This paragraph from Samuel Johnson

[Healdgreen]

I've just read an anthology of Johnson's writings on Shakespeare. I haven't read much 18th-century prose, but most of it seems fairly straightforward. I'm struggling with the last sentence of this paragraph, though, if anyone can help:

I share your confusion - candour includes truthfulness, so the phrase seems meaningless 🤷‍♀️ but then again, so does the previous one!

I was confused too, and guessed that "bigotry" and "candour" must have been used in a different sense to the way we understand them today.

Sorry but rather than research the way the word meanings have evolved and/or whether SJ was using them in an idiosyncratic way, I cheated and asked Copilot 😳

This was the answer, which seems plausible to me...?

Samuel Johnson’s line — “little regard is due to that bigotry which sets candour higher than truth” — is a sharp critique of misplaced politeness in intellectual discourse.
Here’s what he meant:

• Candour, in this context, refers to generosity or fairness in judging others — a kind of charitable interpretation.
• Truth, on the other hand, is the accurate, unvarnished reality — even if it’s uncomfortable or critical.
• Bigotry, as Johnson uses it here, doesn’t mean prejudice in the modern sense, but rather a stubborn adherence to a misguided principle.

🔍 So Johnson is saying: it’s a mistake — even a kind of intellectual stubbornness — to value being overly charitable (candour) more than being honest (truth). In literary criticism, for example, he believed that praising a writer out of politeness or loyalty, while ignoring their flaws, does a disservice to truth and to readers. This line appears in his Preface to Shakespeare, where Johnson defends his right to critique Shakespeare’s faults despite the poet’s towering reputation. He’s essentially arguing that honest criticism is more virtuous than blind admiration.

Thanks. Chambers gives 'kindness' as an obsolete meaning for 'candour' - I had looked it up but missed it somehow.

You have more patience than me, I took the shortcut 😬