University of Virginia Library

V
History: Alterations in Fourth Edition

Our collation of the "proprietors'" first seven editions of the unabridged Dictionary revealed that Johnson (slightly) revised only the fourth edition of his History of the English Language. Four substantive changes in this edition are certainly authorial: (1) the phrase "mixed in considerable numbers with the Saxons without" is altered to "mixed with another in considerable numbers without" (sig. D1r); (2) "and has been twice published" is expanded to "and having been twice published before, has been lately reprinted at Oxford,

under the inspection of Mr. Lye, the editor of Junius" (ibid.); (3) in the next sentence, "both descended" becomes "both have descended" (ibid.); and (4) in the sentence beginning "Dryden, who mistakes . . . and, in confidence" is changed to "Dryden, who, mistaking . . ., in confidence" (sig. F1v). In his article, Sherbo records (pp. 28-29) the second of these alterations; in his study, Nagashima records (pp. 35-36) the first, second, and fourth, as well as two variants in punctuation which we have not adopted in our text.[4]

Besides accepting these four variants from the fourth edition, we have retained fourteen substantive readings in the first edition which were corrupted in the second (ten), third (three), and fourth (one) editions: (1) "On þis. . . . eorl of Albamar þe þe king" (sig. E1v) instead of "Albamar þe king" (2nd ed.); (2) "changes of its own forms and terminations" (sig. E2r) instead of "changes of its own form and terminations" (2nd ed.); (3) "kynz Alfred to ys wylle" (sig. E2v) instead of "in ys wylle" (3rd ed.) in the line of poetry beginning "To þe kẏnz;" (4) "And that that men gon upward" (sig. F1r) instead of "than that men" (4th ed.); (5) "thei ben 31500 myles" (sig. F1v) instead of "thei ben 315000 myles" (2nd ed.); (6) "I that . . . am compelled to fele" (sig. F2r) instead of "and compelled" (3rd ed.); (7) "Alas Alas how . . .: and yet refusythe" (ibid.) instead of "add yet refusythe" (2nd ed.); (8) "But I . . . was amasyd or astonyed" (sig. F2v) instead of "amasyd and astonyed" (2nd ed.); (9) "This . . . knight had ben" (sig. G1v) instead of "knight hath ben" (2nd ed.); (10) "Of the works . . . it was necessary" (sig. G2v) instead of "is was necessary" (3rd ed.); (11) "Hee was . . . for the suretie or encrease" (sig. I1r) instead of "suretie and encrease" (2nd ed.); (12) "For whom . . . som by writing and secret messengers" (sig. I2r) instead of "writing or secret messengers" (2nd ed.); (13) "Vnto whiche . . . king aunswered" (sig. I2v) instead of "sting aunswered" (2nd ed.); (14) "Long was . . . Lucke" (ibid.) instead of "Luke" (2nd ed.). Lastly, we have adopted one substantive correction in the second ("being diffused among those classes" [sig. G2v] instead of "being disused among"), third, and fourth editions; and one appearing only in the third edition, the insertion of "not" between "does" and "allow" in the clause "which the paucity of books does not allow" (sig. F2r).

According to our collation, the number of accidental variants in the first four editions of the History totals two hundred and twenty-nine. Of this number, one hundred and fifty-eight concern spelling, sixty-four concern punctuation, six capitalization, and one italics. We have retained one hundred and fifty first-edition spellings, all of words in quoted passages, which we have checked against their originals whenever possible. We have also accepted five second-edition corrections of misspellings in quoted passages, two fourth-edition spellings (one possibly authorial, the other a correction of a mistake in a quoted passage), and one third-edition spelling, which, since it also appears in the fourth edition, is possibly authorial. Again, we have retained fifty-one first-edition versions of punctuation in quoted passages

and five in Johnson's own prose; and have admitted six second-edition versions in quoted passages plus two corrections in Johnson's prose. Likewise, we have retained six first-edition versions of capitalization in quoted passages and have adopted one second-edition use of italics in a quoted passage.