Preface to Shakespeare

JOHNSON, Samuel.

Mr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear’s Plays. London, Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and eleven others] … 1765.

8vo, pp. [iii]-lxxii, wanting the half-title; else a very good copy in modern wrappers.

£1,500

Approximately:
US $2,025 €1,724

Added to your basket:
Mr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear’s Plays.

First separate edition. ‘The separate Preface seems to be scarce. It is possible that the publishers were reluctant to let people read Johnson’s preface without paying for his edition … and while unable in decency to resist the public demand – or the author’s request – protected themselves by printing a small edition’ (Chapman & Hazen). Press figures show that the separate Preface is from the samem setting as the second edition of the plays, which was on sale within a month of the first.

Courtney & Nichol Smith, p. 107; Chapman & Hazen, p. 148; Rothschild 1249; D. D. Eddy, ‘Samuel Johnson’s Editions of Shakespeare (1765)’ in PBSA (1962), pp. 428-444.

You may also be interested in:

The Definitive Text

[GOLDSMITH, Oliver.]

The Vicar of Wakefield: a Tale. Supposed to be written by himself … The second Edition. Vol. I. [–II].

Second edition, published two months after the first, printed by William Strahan in 1000 sets, and revised throughout by Goldsmith, with more than 450 new substantive readings, nearly all of them accepted by Arthur Friedman as authorial and admitted into the definitive Oxford text (Collected Works, 1966, volume IV). Although the next three editions also appeared in Goldsmith’s lifetime, Friedman is convinced that he did not revise any of them. ‘They contain occasional new substantive readings, [but] when Goldsmith revised [a work] he always made … frequent and extensive changes, so that his hand is clearly visible. In these three editions the changes are … infrequent and … minor [and] none … has been admitted into the edited text’ (Collected Works, IV, 11–12).

On Oxford, From His Autobiography

DE QUINCEY, Thomas.

Autograph draft of two passages from his autobiographical essay ‘Oxford’, first published in Tait’s Magazine in February to August 1835 and reprinted by David Masson as Autobiography in Collected Writings (Edinburgh, 1889), II, pp. 9–78.

An interesting autograph fragment with numerous authorial revisions. The essay as a whole is an ‘account of the system of Oxford life and education during the five years of De Quincey’s connexion with the University, with glimpses of himself’ (Masson, II, p. 2). The passages here form the beginning and ending of a long paragraph concerning the idea of a university (pp. 17–19 in Masson’s edition, with a lacuna of 14 lines in the middle because of the way the manuscript has been cut from a larger sheet).

Bernard Quaritch Ltd

Rare books & manuscripts since 1847

Preface to Shakespeare

JOHNSON, Samuel.

Mr. Johnson’s Preface to his Edition of Shakespear’s Plays. London, Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and eleven others] … 1765.