The Plays of William Shakespeare was an 18th-century edition of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, edited by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens.Johnson announced his intention to edit Shakespeare's plays in his Miscellaneous Observations on Macbeth (1745), and a full Proposal for the edition was published in 1756. It was not until 1919 that H. F. B. Brett-Smith published an ac First edition of an adaptation of the Shakespeare play, including a fifth act written by Dryden. In his working on the edition of Shakespeare, one can trace his groping for the answer. About this Item: Printed for Jacob Tonson and Abel Swall, London, 1679. The Shakespeare Institute Library’s current exhibition celebrates the 250th anniversary of it’s publication. Just read Johnson's preface to his edition of Shakespeare (in the Harvard Classics, 1st edition, that my wife so wonderfully bought me). 1765 . The "Preface" originally accompanied Johnson's eight-volume edition of Shakespeare (also published in 1765), a project that took the good doctor 20 years to complete, partly because of the scope of the undertaking and partly because of his own procrastination. The edition was finally published in 1765. Despite much learned opinion to the contrary, Johnson's edition of Shakespeare is not a work worthy of his powers, and it is a tribute to him, I … The Plays of William Shakespeare (Les Pièces de William Shakespeare), révisés et corrigés par Samuel Johnson et George Steevens, est une édition des tragédies de William Shakespeare parue au XVIII e siècle. and revised four times in his lifetime. a complete reading of Johnson's Shakespeare is to go back to the first edition of 1765. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Johnson is described as “arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history”. Although Johnson's notes are largely ignored by modern critics in favor of his Preface, perhaps a less overt but more damaging factor affecting Johnson's commentary is the neglect of modern Shakespearean Note: Citations are based on reference standards. First edition thus. Challenging the long-held view that Johnson's criticism of Shakespeare is of historical interest only, having been assimilated and superseded by later work, this study argues that Johnson's interpretation of Shakespeare as the poet of nature is actually a radical and provocative proposition. Despite much learned opinion to the contrary, Johnson's edition of Shakespeare is not a work worthy of his powers, and it is a … THE ANSWER IS : Dr .Johnson's edition of Shakespeare's plays was finally published on 10 October 1765 as The Plays of William Shakespeare, in Eight Volumes . Variant issue with Tonson's name preceding Swall's in the imprint, another issue has Swall's name first in imprint. 3) Johnson published his first edition of Shakespeare in . However, formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study. waiting for the edition and how many times Johnson disappointed it after having promised publication one is struck by the care with which he revised the Preface. Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [OS 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer.Religiously, he was a devout Anglican, and politically a committed Tory. Samuel Johnson. In the "Preface" to his edition, Johnson justifies trying to determine the original language of the Shakespearean plays. (Johnson, Proposals for printing Shakespeare’s Plays, 1745) In 1765, Samuel Johnson’s edited edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare was finally published. Today, Monday 10 August 2015 , an exhibition opens at Dr Johnson’s House in London to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Samuel Johnson’s edition of William Shakespeare’s works published in 1765..