In the fifth chapter of the _Life of Johnson_, the following story is given by Boswell: ‘His schoolfellow and friend. Dr. Taylor, told me a pleasant anecdote of Johnson’s triumphing over his pupil, David Garrick. When that great actor had played some little time at Goodman’s Fields, Johnson and Taylor went to see him perform, and afterwards passed the evening at a tavern with him and old Giffard. Johnson, who was ever depreciating stage-players, after censuring some mistakes in emphasis, which Garrick had committed in the course of that night’s acting, said, “The players, Sir, have got a kind of rant, with which they run on, without any regard either to accent or emphasis.” Both Garrick and Giffard were offended at this sarcasm, and endeavoured to refute it; upon which Johnson rejoined, “Well now, I’ll give you something to speak, with which you are little acquainted, and then we shall see how just my observation is. That shall be the criterion. Let me hear you repeat the ninth commandment. _Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour._” Both tried at it, said Dr. Taylor, and both mistook the emphasis, which should be upon _not_ and _false witness_. Johnson put them right, and enjoyed his victory with glee.’ Johnson was of course wrong, and Garrick right, at least if he accented the _shalt_ in the usual way. A friend of mine once told me that when he was a boy at St. Paul’s school it fell to his lot to recite the passage in Shakespeare’s _Julius Cæsar_, where Brutus and Cassius quarrel. and in the following lines _Cass._ I am a soldier, I, Older in practice, abler than yourself To make conditions. _Bru._ Go to, you áre not, Cassius. _Cass._ I am. _Bru._ I say you are nót. when he stressed them correctly, as here shown, he was censured and told to say ‘Go to; you are nót, Cassius.’ However on the day of performance he lost his presence of mind, and did it right. These two illustrations of pedantry refusing to conform to idiom will explain the occasion of many of the accents, with which I have thought it necessary to disfigure my text; for a good number of them will be found to be common enclitics. The rest are all put as guides to the dramatic rhythm, and many of them to ensure the usual pronunciation of words in verses the rhythm of which depends on it, but which I found some readers stumble at, so that they would rather mispronounce the word than accept the intended rhythm. * * * * * In the present edition the numeration of the lines is copied from the first edition. OXFORD: HORACE HART PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY UNIFORM EDITION OF ROBERT BRIDGES’ POETICAL WORKS _CONTENTS._ VOLUME I: Prometheus the Firegiver—Eros and Psyche—The Growth of Love—Notes. Small post 8vo, 6_s._ VOLUME II: Shorter Poems—New Poems—Notes. Small post 8vo, 6_s._