BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SAMUEL JOHNSON BY WILLIAM PRIDEAUX COURTNEY Revised and seen through the press by DAVID NICHOL SMITH STANFORD LIBRARY OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1915 PREFACE THIS bibliography was the last work of William Prideaux Courtney. He had long been engaged on it, and within a few weeks of his death on November 14, 1913, he had sent his manuscript to the press. He saw none of it in type. The completion of his work has thus passed to other hands. He had revised for me last year a condensed bibliography of Johnson in the Cambridge History of English Literature, and I had looked forward to assisting him in turn with his proofs. Instead I have had the duty of seeing his work through the press. The consistent accuracy of his references has greatly facilitated the revision; the real difficulty was to be assured that his work was completed with the thoroughness at which he aimed. What I have occasionally inserted is duly indicated. An asterisk is prefixed to the additional entries, and the new matter in the descriptions and notes is enclosed within square brackets and signed 'Ed.' Accounts of Johnson's personality and his talk do not come strictly within the scheme of the volume. Its purpose is to give a record of the publication of his writings and compositions. No mention is thus made of such books as Johnsoniana, or a Collection of Bon Mots, &c. (1776), or Dr. Johnson's Table Talk (1785, &c.); and Boswell's Life and Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes are included only because the one prints many of his letters and much that he had dictated, and the other has preserved several of his lighter and impromptu verses. But the descriptive passages are rich in references to pamphlets that were connected with his work, and in details about his associates. This bibliography is more than a mere list of editions. It presents the facts of Johnson's literary career. And it will be found to contain much that has not been easily accessible, and much also that is new. D. NICHOL SMITH. OXFORD, May 20, 1914. |