the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Mr Lewis : [verses on Pope in notes to the 'Dunciad']

'[speaking of some verses in the notes to Pope's Dunciad, Boswell and Miss Seward wonder who they are by] He was prompt with his answer: "Why, Sir, they were written by one Lewis, who was either under-master or an usher of Westminster-school, and published a Miscellany, in which "Grongar Hill" first came out". Johnson praised them highly, and repeated them with a noble animation. In the twelfth line, instead of "one establish'd fame", he repeated "one unclouded flame", which he thought was the reading in former editions: but I believe was a flash of his own genius. It is much more poetical than the other.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson      Print: Book

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