...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 dogmatism of learning,...

...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...uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtlety and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claims to poetical...

...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...uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical...

...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;...uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtlety and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical...

...one of the volumes which together make up an anthology writ large of Works of the English Poets) to "rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by...sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices . . . must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours. "5 Johnson's "common sense" anticipates...

...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...uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilry and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical...

...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...uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtlety and the dogmaticism of learning, must be finally decided all claims to poetical...

...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 of learning, must be finally...

...libraries, yet full of books, where the pursuit of reading is carried on by private people. ". . .1 rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted by literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be...

...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...uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical...