PART - I

PREFACE TO SHAKESPEARE
By: Dr. Johnson

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 Learning Objectives

• Life of Johnson

• Preface to Shakespeare

• Shakespeare “a poet of nature”

• Shakespeare’s faults

• Summary

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 Life Of Johnson
 Samuel Johnson was born at Lichfield, Strafford shire, on
September 18th, 1709
 Went to Pembroke College, Oxford University and studied there for
thirteen months but had to leave in 1729 because of financial
difficulties
 He was fiercely independent and refused any kind of charity
 Once he was out from oxford University Johnson went into
depression
 In 1732, Johnson went to Birmingham. Here the Porters helped him
get out of his depression and regain his self confidence
 In the same year, Johnson published his first book, a translation

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 Life Of Johnson

 With the financial support of his wife, Johnson opened a

private school and David Garrick, who later became a

famous actor of the day, was one of his pupils here

 However, the school venture was not a success and he and

Elizabeth moved to London in 1737

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 Life Of Johnson

 The year, 1745 proved a literary turning point in Johnson’s

life

 He published a pamphlet on Macbeth that won him

Warburton’s praise , which he valued highly, because it came

at a time when he most needed it

 At this time he also began publishing an English Dictionary

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 Life Of Johnson

 Johnson planned to complete this ambitious project in three

years but it took him nearly eight years to complete. This in

itself was a remarkable achievement.

 The dictionary was published in 1755. His financial condition

improved once Johnson received 1575 pounds for the project

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 Preface To Shakespeare

 In 1756, Johnson published his proposal for printing by subscription,

the Dramatic works of William Shakespeare, corrected and illustrated

by Samuel Johnson

 Once the subscription was advertised, he received a large sum of

money personally

 He foolhardily promised to bring out the work in a year’s time but

unable to bring it out at the promised time, he came under scathing

attacks, especially by the poet Charles Churchill

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 Preface To Shakespeare

 The upbraiding in verse by Churchill made him restart work

on his edition of Shakespeare

 It was finally published in eight volumes in 1765, nine years

after the publication of the proposal

 The collection has a Preface(72 pages in Johnson’s first

edition), which is acknowledged as the best part of the edition

and a great piece of neo classical literary criticism

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 Preface To Shakespeare

 About the Preface, his biographer and friend James Boswell

states:

“A blind indiscriminate admiration of Shakespeare had

exposed the British nation to the ridicule of foreigners”

“Johnson by candidly admitting the faults of his poet, had the

more credit in bestowing on him deserved and indisputable

praise”
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 Preface To Shakespeare

The Preface has two sections

 One dealing with his critical analysis of Shakespeare as a

dramatist

 Other dealing with an explication of the editorial methods

used by Johnson in his Edition of Shakespeare

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 Preface To Shakespeare
 Johnson begins his preface by asserting that people cherish
the works of the writers who are dead and neglect the
modern
 He says that ancients are to be honoured not merely
because they are ancient but because the truths that they
present have stood the test of time
 Since Shakespeare has stood the test of time, he could be
added to the canon of ancients

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 Analysis Of Shakespeare

 In his analysis of Shakespeare, he adopts a multi dimensional

approach; examines the bard’s works from different angles and

presents him not only as timeless and universal but also a product of

his age and time

 As a neo-classicist, he tries to maintain a structural balance of praise

and blame for Shakespeare

 He tries to make a distinction between the appeal of Shakespeare to

his contemporaries and to future generations

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 Shakespeare “A Poet Of Nature”
 According to Dr Johnson, “Shakespeare holds up to his
readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life”
 All his characters be they Romans, Danes or kings represent
general human passions and principles common to all
humans
 Shakespeare's characters depict universal human passions,
yet they are distinctly individualized
 Shakespeare deals not only with love as a theme in his plays
but with all passions

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 Shakespeare’s Mixing Of Comedy And Tragedy

 “Shakespeare’s plays are neither tragedies nor comedies but

just representations "exhibiting the real state of sublunary

nature, which partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow”

 The ancients concentrated on producing either comedy or

tragedy but no Greek or Roman author attempted to do both,

but Shakespeare possessed the genius to do both in the

same composition
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 Johnson’s Defence Of Shakespeare
 Shakespeare’s mingled drama goes against the rules of dramatic
writing but for Johnson realism supersedes the claim of rules:
“there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature...The end of
poetry is to instruct by pleasing”
 “Mingled drama may convey all the instruction of tragedy or
comedy.....because it includes both in its alterations of exhibition and
approaches nearer than either to the appearance of life”
 Mingling is justified as Shakespeare’s plays both “instruct and delight”
 The mixing of tragic and comic scenes in no way diminishes or
weakens the passions the dramatist aims at presenting. Variety
contributes to pleasure
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 Johnson’s Views On Shakespeare’s
Comedies
 Shakespeare was a genius in writing comedies, there was a

naturalness in his way of writing comic scenes whereas his

tragic scenes seem to be the effort of labour

 It appears to Johnson that Shakespeare took his dialogues in

the comic scenes from the common intercourse of life and

therefore their appeal has not diminished over time

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