The Appeal to Authority, 1650–1800

In reaction to the turbulence of the seventeenth century, including civil war, the rationalistic spirit of the eighteenth century made itself felt in attitudes toward English, which was considered unruly and without a grammar. This view was in contrast to the spontaneous creativeness of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The academies of Italy and Franco inspired many commentators to urge a similar path for England to standardize, refine, and “fix” the English language. Despite Jonathan Swift’s influential 1712 Proposal , an English academy was never formed. The substitutes that filled the need were a lexicographical tradition culminating in Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of 1755 and a succession of eighteenth-century grammarians.