“ In company with Johnson and others he started a periodical called The Adventurer, which ran to 140 numbers, of which 70 were from the pen of Hawkesworth himself. On account of what was regarded as its powerful defence of morality and religion, Hawkesworth was rewarded by the archbishop of Canterbury with the degree of LL.D. In 1754–1755 he published an edition (12 vols.) of Swift’s works, with a life prefixed which Johnson praised in his Lives of the Poets. ”

“ He adapted Dryden’s Amphitryon for the Drury Lane stage in 1756, and Southerne’s Oronooko in 1759. He wrote the libretto of an oratorio Zimri in 1760, and the next year Edgar and Emmeline: a Fairy Tale, was produced at Drury Lane. ”