Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett, Thomas Gray [red queen ebook txt] 📗

e one sentence, and is generally read at onesitting. Sir Joshua Reynolds, meeting it in a country inn, began toread it while standing with his arm leaning on a chimney-piece, andwas not able to lay it aside till he had finished it, when he foundhis arm totally benumbed. In 1745, Johnson issued proposals for a newedition of Shakspeare, but laid them aside for a time, owing to thegreat expectations entertained of the edition then promised byWarburton.

For several years, except a few trifles in the Gentleman's Magazine,and his famous "Prologue delivered at the Opening of Drury LaneTheatre," he seems to have written nothing. But in 1745 appeared theprospectus of his most laborious undertaking, the "English
Dictionary." This continued his principal occupation for some years,and, as Boswell truly observes, "served to relieve his constitutionalmelancholy by the steady, yet not oppressive, employment it securedhim." In its unity, too, and gigantic size, the task seemed fitted forthe po