of the characters alone. The simplicity and probity of the writer, too,[1] conspicuous throughout the work, are very captivating. Hume says very justly, that “he is not near so partial in fact as he appears to be,” for he shows a perpetual wish to apologize for Charles, and yet, in truth, states fairly and correctly enough all those enormities, which afterwards cost him his crown and his life.
[The Clarendon’s History above-mentioned, with Warburton’s Notes, he bequeathed to his friend Dr. Hurd, in whose possession it now is.]
Dr. Warburton had scribbled a good deal in many other of his books. He bequeathed them, I think, to be sold for the benefit of the Bath Hospital; but his wife having notice of it, and the old man being for the two or three last years of his life in nearly a state of dotage, she disposed of them in his lifetime, if I mistake not, to Payne, the bookseller, and they are now dispersed.
He inherited all Mr. Pope’s copies of the old quarto editions of Shakspeare, which he bound up in two volumes; but in 1766, on Mr. Steevens republishing them, he disposed of those valuable copies to Payne, who put them into the sale of Mr. Mallet’s books, which at the time were selling by auction. They were not numbered in Mallet’s catalogue, but sold at the end of his quarto plays for three guineas; but I never could learn to whom.
- ↑ “Yet still I love the language of his heart,” is fully as applicable to him as to Cowley.
