arton had the stimulus of a second
motive. He published in 1756 the first volume of his Essay on Pope, and
his criticisms were roughly attacked in many passages of Ruffhead's Life
of the poet, which was prompted and partly written by Warburton. While
Warburton lived Warton did not venture to retaliate. The thirty years
which intervened had not extinguished his resentment, and he seized the
opportunity to revenge the ancient grudge. His consciousness of
Warburton's defects did not keep Warton from repeating the error of
filling page upon page with irrelevant matter. His Essay on Pope had
been a receptacle for his store of miscellaneous reading, and in a
separate work there was no objection to a medley of anecdote and
criticism. He was seventy-five when he published his edition of Pope,
and to save himself trouble he apportioned out the old farrago in notes.
Profuse in digressions, he is sparing of needful explanations. His turn
was for the lighter portions of criticism and biography, and most of his
apposite remarks are critical opinions. They are often just, but never
profound, for he had neither fervid feelings nor a robust understanding,
and his highest qualities are a fair poetical taste, and a tolerable
acquaintance with ancient and modern authors.

Bowles was a school-boy at Winchester when Warton was head-master, and
he intimated that this early connection was the cause of his being
employed to revise the next edition of Pope. It appeared in 1806. His
poetic sensibility was exquisite, and he was well-read, shrewd, and
candid. His failing was a hurry of mind which disqualified him for a
painstaking commentator. He was content to jot down in a careless,
colloquial style the off-hand thoughts of his quick and cultivated
intellect, and he did not add much to the scanty explanations of Warton
and Warburton. The chief merit of his edition is his excellent literary
criticism, which is truer, deeper, and more refined than that of his old
Winchester master. The estimate Bowles formed of the poetry and
character of Pope was allowed to pass unchallenged for thirteen years,
when some remarks of Campbell, in his Specimens of British Poets,
commenced a controversy which lasted from 1819 to 1826. In the series of
pamphlets he published to vindicate his opinions, Bowles exhibited his
wonted acuteness, courage, and negligence. With all his slips in minor
points the fresh facts which have come to light have more than confirmed
his