Pope's text, but on the text of Theobald. Warburton does not follow
even Pope's arrangement of the plays. With one insignificant
transposition, he gives them in the identical order in which they appear
in Theobald's edition. And though he has his gibe at Hanmer in the title
page, he incorporates Hanmer's glossary word for word, and almost letter
for letter. But his animosity betrays him in his Preface. He complains of
the trouble which he has been put to by the last two editors, for he has
had "not only their interpolations to throw out, but the genuine text to
replace and establish in its stead." He would not have had this trouble
had he used Pope's edition. He may have believed that what he took from
Hanmer and Theobald was very much less than what they had received from
him. According to his own statements he supplied each with a large number
of important emendations which had been used without acknowledgment. Yet
this does not excuse the suggestion that his edition was founded on
Pope's.

The explanation is Warburton's just pride in Pope's friendship,--a pride
which he took every opportunity of gratifying and parading. But in his
earlier days he had been, all unknown to Pope, an enemy. He escaped the
_Dunciad_ by reason of his obscurity. He was the friend of Concanen and
Theobald, and in a letter to the former, containing his earliest extant
attempt at Shakespearian criticism, he observes that "Dryden borrows for
want of leisure, and Pope for want of genius." The letter is dated 2nd
January, 1726-27, but luckily for Warburton it was not publicly known
till, in 1766, Akenside used it as a means of paying off old scores (see
Nichols, _Illustrations_, ii., pp. 195-198, and Malone's Shakespeare,
1821, vol. xii., pp. 157, etc.). It is of interest also from the fact that
Theobald transcribed from it almost verbatim the comparison of Shakespeare
and Addison in the Preface of 1733.

Theobald's deference and even humility must have confirmed Warburton's
confidence in his own critical powers, but it was not till Theobald's
Shakespeare was published that Warburton first hinted at an edition by
himself. From 1729 to 1733 he had given Theobald loyally of his best. On
the appearance of the edition he betrayed some annoyance that all his
suggestions had not been accepted. "I have transcribed about fifty
emendations and remarks," he writes on 17th May, 1734, "which I have at
several times sent you, omitted in the Edition of Shakesp