ornament of the eighteenth century[1],' I have largely provided for the instruction and entertainment of mankind.
London, April 20, 1791[2].
- ↑ See Mr. Malone's Preface to his edition of Shakespeare. Boswell.
- ↑ 'April 6, 1791.
'My Life of Johnson is at last drawing to a close . . . I really hope to publish it on the 25th current . . . I am at present in such bad spirits that I have every fear concerning it—that I may get no profit, nay, may lose—that the Public may be disappointed, and think that I have done it poorly—that I may make many enemies, and even have quarrels. Yet perhaps the very reverse of all this may happen.' Letters of Boswell, p. 335.
'August 22, 1791.'My magnum opus sells wonderfully; twelve hundred are now gone, and we hope the whole seventeen hundred may be gone before Christmas.' lb. p. 342.
Malone in his Preface to the fourth edition, dated June 20, 1804, says that 'near four thousand copies have been dispersed.' The first edition was in 2 vols., quarto; the second (1793) in 3 vols., octavo ; the third (1799), the fourth (1804), the fifth (1807). and the sixth (1811), were each in 4 vols., octavo. The last four were edited by Malone, Boswell having died while he was preparing notes for the third edition.
