ublished in 1796 his Observations on Pope, which
consist of notes on the remaining poems, and of supplemental notes to
the poems he had previously edited. Wakefield said that an "inculpable
perfection pervaded the whole body of Pope's compositions," and in the
extravagance of his admiration he overlaid the volume of his unfinished
edition with weak rhapsodies which masked the useful part of his
labours. He restrained his eulogistic excesses in his Observations, and
kept more closely to his main design of tracing Pope's "imitations of
his predecessors." All persons tolerably read in poetry could perceive
that the obligations Pope acknowledged in his notes were but a fraction
of the whole, and in 1740, Bowyer, the printer, with the assistance of
Mr. Clarke, a clergyman, commenced a collection of parallel passages.
From the letters of Clarke to Bowyer it appears that Pope was annoyed.
Bowyer profited by his irritation, and offered to treat with him. "I
think," wrote Clarke in 1742, "you buy his friendship cheap with a whole
hecatomb of notes, essays, illustrations, and the mob of
commentators."[10] The progress of the negociation is not recorded. The
result is revealed in the fact that Bowyer shortly afterwards became
Pope's printer. The sensitiveness which was disturbed at the gleanings
of Bowyer would have shuddered at the abundant harvest of Wakefield. He
himself had no intention of depreciating the merits of Pope. He only
wished to illustrate a favourite author. Many of the parallelisms are
too slight to be applicable, or they are common phrases the property of
every Englishman. A vast number remain which are a curious exhibition of
Pope's patience and skill in the art of poetical mosaic, and of the
large amount of borrowed beauties he intermixed with his undoubted
originality. The interpretation of the text, though subordinate with
Wakefield, was not neglected by him. He and a friend who assisted him,
Dr. William Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, have explained more allusions than
all the other commentators, and the least known and appreciated of the
editors of Pope is the man who has done the most for his author.

The edition of Warton appeared in 1797. "His reason," he says in his
preface, "for undertaking the work was the universal complaint that Dr.
Warburton had disfigured and disgraced his edition with many forced and
far-sought interpretations, totally unsupported by the passages which
they were brought to elucidate." W