I have already mentioned the _Lives of the Poets_ as the only critical work by Johnson which takes precedence over the commentary (and Preface, also) to the plays of Shakespeare. And yet this statement needs modification. In one important respect the notes to Shakespeare are of greater significance than the much more famous _Lives_ for an investigation of Johnson the critic at work. Why, for example, is the _Life of Cowley_ one of the most valuable of the _Lives_? For two reasons: Johnson is discussing a school of poetry which has provoked much comment, _and_ that particular _ Life_ abounds in quotations upon which Johnson exercises his critical abilities. But there are not many of the _Lives_ which reveal Johnson at work on particular passages, where the passage in question is quoted and critical comment is made on a particular line or a particular image, rhyme, word, etc. In short, as so often in Johnson, we are confronted with the large general statement in so much of the criticism in the _Lives_. The "diction" of _Lycidas_ is "harsh." "Some philosophical notions [in _Paradise_ _Lost_], especially when the philosophy is false, might have been better omitted." The plays of Nicholas Rowe are marked by "elegance of diction." Dryden is not often "pathetick." Some of Swift's poetry is "gross" and some is "trifling." The diction of Shenstone's _Elegies_ is "often harsh, improper, and affected." Johnson has not made his meaning entirely clear in these statements because he has not illustrated his remarks with quotations from the works or authors under examination. The famous--or notorious-- condemnation of _Lycidas_ as "harsh" in diction continues to give scholars pause. Most often Johnson has been accused of a poor--or no-- ear for poetry, since the only definition of "harsh" in his _Dictionary_ which is applicable here is "rough to the ear." As no specific lines from the poem are labelled "harsh," one is forced to conclude that the whole poem is unmusical to Johnson's ears--if "harsh" means only "rough to the ear." But the notes to Shakespeare make it perfectly clear that "harsh" often means something other than that. Sometimes a line is stigmatised as "harsh" because it contains what Johnson in _Rambler_ No. 88 called the "collision of consonants." An image offends his sense of propriety and is therefore "harsh." Some words are "harsh" because they are "appropriated to particular arts" (the phrase comes from his _Life of Dryden_). Thus, in _Measure for Measure_, a "leaven'd choice" is "one of Shakespeare's harsh metaphors" because it conjures up images of a baker at his trade. Johnson also uses "harsh" to describe a word used in a sense not familiar to him. And "harsh" is sometimes used synonymously with "forced and far-fetched." "Is't not a kind of incest, to take life From thine own sister's shame?" asks Isabella of her brother in _Measure for Measure_, provoking from Johnson the remark that