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Johnson. Select Works, Ed. With Intr. and Notes by A. Milnes. Lives of Dryden and Pope, and Rasselas
Johnson Select Works Ed With Intr and Notes by A Milnes Lives of Dryden and Pope and Rasselas Author:Samuel Johnson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1879 Subjects: Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Poetry Poetry / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and ther... more »e may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: NOTES. THE LIFE OF DRYDEN. P. SS. refers to a few proof-sheets'corrected in MS. by Johnson himself, and preserved in the British Museum, which have been compared, as far as they go, with the texts as above. Page 3, line 1. about, 'now,' P. JSS. 1.3. display, 'account,'P. SS. 1. 5. nothing, 'no more,' P. SS. beyond what. ' than,' P. SS. 1. 6. casual mention and uncertain tradition. ' On reviewing the received accounts of his life and writings I found so much inaccuracy and uncertainty that I soon resolved to take nothing upon trust, but to consider the subject as wholly new.' (Advertisement to Malone's Life of Dryden.) ' Unfortunately this anathema upon all before him in the same career (like that of the hair-dresser, who laments with generous pity the misconduct of your head before you sent for him) attaches itself, in part, upon the celebrated writer of the same life, Dr. Johnson, deceased. But that he is "deceased" can alone account for it; for I doubt whether Malone, valiant as he is, would have written these comments (which are like a wasp's tail in the nose of a giant) upon so irritable a personage.' Essence of Malone, by Minutius Felix, 1800. In spite of this satire upon the hypercritical industry of Malone, there can be no doubt that Johnson's characteristic aversion from a steady and prolonged exertion of his powers prevented his making a very close investigation of the worth of the ' casual mention' and ' uncertain ...« less