, 266

SOUTH'S poignant reflection on the Royal Society, 342

SPRAT'S History of the Royal Society, 337-339
his aversion to Milton, 424

STEELE, his paradoxical character, 168
satirized by Swift, 429-431
why he wrote a laughable comedy after his "Christian Hero", 169
his ill choice in a wife of an uncongenial character, 170
specimens of his "Love Despatches," _n._ _ib._
finely contrasts his own character with that of Addison, _n._
172
introduces Pope to Addison, 314
manages a friendly interview between them after a long disseverance,
319
his political creed loses him Addison's friendship, 433

STEEVENS, G., satirizes Sir John Hawkins, 535

STILLINGFLEET, Bishop, his end supposed to have been hastened by
Locke's confutation of his metaphysical notions, _n._ 140

STOCKDALE, Perceval, his character an extraordinary instance of the
illusions of writers in verse, 218
draws a parallel between Charles XII. and himself, 224

STOWE, the chronicler, petitions to be a licensed beggar, 29

STRUTT, the antiquary, a man of genius and imagination, 86
his spirited letters on commencing his career of authorship, 88

STUART, Dr. Gilbert, his envious character; desirous of destroying
the literary works of his countrymen, 131
projects the "Edinburgh Magazine and Review;" its design, _ib._
his horrid feelings excited by his disappointments, 132
raises a literary conspiracy against Dr. Henry, 135
dies miserably, 139

STUBBE and his attacks on the Royal Society, 346
his early history, 347
influenced by Dr. Fell in his attacks, _n._ 350
specimens of them, 356

SYSTEMS of Opinions, often fallacies in practice, 461

SUBSCRIPTIONS once inundated our literature with worthless works,
29

TEMPLE, Sir W., Essay on Learning, 378

THEOBALD, his payments from, and literary arrangements with Lintot,
331-332

TICKELL'S Homer, 316

TOLAND, a lover of study, 157
defends himself from the aspersion of atheism or deism, 150
accused of an intention to found a sect, 159
had the art of explaining away his own words, _ib._
a great artificer of title-pages, 160
his "Pantheisticon", 161
projects a new office of a private monitor to the minister, 163
of the books he read and his MSS. _n._ 166
his panegyrical epitaph composed by himself, 167
Locke's admirable foresight of his character, 168
the miserable payment for his life of literary labour, 332

TONSON, Jacob, bickerings with Dryden, _n._ 171
his bookselling career, _ib._

UDALL, John, a writer in the Mar-Prelate controversy, _n._ 505,
_n._ 518
his character and career, 521-523

WAGSTAFFE, Dr., his character of Steele, _n._ 429-432
his satirical works, _n._ 431

WAKEFIELD, Gilbert, his works unsuccessful because of his politics,
_n._ 435

WALLIS, Dr., his curious narrative of a dialogue between Hobbes and
the Countess of Devonshire, _n._ 455
his quarrel with Hobbes, 465-473
his power of deciphering secret writing, 472
his real opinion of Hobbes, _n._ 473

WALPOLE, Horace, his literary character, 43
instances of his pointed vivacity against authors, _n._ 43
why he attacked the fame of Sydney, and defended Richard III.,
45
his literary mortifications, acknowledged by himself from his
original letters, 47
how Gray treated him when invited to Strawberry-hill, _n._ 46
extraordinary letter of, expressing his contempt of his most
celebrated contemporaries, 49

WALSINGHAM, Sir Francis, originally favours the Puritans, _n._
508

WARBURTON, dishonest criticism on Gray's "Hudibras", 105
and his quarrels, 233-277
his early career, 239
his traffic in dedications, 241
his contemptuous criticism on Pope and Addison, 244
his miscellaneous reading, 245, 246
his love of conjecture, 247
Divine Legation, _n._ 250, 267
unhappy in his labours, _n._ 252
his coarseness of invective, _n._ 224, 268
his contemptuous criticisms, 258, 269
conjectural criticism on Shakspeare, 260
his edition of Pope, 263, 270, 271
his literary recruits, 274
defends Pope against Bolingbroke, 321
influenced Pope through his religion, _n._ 323
his opinion of Hobbes, _n._ 444
offends Edwards in a contest, 532

WARD, Dr. Seth, his double opinion of Hobbes' Works, _n._ 465

WARD, Dr., his quarrel with Dr. Pierce, 536

WHARTON, Henry, sunk under his historical studies, 74

WHITGIFT, Archbishop, his controversies with Cartwright the Puritan,
and ultimate friendship with him, _n._ 509

WILLIAM of WYKEHAM attacked by Bohun, 537

WOOD, Anthony, his character, 94
an apology for the "Athenae Oxonienses", 92
the writers of a party whom he abhorred frequently refer to him in
their own favour, 99
defines Marvell's style, 392
gives Bishop Parker's early history, 394
his prejudice against Lake, 423

WOODWARD the actor attacked by Hill, 372, and note

WORKS, valuable, not completed from deficient encouragement, 84

WOTTON'S reflections on learning, 378

THE END.

* * * * *

Transcriber Notes

Typographical inconsistencies have been changed and are listed below.

Archaic and variable spelling and hyphenation is preserved, including the author's use of "wont" instead of "won't".

Author's punctuation style is preserved, except where noted below.

Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.

Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=.

Emphasized words within italics indicated by +plus signs+.

Greek transliterations are surrounded by ~tildes~.

Transcriber Changes

The following changes were made to the original text:

Page 11: Added missing word (He passed through a youth of
iniquity, and was expelled =from= his college for his
irregularities)

Page 21: Was 'ingratisude' (it seems a national =ingratitude= to
limit the existence of works for their authors)

Page 23: Was 'roya' (passed off in currency their base metal stamped
with a =royal= head)

Page 40: Was 'discontentd' (he retired =discontented= into
Surrey.")

Page 62: Was smudged 'brothe' (envied their Ciceronian =brothers.=)

Page 63: Added period (he then requested the Bishop of =London.=)

Page 89: Was 'prosspects' (his imagination delighted to expatiate in
its future =prospects=)

Page 105: Was 'Hubidras' (might have served as the model of Grey's
=Hudibras=.)

Page 118: Added quote (="Harvey=, the happy above happier men, I
read)

Page 187: Was 'sorows' (the oriental student pathetically counts
over his =sorrows=)

Page 215: Removed quote (O people currish, churlish as their
=seas--=)

Page 230: Changed comma to period (he gave a new turn to our
=studies.=)

Page 281: Added quote ("and the weekly clubs held to consult of
hostilities against the =author;"=)

Page 289: Was 'nor' (Is =not= _Word-catching_ more serviceable in
splitting a cause, than explaining a fine poet?)

Page 327: Was 'damagogue' (which such a political =demagogue= as
Bolingbroke never forgave)

Page 328: Added quote (which I have noticed in the ="Quarrels= of
Warburton.")

Page 350: Was 'petulent' (which closed this life of toil and hurry
and =petulant= genius)

Page 399: Was 'ut' (he was glad to make use of anything rather than
sit =out=;)

Page 403: Was 'Philosoper' (while the =Philosopher= keenly retorts
on the Club)

Page 420: Added missing i (I give a short narrative of the political
temper of the times, =in= their unparalleled gazettes.)

Page 434: Added quote (From age to age, =&c."=)

Page 436: Was 'montrous' (his =monstrous= egotism)

Page 469: Changed comma to period (than in his younger =days.=)

Page 471: Removed quote (you are older already than =Methuselah.=)

Page 481: Added quote ('Barmy froth, inflate, turgidous, and
ventosity are come =up.'=)

Page 483: Was 'searchin' (Mine enemies, with sharp and =searching=
eyes)

Page 487: Added period (Nor the =Untrussers.=)

Page 497: Removed quote (=Now=, to show himself as good a painter as
he is a herald)

Footnote 20: Extra comma removed (his _Bibliographia =Poetica=_.)

Footnote 140: Was 'afterwardss' (As City Poet =afterwards= Settle
composed the pageants)

Footnote 140: Was 'Mayor' (songs for the Lord =Mayor's= Shows from
1691 to 1708)

Footnote 140: Original split across lines as 'im,' and 'poverished,'
(Towards the close of his career he became
=impoverished=)

Footnote 150: Changed period to comma (by =Indignatio,"= 1772)

Footnote 157: Added quote ("that last foible of superior
=genius."=)

Footnote 163: Was 'Manasseh' (which =Menasseh= Ben Israel has
written his treatise)

Footnote 183: Was 'infallibilty' (to the standard of your
=infallibility=)

Footnote 186: Added quote (="Letter= to Warburton," p. 4.)

Footnote 195: Added quote (Prince Eugene, ="who= came hither for
that purpose.")

Footnote 202: Was 'Irishmant o' (had a tall Irishman =to= attend
him)

Footnote 291: Added quote (And changed his skin to monumental
=brass."=)

Footnote 324: Added missing word (=It= may be inscribed in the
library of the student)

Footnote 353: Was 'caligraphy' (this beautiful specimen of
=calligraphy= may still be seen)

Footnote 353: Was 'hi' (it produced =his= sudden dismissal from the
presence of Charles II. when at Paris)

Footnote 354: Added quote (but, chewed, are for the most part cast
up again without =effect."=)

Footnote 367: Added quote (="Il= disoit qu'il faisoit quelquefois
des ouvertures)

Footnote 369: Added period (The story his antagonist (Dr. Wallis)
relates is perfectly in =character.=)

Footnote 418: Changed comma to period (in a countercuffe given to
Martin =Junior."=)

Index: Was 'Gilden' (=GILDON= supposed by Pope to have been employed
by Addison to write against him, 316)

Index: Added period (JOHNSON, =Dr.,= his aversion to Milton's
politics, 425)

Index: Was '132' (LIGHTFOOT could not procure the printing of his
work, =192=)