Preface to Shakespeare

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About this book

Samuel Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare comes with selected notes on some of the plays, and a bracketed line says he published his annotated edition of Shakespeare's plays in 1765. The notes listed are those to Measure for Measure, Henry IV, Henry V, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Othello.

In the preface Johnson calls Shakespeare the poet of nature, who holds up a faithful mirror of manners and of life, and he says that in Shakespeare a character is commonly a species rather than an individual. Another passage discusses earlier editors, among them Pope and Theobald. A later passage mentions a tradition, reported by Mr. Dryden, about Mercutio.

About the author

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was an English essayist, poet, critic, and lexicographer whose Dictionary of the English Language defined the field for a century. One of the most quoted figures in English letters, he is also the subject of Boswell's celebrated biography.