mber, 1739, when Warburton records that he has got all his letters
and papers out of Sir Thomas Hanmer's hands (Nichols, _Illustrations_, ii.
110. See also Nichols, _Literary Anecdotes_, v. 588-590; _Biographia
Britannica_, vol vi. (1763), pp. 3743-4, and appendix, p. 223; Philip
Nichols, _The Castrated Letter of Sir Thomas Hanmer_, 1763; and Bunbury,
_Correspondence of Hanmer_, pp. 85-90).

During his friendship with Hanmer, Warburton had not lost sight of his own
edition. The quarrel was precipitated by Hanmer's discovery of Warburton's
intention; but there is no evidence that Warburton had tried to conceal
it. Everything goes to show that each editor was so immersed in his own
scheme that he regarded the other as his collaborator. Hanmer did not know
at first that Warburton was planning an edition as a means of making some
money; and Warburton had not suspected that Hanmer would publish an
edition at all. This is the only reasonable inference to be drawn from a
letter written by him to the Rev. Thomas Birch in October, 1737. "You are
pleased to enquire about Shakespeare," he writes. "I believe (to tell it
as a secret) I shall, after I have got the whole of this work out of my
hands which I am now engaged in, give an Edition of it to the world. Sir
Thomas Hanmer has a true critical genius, and has done great things in
this Author; so you may expect to see a very extraordinary edition of its
kind. I intend to draw up and prefix to it a just and complete critique on
Shakespeare and his Works." This letter reads curiously in the light of
after events; but it proves, if it proves anything, that Warburton did not
suspect Hanmer's scheme, and believed that Hanmer was helping him in his
edition. It is equally plain that Hanmer believed he was being helped by
Warburton.

Announcements of Warburton's forthcoming edition were made in Birch's
article on Shakespeare in the _General Dictionary, Historical and
Critical_, vol. ix., January, 1739-40, and in the _History of the Works of
the Learned_ for 1740 (Nichols, _Illustrations_, ii., pp. 72-4, and _Lit.
Anecdotes_, v., p. 559). But there were no signs of its appearance, and
Hanmer had good reason to say in October, 1742, in his letter to Joseph
Smith, "I am satisfied there is no edition coming or likely to come from
Warburton; but it is a report raised to support some little purpose or
other, of which I see there are many on foot." Up to this time Warburton
had merely suggested