BENTLEY, RICK ARD one of the most cele brated critics of whom England can boast, was born at Oulton, in Yorkshire, of 'obscure parents, on the 27th of January 1662. He received the first rudi ments of classical learning at the free school of Wake field, and in his fifteenth year was entered at St John's College, Cambridge. Here he pursued his studies with unparalleled assiduity and success. In the course of a few years he had filled a thick quarto volume with a kind of Hexapla, in the first column of which was every word of the Hebrew Bible, alphabetically arranged, and in the other five columns, all the va ' rious interpretations of those words to be found in the Clialdee, Syriac, Vulgate, Latin, and. Septuagint, as well as in Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodusian. At the same time, he had compiled for his own pri vate use another volume in quarto, containing all the various readings and emendations Of the Hebrew text, collated from these ancient versions. In 1681 he left the university, and taught a school at Spalding. Soon after he was chosen as preceptor to the son of Dr Stillingfleet, dean of St Paul's, who appointed him likewise to be his domestic chaplain. The first work which he published, was a Latin epistle to Dr John Mill, containing critical observations on the chroni con of Malala, the Greek historiographer. This ‘Vork appeared in 1691 ; and about the same time, he had the honour of being appointed as the first person to preach the lecture founded by Mr Boyle, for the vin dication of the fundamental principles natural and revealed religion. The sermons which he delivered in this capacity, were published at the desire of the respectable trustees to whom he owed his appoint ment, and contain the best the absur dities of atheism ever given to the world. Literary honours, accompanied with more substantial advan tages, now began to crowd upon him. In December 1693, he was appointed keeper of the Royal Library at St James's ; and such was his zeal and activity in this new situation, that before his patent was signed, he had enriched the library with about a thousand volumes due to it, in virtue of a neglected act of Par liament, which directs, that one copy of every book printed in England should be presented to St James's, and to each university. Soon after his nomination to this office, he became involved in a controversy, which, though trivial in itself, derived considerable import ance from the character of the parties by whom it was carried on, and attracted for a long time the at tention of the literary world. The honourable Charles Boyle applied to Dr Bentley, by means of a London bookseller, for a manuscript copy of the Epistle of Phalaris, which he intended to publish. It was ob tained after much solicitation and many delays, and had not been above six days in the hands of Mr Boyle, when it was re-demanded by the Doctor, with some expressions of contempt both for the work and the editor. This insult was resented by Mr Boyle in his preface to Phalaris ; Bentley in return, wrote a dis sertation on the Epistles of Themistucles, Socrates, Euripides, Phalaris, and the fables of /Esop, main taining, and indeed proving in the most satisfactory manner, that the epistles ascribed to Phalaris are spu rious, and that Mr Boyle, by a very bad edition, had only rendered them more contemptible. Boyle re torted ; a warm contest .ensued ; the literati ranged themselves under the standards of the different com batants; all the artillery of wit and learning was play ed off on both sides ; till, as usually happens in such controversies, the immediate subject in dispute was relinquished for ill-natured sarcasm, and personal in vective. Bentley was unfortunate in having all the contemporary wits, by whom he was dreaded, as his avowed enemies ; but when the heat of irritation passed off, it was almost universally agreed, that lie load the decided advantage over his antagonist in crud dition and argument, and was but little inferior to him in refined raillery, and pointed wit. He was not so much occupied by this squabble, as not to find some leisure for his favourite employment of collating and commenting upon the classics. At the earnest request of his friend Gravies, he drew up animad versions and remarks on Callimachus, with a collec tion of some scattered pieces and fragments of that poet, which were published by Grmvius on the con tinent in 1697. In 1700, he was made master of Trinity College, Cambridge, an office worth about £1000 a-year ; and soon after was collated Arch deacon of Ely. He was now placed in the situation of all others must suited to his habits and his wishes, and engaged, with new ardour, in the exercise of il lustrating the classics. The two first comedies of Aristophanes, with his annotations, were published at Amsterdam in 1710 ; and about the same time, the fragments of INIenander and Philemon appeared at Rheims, with his comments and emendations, under the feigned name of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis ; a character which lie again assumed in his attack upon Collins's Discourse on Freethinking. The most im
portant of his critical performances, however, is his celebrated edition of Horace, which published in 1711 ; and is pronounced by Dr Hare to be the corn pletest work produced by criticism since the restora. tion of learning. In 1716, he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity in Cambridge ; and in the same year, circulated proposals fur a new edition of the Greek Testament, with St Jerome's Latin version. Few men could seem better qualified for such an un dertaking. The greater part of his life had been spent in the critical study of the learned languages, with which he was most profoundly acquainted. His professional situation afforded him all the facilities which could be enjoyed in Britain ; he had sent his nephew, Dr Thomas Bentley, in search of every ma nuscript which could be obtained on the continent ; and was actually in possession of twenty different manuscripts, when his proposals appeared. They were received in the most flattering manner by all true lovers of learning ; till Dr Conyers Middleton, always an inveterate enemy to Bentley, published re marks, paragraph by paragraph, upon his proposals, endeavouring to prove that he possessed neither the talents nor materials requisite for the underta king. These animadversions chagrined Dr Bentley so much, that he determined the work should not appear during his lifetime ; and the subscription money which he had received, amounting to about £2000, was immediately refunded to the subscribers. The last , twenty years of his life were spent in a state of dig nified ease. His only productions during all that time, were his editions of Terence, Phcedms, and Millon. His peace was considerably interrupted, however, at one period, by a quarrel in which he was engaged with the members of the college over which he presided. By reforming some abuses which had long existed, and curtailing salaries for which little was performed, he provoked those who thought themselves aggrieved, to enter a complaint, accompa nied by a proposal for his removal, to the bishop of Ely, as visitor of the college.. This gave rise to the question, whether the visitornd power belonged to the bishop of Ely or the crown ? After a long law suit, it was determined in favour of the crown ; and though, in the present case, interference eras decli ned, Dr Bentiq was left in possession of his office. He again, however, excited a clamour against him self, for which there seems to have been more plau sible grounds. Upon the creation, by royal man date, of some doctors in divinity, he demanded from each a fee of four guineas, in addition to the custo mary perquisite. Here, as on every occasion, Dr' Middleton was his most strenuous opponent ; and al though the graduates at first acquiesced in the de mand, a decree was afterwards obtained for the re payment of the money ; Bentley was arrested, and appeared by his proctor before the court of the vice chancellor. It was declared by the beadle, on oath, that Dr Bentley had said, he would not be conclu ded by what the vice-chancellor and two or three of his friends should determine over a bottle ; for which expression he was suspended by the vice-chancellor, without a hearing, from all his degrees ; and after wards, by a vote of the body, deprived of all his pri vileges, honours, and degrees in the university. In this perplexity he appealed to the king ; and at length, after several references to the Council and the Court of King's Bench, and many delays, a manda mus was sent to the university, reversing all their proceedings, and directing, that Dr Bentley should be restored to all the degrees, honours, and privi leges of which he had been deprived. Of these he continued in quiet possession for twenty-four years after this decision ; and died, on the 14th of July 1742, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was buried in Trinity College chapel, by the side of the altar table, " where a square black stone records his name, and nothing mote." we are told, is the tax which merit pays to envy ; and never was that tax more heavily imposed than in the case of Dr Bentley. Superior in learning to all his cotemporaries, and scarcely inferior to any of them in acuteness and ingenuity, few could stand before him io the fair and open field of contro versy. His antagonists, therefore, endeavoured to break the force of his attacks, by degrading his dia.: racter,—decrying his erudition as scholastic lumber, and charging him with the arrogance of a bashaw, and the ferocity of a savage, because lie despised their blunders and their ignorance, and unsparingly detected and censured their absurdities. Hence he has generally been regarded as a man of an irritable and overbearing temper ; hut if we may credit the tes timony of one who had the best access to know him, affections of his heart were no less gentle and ami able, than his talents were extraordinary and com manding. See Cumberland's itlemoirs, ad initium ; Biographic Britanniea, &c. (ft)