Editing Alexander Pope (section)

===Shakespeare's works===
In this period, Pope was employed by the publisher [[Jacob Tonson]] to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare.<ref name="Pope-Shakespeare-Tonson">{{Cite web |title=Preface to Shakespeare, 1725, Alexander Pope |url=https://shakespearebrasileiro.org/en/preface-to-shakespeare-1725-alexander-pope/ |website=ShakespeareBrasileiro |access-date=10 March 2020 |archive-date=11 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111152105/https://shakespearebrasileiro.org/en/preface-to-shakespeare-1725-alexander-pope/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> When it appeared in 1725, it silently regularised Shakespeare's metre and rewrote his verse in several places. Pope also removed about 1,560 lines of Shakespeare's material, arguing that some appealed to him more than others.<ref name="Pope-Shakespeare-Tonson"/> In 1726, the lawyer, poet and pantomime-deviser [[Lewis Theobald]] published a scathing pamphlet called ''Shakespeare Restored'', which catalogued the errors in Pope's work and suggested several revisions to the text. This enraged Pope, wherefore Theobald became the main target of Pope's ''Dunciad''.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Theobald#ref59272 "Lewis Theobald"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814063758/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Theobald#ref59272 |date=14 August 2020 }} ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''.</ref>

The second edition of Pope's ''Shakespeare'' appeared in 1728.<ref name="Pope-Shakespeare-Tonson"/> Apart from some minor revisions to the preface, it seems that Pope had little to do with it. Most later 18th-century editors of Shakespeare dismissed Pope's creatively motivated approach to textual criticism. Pope's preface continued to be highly rated. It was suggested that Shakespeare's texts were thoroughly contaminated by actors' interpolations and they would influence editors for most of the 18th century.