1773 ENGLISH POETRY 1579-1830: SPENSER AND THE TRADITION

Allan Ramsay

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, 1773; Boswell, Life of Johnson (1791); ed. G. B. Hill (1891) 2:253.

Commentary for
Allan Ramsay:

1719: William Hamilton of Gilbertfield
1720: C. T.
1722: David Mallet
1725: William Hamilton of Bangour
1728 ca.: William Somervile
1729: Joseph Mitchell
1734: Anonymous
1753: Rev. John Werge
1758: Rev. James Grainger
1758: Anonymous
1758: Anonymous
1761: William Shenstone
1762: Robert Lloyd
1770 ca.: Adam Smith
1772: Dr. John Aikin
1773: Samuel Johnson
1774: William Richardson
1774: Anonymous
1774: T. V.
1776: James Beattie
1778: J. H.
1778: J. O.
1780 ca.: Alexander Fraser Tytler
1783: Rev. Hugh Blair
1786: John Pinkerton
1787: Robert Burns
1790 ca.: Rev. Alexander Geddes
1791: John Learmont
1791: Anonymous
1791: Robert Cumming
1791: Alexander Wilson
1791: Ebenezer Picken
1794: Joseph Ritson
1794: Robert Alves
1796: Gavin Turnbull
1797: George Dyer
1800 ca.: George Chalmers
1802: Anna Seward
1802: Anonymous
1806: Charles Brockden Brown
1806: Anonymous
1809: Anonymous
1809: J. M'D.
1816: George Colman the Younger
1817: Leigh Hunt
1819: Thomas Campbell
1824: Bryan Waller Procter
1825: Allan Cunningham
1830: Rev. George Barrell Cheever
1832: John Wilson
1851: Dr. David Macbeth Moir
1860: George Gilfillan
1880: William Minto
1882: Epes Sargent
1882: Edmund Gosse

Commentary by
Samuel Johnson:

1736 ca.: Samuel Boyse
1741: Richard Savage
1750 ca.: Thomas Edwards
1753: Rev. Joseph Warton
1754: William Collins
1754: David Mallet
1754: Rev. Thomas Warton
1756: Rev. Joseph Warton
1756: Rev. Isaac Watts
1758: Lewis Theobald
1759: Robert Vansittart
1763: Joseph Addison
1763: John Campbell
1763: Rev. Charles Churchill
1763: Rev. James Fordyce
1763: Adam Smith
1763: Bonnell Thornton
1765: Alexander Pope
1765: Lewis Theobald
1765: Rev. John Upton
1767: Bp. Robert Lowth
1767: George Lyttelton
1768 ca.: Edward Capell
1769: Lord Kames
1769: Matthew Prior
1770: John Gilbert Cooper
1770: Rev. Richard Farmer
1770: Rev. Walter Harte
1772: Dr. Mark Akenside
1772: Henry Fielding
1772: Rev. Henry More
1772: Samuel Richardson
1773: Rev. Richard Gifford
1773: Rev. James Hervey
1773: David Hume
1773: Allan Ramsay
1773: Rev. Joseph Spence
1773: Rev. Jonathan Swift
1773: Sir Charles Hanbury Williams
1774: Lord Chesterfield
1774: George Steevens
1775: Anna Laetitia Barbauld
1775: Thomas Gray
1775: Christopher Smart
1776: Rev. Robert Burton
1776: Thomas Chatterton
1776: Robert Dodsley
1776: Robert Shiels
1776: James Thomson
1777: Rev. William Dodd
1777: William Hamilton of Bangour
1777: William Seward
1777: Rev. Thomas Seward
1777: Rev. Thomas Warton
1778: Rev. John Duncombe
1778: Rev. William Mason
1778: Hannah More
1778: Bp. Thomas Percy
1778: Rev. Robert Potter
1778: George Steevens
1778: Sir William Temple
1779: Rev. William Alabaster
1779: Thomas Brown
1779: Sir John Denham
1779: Bp. John Hacket
1779: John Philips
1779: James Ralph
1779: Thomas Rymer
1779: Rev. Joseph Trapp
1780: James Beattie
1780: Rev. William Broome
1780: Rev. Richard Farmer
1780 ca.: Rev. William Hawkins of Oxford
1780: William Melmoth
1781: Rev. Hugh Blair
1781: Rev. Thomas Gibbons
1782: William Shenstone
1783: John Hoole
1783: Bp. Richard Hurd
1784: Edmund Burke
1784: Helen Maria Williams
1786: Thomas Cooke
1791: Rev. Thomas Blacklock
1791: Rev. John Ogilvie

I spoke of Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, in the Scottish dialect, as the best pastoral that had ever been written; not only abounding with beautiful rural imagery, but just and pleasing sentiments, but being a real picture of manners; and I offered to teach Dr. Johnson to understand it. "No, Sir, (said he,) I won't learn it. You shall retain your superiority by my not knowing it."