653 



BENTLEY, RICHARD. 



BENTLEY, RICHARD. 



654 



of his manners, and bis prudence and tact in diplomatic affairs. In 

 1621 be was made a cardinal, and be became afterwards the friend and 

 confidant of Pope Urban VIIL In 1641 Bentivoglio was made Bishop 

 of Tcrracina. When Urban VIII. died in 1644 it was the general 

 opinion that Bentivoglio would be his successor in tbe papal chair, 

 which probably he expected himself; but he fell ill and died, at the 

 age of 65, before the cardinals in conclave assembled had time to 

 make their choice. The works of Bentivoglio, besides that mentioned 

 above, are ' Relazioni fatte in tempo delle Nunziature di Fiandra e 

 di Francia,' 4to, Cologne, 1630, in which he describes the manners and 

 character of the nations among whom he lived, and the remarkable 

 incidents of his time : it was translated into English by Henry, earl 

 of Monmouth, folio, London, 1652; 'Memorie con le quali descrive la 

 sua Vita,' Svo, Amsterdam, 1648, a sort of diary of his life, published 

 after his death ; and ' Lettere,' Svo, Roma, 1654. This last work is held 

 in much estimation for the correctness of the language and fluency 

 and ease of tbe style, and is therefore often put into the hands of 

 students of Italian. 



BENTLEY, RICHARD, born January 27, 1662, was the son of a 

 small farmer or yeoman resident at Oulton, in the parish of Rothwell, 

 near Wakefield in Yorkshire. He was educated at the grammar school 

 of Wakefield, and at St. John's College, Cambridge, of which he was 

 admitted a sizar, May 24, 1676. >"o fellowship falling vacant to which 

 he was eligible, be accepted the mastership of the grammar school of 

 Spalding in Lincolnshire early in 1682. After holding that office for 

 a year he resigned it to become private tutor to the son of Dr. Stilliug- 

 fleet, afterwards bishop of Worcester. He accompanied his pupil to 

 Oxford, where he was admitted to the same degree of M.A. as he held 

 at Cambridge. His residence at Oxford contributed to advance both 

 his reputation and learning; he had access to the manuscript treasures 

 of the Bodleian library, and became intimate with several distinguished 

 members of the university, especially Mill, the celebrated editor of the 

 Greek Testament, and Bernard, then Savilian professor. A series of 

 his letters to anil from the latter is published in the ' Museum Critic-urn,' 

 vol. iL, p. 533. At this time he meditated two very laborious under- 

 takings a complete collection of ' Fragments of the Greek Poets,' and 

 an edition of the three principal Grtek lexicographers, Hesychius, 

 Suidas, and the ' Etymologicum Magnum,' to be printed in parallel 

 columns in the same page. Neither scheme however was carried into 

 effect. To the edition of ' Callimachus,' published by Gnevius in 1697, 

 Bentley contributed a collection of the fragments of that poet. But 

 his reputation for scholarship was established by a performance of a 

 much more confined nature a dissertation on an obscure chronicltr, 

 named Malala, which was published as an Appendix to Chilmead and 

 Mill's editiou of the author in 1691. [MALALA.] This showed such 

 an intimate acquaintance with Greek literature, especially the drama, 

 that it drew the eyes of foreign as well as British scholars upon him, 

 and obtained a warm tribute of admiration from the great critics, 

 (Inijviiid and Spanheim, to this new and brilliant star of British 

 literature. 



Bentley was ordained deacon in March 1690. In 1692 having 

 obtained the first nomination to the lectureship newly founded under 

 the will of Mr. Boyle, in defence of religion, natural and revealed 

 [BoTLE, ROBERT], he spared no labour to improve this opportunity 

 of establishing his reputation as a divine. He chose fur bis subject 

 the confutation of atheism directing his arguments more especially 

 against the system of Hobbes, while the latter portion of the course 

 was devoted to prove the existence of a Creator, from the evidences 

 of de-ign in the constitution of the universe, as explained by Newton ; 

 whose great discoveries, published in the ' Priucipia,' about six years 

 before, were slowly received by the learned, and continued a sealed 

 book to the world at large. These lectures were received with great 

 applause, and established the author's reputation as a preacher. In 

 October 1 692 he was rewarded with a stall at Worcester, and in the 

 following year wag appointed keeper of the King's Library. In 1694 

 he wag re-appointed Boyle Lecturer, and followed up his refutation of 

 atheism by a defence of Christianity against the attacks of infidels; 

 but this second scries of sermons was never published. In 1696 he 

 took the degree of D.D. at Cambridge ; and on this occasion, in his 

 public exercise (or in academical language, his act), he appeared again 

 as a defender of revealed religion. 



Bentley 's appointment to the office of King's Librarian was the 

 accidental cause of his writing tbe celebrated ' Dissertation on the 

 Kpistles of Phalaris.' The once famous controversy between Boyle 

 and Bentley arose out of an alleged want of courtesy on the part of 

 Bentley relative to the loan of a manuscript from the King's Library 

 to the Hon. C. Boyle, an undergraduate of Christ's Church, Oxford, of 

 promising talents, who had undertaken to edit the ' Epistles' [BoYLE, 

 CIIABLEB], and who resented the supposed slight in a pettish passage 

 in the Preface (January 1, 1695). On seeing this, Bentley addressed 

 to Boyle a courteous explanation of his conduct, expecting the offen- 

 ire passage to be cancelled or retracted : but he obtained no satisfac- 

 tion, and was told he might seek his redress in any method he pleased. 

 Two years elapsed before he took public notice of the insult. Bentley 

 had made up his mind that the ' Epistles ' ascribed to Phalaris were 

 Mpurioui, before this quarrel occurred; and in 1697 he was called 

 on by his friend, the learned Wotton, to fulfil a promise he hid 

 made, and to state the grounds on which he came to that conclusion. 



This he did in an Appendix to the second edition of Wotton's ' Reflec- 

 tions on Ancient and Modern Learning." At the end of it he notices 

 the unjust charge made against him by Boyle, whose performance he 

 criticises with much asperity. This work created a great sensation, 

 especially among the Christchurch men, who chose to consider it as 

 an insult to the whole society. A knot of the best scholars and wits 

 of the college accordingly united their pens in Boyle's name to punish 

 Bentley, not by fair argument, but by every artifice which wit and 

 malice could devise. Not only his learning, but his character, literary, 

 moral, and personal, were attacked. The joint-work, in which the 

 celebrated Atterbury was the chief performer, appeared in March 

 1698, and was entitled ' Dr. Bentley 's Dissertations on the Epistles 

 of Phalaris and the Fables of J3sop examined,' by the Hon. Charles 

 Boyle, Esq. It obtained such a degree of popularity, as gives some 

 reason for supposing that Bentley had already made himself known 

 and disliked for that presumptuous arrogance which he displayed so 

 remarkably in after-life. It has been so long and so generally acknow- 

 ledged that in this controversy Bentley was triumphantly victorious, 

 that many may be surprised to hear of the extremely favourable recep- 

 tion which the Oxford rejoinder obtained ; the blow was commonly 

 thought fatal to Bentley 's reputation as a scholar. 



A number of lampoons and attacks of various sorts were made upon 

 him, of which Swift's ' Battle of the Books' is the only one which 

 has obtained celebrity. Bentley was in no hurry to reply to the storm 

 of ridicule and abuse which assailed him on all sides : it was his maxim, 

 he said, that no man was ever written out of reputation, except by 

 himself. He therefore took time to mature his answer, and in the 

 beginning of 1699 published his enlarged ' Dissertations on the Epistles 

 of Phalaris,' which has finally set at rest the question in dispute. This 

 however is the least part of the merits of the work. Professedly 

 controversial, it embodies a mass of accurate information relative to 

 historical facts, antiquities, chronology, and philology, such as we may 

 safely say, has rarely been collected in the same space : and the reader 

 cannot fail to admire the ingenuity with which things apparently trilling, 

 or foreign to the point in question, are made effective in illustrating or 

 proving the author's views. Nothing shows so well how thoroughly 

 digested and familiar was the vast stock of reading which Bentley 

 possessed. The banter and ridicule of his opponents are returned 

 with interest, and the reader is reconciled to what might seem to 

 savour too much of arrogance and the bitterness of controversy, by a 

 sense of the strong provocation given to the author. The Oxford 

 champions expressed their intention to reply, but they probably felt 

 their ground to be cut from uuder their feet, for they published no 

 answer; nor was Beutley again called into the field by auy worthy 

 antagonist. 



At the end of the 'Dissertation on Phalaris,' Bentley examines and 

 denies the authenticity of the epistles ascribed to Themistocles, 

 Socrates, Euripides, aud others. He also denies the genuineness of 

 the fables which bear ./Exop's name (as to their form, entirely, as to 

 their substance, in a great measure), and traces the -Esopeau Fables 

 through a number of hands down to the comparatively modern aud 

 corrupt prose version now extant. [JEsof ; BABRIUS.] 



On the 1st of February 1700, Bentley, by the gift of the crown, 

 was instituted Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and resigned his 

 stall at Worcester in consequence of that appointment. In the fol- 

 lowing year, June 24, he was admitted Archdeacon of Ely. Subse- 

 quently he was appointed Chaplain both to William III. and to Queen 

 Anne. In January 1701, he married Joanna, daughter of Sir John 

 Bernard of Bramptou, in Huntingdonshire, a lady of amiablo temper 

 and cultivated mind, with whom he lived in harmony aud happiness 

 throughout their union. 



His new situation was admirably suited to meet and gratify the 

 wishes of a scholar ; aud as a supporter and encourager of literature, 

 Bentley 's conduct is deserving of much praise. He took an active 

 part in re-modelling and rendering useful the University press ; he 

 gave his countenance and assistance to Kuster, who undertook a new 

 edition of Suidas to be printed at that press ; he undertook his edition 

 of Horace, published afterwards in 1711; he wrote his 'Critical 

 Epistles to Kuster ' on the ' Plutus ' and ' Clouds ' of Aristophanes, 

 two of which, written in 1708, are published in the ' Museum Criticum,' 

 vol. ii., 403, &c., together with a ' Letter to Barnes on the Epistles 

 ascribed to Euripides,' dated February 22, 1692-93. A series of emenda- 

 tions, previously unpublished, of the same plays, will be found in the 

 'Museum Criticum' (vol. iL, p. 126.) He also transmitted in 1708 a 

 long and valuable letter to Hematerhuis, devoted principally to the 

 correction of the fragments of comic authors iu the 10th book of 

 'Julius Pollux,' of whose ' Onomasticou ' that eminent critic had 

 recently published an edition. He made an important improvement 

 in the system of college examinations for fellowships aud scholarships, 

 by substituting for the old aud loose method of oral examination, 

 that system of written exercises which is still pursued, and which has 

 contributed perhaps as much as any one cause, to the high reputation 

 which the college has long maintained for purity of election as well 

 as for the talents of its members ; and he laboured with success for 

 the improvement of the college library. Bentley's conduct iu other 

 collegiate affairs was far from praiseworthy. He showed almost from 

 the first a domineering, arbitrary, and selfish, almost a sunlid temper, 

 which disgusted the best members of the society, and, in the end, 



