eare, which, I am
sure, are better than any of mine published there. These I shall convey to
you soon, and desire you to publish them (as omitted by being mislaid) in
your Edition of the 'Poems,' which I hope you will soon make ready for the
press" (Nichols, _Illustrations_, ii., p. 634). These he duly forwarded,
along with a flattering criticism of the edition. He gives no hint that he
may himself turn them to account, till the October of the same year, when
he writes, "I have a great number of notes, etc., on Shakespeare, _for
some future Edition_" (_id._, p. 654). Here the correspondence ceases. Up
to this time Warburton had aided Theobald's schemes of retaliating on
Pope. We have his own authority for attributing to him the remark in
Theobald's Preface that "it seems a moot point whether Mr. Pope has done
most injury to Shakespeare as his Editor and Encomiast, or Mr. Rymer done
him service as his Rival and Censurer." It is probable even that he had a
hand in Theobald's and Concanen's _Art of a Poet's sinking in Reputation,
or a Supplement to the Art of sinking in Poetry_.

Warburton then gave his services to Sir Thomas Hanmer. They had become
acquainted by 1736, and they corresponded frequently till Warburton's
visit to Mildenhall in May, 1737. It is needless to enter into their
quarrel, for the interest of it is purely personal. Hanmer told his
version of it to Joseph Smith, the Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, in
his letter of 28th October, 1742, and Warburton gave his very different
account nineteen years later, on 29th January, 1761, when he discovered
that Hanmer's letter was about to be published in the _Biographia
Britannica_. In the absence of further evidence it is impossible to decide
with whom the truth rests. The dignity of Hanmer's letter wins favour by
contrast with the violence of Warburton's. Yet there must be some truth in
Warburton's circumstantial details, though his feelings may have prevented
his seeing them in proper perspective. He says that Hanmer used his notes
without his knowledge. The statement is probably accurate. But when Hanmer
says that Warburton's notes were "sometimes just but mostly wild and out
of the way," we are satisfied, from what we know of Warburton's other
work, that the criticism was merited. Hanmer apparently found that
Warburton did not give him much help, and Warburton may have been annoyed
at failing to find Hanmer as docile as Theobald. They had quarrelled by
Septe