Lewis Theobald - Life and Work

Life and Work

Before coming to Shakespeare, Theobald's career was not very distinguished. He began as a lawyer, as his father had been an attorney in Sittingbourne, Kent, but he set his sights on a literary life. He was a competent classicist, and his first publications were translations of Greek works. He began with Plato's Phaedo in 1714 and contracted with a book seller for the serial translation of the tragedies of Aeschylus (of which, only Electra and Ajax were done) and Sophocles's Oedipus Rex 1715. These translations are not particularly good, as he performed them very rapidly. Theobald also wrote for the Tory Mist's Journal. He attempted to make a living with drama and began to work with John Rich at Drury Lane, writing pantomimes for him. He also probably plagiarized a man named Henry Meystayer. Meystayer gave Theobald a draft of a play called The Perfidious Brother to review, and Theobald had it produced as his own work. As an author, Theobald's work was rather poor.

Theobald's fame and contribution to English letters, however, rests with his 1726 Shakespeare Restored, or a Specimen of the many Errors as well Committed as Unamended by Mr Pope in his late edition of this poet; designed not only to correct the said Edition, but to restore the true Reading of Shakespeare in all the Editions ever published. Theobald's variorum is, as its subtitle says, a reaction to Alexander Pope's edition of Shakespeare. Pope had "smoothed" Shakespeare's lines, and, most particularly, Pope had, indeed, missed many textual errors. In fact, when Pope produced a second edition of his Shakespeare in 1728, he incorporated many of Theobald's textual readings. Pope claimed that he took in only "about twenty-five words" of Theobald's corrections, but, in truth, he took in most of them. Additionally, Pope claimed that Theobald hid his information from Pope. Such was not the case.

Pope was as much a better poet than Theobald as Theobald was a better editor than Pope, and the events surrounding Theobald's attack and Pope's counter-attack show both men at their heights. Theobald's Shakespeare Restored is a judicious, if ill-tempered, answer to Pope's edition, but in 1733 Theobald produced a rival edition of Shakespeare in seven volumes for Jacob Tonson, the book seller. For the edition, Theobald worked with Bishop Warburton, who later also published an edition of Shakespeare. Theobald's 1733 edition was far the best produced before 1750, and it has been the cornerstone of all subsequent editions. Theobald not only corrected variants but chose among best texts and undid many of the changes to the text that had been made by earlier 18th century editors. Edmund Malone's later edition (the standard from which modern editors act) was built on Theobald's.