It appeared in six volumes, quarto, in 1725. His
preface was good, but he was deficient in antiquarian lore; and his
mortification was extreme when Theobald, destined to figure in "The
Dunciad," a mere plodding hack, not only in his "Shakspeare Restored,"
exposed many blunders in Pope's edition; but issued, some years
afterwards, an edition of his own, which was much better received by the
public.
In 1726, there was a great gathering of the Tory wits at Twickenham.
Swift had come from Ireland, and resided for some time with Pope.
Bolingbroke came over occasionally from Dawley; and Gay was often there
to laugh with, and be laughed at by, the rest. Swift had "Gulliver's
Travels"--the most ingenious and elaborate libel against man and God
ever written--in his pocket, nearly ready for publication; and we may
conceive the grim, sardonic smile with which he read it to his friends,
and their tumultuous mirth. Gay was projecting his "Beggars' Opera," and
Pope preparing some of his witty "Miscellanies." At the end of two
months, the Dean was hurried home by the tidings of Stella's illness. He
left the "Travels" behind him, for the copyright of which Pope procured
L300,--a sum counted then very large, and which Swift generously handed
over to Pope.
In September this year, when returning in Lord Bolingbroke's coach from
Dawley, the poet was overturned in a little rivulet near Twickenhan, and
nearly drowned.
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