tirists. There
Bentley's great qualities are represented as "tall, without shape or
comeliness; large, without strength or proportion." His various
erudition, as "armour patched up of a thousand incoherent pieces;" his
book, as "the sound" of that armour, "loud and dry, like that made by
the fall of a sheet of lead from the roof of some steeple;" his
haughty intrepidity, as "a vizor of brass, tainted by his breath,
corrupted into copperas, nor wanted gall from the same fountain; so
that, whenever provoked by anger or labour, an atramentous quality of
most malignant nature was seen to distil from his lips." Wotton is
"heavy-armed and slow of foot, lagging behind." They perish together
in one ludicrous death. Boyle, in his celestial armour, by a stroke of
his weapon, transfixes both "the lovers," "as a cook trusses a brace
of woodcocks, with iron skewer piercing the tender sides of both.
Joined in their lives, joined in their death, so closely joined, that
Charon would mistake them both for one, and waft them over Styx for
half his fare." Such is the candour of wit! The great qualities of an
adversary, as in Bentley, are distorted into disgraceful attitudes;
while the suspicious virtues of a friend, as in Boyle, not passed over
in prudent silence, are ornamented with even spurious panegyric.

Garth, catching the feeling of the time, sung--

And to a Bentley 'tis we owe a Boyle.

Posterity justly appreciates the volume of Bentley for its stores
of ancient literature; and the author, for that peculiar sagacity
in emending a corrupt text, which formed his distinguishing
characteristic as a classical critic; and since his book but for this
literary quarrel had never appeared, reverses the names in the
verse of the "Satirist."

FOOTNOTES:

[297] Haughtiness was the marking feature of Bentley's literary
character; and his Wolseyan style and air have been played on
by the wits. Bentley happened to express himself on the King's
MS. of Phalaris in a manner their witty malice turned against
him. "'Twas a surprise (he said) to find that OUR MS. was not
perused."--"OUR MS. (they proceed) that is, his Majesty's and
mine! He speaks out now; 'tis no longer the King's, but OUR
MS., _i.e._ Dr. Bentley's and the King's in common, _Ego et
Rex meus_--much too familiar for a library-keeper!"--It has
been said that Bentley used the same Wolseyan egotism on