Contains spoilers for this episode.
George decides to improve his mind by becoming patron of Samuel Johnson's new book, without understanding that it is a dictionary. Blackadder resents Johnson for ignoring the novel he submitted under the name Gertrude Perkins. During the visit, Edmund deliberately uses invented words to make the lexicographer doubt his work. Johnson leaves his manuscript at the palace, and Baldrick later announces that he has burned the large bundle of paper to light a fire.
Johnson's anger and the threatened violence of his literary friends leave Blackadder trying to replace the dictionary before its collection. George's contribution amounts to a belching joke, while Baldrick confuses the letter C with the sea and defines a dog through its difference from a cat. Edmund's own efforts barely advance beyond the opening words. A reassuring visit in which Johnson welcomes the destruction proves to be a dream, and the real authors arrive demanding their property.
George unexpectedly produces the intact dictionary, having borrowed it to look up rude words. Relief gives Edmund the chance to reveal that he is Gertrude Perkins, whose novel Johnson actually admires. He asks Baldrick to fetch the manuscript as proof, then learns which bundle went into the fire: seven years of his own writing. Johnson notices that his dictionary omits sausage and aardvark, and George directs Baldrick towards the fireplace again.