prison at Bristol, a city which recalls the equally painful
story of Chatterton.

LEWIS THEOBALD (1688-1744), the original hero of the _Dunciad_, was a
dramatist and translator, but is chiefly known as the author of
_Shakespeare Restored; or specimens of blunders committed or unamended
in Pope's edition of the poet_ (1726). This was followed two years later
by _Proposals for Publishing Emendations and Remarks on Shakespeare_,
and in 1733 by his edition of the dramatist in seven volumes. 'Theobald
as an editor,' say the editors of the _Cambridge Shakespeare_, 'is
incomparably superior to his predecessors and to his immediate successor
Warburton, although the latter had the advantage of working on his
materials. He was the first to recall a multitude of readings of the
first Folio unquestionably right, but unnoticed by previous editors.
Many most brilliant emendations ... are due to him.'

WILLIAM WALSH (1663-1708) has chronologically little claim to be noticed
here, for his poems were published before the beginning of the century,
but he is to be remembered as the early friend and wise counsellor of
Pope, and also as the author, I believe, of the only English sonnet
between Milton's in 1658, and Gray's, on Richard West, in 1742.

ANNE FINCH, Countess of Winchelsea (1660-1720), published a volume of
verse in 1713 under the title of _Miscellany Poems on Several Occasions,
Written by a Lady_. The book contains a _Nocturnal Reverie_, which has
some lines showing a close and faithful observation of rural sounds and
sights, as for example:

'When the loosed horse, now as his pasture leads,
Comes slowly grazing through the adjoining meads,
Whose stealing pace and lengthened shade we fear,
Till torn-up forage in his teeth we hear;
When nibbling sheep at large pursue their food,
And unmolested kine rechew the cud;
When curlews cry beneath the village walls,
And to her straggling brood the partridge calls.'

The _Nocturnal Reverie_, however, is an exception to the general
character of Lady Winchelsea's poems, which consist chiefly of odes
(including the inevitable Pindaric), fables, songs, affectionate
addresses to her husband, poetical epistles, and a tragedy,
_Aristomenes; or the Royal Shepherd_. The _Petition for an Absolute
Retreat_ is one of the best pieces in the volume. It displays great
facility in versification, and a love of country delights.

THOMAS YALDEN (1670-1736), born in Exe