is cynical view of life. He possessed an inimitable
irony and a power of sarcasm which could scorch like lightning, but the
latter is almost invariably directed against what is base and hateful. To
human weakness he is lenient and often tender, and even when weakness
passes into wickedness, he is just and compassionate. He saw human nature
"steadily and saw it whole," and paints it with a light but sure hand. He
was master of a style of great distinction and individuality, and ranks
as one of the very greatest of English novelists.

SUMMARY.--_B._ 1811, _ed._ at Charterhouse and Camb., after trying law
turned to journalism, in which he lost his fortune, studied art at Paris
and Rome, wrote for _Fraser's Magazine_ and _Punch_, _Barry Lyndon_,
_Book of Snobs_, and _Jeames's Diary_, _pub._ _Vanity Fair_ 1847-8,
_Pendennis_ (1848-50), lectured on _Humourists_ 1851, and on _Four
Georges_ in America 1855, _pub._ _Esmond_ 1852, _Newcomes_ 1853,
_Virginians_ 1857-59, ed. _Cornhill Magazine_ 1860, his last great work,
_Denis Duval_, left unfinished, _d._ 1863.

_Lives_ by Merivale and Marzials (Great Writers), A. Trollope (English
Men of Letters), Whibley (Modern English Writers). Article in _Dictionary
of National Biography_ by Leslie Stephen.

THEOBALD, LEWIS (1688-1744).--Editor of Shakespeare, and translator,
originally an attorney, betook himself to literature, translated from
Plato, the Greek dramatists, and Homer, and wrote also essays,
biographies, and poems. In 1715 he _pub._ _Shakespeare Restored, etc._,
in which he severely criticised Pope's ed., and was in consequence
rewarded with the first place in _The Dunciad_, and the adoption of most
of his corrections in Pope's next ed. Though a poor poet, he was an acute
and discriminating critic, made brilliant emendations on some of the
classics, and produced in 1734 an ed. of Shakespeare which gave him a
high place among his ed.

THIRWALL, CONNOP (1797-1875).--Historian, was _b._ at Stepney, the _s._
of a clergyman, and _ed._ at the Charterhouse and Camb. He studied law,
was called to the Bar in 1825, and in the same year _pub._ a translation
of Schleiermacher's _Critical Essay on the Gospel of St. Luke_. After
this, having changed his mind, he took orders in 1827, and the next year
translated, with Julius Hare (_q.v._), the first vol. of Niebuhr's
_History of Rome_, and _pub._, also with him, _The Philological Museum_
(1831-33). He was an advocate for the admission