...Dickens and a pathology of the mid-Victorian reading public Helen Small In the character of [Gray's] Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the...

...Elegy Wtitren in a Country Churchyards an example of genuine achievement: in the characrer of [Gray's] Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupred with lirerary prejudices, afrer all the refinements of subtility and the...

...isolate the issue to be discussed here. In his Lives of the English Poets, Dr Johnson famously declared: 'I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtlety and the...

...Johnson is clearly distinguishing himself from the "common reader" when he says in his "Life" of Gray: "In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the...

...any poem, would seem still to govern the judgements of most modern readers; as Johnson wrote of the Elegy: 'I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtlety and the...

...these back-handed sentences are recast in the high praises of the "Elegy" which close the Life of Gray. In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilry and the...

...on several fronts. It was the reader to whom Dr Johnson, in his 'Life of Gray,' famously appealed: 'I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtlety and the...

...her collections of essays, The Common Reader from Dr Johnson, who had written in his Life of Gray: "I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted by literary prejudices, after all refinements of subtility and dogmatism...

...which the criterion of the commonas-general may be felt to suggest also that of the common-as-commoner: "In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the...

...the critic must follow. The first edition of the Prefaces to the English Poets concluded with Gray: 'In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the...