The Making of Johnson's Dictionary 1746-1773

273 Pages·1996·13.344 MB·English

by  Allen Reddick

THE MAKING OF
JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY
1746-1773
As the first great English dictionary, and the only
dictionary created by a great writer, Johnson’s
Dictionary of the English Language is recognized as a
landmark in English language and letters.
However, details pertaining to Johnson’s long
years of work on it are very scarce. With the
discovery of manuscript materials for the Diction¬
ary, including hundreds of unpublished revisions,
Allen Reddick describes its conception, com¬
position, writing and subsequent revision. He also
analyses the political, theological and rhetorical
aspects of the work, attempting to determine how
we ‘read’Johnson’s Dictionary.
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN
PUBLISHING AND PRINTING HISTORY
GENERAL EDITORS
Terry Belanger and David McKitterick
\
TITLES PUBLISHED
The Provincial Book Trade in
Eighteenth-Century England
by John Feather
Lewis Carroll and the House of Macmillan
edited by Morton N. Cohen & Anita Gandolfo
The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley I733~I7^4
edited by James E. Tierney
Book Production and Publication in Britain 1373-1475
edited by Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall
Before Copyright: the French Book-Privilege
System 1486-1526
by Elizabeth Armstrong
The Making of Johnson’s Dictionary, 1746-1773
by Allen Reddick
TITLES FORTHCOMING
The Commercialization of the Book in
Britain 1745-1814
by James Raven
Cheap Bibles: nineteenth-century publishing and
the British and Foreign Bible Society
by Leslie Howsam
THE MAKING
OF
JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY
1 746-1 773
ALLEN REDDICK
Associate Professor, Department of
English and American Literature and Language,
Harvard University
4.4 The right of the
University of Cambridge
is Pi to print and sell
all manner of books
V.* *<s>* W was granted by
te; l pf/ Henry VIII in 1534.
i i The University has printed
i 4 and published continuously
i since 1584.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE
NEW YORK PORT CHESTER
MELBOURNE SYDNEY
A
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 irp
40 West 20th Street, New York, ny iooi i, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
©Cambridge University Press 1990
First published 1990
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
British Library cataloguing in publication data
Reddick, Allen
The making of Johnson’s Dictionary, 1746—1773, — (Cambridge
studies in publishing and printing history).
1. English language. Lexicography. Johnson, Samuel,
1709—1784. Dictionary of the English language
E Title
423.092
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Reddick, Allen Hilliard.
The making of Johnson’s dictionary, 1746-1773 / Allen Reddick,
p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in publishing and
printing history
ISBN 0—521—36160-5
1. Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784. Dictionary of the English language.
2. English language - Lexicography - History - 18th century
3. English language - 18th century - Lexicography.
I. Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784. Dictionary of the English language.
II. Title. III. Series.
PE1617.J7R4 1990
423-6020 90-1472 CIP
ISBN 0 52 I 36160 5
CE
For Celia and James

CONTENTS
List of illustrations page viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction
Johnson’s “Mind ... on the stretch”: A Dictionary of the English
Language i
2 “The plan of my undertaking”: the composition and purpose of
the Plan of a Dictionary 12
3 “I can do it in three years”: a false start on the Dictionary 25
4 “Ended, though not completed”: the first edition published 55
5 “I know not how to get loose”: the fourth edition 89
6 “Unexpected truth”: the use of poetical authorities 121
7 “Factious in a factious age”: theology and politics in the fourth
edition 141
8 “The world must, at present, take it as it is”: Johnson’s Dictionary
after 1773 170
Appendix A: Description of the Sneyd—Gimbel materials 179
Appendix B: Description of the British Library copy 190
Appendix C: Provenance and history of the Sneyd-Gimbel and
British Library copies 192
Notes 195
Index 239
vii
ILLUSTRATIONS
between pages 114-15
1 Volume 1 of the Sneyd-Gimbel copy of Johnson’s Dictionary at Yale,
showing annotations written by Johnson and the amanuensis for
possible inclusion in the fourth edition
2-3 Photograph of one page and adjoining slips from the Sneyd-Gimbel
copy of the Dictionary at Yale, with corresponding interleaf from the
British Library copy
4 Fragment of the original manuscript of the Dictionary, abandoned in
1749 or early 1750
5 Johnson’s young servant practicing his signature in the early 1750s;
fragment preserved in the Sneyd-Gimbel copy at Yale
6 Page from Johnson’s copy of vol. 111 of The Works of Francis Bacon (1740),
which he marked in selecting illustrations for use in the Dictionary
All plates are reproduced with permission of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University, except plate 3, which is reproduced with permission of the British
Library.
viii
PREFACE
In this book, I have been chiefly concerned to accomplish three purposes:
first, to chart the processes of growth - the conception, composition, and
revision - of the Dictionary, secondly, to examine Johnson’s intentions and
purposes in the creation of his text; and thirdly, to analyze the Dictionary as
literary and rhetorical discourse. In pursuing these objectives, I have made
extensive use of several major manuscript and printed book archives which,
while providing much of what is enlivening in my study, also present the
reader with particularly challenging material and technical analysis. The
complexity of the materials, particularly the Sneyd-Gimbel materials at Yale,
with the different kinds of evidence and the palimpsestic nature of many of the
manuscript slips found there, required an attempt at a thorough and
occasionally somewhat technical exposition of the evidence. Much of this
exposition and analysis has been placed in the appendices, although some
technical discussion has found its way into the text and notes of chapters 3, 4,
and 5. In fact, the reader of this book encounters a variety of discussions and
kinds of inquiry intermixed: biographical narrative, textual and bibliographic
analysis, printing and publishing history, lexicographical theory and history,
theologico-political history, poetical criticism, literary theory and history, for
instance. Such a combination of information and analysis seemed to be
necessary to my investigation throughout, to provide texture and richness to
my subject. It is a great pleasure to add that because of the abundance and
elusiveness of the manuscript and annotated materials, particularly those at
Yale, much more evidence relevant to students ofjohnson and the Dictionary
yet remains to be interpreted, having either defeated my understanding or
proved not entirely necessary to my discussion.
IX