st Folio or of the quartos, but in the case of 'Romeo and
Juliet' he met with an early quarto while his edition was passing through
the press, and inserted at the end of the play the prologue which is met
with only in the quartos. He made a few happy emendations, some of which
coincide accidentally with the readings of the First Folio; but his text
is deformed by many palpable errors. His practical experience as a
playwright induced him, however, to prefix for the first time a list of
_dramatis personae_ to each play, to divide and number acts and scenes on
rational principles, and to mark the entrances and exits of the
characters. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar he corrected and
modernised.

Alexander Pope, 1688-1744.

The poet Pope was Shakespeare's second editor. His edition in six quarto
volumes was completed in 1725. The poems, edited by Dr. George Sewell,
with an essay on the rise and progress of the stage, and a glossary,
appeared in a seventh volume. Pope had few qualifications for the task,
and the venture was a commercial failure. In his preface Pope, while he
fully recognised Shakespeare's native genius, deemed his achievement
deficient in artistic quality. Pope claimed to have collated the text of
the Fourth Folio with that of all preceding editions, and although his
work indicates that he had access to the First Folio and some of the
quartos, it is clear that his text was based on that of Rowe. His
innovations are numerous, and are derived from 'his private sense and
conjecture,' but they are often plausible and ingenious. He was the
first to indicate the place of each new scene, and he improved on Rowe's
subdivision of the scenes. A second edition of Pope's version in ten
duodecimo volumes appeared in 1728 with Sewell's name on the title-page
as well as Pope's. There were few alterations in the text, though a
preliminary table supplied a list of twenty-eight quartos. Other
editions followed in 1735 and 1768. The last was printed at Garrick's
suggestion at Birmingham from Baskerville's types.

Lewis Theobald, 1688-1744.

Pope found a rigorous critic in Lewis Theobald, who, although
contemptible as a writer of original verse and prose, proved himself the
most inspired of all the textual critics of Shakespeare. Pope savagely
avenged himself on his censor by holding him up to ridicule as the hero
of the 'Dunciad.' Theobald first displayed his critical skill in 1726 in
a volum