Sterne, Warburton, and the Burden of Exuberant Wit

Abstract

VICTIMIZED BY OUR OWN TAXONOMIES, we have grown accustomed to notion that with Pope's death in 1744 and Swift's year after, Samuel Johnson took center stage and Age of Johnson, as we label it in our literary histories and course catalogues, was suddenly at hand. Thus, were we to guess whose career in center of century Edward Gibbon had in mind when he wrote: the learning and abilities of author had raised him to a just eminence; but he reigned and tyrant of World of Litterature,' we would in all likelihood guess Johnson. But Gibbon and Johnson and Laurence Sterne all knew otherwise. The reigning monarch of English letters during middle years of eighteenth century was William Warburton, very learned, very disputatious bishop of Gloucester. It was Pope, of course, who provided Warburton bridge he needed between Divine Legation of Moses (1738-41) and literary reputation. The Legation established Warburton as perhaps leading polemical divine in an age of polemical divinity; but it was primarily Pope who established Dictator and tyrant, first by blessing him with his friendship and circle of friends, then by entering into collaborations with him on new editions of poetry, and finally by encouraging him to see himself as a literary arbiter, person responsible for establishing and annotating both Shake-