otnote 374: Notwithstanding Pope has called THEOBALD by
an epithet which I have too much respect for the ears of my
readers to repeat, I do not scruple to rank the latter in
the list of bibliomaniacs. We have nothing here to do with
his edition of Shakspeare; which, by the bye, was no
despicable effort of editorial skill--as some of his notes,
yet preserved in the recent editions of our bard,
testify--but we may fairly allow Theobald to have been a
lover of Caxtonian lore, as his curious extract in _Mist's
Journal_, March 16, 1728, from our old printer's edition of
Virgil's Aeneid, 1490, sufficiently testifies. While his
gothic library, composed in part of "Caxton, Wynkyn, and De
Lyra," proves that he had something of the genuine blood of
bibliomaniacism running in his veins. See Mr. Bowles's
edition of _Pope's Works_, vol. v., 114, 257.]

LIS. Is THOMAS RAWLINSON[375] so particularly deserving of
commendation, as a bibliomaniac?

[Footnote 375: Let us, first of all, hear Hearne discourse
rapturously of the bibliomaniacal reputation of T.
Rawlinson: "In his fuit amicus noster nuperus THOMAS
RAWLINSONUS; cujus peritiam in supellectile libraria,
animique magnitudinem, nemo fere hominum eruditorum unquam
attigit, quod tamen vix agnoscet seculum ingratum. Quanquam
non desunt, qui putent, ipsius memoriae statuam deberi, idque
etiam ad sumptus Bibliopolarum, quorum facultates mire
auxerat; quorum tamen aliqui (utcunque de illis optime
meritus fuisset) quum librorum Rawlinsoni auctio fieret, pro
virili (clandestino tamen) laborabant, ut minus auspicato
venderentur. Quod videntes probi aliquot, qui rem omuem
noverant, clamitabant, o homines scelestos! hos jam oportet
in cruciatum hinc abripi! Quod haec notem, non est cur vitio
vertas. Nam nil pol falsi dixi, mi lector. Quo tempore vixit
Rawlinsonus (et quidem perquam jucundum est commemorare),
magna et laudabilis erat aemulatio inter viros eruditos,
aliosque etiam, in libris perquirendis ac comparandis, imo
in fragmentis quoque. Adeo ut domicilia, ubi venales id
genus res pretiosae prostabant, hominum coetu frequenti
semper complerentur, in magnum profecto commodum eorum, ad
quos libri aliaeque res illae pertinebant; quippe quod
emptores parvo aere nunquam, aut rarissime, compararent."