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Dr. Johnson's Letters to Richardson
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
In his edition of The Letters of Samuel Johnson Dr. R. W. Chapman gives Samuel Richardson as the addressee of nine letters (Nos. 31, 48, 49, 49.1, 49.2, 51.1, 58.1, 90, and 94), and in his “Further Addenda” (i, 430) he mentions another recorded letter to Richardson (36.1) as “not traced.” Chapman says in a footnote to 31 that he is “far from satisfied” with his elucidations of these letters; I believe that I can clarify some of the points which were doubtful to him, date one of the letters (49.2) more nearly accurately, show that one of the letters (49.1) is not to Richardson, and identify the untraced letter (36.1) as most likely 36, which Chapman prints as to the Earl of Orrery.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1960
References
1 3 vols. (Oxford, 1952). Throughout this article I have referred to Johnson's letters by Chapman's numbers and have given page references only when citing the notes printed in his “Addenda” and “Further Addenda” or in the various indices.
This article is one result of research made possible by a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1957–58.
2 Evidently Chapman was not aware that McKillop had printed the letter. McKillop, following George Birkbeck Hill in his edition of Johnson's Letters (Oxford, 1892), I, 33, dates 48 17 May rather than 17 April.
3 See the Public Advertiser for this date.
4 Chapman's statements about Grandison in his notes to this and the preceding letter (49.1) are somewhat confusing. He specifies the octavo edition (which was in six volumes) for the volumes under discussion in 49.1, but fails to indicate that it is the duodecimo he is thinking of in connection with this letter.
5 The normal procedure would be to set signature A and signature P as a duodecimo in sixes; there is no reason to think this was not done. In the case of the octavo or “second” edition (published simultaneously with the duodecimo) signature A (3 leaves), which contains the “Preface” and “Names of the Principal Persons” was undoubtedly set on the same forme with signature [Ee] (1 leaf), which contains the last page of the text.
6 The manuscript of Grandison is lost and it is not known how many notebooks it filled, but that it was in notebooks is clear from Mrs. Donnellan's letter to Richardson of 9 November 1752 (Richardson, Correspondence, ed. Anna Laetitia Barbauld [London, 1804],iv, 74–78).
7 Ibid, vi, 76; Miss Talbot's journal, under the dates 5, 20, 22 Nov. (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS 46,690).
8 See the Public Advertiser for these dates. T. C. Duncan Eaves
9 Chapman is aware that Grandison was not published by subscription and notes that “J was misinformed.”
10 The manuscript of this letter is now in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Somerville, New Jersey, who have kindly sent me a photostat of it. I am at present working on an edition of Richardson's correspondence and have examined the endorsements on all letters known to me.
11 xxi, 527; xxii, 47. 380
12 Volume iv of the collected Rambler is not listed by William M. Sale, Jr., among the books he identifies as printed by Richardson (Samuel Richardson: Master Printer [Ithaca, New York, 1950], pp. 145–228). But three of the ornaments in the volume are reproduced by Sale (pp. 284, 291, 309) as belonging to Richardson: No. 38 (found on p. [1]), No. 51 (found on pp. 45, 211, 239, 299), and No. 87 (found on pp. 184, 281). Since Sale does not reproduce all ornaments known to have been used by Richardson, it is possible that the other ornaments in this volume are found also in works known to have come from his press. Three different printers appear to have been employed on these four volumes. Volumes i and ii have no large ornaments, but they do have rows of type-ornaments which are unmistakably the same (several exhibit such peculiarities as a ? inadvertently mixed with the ornaments); they are not the same as those used by Richardson. Volume m contains both large ornaments and rows of type-ornaments; none of the former are given in Sale and the latter are different from those found in the other three volumes.
13 George Birkbeck Hill and L. F. Powell, eds. Boswell's Life of Johnson (Oxford, 1934–50), I, 203n-204n.
14 See Sale, pp. 118–119.
15 Sotheby's catalogue for this date does not contain the letter; I have been unable to discover which catalogue does.
16 Gentleman's Magazine, xx, 575.
17 (New Haven, 1933), p. 10.
18 Ibid, pp. 79–82. T. C. Duncan Eaves
19 Sale, p. 118. The novel was published in March 1752 (Gentleman's Magazine, xxii, 146).
20 (London, 1752), ii, 314.