Several studies of Johnson's revisions of his publications have
disposed of the old belief that his care for his writings ceased
when they originally left his pen. The interest of these studies
has been chiefly in enabling us to see the process by which the
final form of each text—the form in which we are familiar with
it—was attained; only rarely has a knowledge of Johnson's
revisions enabled editors to arrive at readings superior to those
in the traditional texts.[1]
Johnson's revisions of his Preface to the Dictionary of the
English Language present a more complex and instructive case.
While noteworthy, like his other revisions, in displaying a great
stylist at work, these revisions have an additional significance
for the establishment of the true text of the Preface. For Johnson
revised the Preface twice, making an independent set of alterations
each time. And only one of these
sets of revisions has been incorporated in the versions of the
Preface printed since the eighteenth century.
Four folio editions of the Dictionary appeared during
Johnson's lifetime. The first edition was published in 1775; the
second closely followed, the first volume late in 1775 and the
second early in 1756; the third edition was published in 1765; and
the fourth in 1773. All the subsequent texts of the Preface contain
variations from the first edition both in such "accidentals" as
spelling and punctuation, and in "substantive" readings directly
affecting the sense. It is the purpose of this study to record
these
variations; to indicate, on the basis of them, the relations among
the several editions; to distinguish, so far as possible, between
those variant readings which should be attributed to Johnson and
those which should be attributed to the compositor or
proof-corrector; and to suggest the editorial principles on which
future editions of the Preface should be based.
