THE HISTORY OF THE WORKS of the LEARNED, FOR THE Year One Thoufand Seven Hundred and Forty. CONTAINING IMPARTIAL ACCOUNTS and ACCURATE INTERSPER S'D WITH DISSERTATIONS on feveral curious and enter- VOL. I. LONDON: Printed for JACOB ROBINSON, under the Inner- 浴 THE HISTORY OF THE WORKS of the LEARNED. N For JANUARY, 1740. ARTICLE I O Author has had a greater Honour reflected on him by his Editors than Shakespeare. Among these we may reckon a fublime Genius, who is one of the principal Ornaments of this Age, and of the British Nation: The Reader need not be told, that it is Mr. Pope, whom I intend by this Character. But as the Works of our Dramatick Poet have Merit enough to engage the Concern even of this celebrated Perfon, fo it is certain, that they extremely needed it, on account of the almost innumerable Corruptions, by which, through one Means or other, they have been depraved. By his Care and Sagacity many of these have been remov'd or amended, and the guilty Causes of them affign'd, Shakespeare has been in a good Measure restored to his original Purity, and his Admirers are no longer at a loss to account for that furprifing Inconfiftency |