Lewis Theobald

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:

1.	1717  John Dennis, in Remarks on Pope's Homer (1717); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 3:141.
2.	1720  Giles Jacob, in Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of our most considerable English Poets (1720) 211.
3.	1728  Alexander Pope, in The Dunciad (1728); Works, ed. Warton (1796-97) 5:342-43.
4.	1729  William Duncombe, "The Judgement of Apollo, on the Controversy between Mr. Pope and Mr. Theobald, 1729"; Nichols, Select Collection of Poems (1780-82) 6:7.
5.	1729  Thomas Cooke, in "The Battle of the Poets" Tales, Epistles, Odes, Fables (1729) 132.
6.	1729  Richard Savage, in An Author to be Lett (1729); Works of Richard Savage (1775) 2:260.
7.	1730  Lewis Theobald to William Warburton, 1730; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58) 2:616-17.
8.	1730 ca.  Anonymous, "On Shakespear restored" 1730 ca.; The Festoon: a Collection of Epigrams (1766) 42.
9.	1730  Alexander Pope, "On the Candidates for the Laurel. An Epigram" Grub-Street Journal (12 November 1730).
10.	1731  Anonymous, in "A New Session of the Poets for the Year 1730" Universal Spectator (6 February 1731).
11.	1731  A Young Gentleman of Cambridge, in "The Modern Poets" Grub-Street Journal (18 November 1731).
12.	1732  Anonymous, "A Recipe to make a Modern Dramatick Poet. To C— B—, Esq." Grub-Street Journal (21 January 1732).
13.	1733  David Mallet, in Of Verbal Criticism (1733); Works (1759) 1:28.
14.	1734  Thomas Hearne, 17 May 1734; Reliquae Hearniae, ed. Bliss (1869) 3:137.
15.	1735  Anonymous, in The Poet finish'd in Prose, being a Dialogue concerning Mr. Pope and his Writings (1735) 54-55.
16.	1744  Mr. Stede of Covent Garden Theatre, 1744; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58) 2:745n.
17.	1744  Anonymous, Obituary Notice in Westminster Journal (22 September 1744).
18.	1747  William Warburton, Preface to Shakespeare (1747); D'Israeli, Quarrels of Authors (1814) 1:78.
19.	1757  William Warburton to Richard Hurd, 12 January 1757; in Letters of a Late eminent Prelate (1808) 164.
20.	1758  Samuel Johnson, 1758; Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791); ed. G. B. Hill (1891) 1:381.
21.	1762  Thomas Warton, in Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser (1762) 2:264-65.
22.	1765  Samuel Johnson, in The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare (1765) 1:xlix-li.
23.	1773  Anonymous, "Shakespeare in the Shades" St. James's Chronicle (21 October 1773).
24.	1807  Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 2:15.
25.	1837  Henry Hallam, in Introduction to the Literature of Europe of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (1837-39; 1882) 2:305-06.
26.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:611.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Lewis Theobald:

1.	1719  Giles Jacob, in Poetical Register: or the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (1719) 257-59.
2.	1753  Anonymous, in Cibber-Sheils, Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) 5:276-87.
3.	1764  David Erskine Baker, in Companion to the Play-House (1764) 2:Sig. Gg5-Gg5v.
4.	1809  Nathan Drake, in Essays Illustrative of the Rambler (1809-10) 1:30-32.
5.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 29:245-47.
6.	1832  William Clarke and Robert Shelton Mackenzie, in The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain (1832-34) 3:525.
7.	1876  Robert Carruthers, in Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 3rd ed. (1876; 1879) 3:197-98.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1730  Lewis Theobald:   Lewis Theobald to William Warburton, 1730; Nichols, Illustrations of the Literary History of the XVIII Century (1817-58) 2:616-17.
2.	1740  Thomas Rymer:   Lewis Theobald, in Preface to Shakespeare, 1740; in Beverley Warner, Famous Introductions to Shakespeare's Plays (1906) 79.