Lewis Theobald abandoned the law for a career as a translator, poet, and editor; he was brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to find fault with both John Dennis and Alexander Pope. In Shakespeare Restored (1726), Theobald pointed out editorial errors and oversights in Pope's edition of Shakespeare, for which he was awarded the chief place in the the original Dunciad. His work on Shakespeare was regarded highly enough that the Prince Frederick recommended Theobald to succeed Eusden as Poet Laureate.
TEXT RECORDS:
1714The Mausoleum. A Poem.
1715The Cave of Poverty, a Poem.
PUBLICATIONS:
The faithful bride of Grenada. 1704.
A pindarick ode on the Union. 1707.
The life and character of Marcus Portious Cato. 1713.
Plato's dialogue of the immortality of the soul translated. 1713.
Electra: a tragedy, translated. 1714.
The mausoleum: a poem sacred to the memory of Queen Anne. 1714.
The cave of poverty: a poem, written in imitation of Shakespeare. 1714.
The censor, ed. Theobald et al. 1715-17.
The clouds: a comedy, translated. 1715.
Complete key to the last new farce, The what d'ye call it. 1715.
Monsieur Le Clerc's observations upon Mr Addison's travels through Italy, done from the French. 1715.
Oedipus, King of Thebes: a tragedy, translated. 1715.
The Persian princess: or the royal villain. 1715.
The perfidious brother. 1715.
Plutus, or the world's idol: a comedy, translated. 1715.
A translation of book I of the Odyssey, with notes. 1716.
The history of the loves of Antiochus and Stratonice. 1717.
Pan and Syrinx. 1718.
Decius and Paulina. 1718.
Memoirs of Sir Walter Raleigh. 1719.
The grove: or a collection of original poems. 1721.
Shakespeare restored: or a specimen of the many errors as well committed as unamended by Mr Pope. 1726.
The distrest lovers, written originally by Mr Shakespeare, and now revised. 1728.
The posthumous works of William Wycherley, ed. Theobald. 1728.
Miscellaneous observations upon authors, ancient and modern [Jortin, with contributions by Theobald]. 2 vols, 1731-32.
Orestes [libretto]. 1731.
An epistle humbly addressed to the Rt Hon John, Earl of Orrery. 1732.
A miscellany on taste. 1732.
A succinct account of Stone-henge and Merlin. Prefixed to The vocal parts of an entertainment call'd Merlin: or the dread of Stone Henge. 1734.
The works of Shakespeare. 7 vols, 1734.
Edward the Black Prince, or the battle of Poictiers: an historical tragedy. 1750.
The works of Beaumont and Fletcher, with notes critical and explanatory by Messrs Theobald, Seward and Sympson. 10 vols, 1750.
King Pepin's campaign. 1755.
Brief remarks upon the original and present state of the drama. 1758.
A bone for the chroniclers to pick: a poem. 1758.
Observations on a pamphlet lately published. 1759.
Electra; The birth of Hercules. 1765.
Phaedo [Plato, trans.] 1773.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
English
Anglican
Isleworth School
lawyer
editor
poet
dramatist
translator
Mist's Journal
The Censor
Joseph Addison
Dr. John Armstrong
Rev. Thomas Birch
Matthew Concanen
Thomas Cooke
Rev. John Jortin
Bernard Lintot
Dr. George Sewell
Robert Walpole
William Warburton
Leonard Welsted
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL.
Giles Jacob, Poetical Register (1719); Giles Jacob, An Historical Account of ... English Poets (1720); Alexander Pope, Dunciad (1728; 1743); "Theobald's Shakespeare" Grub-Street Journal (6, 20 June 1734); Cibber-Shiels, Lives of the Poets (1753); David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play-House (1764); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Letter of Theobald to Thomas Birch on Ben Jonson in Monthly Magazine 21 (February 1806) 40-41; Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Correspondence and Memoir in John Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature 3rd ed. (1876); C. Golding, "Lewis Theobald" Notes and Queries 2 (1886) 215-16; Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); T. R. Lounsbury, The First Editors of Shakespeare (1906); Richard Foster Jones, Lewis Theobald: his Contributions to English Scholarship (1919); A. W. Evans, in Warburton and the Warburtonians (1932); Dobree, OHEL (1959); Peter Seary, Lewis Theobald and the Editing of Shakespeare (1990).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Lewis Theobald:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Lewis Theobald:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
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