EDINBURGH : PRINTED FOR DOIG AND STIRLING; BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, LONDON; AND M. KEENE AND 3. CUMMING, Dublin, 1815. ADVERTISEMENT. THE following Narrative was originally prefixed to the "Poetical Works" of JOHNSON, in the general edition of the "Works of the British Poets, with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical," printed in 1795. A separate edition was printed, the same year, in octavo, accelerated so as to exclude such additions and improvements as an opportunity for a revisal might have supplied. Both editions having been, during a considerable time, out of print, and a new edition called for, in the intervening period, the subject has been thought not to be exhausted by the researches of which it has afforded the basis, but still likely to interest the public. In revising the Narrative for a new edition, an opportunity has been found of supplying several deficiencies, both in the chronological series of events, and the critical account of writings, which the compendious brevity of a Preface rendered unavoidable; and of annexing occasional annotations, illustrative of personal history, from the pen of the late Dr THOMAS PERCY, Bishop of Dro more. The notices of the venerable Annotator concerning his illustrious friend, are printed, without any alteration, from an interleaved copy of the second edition, prepared, in the intimacy of friendship, for the use of this edition, in |