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Johnson is reported by Thomas Percy to have been delighted with Farmer's Essay: "He speaks of it with the most unreserved applause, as a most excellent performance; as a compleat and finished piece that leaves nothing to be desired in point of Argument: For That the question is now forever decided." The question was how much Latin - and Greek - Shakspeare knew. Farmer was able to show that in many instances where others had claimed Shakespeare's knowledge of the classics in the original languages there were English translations of these works available to him. Farmer somewhat overstated his case, but he resolved many questions. Farmer's life is of great interest in that his was prototypical of the life of the teacher-scholar in the eighteenth century in one of the two great English universities. He occupied many of the positions of the academic and ecclesiastical worlds, for he was also a Doctor of Divinity.