comparing it with the
accounts given in such books as Fuller's _Worthies of England_ (1662),
Phillips's _Theatrum Poetarum_ (1675), Winstanley's _English Poets_
(1687), Langbaine's _English Dramatick Poets_ (1691), Pope Blount's
_Remarks upon Poetry_ (1694), or Jeremy Collier's _Historical and Poetical
Dictionary_ (1701). Though some of the traditions--for which he has
acknowledged his debt to Betterton--are of doubtful accuracy, it is safe to
say that but for Rowe they would have perished.

The _Account of Shakespeare_ was the standard biography during the
eighteenth century. It was reprinted by Pope, Hanmer, Warburton, Johnson,
Steevens, Malone, and Reed; but they did not give it in the form in which
Rowe had left it. Pope took the liberty of condensing and rearranging it,
and as he did not acknowledge what he had done, his silence led other
editors astray. Those who did note the alterations presumed that they had
been made by Rowe himself in the second edition in 1714. Steevens, for
instance, states that he publishes the life from "Rowe's second edition,
in which it had been abridged and altered by himself after its appearance
in 1709." But what Steevens reprints is Rowe's _Account of Shakespeare_ as
edited by Pope. In this volume the _Account_ is given in its original form
for the first time since 1714.

Pope omitted passages dealing only indirectly with Shakespeare, or
expressing opinions with which he disagreed. He also placed the details of
Shakespeare's later years (pp. 21-3) immediately after the account of his
relationship with Ben Jonson (p. 9), so that the biography might form a
complete portion by itself. With the exception of an occasional word,
nothing occurs in the emended edition which is not to be found somewhere
in the first.

A seventh and supplementary volume containing the Poems was added in 1710.
It included Charles Gildon's _Remarks_ on the Plays and Poems and his
_Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage in Greece, Rome, and
England_.

John Dennis.

John Dennis's three letters "on the genius and writings of Shakespear"
(February 1710-11) were published together in 1712 under the title _An
Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespear_. The volume contained also
two letters on the 40th and 47th numbers of the _Spectator_. All were
reprinted in Dennis's _Original Letters, Familiar, Moral and Critical_, 2
vols., 1721. The Dedication is to George Granville, then Secretary at Wa