SOURCE: Pittock, Joan. “Joseph Warton and his Second Volume of the Essay on Pope.” Review of English Studies 18, no. 71 (August 1967): 264-73.

In the following essay, Pittock considers the reasons for the 26 year gap between the first and second editions of Joseph Warton's influential Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope.

Many suggestions have been put forward by critics of Joseph Warton to account for his long delay in issuing the second volume of his Essay on Pope. While Johnson attributed the non-appearance of the second volume to Warton's disappointment at the reception of the first, Chalmers accounted for the twenty-six-year gap by referring to Warton's fear of Warburton; Wooll implied that its cause was his concern for his brother Thomas's career; and MacClintock associated it with Warton's lack of time and possible lack of interest in those works of Pope which remained to be commented on.¹ After...