...In that document, Dr. Johnson, with that unrivalled stateliness of his, writes as follows: "The poet of whose works I have undertaken the revision may...term commonly fixed as the test of literary merit." The whirligig of time has brought in his revenges. The doctor himself has been dead his century. He...

...it begins in mistake and ends in ignominy. PREFACE TO SHAKESPEARE (selections)1 1765 . . . The poet of whose works I have undertaken the revision may...the dignity of an ancient and claim the privilege of an established fame and prescriptive veneration. He has long outlived his century, the term commonly...

...to consider the issue of the playwright's reputation with renewed and independent energy: "The poet, of whose works I have undertaken the revision, may...privilege of established fame and prescriptive veneration" (YJ 7:61). He is now unquestionably an ancient. But this general and accurate attitude toward him does...

...there was a rational esteem for what had been long tested and long approved. Consequently, 'The poet, of whose works I have undertaken the revision, may...the privilege of established fame and prescriptive veneration.'77 Yet Johnson's project for the vernacular was, in its own terms, not a success. Arthur...

...longer a near contemporary but an honored figure from the almost distant past. In the words of Johnson, "he has long outlived his century, the term commonly fixed as the test of literary merit" and thus "may begin to assume the dignity of an ancient."4 Attaining the rank of "ancient" placed Shakespeare...

...begins by underscoring that Shakespeare should command a status as an ancient, not a modern: "The Poet, of whose works I have undertaken the revision, may...of established fame and prescriptive veneration," 659. By characterizing Shakespeare as a "Poet," rather than a playwright, Johnson is also moving to...

...been most considered, and what is most considered is best understood'. Shakespeare, Johnson asserts, 'has long outlived his century, the term commonly fixed as the test of literary merit'.78 Having outlived 'personal allusions, local customs, or temporary opinions', the 'effects...

...recognition of an author who, by having "gained and kept the favour of his countrymen," could heroically "assume the dignity of an ancient, and claim the privilege...of established fame and prescriptive veneration," as if Shakespeare's canonization were a symbolic gesture much like a ritual of laureation.48 Above...

...hundred years, writes Johnson, "the term commonly fixed as the test of literary merit," Shakespeare "may now begin to assume the dignity of an ancient,...the privilege of established fame and prescriptive veneration."45 In according Shakespeare the dignity of an ancient, eighteenthcentury critics perhaps...

...Latin translation, as was Lewis Theobald and George Steevens.6 Samuel Johnson argued that Shakespeare "may now begin to assume the dignity of an ancient,...the privilege of established fame and prescriptive veneration".7 Francklin may have also indirectly influenced Richard Farmer, whose An Essay on the Learning...