THEOBALD, LEWIS

(baptized April 2, 1688, Sittingbourne, Kent, Eng.d. Sept. 18, 1744, London), the first Shakespearean editor to approach the plays with the respect and attention then normally reserved for classical texts. When in 1726 Theobald brought out his Shakespeare Restored; or, A Specimen of the Many Errors As Well Committed As Unamended by Mr. Pope, in His Late Edition of This Poet, Alexander Pope, whose edition of William Shakespeare had appeared a year earlier, was enraged and made Theobald the chief target of his satirical poem The Dunciad. In 1734 Theobald produced his own edition of Shakespeare in seven volumes, often using Elizabethan parallels as a guide to some brilliant emendations.