Blair and others, where he said, "he had read the MS. in Lord
Bolingbroke's handwriting, and was at a loss whether most to
admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's prose, or the beauty
of Mr. Pope's verse."--See the letter of Dr. Blair in
"Boswell's Life of Johnson."

[172] Of many instances, the following one is the most curious. When
Jarvis published his "Don Quixote," Warburton, who was prompt
on whatever subject was started, presented him with "A
Dissertation on the Origin of the Books of Chivalry." When it
appeared, it threw Pope, their common friend, into raptures.
He writes, "I knew you as certainly as the ancients did the
gods, by the first pace and the very gait." True enough!
Warburton's strong genius stamped itself on all his works. But
neither the translating painter, nor the simple poet, could
imagine the heap of absurdities they were admiring! Whatever
Warburton here asserted was false, and whatever he conjectured
was erroneous; but his blunders were quite original.--The good
sense and knowledge of Tyrwhitt have demolished the whole
edifice, without leaving a single brick standing. The absurd
rhapsody has been worth preserving, for the sake of the
masterly confutation: no uncommon result of Warburton's
literary labours!

It forms the concluding note in Shakspeare's _Love's Labour
Lost_.

[173] Of THEOBALD he was once the companion, and to Sir THOMAS HANMER
he offered his notes for his edition. [Hanmer's Shakspeare was
given in 1742 to the University of Oxford, for its benefit,
and was printed at the University Press, under the management
of Dr. Smith and Dr. Shippon. Sir Thomas paid the expenses of
the engravings by Gravelot prefixed to each play. The edition
was published in 4to. in 1744, it was printed on the "finest
royal paper," and does not warrant the severity of Pope, whose
editing was equally faulty.] Sir Thomas says he found
Warburton's notes "sometimes just, but mostly wild and out of
the way." Warburton paid a visit to Sir Thomas for a week,
which he conceived was to assist him in perfecting his darling
text; but hints were now dropped by Warburton, that _he_ might
publish the work corrected, by which a g