Mr. (Lewis) Theobald

Born in Kent and baptized on April 2, 1688, Lewis Theobald became an English writer, playwright, and textual editor whose reputation rests above all on his work on Shakespeare. He first trained for the law but turned instead to literature, building a career through translation, drama, and criticism.

Theobald made his name with Shakespeare Restored (1726), a book that challenged the errors in Alexander Pope’s edition of Shakespeare. That attack sparked a long-running quarrel with Pope, who mocked him in The Dunciad. Even so, Theobald’s own edition of Shakespeare, published in 1733, was widely important: later scholars have credited him as one of the first editors to treat Shakespeare’s plays with close, serious textual attention.

He also wrote and adapted plays, including Double Falsehood, a work that has remained interesting because of its claimed connection to a lost Shakespeare play. Though he was once overshadowed by Pope’s satire, Theobald is now remembered as a careful scholar who helped lay the groundwork for modern Shakespeare editing. He died in London on September 18, 1744.