Churchill's stinging
satire:

'He for subscribers baits his hook,
And takes your cash, but where's the book?
No matter where; wise fear, you know,
Forbids the robbing of a foe,
But what, to serve our private ends,
Forbids the cheating of our friends?'

Not only Johnson's constitutional indolence and desultory habits, but
also the deficiency of his eye-sight, incapacitated him for the task of
minute collation. Nevertheless, he did consult the older copies, and has
the merit of restoring some readings which had escaped Theobald. He had
not systematically studied the literature and language of the 16th and
17th centuries; he did not always appreciate the naturalness,
simplicity, and humour of his author, but his preface and notes are
distinguished by clearness of thought and diction and by masterly common
sense. He used Warburton's text, to print his own from. The readings and
suggestions attributed to 'Johnson,' in our notes, are derived either
from the edition of 1765, or from those which he furnished to the
subsequent editions in which Steevens was his co-editor. Some few also
found by the latter in Johnson's hand on the margin of his copy of
'Warburton,' purchased by Steevens at Johnson's sale, were incorporated
in later editions. Johnson's edition was attacked with great acrimony by
Dr Kenrick, 1765 (Boswell, Vol. II. p. 300). It disappointed the public
expectation, but reached, nevertheless, a second edition in 1768.
Tyrwhitt's _Observations and Conjectures_ were published anonymously in
1766.

Capell's edition (10 volumes, small 8vo) was not published till 1768,
though part of it had gone to press, as the editor himself tells us, in
September, 1760. It contained the Plays in the order of the first and
second Folios, with a preface, of which Dr Johnson said, referring to
_Tempest_, I. 2. 356, 'The fellow should have come to me, and I would
have endowed his purpose with words. As it is he doth gabble
monstrously.'

Defects of style apart, this preface was by far the most valuable
contribution to Shakespearian criticism that had yet appeared, and the
text was based upon a most searching collation of all the Folios and of
all the Quartos known to exist at that time. Capell's own conjectures,
not always very happy, which he has introduced into his text, are
distinguished by being printed in black letter.

The edition before us contains the scansion of the lines, with
occasional verbal as well as met