on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir T.H. (Sir
Thomas Hanmer's) Edition of Shakspeare," to which were subjoined,
proposals for a new edition of his plays. These observations were
favourably mentioned by Warburton, in the preface to his edition; and
Johnson's gratitude for praise bestowed at a time when praise was of
value to him, was fervent and lasting. Yet Warburton, with his usual
intolerance of any dissent from his opinions, afterwards complained in a
private letter [6] to Hurd, that Johnson's remarks on his commentaries
were full of insolence and malignant reflections, which, had they not in
them "as much folly as malignity," he should have had reason to be
offended with.

In 1747, he furnished Garrick, who had become joint-patentee and manager
of Drury Lane, with a Prologue on the opening of the house. This address
has been commended quite as much as it deserves. The characters of
Shakspeare and Ben Jonson are, indeed, discriminated with much skill;
but surely something might have been said, if not of Massinger and
Beaumont and Fletcher, yet at least of Congreve and Otway, who are
involved in the sweeping censure passed on "the wits of Charles."

Of all his various literary undertakings, that in which he now engaged
was the most arduous, a Dictionary of the English language. His plan of
this work was, at the desire of Dodsley, inscribed to the Earl of
Chesterfield, then one of the Secretaries of State; Dodsley, in
conjunction with six other book-sellers, stipulated fifteen hundred and
seventy-five pounds as the price of his labour; a sum, from which, when
the expenses of paper and transcription were deducted, a small portion
only remained for the compiler. In other countries, this national
desideratum has been supplied by the united exertions of the learned.
Had the project for such a combination in Queen Anne's reign been
carried into execution, the result might have been fewer defects and
less excellence: the explanation of technical terms would probably have
been more exact, the derivations more copious, and a greater number of
significant words now omitted [7], have been collected from our earliest
writers; but the citations would often have been made with less
judgment, and the definitions laid down with less acuteness of
discrimination.

From his new patron, whom he courted without the aid of those graces so
devoutly worshipped by that nobleman, he reaped but small advantage;
and, being much exa