BOSWELL'S JOHNSON

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1934, Page 24

BOSWELL'S JOHNSON

THE CLASSICAL EDITION

BROUGHT UP TO DATE

(By "Ajax.")

Boswell's Life of Johnson: Together with Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's

Diary of a Journey into North Wales. Edited by Georgo Birkbcck Hill, D.C.L. Eevised and Enlarged Edition by L. P. Powell. In Six Volumes, 9J x 6. Vols. I-IV; Oxford: Clarendon Press. London: Milford. The set of six volumes 105s n. Volumes I-iy Separately 84s n. [Published prices.] [Ist Notice.] In 1920 I received'one of tho shocks of my life when, in answer to my\ anxious inquiries at Oxford, I was informed, not rudely perhaps but certainly, as it seemed to me, very harshly, that Birkbeck Hill's edition of Boswell's Johnson could never be reprinted; that the notes were far too long; and that, if' ever a reprint was possible, it must be with ,the notes drastically curtailed. As I had conceived an idolatrous admiration'for the book almost from the moment on June 27, 1887, when, as a very young man, I had become the proud possessor of a copy, it seemed to me that any vandal who tampered with Hill's notes would be just as black a criminal as Croker, when. he tampered with Boswell's. Was it possible that the Clarendon' Press was contemplating such a crime? *■'*.*•

■ Some three years later it was a comfort to hear that, if this appalling announcement had ever,.been'anything more than an irresponsible "obiter dictum," wiser counselsVhad .■since pro* vailed.' If it was still possible in a sceptical mood to wonder which of the two reports had come through the ivory gate and which through the gate of horn, the publication in 1928 of "Johnson and Bosweir*Kevised:. By Themselves and Others," supplied absolute proof. One of the three Johnson Club papers that compose this small volume bears the title, "The Kevision of Dr. Birkbeck Hill's Boswell," and.in. it Mr. L. F. Powell, who had been appointed the reviser, writes with becoming reverence of Hill's work, and explains the instructions he had received and'the methods he had adopted. Though the forty-one years which had passed since the publication of Hill's book had been distinguished by "an unparalleled activity in Johnsonian studies," and the appearance Of many good editions, that book, said Mr. Powell, "stands out preeminent as the greatest edition so far produced." ■ . ■ . ~ ■' * * .' * It is, of course, no ordinary edition of Boswell, Mr. Powell continued, any more than Boswell's'. book is a biography of common mould: it is a book of reference indispensable to all students of and writers on the eighteenth century. This edition has met with the approbation of the public, and has been out of print-for some years. The publishers, endorsing, the opinion that "when the public thinks long on any subject it commonly attains' to ±hink right," have decided that it would be better to have Dr. Hill whole than a part of him; in brief, they have recognised that Dr. Hill, like the Duke of Northumberland, is fit only to be succeeded by himself. . . . At the outset three principles were 'laid down for the guidance of the reviser: first, that the pagination of' .the new edition should correspond with that of 'the old; second, that the text should be revised; third, that Dr. Hill's commentary should be retained, and, if necessary, amended and supplemented. The strange and embarrassing character of the first of these principles is due to the entire absence of any chapter* /'or; other divisions in Boswell '3 book and to the thoroughness; with which 'Hill's edition had superseded all, its •predecessors. Homer is. not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, : said Macaulay in his ravage philippic on Croker's Boswell, Shakespeare' is not more decidedly, the ■first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of 'orators, than Boswell is the. first of biographers. He has no second. He has distanced all.his competitors so decidedly that it is not. worth while to place them. Eclipse is first, and the rest nowhere. . . ' . From 1887 onwards Hill had held the same position among the editors of _, Boswell that Boswell himself held among the biographers. .■ v »■' • -v ■■■ •" ■■■■'■ ■: "i ■-;;■ A,;'-.. •'., :.■■ The result was that, as Boswell had left his big book without any divisions to facilitate, reference, Hill's edition was by common consent adopted for the purpose. Dr; Hill's edition, says'Mr./Powell in the'essay above mentioned; has long' been accepted as standard, and;accordingly it is-generally- referred to by volume : and page, and even by note, in most of the Johnsonian literature published during the last generation. As Mr. Chapman stated in 1923, "no improvements which the publishers were likely to be able to introduce could compensate for the confusion and inconvenience which would arise. if the standard method of reference were ■upset." # * * So grave would tho confusion and inconvenience have been if substantially the whole of tho Boswcllian references of" the last 46 years had been put out of gear that some sort of comparative table would have been necessary to preserve tho continuity. But we may be thankful that the matter ■was in the hands of publishers who are accustomed to put the interests of echotyrship arid letters above their own. From, the standpoint of everybody else tho solution which they have adopted, and which, as already' mentioned, they hay© given the'first place among the three principles laid down for the. editor's guidance—-namely,, "that/the pagination of the new edition should correspond exactly with that of the old-—is obviously the (simplest and best. "■•.'•• ■-■ ' • • ■ -■■■■■■ The retention of the same paging, ■while.-.-providing-'new' footnotes and additions to footnotes, of course meant that Mr. Powell, had to find room for the overflow elsewhere. In each of the new volumes he has provided an appendix to carry this excess matter. But the volumes are self-containing in this respect, and there are cross-references. In Appendix G- to "Volume 1, after deducting the space occupied by Hill's own notes, these extra notes cover 24 pages, representing only a proportion of about s,per cent, to the annotated text. -: # # .# Regarding the quality of Mr. Powell's work, which I have hardly had time to sample personally, the reviewer in the "Times.Literary Supplement" (June .28) writes;as follows: — ■ The editor has done his revision and amplification with distinction. He anno- ' tates fully, but without prolixity, leav-

ing his readers anxious for more yet not starved of information. He knowa, moreover, just how much rein to giva to his love of the curious—a love without which it is impossible to do full justice to Boswell's Johnson. Mr. Pbwell still has a heavy task before him iv the revision of the two volumes which are to come. Their publication will be awaited eagerly, for of their quality the four now issued are a sufficient assurance.