The Works Of Samuel Johnson, Vols 7-8: Johnson On Shakespeare (The Yale Edition Of The Works Of Samuel Johnson)

The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vols 7-8: Johnson on Shakespeare (The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson)

Of special interest in this first accurate and fully annotated text of an important segment of the Johnson canon are the notes of his first and revised editions of Shakespeare, the Preface and General Observations, the Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, the Preface to Mrs. Lennox's Shakespeare Illustrated, and the Proposals for an Edition, Johnson's likes and dislikes in language, imagery, and poetic and dramatic techniques are unmistakably expressed, and, to demonstrate precisely Johnson's comments, pertinent portions of Shakespeare's text are reproduced.Mr. Sherbo is professor of English at Michigan State University; Mr. Bronson is professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley.From the Back CoverWhen Johnson undertook to make an English dictionary, he had already fixed upon one of the chief instruments by means of which be would prosecute his design. This was Shakespeare, from whose use of the language--a use neither erudite nor special nor obsequious to social prejudice high or low--the enduring diction of the common intercourse of life could in Johnson's judgment be amply illustrated.