PREFACE.

THE object of this undertaking is to place before the public, in an uniform and portable form, and at a very moderate price, all the existing materials for the biography of Dr. Johnson, together with copious illustrations, critical, explanatory, and graphical. The collection will be comprised in four volumes—one volume to be published on the 1st of every month, until the whole is completed.

"The "Life of Johnson" by Boswell-the most interesting and instructive specimen of biography that has ever been given to the world-must, of course, occupy the chief space and attention; and that author's "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" will be incorporated in his main narrative, after the example of his last editor, the Right Hon. John Wilson Croker; who justly observes, that nothing could have prevented Boswell himself from making this arrangement, but the legal obstacle arising out of his previous contract with the bookseller who had published the Journal.

Johnson's own diary of his Tour into Wales in 1774, first published by Mr. Duppa in 1816, and various private letters to Mrs. Thrale and others, have also been inserted [within brackets] in the text of Boswell; he himself having uniformly availed himself of

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similar new materials, as they reached his hand while occupied with the second and third editions of his work.

The present Editors, however, have not judged it proper to follow the example of Mr. Croker, in interweaving with the text of Boswell any materials, however valuable, derived from other pens than those of Dr. Johnson and the original biographer himself. Their plan has been to give, from minor biographers and miscellaneous authorities, in the form of foot-notes to Boswell's text, whatever appeared to bear directly on the subjects therein discussed, or on facts of Johnson's life therein omitted; but to reserve for the concluding volume the rich assemblage of mere conversational fragments, supplied by Piozzi, Hawkins, Tyers, Miss Reynolds, Murphy, Cumberland, Nichols, and the other friends and acquaintances of Dr. Johnson, who have, in their various writings, added to the general record of his wit and wisdom. This arrangement has seemed that most consistent with a just estimation of the literary character of Boswell. Altogether unrivalled in his own style of narrative, it was considered as hardly fair to his memory, that his text should not appear pure and unbroken.

The division of Boswell's text into chapters, now for the first time adopted, will, the Editors presume, be found convenient to the reader.

In the Appendices to the various volumes; in the foot-notes throughout; and in the compilation of the miscellaneous pages of this valuable biography, the Editors have availed themselves, to the fullest extent compatible with their general scheme, of Mr Croker's admirable annotations. The edition of 1831 excited so much notice among the leading contributors to our periodical press, that a new and plentiful source of elucidation, both historical and critical, has been placed at the command of Mr. Croker's successors ; and of this, also, they have endeavoured to make the proper use. Finally, the Editors have been enabled, by the kindness of lite

rary friends, to enrich the present work with a very considerable supply of illustrative materials entirely new; but of this it will become the Editors to say little, until their task shall have been completed.

It has been their ambition, and it is their earnest hope, to be instrumental in opening and familiarising to the greatly expanded, and hourly expanding circle of intelligent readers in the less affluent classes of the community, a mine of information and amusement, which may be said to have been hitherto accessible only to the purchasers of expensive books; and even to these by no means so directly or so conveniently as, after the lapse of so many years, and with them of so many legal copyrights, might have fairly been expected in this æra of cheap literature.

Reserving for another occasion what they may have to say with respect to the minor biographers of Johnson, the Editors now proceed to a few remarks on the great work of Boswell.

His Journal of the Tour to the Hebrides in 1773, was published in 1785, the year after Johnson's death, in one volume octavo ; and has since been separately printed many times. It was, as has been mentioned, first incorporated with the Author's general narrative of the Doctor's Life in the edition of Mr. Croker, 1831; and this example will assuredly be adhered to in all future editions. Not the least interesting circumstance connected with this Tour is, that Johnson read from time to time Boswell's record of his sayings and doings, and so far from being displeased with its minuteness, expressed great admiration of its accuracy, and encouraged the chronicler to proceed with his grand ulterior undertaking; viz., the "Life of Johnson ;" which first appeared, in two volumes quarto, in April, 1791-seven years after Dr. Johnson's death.

Boswell gave a second edition of the Life in 1794, and was engaged in preparing a third, when death overtook him in 1795. His new materials were made use of by his friend and executor, the

estimable Edmond Malone, who brought out the third edition in 1799; and superintended, likewise the fourth in 1804; a fifth, in 1807; and a sixth, in 1811. In these editions, Mr. Malone gave many valuable notes of his own; and was also furnished with important assistance by Dr. Charles Burney, author of the "History of Music," and father of the authoress of "Evelina ;" by the Rev. J. Blakeway, of Shrewsbury; James Bindley, Esq., First Commissioner of Stamps; the Rev. Dr. Vyse, Rector of Lambeth; the Rev. Dr. Kearney, Archdeacon of Raphoe, in Ireland; and James Boswell, Esq. jun., the second son of the Biographer. The contributions of Malone, and his various friends, are distinguished in the present collection by their respective signatures.

Mr. Chalmers further enriched the Annotations on Boswell, in the ninth edition, which he published in 1822; and he liberally allowed Mr. Croker to make whatever use he pleased of that edition, when preparing the eleventh, that of 1831. The tenth was an anonymous one, published at Oxford in 1826; but this was hardly more than a handsome reprint of the earlier copies.

Besides the materials accumulated by Boswell himself, his intelligent son, Malone, Chalmers, and their various literary allies, Mr. Croker's character and station opened to him, when preparing the edition of 1831, many new and most interesting sources of information, both manuscript and oral. He acknowledges, more especially, in his preface, the copious communications of the Rev. Dr. Hall, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford,—from which he was enabled to throw unexpected light on some of the earlier chapters of Dr. Johnson's personal career; those of the Rev. Dr. Harwood, the historian of Lichfield, who procured for him, through Mrs. Pearson, the widow of the legatee of Miss Lucy Porter, many letters addressed to that lady by Dr. Johnson, but for which Boswell had inquired in vain; of Lord Rokeby, the nephew and heir of Mrs. Montagu, who placed Johnson's correspondence with her

at his disposal; of Mr. Langton, the grandson of Bennet Langton, who, in like manner, opened his family repositories; of Mr. Palmer, grand-nephew of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who contributed, besides various autograph letters and notes of Johnson to his great-aunt, Miss Reynolds, a MS. of seventy pages, written by that lady, and entitled, "Recollections of Dr. Johnson;" of Mr. Markland, whom he thanks (as the present Editors must again do) for "a great deal of zealous assistance and valuable information,"-including "a copy of Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, copiously annotated, propriâ manu, by Mr. Malone" of Mr. J. L. Anderdon, for some of the original letters, memoranda, and note-books used by Boswell when composing the LIFE; of the present MACLEOD, son of the chief who received Johnson at Dunvegan in 1773, for a curious autobiographical fragment, written by his father; of Sir Walter Scott, for a series of very interesting notes on the "Tour to the Hebrides:" of the venerable Lord Stowell, the friend and executor of Johnson, for dictating some recollections of the Doctor, of which, although the notes, by an unfortunate accident, were lost, the substance had not escaped Mr. Croker's own memory; of Dr. Elrington, the Lord Bishop of Ferns; and, finally, of Mr. D'Israeli,—the Marquess Wellesley, the Marquess of Lansdowne,-Lord Bexley,-Lord St. Helens, the late Earl Spencer; and various other distinguished persons.

From the Preface to Mr. Croker's edition we shall now extract those passages of a more general interest, which ought to be in the hands of all those who are to profit by that gentleman's ingenuity and research:

"It were superfluous to expatiate on the merits, at least as a source of amusement, of Boswell's LIFE OF JOHNSON. Whatever doubts may have existed as to the prudence or the propriety of the original publication-however naturally private confidence was alarmed, or individual vanity offended, the voices of criticism and complaint were soon drowned in the general applause. And