Samuel Johnson Letter To Lord Chesterfield

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Samuel Johnson was a lexicographer, which means he was a dictionary writer. He had a sense of humor about his profession, even calling himself a harmless drudge, claiming that this was a duty he must fulfil. However, before Samuel Johnson's dictionary was published, there was no authoritative guide to the English language. After publishing the dictionary, he goes on to write the “Letter to Lord Chesterfield" in 1755 expressing his unhappiness towards Lord Chesterfield. Chesterfield only wanted to praise Johnson once the work was already done, but where was he when the project started? Johnson uses a sarcastic tone in this letter to get his point across. When Johnson started writing his dictionary, he asked Lord Chesterfield for his financial support, but Chesterfield declined to give much money to support him. It was only when Johnson finished the dictionary that Chesterfield praised his work in a letter, giving off the impression that he’d been in on it from the start. "Seven years, my lord, have now passed… without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour”. Here, Johnson expresses his frustration to Lord Chesterfield because he had previously offered little support, and it wasn’t until the dictionary was completed that he advocated for it. Johnson keeps a …show more content…

When Johnson did approach Chesterfield, he sent him away, and once the dictionary was completed, Chesterfield wrote a letter praising the dictionary, acting as if he was a valuable patron all along. Given the disappointment Johnson must’ve been feeling, he took a sarcastic tone in his letter to Chesterfield while also carefully choosing his diction. The purpose of this was to convey his disapproval of Chesterfield’s misleading behaviour and lack of patronage so that he could finally get his point across to

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