Dr Johnson’s Preface to Shakespeare is an important contribution to English literature and criticism. Dr Johnson is a neo-classical writer, his comments of Shakespeare is unbiased and worthy on the whole. Johnson not only praises but also points out his defects. For Shakespeare he believes audience as great judgers . Johnson’s duty was to show Shakespeare under the sunshine of neo-classical taste. Johnson does this satisfactorily though in some instances he’s not fully justified. Preface to Shakespeare opens with a tribute to Shakespeare’s writing , which Johnson consider it long lasting value. Further he also made comments to the defects of Shakespeare. In this paper we will going to see how Dr Johnson criticises Shakespeare.