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Notes
Chapman's note first appeared in Notes and Queries (February 13, 1943), p. 103. My quotation is taken from the note as it appears in Chapman's admirable edition of Johnson's Letters (III, 265).
Since I have examined the letter, which is now in the possession of Professor F. W. Hilles of Yale University, I can confirm Chapman's assumption. The note is indeed in the hand of John Nichols.
Since Johnson frequently cites details and language from the "Dedication" that are not reprinted in the Biographia, it is clear that he had access to Steele's work while he was working on the account of Addison. Indeed, Johnson quotes, in a slightly revised form, the assertion that Addison "was above all men in that talent called Humour," earlier in the life; see paragraph 108 in Hill's edition of the Lives. The fact remains, however, that Johnson would have no need to see the "Dedication" in order to refer to Steele's comment on Addison's humor, and it is highly probable that Johnson's interest in the original preface was triggered by the notice of it in the Biographia, which, as stated earlier, is Johnson's steady companion throughout the concluding section of the "Life of Addison."
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