BEN 



Jurin't preface to his edition of the Geography of Vtreniiu 

 (Cambridge. 1718). that he was induced to undertake tins 

 work by Bentley. In I no Bent Icy announced a plan for 

 publishing a new critical edition of the Grtrk Testament, 

 and explained hi* views on this subject in a letter to Arch- 

 bishop Wke. printed in Dr. Monk's Life, chap. xii. For 

 four years he meditated over this design, upon which he 

 pared neither labour nor expense. He made fresh collations 

 of the celebrated Alexandrine and Ben MSB. [see ALEX- 

 ANDRIA NCODBX], andof other less important MSS. in Eng- 

 land : and he had the assistance of the eminent biblical critic 

 Wetstcin and other scholars, in collating MSS. on the conti- 

 nent. In 1 720 he published proposals and a specimen of the 

 intended work, which was to be published by subscription, in 

 two volumes, price three guineas for small and five for large 

 per. The proposals are printed in the Biographia fln- 

 teftMico, and in brMonk's Life, ch. xv. A large number 

 of subscribers was obtained, but from some unexplained 

 CUM, the work was never carried into publication. Many 

 persons ascribed this to the attacks mode on the author by 

 Confers Middleton, the historian of Cicero, a violent and im- 

 placable enemy of Bentlcy. From this opinion Dr. Monk 

 dissents ; and it is discountenanced by the well-known har- 

 dihood of Bcntley's character, and his habitual contempt 

 for all his adversaries. 



We have still to go back to notice a work which, per- 

 haps with the exception of the Dittertatioru on Phaloris, 

 is the most remarkable of Bentley's labours, his edition 

 of Horace, undertaken in 1701, but not completed till 

 1711. In the progress of this work he involved himself 

 in needless difficulties ; for, contrary to the usual practice 

 of scholars, he introduced his emendations into the text, 

 nd, still more unusually, caused the text to be printed 

 off in 1 706, long before the notes were ready. Many of 

 the alterations, it may be supposed, his mature judgment 

 would disallow ; for in the preface, he expresses his regret 

 for more than twenty of them : and it is probable that 

 he stretched his ingenuity to defend many others which 

 he did not really approve. The tone of the preface 

 is so arrogant, that Dr. Monk says, ' Bentley's character 

 for presumption has been established by those few pages, 

 more than by all the other productions of his pen. An 

 account of the plan of the work will be found in the Life of 

 Bentley, ch. x. Between 700 and 800 alterations are intro- 

 duced into the text, in the defence of which unusual inge- 

 nuity and a vast depth of learning arc shown. Many of 

 them have been adopted by the best subsequent editors; 

 but the bulk of them are now rejected as unnecessary, 

 harsh, or prosaic. Nevertheless, Bentley's Horace is a noble 

 monument of the author's learning, critical skill, and ac- 

 quaintance with the Latin language. 



We can do no more than notice, and refer to Dr. Monk's 

 Life, for an account of some of Bentley's minor labours, as 

 his Letter on the Sigean Inscription,' published by Ed- 

 mund Chishull, his revision of the ' Theriaca of Nicander,' 

 made at the request of Dr. Mead, and printed in the ' Mu- 

 seum Criticum,' v. i. pp. 370. 445 ; an intended edition of 

 1 Lucmn,' never published, though he wrote notes on the 

 poet, which fourteen years after his death were published 

 t the Strawberry-hill press, attached to the text and notes 

 of Grotius ; an intended edition of ' Ovid,' meditated out of 

 pita to Burman, and an edition of the ' Fables of Phasdrus,' 

 undertaken to revenge himself on Dr. Hare, a former friend, 

 gainst whom he had conceived an offence. This was ap- 

 pended to an edition of 'Terence,' published in 172C, which 

 deserves a different notice, as being one of the most honour- 

 able and unexceptionable of the author's performances. The 

 text professes to be corrected in no less than a thousand 

 plants, and the reasons for almost every change arc given 

 in the notes. It is especially remarkable for the nicety 

 of care in accentuation, and for the metrical skill which it 

 displays : and contains a valuable dissertation upon the 

 metre* of Terence, which Dr. Monk characterises as the 

 clearest and mo*t satisfactory account which has yet been 

 written of that difficult subject.' The best edition is that of 

 Amntenlam, fur which Bentley, with his usual liberality in 

 urh matters, sent the publishers on English ropy with' his 

 last correi 



In ir.il. Boiitlcy, much to the detriment of his reputation, 

 undertook to publish an edition of the Paradise Lost.' II 

 proceeded on a supposition, first starter) by Elijah 1 

 that Milton, by hi blindness, being obliged to employ an 

 amanuensis, his poem might reasonably be supposed to 



BEN 



have been much corrupted, between its delivery- from his 

 own lips, and its issue from the press. There is certainly 

 some truth in thi*. but Bentley pushed the therm beyond 

 all reasonable bounds : for he created an ideal friend, whom 

 he supposed to have filled the office of editor, and to whom 

 he ascribes not only the numerous verbal errors, which he 

 professes to detect, but the introduction of whole hues, and 

 eren passagei of many verses. It is probable that Dr. 

 Monk's view of the case is correct, and that Bentley in- 

 vented this fiction of an editor, to take off the odium of 

 perpetually condemning the taste and judgment of M 

 himself. But in this point of view the editor's presumption 

 is intolerable ; and his self-confidence and flippant toi 

 criticism is equally offensive, especially when din 

 against a man of genius so different from his own. Bcnt- 

 s not appear to have had much poetic feeling. I! - 

 criticisms of Horace have been condemned as prosaic, and 

 his criticisms on Milton display the same fault in a more 

 eminent degree. Nor was he qualified by taste or study 

 to appreciate the store of Italian and romantic learning 

 which Milton in his poem has interwoven with his classical 

 reading. Bentley thus at last gave testimony of the truth 

 of his own saying, that no man was ever written out of 

 reputation but by himself: his work excited almost univer- 

 sal dissatisfaction ; resentment on the part of the admirers 

 of Milton: distress and regret on the part of those who 

 wi-hed well to the editor. Nevertheless, like every thing 

 else of Bentley's, it displays much critical acumen; and 

 the ingenuity of the commentator might have been admired, 

 if it had been united with a decent share of modesty. 



The history of Bentley's edition of Homer belongs rather 

 to the article Digamma: since the characteristic feature of 

 it is an attempt to-restore the prosody of Homer by the in- 

 sertion of that long forgotten letter. This was a great un- 

 dertaking for a man turned of seventy, for he did not begin 

 it till the year 1 732, though his opinion relative to the Di- 

 garama seems to have been made up several years before. 

 The task was difficult ; for even supposing that his views of 

 the lost letter were strictly correct, yet the changes of ortho- 

 graphy and language introduced in the course of many 

 ages, so complicated the question, that often where the 

 metre was before correct, the insertion of the Digamraa 

 rendered it unprosodiacal. Bentley did much, though he 

 was not altogether successful. 'He corrected and noted 

 the two poems from beginning to end ; availing himself of 

 the collations of all the manuscripts to be procured, and 

 amending the text wherever he could, from the lexicons 

 and grammarians. Many of the verses which were unma- 

 nageable he rejected, though the number condemned does 

 not come near to that which a late editor, who pursued a 

 similar plan, found it convenient to discard. The frequent 

 changes and erasures of his own corrections which appeal 

 in his copy, prove the uncertainty and difficulty of the un- 

 dertaking : independently of the lines affected by the Di- 

 gamma, many others presented obstacles to the restitution 

 of metrical propriety ; and the character of Bentley's criti- 

 cism, which had become more daring as his years inctMuwd, 

 sometimes led him to harsh attempts at alteration.' (Monk, 

 ch. xx.) Payne Knight has more recently renewed the at- 

 tempt ; but to say the least, without its meeting with the 

 general acceptation of scholars. Bentley's intended work 

 was broken off in 1739, when he had not completed the 

 notes on the 6th book, by a paralytic stroke. Shortly i 

 he had published his edition of Maniltus, which liatl been 

 prepared for the press no less than forty-five years. 



Bentley's literary career ends here. He recovered suffi- 

 ciently to be able to amuse himself; and the concluding 

 years of his life were spent in the tranquil enjoyment of the 

 society of his family rind of a few attached friends. Richard 

 Cumberland, the dramatist, was his grandson by his 

 daughter Joanna, and has left in his Memoirs a pleasing 

 account of the veteran scholar's condescension and good 

 nature. Mrs. Bentley died in 1740, and Bentley survived 

 her little more than two years. He died July 11, I : u, 

 and was interred in the College chapel. His library passed 

 into the hands of his son, L>r. Richard Bentley, a man of 

 learning and talent, but of too desultory habits to obtain 

 eminence in any pursuit. The books were purchased after 

 his death by the house of Lackington ; from which they 

 were re-purchased by the British Museum, it is said without 

 any advance of price : a piece of liberality which deserves 

 to l>c gem-rally known. Bentley had one oilier child, K 

 daughter, in addition to the two already mentioned. 



