64. above the Direction of their Tailors. Cf. Pope, p. 51. The succeeding remarks on the individuality of Shakespeare's characters also appear to have been suggested by Pope.
65. wanted a Comment. Contrast Rowe, p. 1.
[pg 314]66. Judith was Shakespeare's younger daughter (cf. Rowe, p. 21). It is now known that Shakespeare was married at the end of 1582. See Mr. Sidney Lee's Life of Shakespeare, pp. 18-24.
68. Spenser's Thalia. Cf. Rowe, pp. 6, 7. The original editions read “Tears of his Muses.”
69. Rymers Fœdera, vol. xvi., p. 505. Fletcher, i.e. Lawrence Fletcher.
the Bermuda Islands. Cf. Theobald's note on “the still-vext Bermoothes,” vol. i., p. 13 (1733). Though Shakespeare is probably indebted to the account of Sir George Somers's shipwreck on the Bermudas, Theobald is wrong, as Farmer pointed out, in saying that the Bermudas were not discovered till 1609. A description of the islands by Henry May, who was shipwrecked on them in 1593, is given in Hakluyt, 1600, iii., pp. 573-4.
70. Mr. Pope, or his Graver. So the quotation appears in the full-page illustration facing p. xxxi of Rowe's Account in Pope's edition; but the illustration was not included in all the copies, perhaps because of the error. The quotation appears correctly in the engraving in Rowe's edition.
72. New-place. Queen Henrietta Maria's visit was from 11th to 13th July, 1643. Theobald's “three weeks” should read “three days.” See Halliwell-Phillips, Outlines, 1886, ii., p. 108.
We have been told in print, in An Answer to Mr. Popes Preface to Shakespear.... By a Stroling Player [John Roberts], 1729, p. 45.
73. Complaisance to a bad Taste. Cf. Rowe, p. 6, Dennis p. 46, and Theobald's dedication to Shakespeare Restored; yet Theobald himself had complied to the bad taste in several pantomimes.
Nullum sine venia. Seneca, Epistles, 114. 12.
74. Speret idem. Horace, Ars Poetica, 241.
Indeed to point out, etc. In the first edition of the Preface, Theobald had given “explanations of those beauties that are less obvious to common readers.” He has unadvisably retained the remark that such explanations “should deservedly have a share in a general critic upon the author.” The “explanations” were omitted probably because they were inspired by Warburton.
75. And therefore the Passages ... from the Classics. Cf. the following passage with Theobald's letter to Warburton of 17th March, 1729-30 (see Nichols, Illustrations, ii., pp. 564, etc.). The letter throws strong light on Theobald's indecision on the question of Shakespeare's learning.
“The very learned critic of our nation” is Warburton himself. See his letter to Concanen of 2nd January, 1726 (Malone's Shakespeare, 1821, xii., p. 158). Cf. Theobald's Preface to Richard II., 1720, and Whalley's Enquiry, 1748, p. 51.
[pg 315]76. Effusion of Latin Words. Theobald has omitted a striking passage in the original preface. It was shown that Shakespeare's writings, in contrast with Milton's, contain few or no Latin phrases, though they have many Latin words made English; and this fact was advanced as the truest criterion of his knowledge of Latin.
The passage is referred to by Hurd in his Letter to Mr. Mason on the Marks of Imitation (1757, p. 74). Hurd thinks that the observation is too good to have come from Theobald. His opinion is confirmed by the entire omission of the passage in the second edition. Warburton himself claimed it as his own. Though the passage was condensed by Theobald, Warburton's claim is still represented by the passage from For I shall find (p. 76, l. 7) to Royal Taste (l. 36).
77. Shakespeare ... astonishing force and splendor. Cf. Pope, p. 50.
Had Homer, etc. Cf. Pope, p. 56.
78. Indulging his private sense. See p. 61.
Lipsius,—Satyra Menippæa (Opera, 1611, p. 640).
79. Sive homo, etc. Quintus Serenus, De Medicina, xlvi., “Hominis ac simiae morsui.”
80. Nature of any Distemper ... corrupt Classic. Cf. Shakespeare Restored, pp. iv, v.
81. Bentley's edition of Paradise Lost had appeared in 1732.
the true Duty of an Editor. A shy hit at Pope's “dull duty of an editor,” Preface, p. 61.
82. as I have formerly observ'd, in the Introduction to Shakespeare Restored, pp. ii and iv. The paragraph is quoted almost verbatim.
83. labour'd under flat Nonsense. Here again Theobald incorporates a passage from the Introduction to Shakespeare Restored, p. vi.
Corrections and conjectures. Yet another passage appropriated from his earlier work. The French quotation, however, is new.
Edition of our author's Poems. Theobald did not carry out his intention of editing the Poems. References to the proposed edition will be found in Warburton's letters to him of 17th May and 14th October, 1734 (see Nichols, Illustrations, ii., pp. 634, 654).
The only attempt as yet towards a Shakespearian Glossary is to be found in the supplementary volumes of Rowe's and Pope's editions. It is far from “copious and complete.”
84. The English are observ'd to produce more Humourists. See Congreve's letter to Dennis Concerning Humour in Comedy, 1695.
Wit lying mostly in the Assemblage of Ideas, etc. So Locke, Essay concerning the Human Understanding, Book II., Ch. xi., § 2. The passage had been popularised by Addison, Spectator, No. 62.
85. Donne. Cf. Dryden's criticism of Donne.
[pg 316]86. a celebrated Writer. Addison, Spectator, No. 297.
Bossu. René le Bossu (1631-1680), author of the Traité du poème épique (1675). An English translation by “W. J.” was printed in 1695, and again in 1719.
Dacier. See note, p. 18.
Gildon showed himself to be of the same school as Rymer in his Essay on the Art, Rise, and Progress of the Stage (1710) and his Art of Poetry (1718); yet his earliest piece of criticism was a vigorous attack on Rymer. The title reads curiously in the light of his later pronouncements: Some Reflections on Mr. Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, and an Attempt at a Vindication of Shakespear. It was printed in a volume of Miscellaneous Letters and Essays (1694).
87. Anachronisms. The passage referred to occurs on pp. 134, 135 of Shakespeare Restored.
this Restorer. See the Dunciad (1729), i. 106, note.
it not being at all credible, etc. See p. 56.
Sir Francis Drake. Pope had suggested in a note that the imperfect line in 1 Henry VI., i. 1. 56, might have been completed with the words “Francis Drake.” He had not, however, incorporated the words in the text. “I can't guess,” he says, “the occasion of the Hemystic, and imperfect sense, in this place; 'tis not impossible it might have been fill'd up with—Francis Drake—tho' that were a terrible Anachronism (as bad as Hector's quoting Aristotle in Troil. and Cress.); yet perhaps, at the time that brave Englishman was in his glory, to an English-hearted audience, and pronounced by some favourite Actor, the thing might be popular, though not judicious; and therefore by some Critick, in favour of the author, afterwards struck out. But this is a meer slight conjecture.” Theobald has a lengthy note on this in his edition. He does not allude to the suggestion which he had submitted to Warburton. See Introduction, p. xlvi.
88. Odyssey. This passage, to the end of the paragraph, appears in Theobald's letter to Warburton of March 17, 1729-30 (Nichols, ii., p. 566). In the same letter he had expressed his doubts as to whether he should include this passage in his proposed pamphlet against Pope, as the notes to the Odyssey were written by Broome. He had cast aside these scruples now. The preface does not bear out his profession to Warburton that he was indifferent to Pope's treatment.
89. David Mallet had just brought out his poem Of Verbal Criticism (1733) anonymously. It is simply a paraphrase and expansion of Pope's statements. “As the design of the following poem is to rally the abuse of Verbal Criticism, the author could not, without manifest partiality, overlook the Editor of Milton and the Restorer of Shakespear” (introductory note).
Boswell attributed this “contemptuous mention of Mallet” to Warburton (Boswell's Malone, 1821, i., p. 42, n). But it was not [pg 317] claimed by Warburton, and there is nothing, except perhaps the vigour of the passage, to support Boswell's contention. In the same note Boswell points out that the comparison of Shakespeare and Jonson in Theobald's Preface reappears in Warburton's note on Love's Labour's Lost, Act i., Sc. 1.
Hang him, Baboon, etc. 2 Henry IV., ii. 4. 261.
Longinus, On the Sublime, vi.
90. Noble Writer,—the Earl of Shaftesbury, in his Characteristicks: “The British Muses, in this Dinn of Arms, may well lie abject and obscure; especially being as yet in their mere Infant-State. They have hitherto scarce arriv'd to any thing of Shapeliness or Person. They lisp as in their Cradles: and their stammering Tongues, which nothing but their Youth and Rawness can excuse, have hitherto spoken in wretched Pun and Quibble” (1711, i., p. 217).
Complaints of its Barbarity, as in Dryden's Discourse concerning Satire, ad fin (ed. W. P. Ker, ii., pp. 110, 113).
92. The “other Gentlemen” who communicated their observations to Hanmer include Warburton (see Introduction), the “Rev. Mr. Smith of Harlestone in Norfolk” (see Zachary Grey, Notes on Shakespeare, Preface), and probably Thomas Cooke, the editor of Plautus (see Correspondence of Hanmer, ed. Bunbury, p. 229).
93. much obliged to them. Amid the quarrels of Pope, Theobald, and Warburton, it is pleasant to find an editor admitting some merit in his predecessors.
what Shakespeare ought to have written. Cf. the following passage in the Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet attributed to Hanmer: “The former [Theobald] endeavours to give us an author as he is: the latter [Pope], by the correctness and excellency of his own genius, is often tempted to give us an author as he thinks he ought to be.” Theobald, it is said, is “generally thought to have understood our author best” (p. 4).
Henry V., iii. 4.
94. Merchant of Venice, iii. 5. 48.
Hanmer's Glossary, given at the end of vol. vi., shows a distinct advance in every way on the earlier glossary in the supplementary volume to Rowe's and to Pope's edition. It is much fuller, though it runs only to a dozen pages, and more scholarly.
95. fairest impressions, etc. The edition is indeed a beautiful piece of printing. Each play is preceded by a full-page plate engraved by [pg 318] Gravelot from designs by Francis Hayman, or, as in vol. iv., by himself. (See Correspondence of Hanmer, pp. 83-4.)
95. his Statue. The statue in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, erected by public subscription in 1741. See the Gentleman's Magazine for February, 1741, p. 105: “A fine Monument is erected in Westminster Abbey to the Memory of Shakespear, by the Direction of the Earl of Burlington, Dr. Mead, Mr. Pope, and Mr. Martin. Mr. Fleetwood, Master of Drury-Lane Theatre, and Mr. Rich, of that of Covent-Garden, gave each a Benefit, arising from one of his own Plays, towards it, and the Dean and Chapter made a present of the Ground. The Design, by Mr. Kent, was executed by Mr. Scheemaker.”
96. the excellent Discourse which follows, i.e. Pope's Preface, which was reprinted by Warburton along with Rowe's Account of Shakespeare.
101. Essays, Remarks, Observations, etc. Warburton apparently refers to the following works:
Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, written by Mr. William Shakespeare. London, 1736. Perhaps by Sir Thomas Hanmer.
An Essay towards fixing the true Standards of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule. To which is added an Analysis of the Characters of an Humourist, Sir John Falstaff, Sir Roger de Coverley, and Don Quixote. London, 1744. By Corbyn Morris, who signs the Dedication.
Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth: with Remarks on Sir Thomas Hanmer's Edition of Shakespeare. To which is affixed Proposals for a new Edition of Skakespear, with a Specimen. London, 1745. By Samuel Johnson, though anonymous.
Critical Observations on Shakespeare. By John Upton, Prebendary of Rochester. London, 1746. Second edition, with a preface replying to Warburton, 1748.
An Essay upon English Tragedy. With Remarks upon the Abbé de Blanc's Observations on the English Stage. By William Guthrie, Esq. [1747.]
The last of these may not have appeared, however, till after Warburton's edition.
Johnson is said by Boswell to have ever entertained a grateful remembrance of this allusion to him “at a time when praise was of value.” But though the criticism is merited, is it too sinister a suggestion that it was prompted partly by the reference in Johnson's pamphlet to “the learned Mr. Warburton”? When Johnson's edition appeared in 1765, Warburton expressed a very different opinion (see Nichols, Anecdotes, v., p. 595).
101-105. whole Compass of Criticism. Cf. Theobald's account of the “Science of Criticism,” pp. 81, etc., which Warburton appears to have suggested.
[pg 319]101. Canons of literal Criticism. This phrase suggested the title of the ablest and most damaging attack on Warburton's edition,—The Canons of Criticism, and Glossary, being a Supplement to Mr. Warburton's Edition of Shakespear. The author was Thomas Edwards (1699-1757), a “gentleman of Lincoln's Inn,” who accordingly figures in the notes to the Dunciad, iv. 568. When the book first appeared in 1748 it was called A Supplement, etc.... Being the Canons of Criticism. It reached a seventh edition in 1765.
103. Rymer, Short View of Tragedy (1693), pp. 95, 6.
105. as Mr. Pope hath observed. Preface, p. 47.
Dacier, Bossu. See notes, pp. 18 and 86.
René Rapin (1621-1687). His fame as a critic rests on his Réflexions sur la Poétique d' Aristote et sur les Ouvrages des Poètes anciens et modernes (1674), which was Englished by Rymer immediately on its publication. His treatise De Carmine Pastorali, of which a translation is included in Creech's Idylliums of Theocritus (1684), was used by Pope for the preface to his Pastorals. An edition of The Whole Critical Works of Monsieur Rapin ... newly translated into English by several Hands, 2 vols., appeared in 1706; it is not, however, complete.
John Oldmixon (1673-1742), who, like Dennis and Gildon, has a place in the Dunciad, was the author of An Essay on Criticism, as it regards Design, Thought, and Expression in Prose and Verse (1728) and The Arts of Logick and Rhetorick, illustrated by examples taken out of the best authors (1728). The latter is based on the Manière de bien penser of Bouhours.
A certain celebrated Paper,—The Spectator.
semper acerbum, etc. Virgil, Aeneid, v. 49.
106. Note, “See his Letters to me.” These letters are not extant.
108. Saint Chrysostom ... Aristophanes. This had been a commonplace in the discussions at the end of the seventeenth century, in England and France, on the morality of the drama.
Ludolf Kuster (1670-1716) appears also in the Dunciad, iv., l. 237. His edition of Suidas was published, through Bentley's influence, by the University of Cambridge in 1705. He also edited Aristophanes (1710), and wrote De vero usu Verborum Mediorum apud Graecos. Cf. Farmer's Essay, p. 176.
who thrust himself into the employment. Hanmer's letters to the University of Oxford do not bear out Warburton's statement.
109. Gilles Ménage (1613-1692). Les Poésies de M. de Malherbe avec les Observations de M. Ménage appeared in 1666.
Selden's “Illustrations” or notes appeared with the first part of Polyolbion in 1612. This allusion was suggested by a passage in a letter from Pope of 27th November, 1742: “I have a particular reason to [pg 320] make you interest yourself in me and my writings. It will cause both them and me to make the better figure to posterity. A very mediocre poet, one Drayton, is yet taken some notice of, because Selden writ a few notes on one of his poems” (ed. Elwin and Courthope, ix., p. 225).
110. Verborum proprietas, etc. Quintilian, Institut. Orat., Prooem. 16.
Warburton alludes to the edition of Beaumont and Fletcher “by the late Mr. Theobald, Mr. Seward of Eyam in Derbyshire, and Mr. Sympson of Gainsborough,” which appeared in ten volumes in 1750. The long and interesting preface is by Seward. Warburton's reference would not have been so favourable could he have known Seward's opinion of his Shakespeare. See the letter printed in the Correspondence of Hanmer, ed. Bunbury, pp. 352, etc.
The edition of Paradise Lost is that by Thomas Newton (1704-1782), afterwards Bishop of Bristol. It appeared in 1749, and a second volume containing the other poems was added in 1752. In the preface Newton gratefully acknowledges this recommendation, and alludes with pride to the assistance he had received from Warburton, who had proved himself to be “the best editor of Shakespeare.”
Some dull northern Chronicles, etc. Cf. the Dunciad, iii. 185-194.
111. a certain satyric Poet. The reference is to Zachary Grey's edition of Hudibras (1744). Yet Warburton had contributed to it. In the preface “the Rev. and learned Mr. William Warburton” is thanked for his “curious and critical observations.”
Grey's “coadjutor” was “the reverend Mr. Smith of Harleston in Norfolk,” as Grey explains in the preface to the Notes on Shakespeare. In his preface to Hudibras, Grey had given Smith no prominence in his long list of helpers. Smith had also assisted Hanmer.
In 1754 Grey brought out his Critical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes on Shakespeare, and in 1755 retaliated on Warburton in his Remarks upon a late edition of Shakespear ... to which is prefixed a defence of the late Sir Thomas Hanmer. Grey appears to be the author also of A word or two of advice to William Warburton, a dealer in many words, 1746.
our great Philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton. His remark is recorded by William Whiston in the Historical Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Samuel Clarke (1730), p. 143: “To observe such laymen as Grotius, and Newton, and Lock, laying out their noblest Talents in sacred Studies; while such Clergymen as Dr. Bentley and Bishop Hare, to name no others at present, have been, in the Words of Sir Isaac Newton, fighting with one another about a Playback [Terence]: This is a Reproach upon them, their holy Religion, and holy Function plainly intolerable.” Warburton's defence of himself in the previous pages must have been inspired partly by the “fanatical turn” of this “wild writer.” Whiston would hardly excuse Clarke for editing Homer till he “perceived that the pains he had taken about Homer were when he was much younger, and the notes rather transcrib'd than made new”; and Warburton is careful to state that his Shakespearian studies were amongst his “younger amusements.” [pg 321] Francis Hare (1671-1740), successively Dean of Worcester, Dean of St. Paul's, Bishop of St. Asaph, and Bishop of Chichester. For his quarrel with Bentley, see Monk's Life of Bentley, ii., pp. 217, etc. Hare is referred to favourably in the Dunciad (iii. 204), and was a friend of Warburton.
Words are the money, etc. Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I., ch. iv.: “For words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools.”
113. the poems of Homer. Cf. Johnson's remark recorded in the Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham, August, 1784 (ed. 1866, p. 17): “The source of everything in or out of nature that can serve the purpose of poetry to be found in Homer.”
114. his century. Cf. Horace, Epistles, ii. 1. 39, and Pope, Epistle to Augustus, 55, 56.
Nothing can please many, etc. This had been the theme of the 59th number of the Idler.
115. Hierocles. See the Asteia attributed to Hierocles, No. 9 (Hieroclis Commentarius in Aurea Carmina, ed. Needham, 1709, p. 462).
117. Dennis. See pp. 26, etc. In replying to Voltaire, Johnson has in view, throughout the whole preface, the essay Du Théâtre anglais, par Jerome Carré, 1761 (Oeuvres, 1785, vol. 61). He apparently ignores the earlier Discours sur la tragédie à Milord Bolingbroke, 1730, and Lettres Philosophiques (dix-huitième lettre, “Sur la tragédie”), 1734. Voltaire replied thus to Johnson in the passage “Du Théâtre anglais” in the Dictionnaire philosophique: “J'ai jeté les yeux sur une édition de Shakespeare, donnée par le sieur Samuel Johnson. J'y ai vu qu'on y traite de petits esprits les étrangers qui sont étonnés que, dans les pièces de ce grand Shakespeare, ‘un senateur romain fasse le bouffon, et qu'un roi paraisse sur le théâtre en ivrogne.’ Je ne veux point soupçonner le sieur Johnson d'être un mauvais plaisant, et d'aimer trop le vin; mais je trouve un peu extraordinaire qu'il compte la bouffonnerie et l'ivrognerie parmi les beautés du théâtre tragique; la raison qu'il en donne n'est pas moins singulière. ‘Le poète, dit il, dédaigne ces distinctions accidentelles de conditions et de pays, comme un peintre qui, content d'avoir peint la figure, néglige la draperie.’ La comparaison serait plus juste s'il parlait d'un peintre qui, dans un sujet noble, introduirait des grotesques ridicules, peindrait dans la bataille d'Arbelles Alexandre-le-Grand monté sur un âne, et la femme de Darius buvant avec des goujats dans un cabaret,” etc. (1785, vol. 48, p. 205). On the question [pg 322] of Voltaire's attitude to Shakespeare, see Monsieur Jusserand's Shakespeare en France, 1898, and Mr. Lounsbury's Shakespeare and Voltaire, 1902.
118. comic and tragic scenes. The ensuing passage gives stronger expression to what Johnson had said in the Rambler, No. 156.
I do not recollect, etc. Johnson forgets the Cyclops of Euripides. Steevens compares the passage in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy, where Dryden says that “Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca never meddled with comedy.”
119. instruct by pleasing. Cf. Horace, Ars poetica, 343-4.
alternations (line 15). The original reads alterations.
120. tragedies to-day and comedies to-morrow. As the Aglaura of Suckling and the Vestal Virgin of Sir Robert Howard, which have a double fifth act. Downes records that about 1662 Romeo and Juliet “was made into a tragi-comedy by Mr. James Howard, he preserving Romeo and Juliet alive; so that when the tragedy was reviv'd again, 'twas play'd alternately, tragically one day and tragi-comical another” (Roscius Anglicanus, ed. 1789, p. 31: cf. Genest, English Stage, i., p. 42).
120-1. Rhymer and Voltaire. See Du Théâtre anglais, passim, and Short View, pp. 96, etc. The passage is aimed more directly at Voltaire than at Rymer. Like Rowe, Johnson misspells Rymer's name.
122. Shakespeare has likewise faults. Cf. Johnson's letter of 16th October, 1765, to Charles Burney, quoted by Boswell: “We must confess the faults of our favourite to gain credit to our praise of his excellences. He that claims, either in himself or for another, the honours of perfection, will surely injure the reputation which he designs to assist.”
124. Pope. Preface, p. 56.
In tragedy, etc. Cf. Pope (Spence's Anecdotes, 1820, p. 173): “Shakespeare generally used to stiffen his style with high words and metaphors for the speeches of his kings and great men: he mistook it for a mark of greatness.”
125. What he does best, he soon ceases to do. This sentence first appears in the edition of 1778.
126. the unities. Johnson's discussion of the three unities is perhaps the most brilliant passage in the whole preface. Cf. the Rambler, No. 156; Farquhar, Discourse upon Comedy (1702); Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet (1736); Upton, Critical Observations (1746), 1. ix.; Fielding, Tom Jones, prefatory chapter of Book V.; Alexander Gerard, Essay on Taste (1758); Daniel Webb, Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry (1762); and Kames, Elements of Criticism (1762). “Attic” Hurd had defended Gothic “unity of design” in his Letters on Chivalry (1762).
127. Corneille published his Discours dramatiques, the second of which [pg 323] dealt with the three unities, in 1660; but he had observed the unities since the publication of the Sentiments de l'Académie sur le Cid (1638).
130. Venice ... Cyprus. See Voltaire, Du Théâtre anglais, vol. 61, p. 377 (ed. 1785), and cf. Rymer's Short View.
131. Non usque, etc. Lucan, Pharsalia, iii. 138-140.
132. Every man's performances, etc. Cf. Johnson, Life of Dryden: “To judge rightly of an author, we must transport ourselves to his time, and examine what were the wants of his contemporaries, and what were his means of supplying them.”
Nations have their infancy, etc. Cf. Johnson's Dedication to Mrs. Lennox's Shakespear Illustrated, 1753, pp. viii, ix. See note, p. 175.
133. As you like it. Theobald, Upton, and Zachary Grey were satisfied that As you like it was founded on “the Coke's Tale of Gamelyn in Chaucer.” But Johnson knows that the immediate source of the play is Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie. The presence of the Tale of Gamelyn in several MSS. of the Canterbury Tales accounted for its erroneous ascription to Chaucer. It was still in MS. in Shakespeare's days. Cf. Farmer's Essay, p. 178.
old Mr. Cibber,—Colley Cibber (1671-1757), actor and poet-laureate.
English ballads. Johnson refers to the ballad of King Leire and his Three Daughters. But the ballad is of later date than the play. Cf. p. 178.
134. Voltaire, Du Théâtre anglais, vol. 61, p. 366 (ed. 1785). Cf. Lettres philosophiques, Sur la Tragédie, ad fin., and Le Siècle de Louis XIV., ch. xxxiv.
Similar comparisons of Shakespeare and Addison occur in William Guthrie's Essay upon English Tragedy (1747) and Edward Young's Conjectures on Original Composition (1759). The former may have been inspired by Johnson's conversation. Cf. also Warburton's comparison incorporated in Theobald's preface of 1733.
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.
[pg 324]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.
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.
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 [pg 325] from ill treatment of every kind, after his death.” Johnson's earliest criticism of Hanmer's edition was unfavourable.
147. Warburton was incensed by this passage and the many criticisms throughout the edition, but Johnson's prediction that “he'll not come out, he'll only growl in his den” proved correct. He was content to show his annoyance in private letters. See note, p. 101.
148. Homer's hero. “Achilles” in the first edition.
149. The Canons of Criticism. See note, p. 101. Cf. Johnson's criticism of Edwards as recorded by Boswell: “Nay (said Johnson) he has given him some sharp hits to be sure; but there is no proportion between the two men; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse, and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still” (ed. Birkbeck Hill, i. 263).
The Revisal of Shakespear's text was published anonymously by Benjamin Heath (1704-1766) in 1765. According to the preface it had been written about 1759 and was intended as “a kind of supplement to the Canons of Criticism.” The announcement of Johnson's edition induced Heath to publish it: “Notwithstanding the very high opinion the author had ever, and very deservedly, entertained of the understanding, genius, and very extensive knowledge of this distinguished writer, he thought he saw sufficient reason to collect, from the specimen already given on Macbeth, that their critical sentiments on the text of Shakespear would very frequently, and very widely, differ.” In the first three editions of the Preface the title is given incorrectly as The Review, etc. See note, p. 171.
girls with spits. Coriolanus, iv. 4. 5 (iv. 3. 5 in Johnson's own edition): “lest that thy wives with spits, and boys with stones, In puny battle slay me.”
A falcon tow'ring. Macbeth, ii. 4. 12. The first edition read, “An eagle tow'ring,” etc.
150. small things make mean men proud. 2 Henry VI., iv. 1. 106.
154. collectors of these rarities. This passage is said to have been aimed specially at Garrick. At least Garrick took offence at it. On 22nd January, 1766, Joseph Warton writes to his brother that “Garrick is intirely off from Johnson, and cannot, he says, forgive him his insinuating that he withheld his old editions, which always were open to him” (Wooll's Biographical Memoirs of Joseph Warton, 1806, p. 313). Cf. the London Magazine, October, 1765, p. 538.
155. Huetius. Pierre Daniel Huet (1630-1721), bishop of Avranches, author of De Interpretation libri duo: quorum prior est de optimo genere interpretandi, alter de claris interpretibus, 1661. The best known of his French works is the Traité de l'origine de romans. See Huetiana, 1722, and Memoirs of Huet, translated by John Aikin, 1810.
four intervals in the play. Cf. Rambler, No. 156.
[pg 326]157. by railing at the stupidity, etc. Johnson has Warburton in his mind here, though the description is applicable to others.
158. Criticks, I saw, etc. Pope, Temple of Fame, 37-40.
the Bishop of Aleria. Giovanni Antonio Andrea (Joannes Andreas), 1417-c. 1480, successively bishop of Accia and Aleria, librarian and secretary to Pope Sixtus IV., and editor of Herodotus, Livy, Lucan, Ovid, Quintilian, etc.
160. Dryden, in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy. In the Life of Dryden Johnson refers to this passage as a “perpetual model of encomiastic criticism,” adding that the editors and admirers of Shakespeare, in all their emulation of reverence, cannot “boast of much more than of having diffused and paraphrased this epitome of excellence.”
should want a commentary. Contrast Rowe, Account, ad init. In the editions of 1773 and 1778 Johnson ended the preface with the following paragraph: “Of what has been performed in this revisal, an account is given in the following pages by Mr. Steevens, who might have spoken both of his own diligence and sagacity, in terms of greater self-approbation, without deviating from modesty or truth.”