In 1753, Andrew Millar published one of the earliest critical books on Shakespeare, entitled Shakespear Illustrated: or the Novels and Histories, On Which the Plays of Shakespear are Founded, Collected and Translated from the Original Authors. The title page also announces that the "Novels and Histories" are offered "With Critical Remarks" and that the work is "By the Author of the Female Quixote." Charlotte Lennox's novel of the previous year was already sufficiently celebrated to be used in the advertising of Shakespear Illustrated. The first two volumes of this work deal with ten plays; the appearance of Volume III in 1754 brought the number of plays considered to twenty-two, but the treatment of the history plays in Volume III is less careful than the analysis of the chief comedies and tragedies and their sources. Volumes I and II were obviously in some sort a labor of love, and the writing, especially in the "Critical Remarks," is lively, engaged, and emphatic. Lennox's work is a pioneer of its kind, an original and scholarly Shakespeare study. Hitherto, what scholarly comment existed on the subject of Shakespeare was largely to be found in editions. Larger-scale criticism, such as that of Rymer, was not concerned with producing new contextual material. It has been suggested that Charlotte Lennox might have been urged by Samuel Johnson to perform the task of presenting the sources, as it would have eased his editing of Shakespeare if he did not have to go into such matters himself, but could simply direct readers to another book.1 But in 1752-53 Johnson's Shakespeare project was neither imminent nor certain. It is true that in his own long-delayed edition of Shakespeare (1765) Johnson alludes to Lennox three times (he is one of the very few editors to draw on her work). That Samuel Johnson admired what Shakespear Illustrated achieved can be accepted without our having to believe that his suggestion or his interest was necessarily the only or the strongest motive for the production

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莎士比亚的小说：夏洛特·伦诺克斯插图

1753 年，安德鲁·米勒 (Andrew Millar) 出版了最早的关于莎士比亚的评论书籍之一，题为《莎士比亚画报：或小说和历史，莎士比亚戏剧的创作、收集和翻译均来自原作者》。标题页还宣布“小说和历史”提供“带有批判性评论”，作品是“女吉诃德的作者”。夏洛特·伦诺克斯 (Charlotte Lennox) 上一年的小说已经广受赞誉，可以用于莎士比亚画报的广告中。这部作品的前两卷涉及十部戏剧；1754 年第三卷的出现使考虑的戏剧数量达到 22 部，但是第三卷对历史剧的处理不如对主要喜剧和悲剧及其来源的分析那么仔细。第一卷和第二卷显然是出于某种爱的劳动，写作，尤其是“批判性评论”，生动、投入和强调。伦诺克斯的作品是同类作品的先驱，是对莎士比亚的原创和学术研究。迄今为止，关于莎士比亚主题的学术评论主要是在版本中找到的。更大规模的批评，例如 Rymer 的批评，并不关心产生新的上下文材料。有人认为，塞缪尔·约翰逊可能会敦促夏洛特·伦诺克斯 (Charlotte Lennox) 执行提供资料来源的任务，因为如果他不必亲自处理这些问题，他对莎士比亚的编辑会变得容易，但可以简单地将读者引向另一本书。1 但是在 1752-53 年，约翰逊的莎士比亚计划既不是迫在眉睫的，也不是确定的。确实，在他自己拖延已久的莎士比亚版（1765 年）中，约翰逊三度提及伦诺克斯（他是为数不多的借鉴她作品的编辑之一）。塞缪尔约翰逊欣赏莎士比亚画报取得的成就可以被接受，而我们不必相信他的建议或他的兴趣必然是制作的唯一或最强烈的动机