FullReads

135. A correct and regular writer, etc. Cf. the comparison of Dryden and Pope in Johnson’s life of the latter: “Dryden’s page is a natural field, rising into inequalities and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope’s is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe and levelled by the roller.” The “garden-and-forest” comparison had already appeared, in a versified form, in the Connoisseur, No. 125 (17th June, 1756). Cf. also Mrs. Piozzi’s Anecdotes of Johnson, p. 59, “Corneille is to Shakespeare as a clipped hedge is to a forest.”

135. small Latin and less Greek. Ben Jonson’s poem To the Memory of Mr. William Shakespeare, l. 31. The first edition of the Preface read by mistake no Greek. Cf. Kenrick’s Review, 1765, p. 106, the London Magazine, October, 1765, p. 536, and Farmer’s Essay, p. 166, note.

136. Go before, I’ll follow. This remark was made by Zachary Grey in his Notes on Shakespeare, vol. ii., p. 53. He says that “Go you before and I will follow you,” Richard III., i. 1. 144, is “in imitation of Terence, ‘I prae, sequar.’ Terentii Andr., i., l. 144.”

The Menaechmi of Plautus. See note on p. 9, and cf. Farmer, p. 200.

137. Pope. Pp. 52, 53.

Rowe. P. 4.

138. Chaucer. Johnson has probably his eye on Pope’s statement, p. 53.

139. Boyle. See Birch’s Life of Robert Boyle, 1744, pp. 18, 19.

Dewdrops from a lion’s mane. Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 224.

140. Dennis. P. 25.

Hieronymo. See Farmer’s Essay, p. 210.

there being no theatrical piece, etc. “Dr. Johnson said of these writers generally that ‘they were sought after because they were scarce, and would not have been scarce had they been much esteemed.’ His decision is neither true history nor sound criticism. They were esteemed, and they deserved to be so” (Hazlitt, Lectures on the Age of Elizabeth, i.).

141. the book of some modern critick. Upton’s Critical Observations on Shakespeare, Book iii. (ed. 1748, pp. 294-365).

present profit. Cf. Pope, Epistle to Augustus, 69-73.

142. declined into the vale of years. Othello, iii. 3. 265.

143. as Dr. Warburton supposes. P. 96.

Not because a poet was to be published by a poet, as Warburton had said. P. 97.

As of the other editor’s, etc. In the first edition of the Preface, this sentence had read thus: “Of Rowe, as of all the editors, I have preserved the preface, and have likewise retained the authour’s life, though not written with much elegance or spirit.” This criticism is passed on Rowe’s Account as emended by Pope, but is more applicable to it in its original form.

144. The spurious plays were added to the third Folio (1663) when it was reissued in 1664.

the dull duty of an editor. P. 61. Cf. the condensed criticism of Pope’s edition in the Life of Pope.

146. Johnson’s appreciation of Hanmer was shared by Zachary Grey. “Sir Thomas Hanmer,” says Grey, “has certainly done more towards the emendation of the text than any one, and as a fine gentleman, good scholar, and (what was best of all) a good Christian, who has treated every editor with decency, I think his memory should have been exempt from ill treatment of every kind, after his death.” Johnson’s earliest criticism of Hanmer’s edition was unfavourable.