The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [799]
Sevigne, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de (1626–96), French letter-writer: 545
Seward, Anna (1742–1809), poet and correspondent; ‘the swan of Lichfield’; vexed relationship with S.J., centring on his apparent depreciation of their native Lichfield; feuded publicly with J.B. after the publication of his Life, claiming it to be blind idolatry; close friend of Erasmus Darwin; poems posthumously edited by Sir Walter Scott (3 vols., 1810): 27 n. b, 55 n. a, 514, 654 n. a, 677, 678, 680, 681, 683, 684, 934,946, 972
Seward, Mrs Elizabeth (1712–90), wife of the below: 514
Seward, Revd Thomas (1708–90), Church of England clergyman; father of Anna Seward; printed poems in Dodsley’s 1748 collection; joint editor of an edition of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher (10 vols., 1750); prominent member of the Lichfield community: 48 n. a, 514, 517, 604, 746
Seward, William (1747–99), anecdotist; great family friend of the Thrales; intimate friend of S.J.; member of the Essex Head Club (1784); compiled the Anecdotes of SomeDistinguishedPersons (5 vols., 1795–7); elected FRS (1779) and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1779): 81, 196, 300, 427, 587 and n. a, 589, 612, 613, 618 n. b, 628, 715, 786, 842, 864, 867, 872, 882–3, 1002 n. a
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley, 4th Earl of (i7ii-7i): 15, 245
Shakespeare, William (1564–1616), playwright, man of the theatre and poet; now established as the pre-eminent English author, a transformation in which S.J. (who edited Shakespeare’s works) and S.J.’s close friend David Garrick played an important part; General: blind admiration for in England 260; character of Catherine of Aragon 896; compared with Congreve 304–5, 309; compared with Corneille and the Greek dramatists 771; his fame 665; a fault, never six lines without 309; the ghost of Old Hamlet 44, 771; Henry V, description of Agincourt eve 305; Jephson, rivalled by 306; Johnson read very early in life 44; Johnson’s opinion of him 776; jubilee at Stratford (1769) 297; knowledge of Latin 772; and Lichfield 513; Macbeth, the worse for being acted 307; – never read through by Mrs Pritchard 448; – description of night 306; Milton, compared with 804; mulberry tree 516; – poem on 60; name omitted in an essay on the English poets 82; night, descriptions of 305, 306; Othello, dialogue between Cassio and Iago 540; – more moral than any other play 539; ‘Shakespearian ribbands’ 297; Timon of Athens’s admirable scolding 777; Editions, chronological: Theobald’s edition (1733) 177; Hanmer’s edition (1743-4) 12, 100;, 101; Warburton’s edition (1747) 143, 177; Capell’s edition (1768) 765; Johnson-Steevens edition (1773) 319–20, 369; Malone’s edition (1790) 6, 843; Johnson’s edition (1765), chronological: proposals and specimen (1745) 12, 100; proposals (1756), 172, 174, 176; subscribers 174, 176, 179, 261; – list lost and money spent 824; progress 171–7, 197–98; published 15, 260; went through several editions 369; attacked by Kenrick 260–61; criticized in the newspapers 269; appendix of notes 180; notes by the Wartons 179, 319–20; notes on two passages in Hamlet 546; preface to 260; – Garrick not mentioned in 307; – reflected on him in 362; Quotations and allusions: As You Like It 662 (III.ii.205), 951 (I.ii.i 13); Coriolanus 662 (III.ii.256-7); Hamlet 69 (III.iv.62), 345 (III.ii.39–40), 417 (III.ii.358), 422 (III.i.8o), 465 (III.ii.66), 546 (III.i.58–90 and V.ii.44), 614 (III.i.68), 620(I.iii.41), 643 (I.ii.i 84), 713 (I.ii.133), 804 n. a (III.iv.54–61), 948 (I.ii.i84); iHenryIVi36 (V.iv.i 56–7), 938 (II.v.452); 2 Henry IV 863 (I.ii.io); Henry VIII 17 (IV.ii.69–72), 169 (III.ii.359), 803 n. a (IV.ii.50–51, 67–68); King Lear 658 (III.iv.135), 729 (II.iv.i23ff.); Love’s Labour’s Lost 816–17 (II.i.66–76); Macbeth 162 (II.iii.102), 307 (V.v.23–24), 435 (II.ii.12–13), 988 (V.iii.42-7); Much Ado About Nothing 679 (III.v.33); Othello 481 (II.i.162), 712 (III.iii.347-8); Richard II 75 (I.iii.309), 423 (I.iii.309), 869 (I.iii.309);