pletion. In a letter to
Broome of 31st October, 1724, Pope writes: "Shakespear is finished. I have
just written the Preface, and in less than three weeks it will be public"
(Ed. Elwin and Courthope, viii. 88). But it did not appear till March.
Pope himself was partly to blame for the delay. In December we find Tonson
"impatient" for the return of the Preface (_id._ ix. 547). In the revision
of the text Pope was assisted by Fenton and Gay (see Reed's Variorum
edition, 1803, ii. p. 149).

A seventh volume containing the poems was added in 1725, but Pope had no
share in it. It is a reprint of the supplementary volume of Rowe's
edition, "the whole revised and corrected, with a Preface, by Dr. Sewell."
The most prominent share in this volume of "Pope's Shakespeare" thus fell
to Charles Gildon, who had attacked Pope in his _Art of Poetry_ and
elsewhere, and was to appear later in the _Dunciad_. Sewell's preface is
dated Nov. 24, 1724.

Pope made few changes in his Preface in the second edition (1728, 8 vols.,
12mo). The chief difference is the inclusion of the _Double Falshood_,
which Theobald had produced in 1727 as Shakespeare's, in the list of the
spurious plays.

The references in the Preface to the old actors were criticised by John
Roberts in 1729 in a pamphlet entitled _An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to
Shakespear. In a Letter to a Friend. Being a Vindication of the Old Actors
who were the Publishers and Performers of that Author's Plays.... By a
Stroling Player._

Lewis Theobald.

Theobald's edition of Shakespeare (7 vols. 8vo) appeared in 1733. The
Preface was condensed in the second edition in 1740. It is here given in
its later form.

Theobald had long been interested in Shakespeare. In 1715 he had written
the _Cave of Poverty_, a poem "in imitation of Shakespeare," and in 1720
he had brought out an adaptation of _Richard II_. But it was not till
1726--though the Dedication bears the date of March 18, 1725--that he
produced his first direct contribution to Shakespearian
scholarship,--_Shakespeare restored: or, a Specimen of the Many Errors, as
well Committed, as Unamended, by Mr. Pope in his Late Edition of this
Poet. Designed Not only to correct the said Edition, but to restore the
True Reading of Shakespeare in all the Editions ever yet publish'd._

We learn from a letter by Theobald dated 15th April, 1729, that he had
been in correspondence with Pope fully two years before the publication of
this