{"id":"01KG8AYDBF0S3PVT30VTY09FCW","cid":"bafkreidt3onhftc5c6p77jeojk6a4wcqsz65r5wiysdi6ybkq7s5ixnc2q","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreib7kwedoove73jysgqvttz5yhqsvy5tsuf6hrus66wkvj4l3k5eba","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"03_merry_wives_of_windsor_1905_page_0018.jpg","height":1778,"key":"pdf-page-1769806443565-tvkp4uxmna","label":"03_merry_wives_of_windsor_1905_page_0018.jpg","page_number":18,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":375929,"text":"12 Merry Wives of Windsor\nderived his information from some other source. He\nadds that the queen was so eager to see the play acted\n\" that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen\ndays, and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very\nwell pleased at the representation.\" The anecdote was\nrepeated by Gildon in 1710, and was accepted without\ncontroversy by Pope, Theobald, and other of the earlier\neditors.\nSome of the more recent critics have been more\nsceptical ; but they are ably answered by Verplanck\nthus : \" Yet, as Rowe relates his anecdote on the same\nauthority with that on which most of the generally re-\nceived facts of the poet's history are known, acknowl-\nedging his obligations to Betterton ' for the most\nconsiderable passages ' of the biography ; as Betterton\nwas then seventy-four years of age, and thus might have\nreceived the story directly from contemporary authority ;\nas Gildon was Betterton's friend and biographer, and\nas Dennis (a learned acute man, of a most uninventive\nand matter-of-fact mind) told his story seven or eight\nyears before, 'with a difference,' yet without contradic-\ntion, so as to denote another and an independent source\nof evidence ; as Pope, the rancorous enemy of poor\nDennis, whom he and his contemporary wits have\n* damned to everlasting fame,' received the traditions\nwithout hesitation ; we have certainly, in the entire\nabsence of any external or internal evidence to the con-\ntrary, as good a proof as any such insulated piece of\nliterary history could well require or receive, although","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:54:03.565Z","text_extracted_by":"pdf-processor","text_has_content":true,"text_source":"born_digital","uploaded":true,"width":1084},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG89K4N3KNPAGDJAVRPVWBA4","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KG89JREDR8WY5QQGYR5FZRDY","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AYDCDF4MGVFJTNCXGMRZ4","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AYDBKYWG3DQN200KZESK4","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:54:03.887Z","ts":"2026-01-30T21:06:27.702Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFH6ETXGRVD10WPNP3007D6"}}