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Lewis Theobald (baptised 2 April 1688 – 18 September 1744), British textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire. He was vital for the establishment of fair texts for Shakespeare, and he was the first avatar of Dulness in Alexander Pope's ''The Dunciad''. ==Life and work== Lewis Theobald was the son of Peter Theobald, an attorney, and his second wife, Mary. He was born in Sittingbourne, Kent, and baptized there on 2 April 1688. When Peter Theobald died in 1690, Lewis was taken into the Rockingham household and educated with the sons of the family, which gave him the grounding in Greek and Latin that would serve his scholarship throughout his career. As a young man, he was apprenticed to an attorney and then set up his own law practice in London. In 1707, possibly while he was apprenticing, he published ''A Pindaric Ode on the Union of Scotland and England'' and ''Naufragium Britannicum.'' In 1708 his tragedy ''Persian Princess, or, The Royal Villain'' was performed at Drury Lane. Theobald translated Plato's ''Phaedo'' in 1714 and was contracted by Bernard Lintot to translate the seven tragedies of Aeschylus (of which only ''Electra'' and ''Ajax'' were completed and the series was unpublished). He translated Sophocles's ''Oedipus Rex'' in 1715. 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 had given Theobald a draft of a play called ''The Perfidious Brother'' to review, and Theobald had it produced as his own work. Theobald's fame and contribution to English letters 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. 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. Edmond Malone's later edition (the standard from which modern editors act) was built on Theobald's. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lewis Theobald」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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