th."

6. _Venus and Adonis._ The portion of the sentence following this title
was omitted by Pope because it is inaccurate. _The Rape of Lucrece_ also
was dedicated to the Earl of Southampton. The error is alluded to in
Sewell's preface to the seventh volume of Pope's Shakespeare, 1725.

_Eunuchs._ Pope reads "Singers."

The passage dealing with Spenser (p. 6, l. 34, to p. 7, l. 36) was omitted
by Pope. But it is interesting to know Dryden's opinion, even though it is
probably erroneous. _Willy_ has not yet been identified.

8. _After this they were professed friends_, etc. This description of Ben
Jonson, down to the words "with infinite labour and study could but hardly
attain to," was omitted by Pope, for reasons which appear in his Preface.
See pp. 54, 55.

_Ben was naturally proud and insolent_, etc. Rowe here paraphrases and
expands Dryden's description in his _Discourse concerning Satire_ of
Jonson's verses to the memory of Shakespeare,--"an insolent, sparing, and
invidious panegyric" (ed. W. P. Ker, ii., p. 18).

_In a conversation_, etc. The authority for this conversation is Dryden,
who had recorded it as early as 1668 in his _Essay of Dramatic Poesy_, at
the conclusion of the magnificent eulogy of Shakespeare. He had also
spoken of it to Charles Gildon, who, in his _Reflections on Mr. Rymer's
Short View of Tragedy_ (1694), had given it with greater fulness of
detail. Each of the three accounts contains certain particulars lacking in
the other two, but they have unmistakably a common source. Dryden probably
told the story to Rowe, as he had already told it to Gildon. The chief
difficulty is the source, not of Rowe's information, but of Dryden's. As
Jonson was present at the discussion, it must have taken place by 1637. It
is such a discussion as prompted Suckling's _Session of the Poets_ (1637),
wherein Hales and Falkland figure. It cannot be dated "before 1633" (as in
Ingleby's _Centurie of Prayse_, pp. 198-9). The Lord Falkland mentioned in
Gildon's account is undoubtedly the _second_ lord, who succeeded in 1633,
and died in 1643. Dryden may have got his information from Davenant.

8. Pope condensed the passage thus: "Mr. _Hales_, who had sat still for
some time, told 'em, That if _Shakespear_ had not read the Ancients, he
had likewise not stollen anything from 'em; and that if he would produce,"
etc.

9. _Johnson did indeed take a large liberty._ The concluding portion of
this paragraph from these wo