’Accordingly a select number of the most respectable booksellers met on the occasion; and, on consulting together, agreed, that all the proprietors of copy-right in the various Poets should be summoned together; and when their opinions were given, to proceed immediately on the business.  Accordingly a meeting was held, consisting of about forty of the most respectable booksellers of London, when it was agreed that an elegant and uniform edition of The English Poets should be immediately printed, with a concise account of the life of each authour, by Dr. Samuel Johnson; and that three persons should be deputed to wait upon Dr. Johnson, to solicit him to undertake the Lives, viz., T. Davies, Strahan, and Cadell.  The Doctor very politely undertook it, and seemed exceedingly pleased with the proposal.  As to the terms, it was left entirely to the Doctor to name his own:  he mentioned two hundred guineas:* it was immediately agreed to; and a farther compliment, I believe, will be made him.  A committee was likewise appointed to engage the best engravers, viz., Bartolozzi, Sherwin, Hall, etc.  Likewise another committee for giving directions about the paper, printing, etc., so that the whole will be conducted with spirit, and in the best manner, with respect to authourship, editorship, engravings, etc., etc.  My brother will give you a list of the Poets we mean to give, many of which are within the time of the Act of Queen Anne, which Martin and Bell cannot give, as they have no property in them; the proprietors are almost all the booksellers in London, of consequence.  I am, dear Sir, ever your’s,

‘Edward Dilly.’

* Johnson’s moderation in demanding so small a sum is extraordinary.  Had he asked one thousand, or even fifteen hundred guineas, the booksellers, who knew the value of his name, would doubtless have readily given it.  They have probably got five thousand guineas by this work in the course of twenty-five years.—­Malone.

A circumstance which could not fail to be very pleasing to Johnson occurred this year.  The Tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury, written by his early companion in London, Richard Savage, was brought out with alterations at Drury-lane theatre.  The Prologue to it was written by Mr. Richard Brinsley Sheridan; in which, after describing very pathetically the wretchedness of

     ’Ill-fated Savage, at whose birth was giv’n
     No parent but the Muse, no friend but Heav’n:’ 

he introduced an elegant compliment to Johnson on his Dictionary, that wonderful performance which cannot be too often or too highly praised; of which Mr. Harris, in his Philological Inquiries, justly and liberally observes:  ’Such is its merit, that our language does not possess a more copious, learned, and valuable work.’  The concluding lines of this Prologue were these:—­

     ’So pleads the tale that gives to future times
     The son’s misfortunes and the parent’s crimes;
     There shall his fame (if own’d to-night) survive,
     Fix’d by the hand that bids our language live.’