laid it aside till
1756, when he issued new Proposals. In the interval he had written of
Shakespeare in the admirable Prologue which inaugurated Garrick's rule at
Drury Lane, and had shadowed in the _Rambler_ and in the Dedication to
Mrs. Lennox's _Shakespear Illustrated_ (1753) much of what was to appear
in perfect form in the Preface of 1765. It was one of the conditions in
the Proposals that the edition was to be published on or before Christmas,
1757. As in the case of the _Dictionary_ Johnson underestimated the labour
which such a work involved. In December, 1757, we find him saying that he
will publish about March, and in March he says it will be published before
summer. He must have made considerable progress at this time, as,
according to his own statement, "many of the plays" were then printed. But
its preparation was interrupted by the _Idler_ (April, 1758, to April,
1760). Thereafter Johnson would appear to have done little to it till he
was awakened to activity by the attack on him in Churchill's _Ghost_
(1763). The edition at length appeared in October, 1765. "In 1764 and
1765," says Boswell, "it should seem that Dr. Johnson was so busily
employed with his edition of _Shakespeare_ as to have had little leisure
for any other literary exertion, or indeed even for private
correspondence." The Preface was also published by itself in 1765 with the
title--_Mr. Johnson's Preface to his Edition of Shakespear's Plays_.

The work immediately attracted great attention. Kenrick lost no time in
issuing _A Review of Doctor Johnson's New Edition of Shakespeare: in which
the Ignorance or Inattention of that Editor is exposed, and the Poet
defended from the Persecution of his Commentators_, 1765. Johnson was
"above answering for himself," but James Barclay, an Oxford student,
replied for him, to his annoyance, in _An Examination of Mr. Kenrick's
Review_, 1766, and Kenrick himself rejoined in _A Defence of Mr. Kenrick's
Review ... By a Friend_, 1766. The most important criticism of the edition
was Tyrwhitt's _Observations and Conjectures upon some Passages of
Shakespeare_, issued anonymously by the Clarendon Press in 1766. Though we
read that "the author has not entered into the merits of Mr. Johnson's
performance, but has set down some observations and conjectures," the book
is in effect an examination of Johnson's edition. Notices appeared also in
the _Monthly_ and _Critical Reviews_, the _London Magazine_, the
_Gentleman'