overlooked any significant changes. The reader has, then, for the first
time, outside the covers of the ten volumes of the 1773 edition, an
almost complete text of Johnson's notes on Shakespeare. The only
omission in this reprint is of those notes which merely list variant
readings, either from one of the folios or quartos or from a previous
editor. Johnson's reputation as an editor of Shakespeare rests, after
all, on his commentary, not on his textual labors. Up to now Johnson's
notes have been available only in such books as Walter Raleigh's
_Johnson on Shakespeare_ and Mona Wilson's _Johnson; Prose and Poetry_,
and here one gets merely a selection. For example: Miss Wilson reprints
only two notes from _The Tempest_, one from _Julius Caesar_, three from
_Antony and Cleopatra_, and one from _Titus Andronicus_. One rarely gets
the chance to read the more than 2000 notes in the edition given over to
definitions or paraphrases and explanations. Yet it must be remembered
that Johnson has been most often praised for these notes by scholars
whose primary interest was Shakespeare's meaning, not Johnson's
personality. And, what bears constant repetition, the anthologies draw
their notes from the 1765 edition, neglecting altogether Johnson's
revisions. It is only very recently that these revisions have been
studied at all--and then but partially.

The present division of the commentary into three parts--the notes on
the comedies, those on the tragedies, and those on the history plays--is
arbitrary and mostly a matter of convenience. Some division was
necessary, and it seemed advantageous to present introductions which
could use Johnson's reaction to comedy, tragedy, and history plays--and
Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies, and histories--as a point of
departure. Were the notes reprinted in the order of appearance of the
plays one would find _Macbeth_, coming after _The Winter's Tale_ (the
last of the comedies), introducing the history plays. Since Johnson had