Bentley, Richard

1662–1742, English critic and philologist. Generally considered the greatest of English classical scholars, he was largely responsible for raising standards of textual criticism in the work of his many followers. His Dissertation upon The Epistles of Phalaris (1699), an exposure of a 14th cent. forgery, was his most celebrated work. He was pilloried by Jonathan Swift in the Battle of the Books.

See biography by A. Fox (1954); studies by R. J. White (1968) and R. F. Jones (1961).