Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature

Chapter IV: Part 4

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"Here is observable the honesty of the great Mr. Locke in
printing for the purchasers of this edition the improvements
made in the second."

Folio.

COLLATION: _A, four leaves; [a], two leaves; B-Z, Aa-Zz,
and Aaa-Ccc, in fours._

WILLIAM CONGREVE

(1670-1729)

This was the last of Congreve's plays to be performed upon
the stage. It was presented by Betterton's company, but was
a failure. "The unkind Reception this excellent comedy met
with," said Charles Wilson, "was truly the Cauſe of Mr.
Congreve's juſt Reſentment; and upon which, I have often
heard him declare, that he had form'd a ſtrong Reſolution
never more to concern himſelf with Dramatic Writings."

Quarto.

COLLATION: _A, three leaves; a, two leaves; B-N2, in fours._

EDWARD HYDE

FIRST EARL OF CLARENDON

(1609-1674)

Begun in April, 1641, and finished during the period of
Clarendon's exile, which extended from 1667 until his death,
the _History_ was prepared for printing under the direction of
Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, who received assistance from
Dr. Henry Aldrich, Dean of Christ Church, and Thomas Sprat,
Bishop of Rochester. Rochester wrote the introduction and
dedications.

On the verso of the title-page of the first volume we find
"Imprimatur. Ro. Hander Vice-Can. Oxon. Apr. 29. 1702."; the
second volume is signed "Guil Delaune Vice-Can, Oxon. Sept.
15, 1703," and the third, by Delaune, "Octob. 16, 1704."

There is no dedication to the first volume, which begins at
once with the preface; but the second and third volumes are
dedicated to the queen. In the last two volumes a proclamation
by her Majesty, dated June 24, 1703, states that: "whereas Our
Truſty and Wellbeloved William Delaune, Doctor in Divinity,
and Vice-Chancellor of Our Univerſity of Oxford, has humbly
preſented unto US, in the behalf of the ſaid Univerſity,
that They have at Great Expence already Publiſhed One Volume
of the late Earl of Clarendon's Hiſtory, and intend in a
ſhort time to Publiſh the Second and Third Volumes for
Compleating the Work; and the ſole Right of the Copy of the
ſaid Work being Veſted in Our Univerſity of Oxford,
and They having humbly beſought US to Grant Them Our
Royal Priviledge and Licence for the ſole Printing and
Publiſhing the ſame for the Term of Fourteen Years; ... do
therefore hereby Give and Grant ... the same." This refers
to the fact that Clarendon, who had been chancellor of the
University from 1660 until he went into exile, provided in his
will that the profits from the sale of copies of the _History_
should belong to the University and should be expended in
erecting a building for the exclusive use of the Press,
founded in "1468."

Previously, and at the time of the printing of the book, the
work of the University Press was done in the "Theatre," a view
of which is given at the left of the figure of Minerva, in the
vignette on the title-page. This was the Sheldonian Theatre,
built from designs by Christopher Wren, at the expense of
Archbishop Gilbert Sheldon, who succeeded Lord Clarendon as
chancellor. It was opened in 1669, and was used for various
academic purposes, as well as for the home of the Press.
Clarendon's design was fulfilled in 1713; and the Clarendon
Building, as it was called, was occupied until it was
outgrown, and the Clarendon Press, for under this name it was
now equally well known, was removed once more, in 1830, to its
present quarters.

The vignette, with its interesting glimpse of the buildings
near the Theatre, is signed "delin MBurg. ſculp. Univ. Ox.,"
in the first two volumes, and "delin MBurghers ſculpt, Univ.
Ox. 1704," in the third, where the plate also shows other
signs of having been gone over or reëngraved.* Beside these
vignettes, the work is ornamented with ambitious copper-plate
head- and tail-pieces, and initial letters, some unsigned,
but probably all by Burg. A portrait of Clarendon occurs as
a frontispiece in each of the three volumes. It is after the
painting by Sir Peter Lely, and was engraved in 1700 by Robert
White, a prolific producer of portraits framed with borders
that, in most cases, were less tasteful than this one, with
its mace, bag, and coat-of-arms. The inscription reads:
"Edward Earle of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England,
and Chancellor of the Univerſity of Oxford. An^o. Dñi 1667."

The plate for the third volume has been much worked over,
if not entirely redrawn in a slavish copy. White's name is
erased, and Burg's appears in its stead. Some copies of all
three volumes of the first edition are dated 1704; while
others show a confusion of dates, and the portraits do not
follow the order here described.

Folio. Large paper copy.

COLLATION: _Three volumes. Three portraits._

* A: P. L. Lamborn used a similar idea for an ornament
which he engraved for the Cambridge University Press
about 1761.

THE TATLER

The first number of the _Lucubrations_, a folio sheet headed
with the title _The Tatler_, and ending with the imprint
_London: Printed for the Author, 1709_, appeared on Tuesday,
April 12. It was issued thereafter three times a week, on
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, "for the convenience of
the post."

Public interest having displayed itself in a sufficiently
emphatic manner, the "Author" evidently felt justified in
engaging a permanent printer, and the imprint of the fifth
number reads: "Sold by John Morphew near Stationers-Hall;
where Advertiſements are taken in."

The first four numbers were distributed free as a kind of
advertisement. Then, "Upon the humble Petition of the Running
Stationers, &c.," they were sold at one penny. But a charge
of halfpence was added after the twenty-sixth number, "Whereas
Several Gentlemen have deſir'd this Paper, with a blank
Leaf to write Buſineſs on, and for the convenience of the
poſt."

"Quidquid agunt homines nostri farrago libelli" is the motto
printed at the head of the first forty numbers, and "Celebrare
domestica facta" on Nos. 41 and 42, but after that special
mottoes were used. The single numbers usually bear the name
of "_Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq,_, aged sixty-four, an old man,
a philosopher, an humorist, an astrologer and a censor," but
sometimes other members of his family appear in his stead,
especially his half-sister Jenny Distaff, and her husband.

Number 271, dated January 2, 1711, omits Bickerstaff's name,
and the whole paper, except for some advertisements at the
end, is given to a letter signed by Steele, in which he says:
"The Printer having informed me that there are as many of
theſe Papers printed as will make Four Volumes, I am now
come to the End of my Ambition in this Matter, and have
nothing further to ſay to the World, under the Character of
_Iſaac Bickerſtaff_. This Work has indeed for ſome time
been diſagreeable to me, and the Purpoſe of it wholly
loſt by my being ſo long underſtood as the Author....
All I can now do for the further Gratification of the Town, is
to give them a faithful Index and Explication of Paſſages
and Alluſions...." The index, called "A Faithful Index of
the Dull as well as Ingenious Paſſages in the Tatlers,"
bears at the end the important note, "[The Price of theſe
Two Sheets, Three Pence.]" The "Explication of paſſages"
was made in "The Preface," which, in our copy, is bound after
the dedications of the second volume. For, as it will thus
be seen, Steele bethought himself to add further to the
gratification of the public by printing two title-pages and
four dedications, on folio sheets, for the benefit of those
subscribers who might wish to bind their copies.

The title-page of the second volume is like the first, only
it is dated 1711; and the foot-note reads: [Symbol: Right
pointing hand] "Note, The Bookbinder is deſired to place the
Index after [Tatler No. 271.] which ends the ſecond Volume
in Folio." The index to the _Tatlers_ of this volume has the
note: "[The Price of theſe Three Sheets and a Half, Six
Pence.]" The notes on the dedications, and the fact that while
the folio sheets made only two volumes, four dedications were
issued, shows us that the binding of the current sheets was an
afterthought, and that the quarto edition in four volumes was
relied upon to keep alive the lucubrations. Thus the quarto
edition dedications were made to do double service.

In its present form the first volume is dedicated anonymously
to Mr. Arthur Maynwaring, while the second has the other three
dedications. One, to Edward Wortley Montague, signed Isaac
Bickerstaff, has the note: "The Dedication foregoing belongs
to the Second Volume of Tatlers in Octavo; which begins with
N^o 51, and ends with N^o 114". One, to William, Lord Cowper,
signed Richard Steele, has the note: "The foregoing Dedication
belongs to the Third Volume of Tatlers in Octavo, which
begins with N^o. 115, and ends with N^o. 189." The last one,
dedicated to Charles, Lord Halifax, also signed by Steele,
has a note which reads: "This Dedication belongs to the Fourth
Volume of Tatlers in Octavo, which begins with N^o 190, and
ends with N^o 271."

Aitken tells us that, "Like other publications of the time,
the successive numbers of the Tatler were reprinted in Dublin
and Edinburgh, as they came out. The Dublin issue was in
quarto form, the Edinburgh paper a folio sheet, rather smaller
than the original, and with a fresh set of advertisements of
interest to local readers."

In No. 102, our editor says of the octavo edition:

"Whereas I am informed, That there is a ſpurious and very
incorrect Edition of theſe Papers printed in a ſmall
Volume; Theſe are to give Notice, That there is in the
Preſs, and will ſpeedily be publiſhed, a very neat
Edition, fitted for the Pocket, on extraordinary good Paper,
a new Brevier Letter, like the Elzevir Editions, and adorned
with ſeveral Cuts by the beſt Artiſts. To which is
added, a Preface, Index, and many Notes, for the better
Explanation of theſe Lucubrations. By the Author. Who has
reviſed, amended, and made many Additions to the Whole." In
the last number he says again: "The Third Volume of theſe
Lucubrations being juſt finiſh'd, on a large Letter in
Octavo, ſuch as pleaſe to ſubſcribe for it on a Royal
Paper, to keep up their Sets, are deſired to ſend
their Names to Charles Lillie, Perfumer, at the Corner of
Beauford-Buildings, in the Strand, or John Morphew near
Stationers Hall, where the Firſt and Second Volumes are to
be deliver'd."

The price of the corrected work in four quarto volumes, if
bought of the printer, was £1 per volume on royal paper, and
ten shillings on medium paper; and it is gratifying to learn
that the work met with so great a success that there was
hardly a name eminent at the time which was not subscribed.

A copy in the British Museum has for a frontispiece a portrait
of "Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. Engraved and ſold by John Sturt
in Golden-Lion Court in Alderſgate Street Price Six Pence.
MDCCX." and signed _B. L ens ſen^r delineavit_.

Folio.

COLLATION: _Two volumes. No signatures._ Volume I: _iv pp.
[114 ll.], iv pp._ Volume II: _viii pp. [271 ll.], vi pp._

THE SPECTATOR

40. Numb. I | The Spectator | Non fumum ex fulgore, ſed ex fumo dare lucem | Cogitat ut ſpecioſa dehinc miracula promat. Hor. | To be continued every Day. | Thurſday, March 1. 1711. [At the end] London: Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little Britain; and sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane.

The last _Tatler_ had appeared in the previous January:
the new paper like its predecessor came out in single folio
sheets, but, as may be seen above, its editors considered the
demand sufficient to warrant its daily publication.

The first fifteen numbers bore the imprint here given, with
the additional information, after the second number, "where
Advertisements are taken in." Buckley paid Addison and Steele
£575, on November 10, 1712, for a half-share in the copyright
of the paper and in the numbers not yet published. On October
13, 1714, he transferred this assignment to Jacob Tonson,
Jr., whose name appears October 2, 1712, in place of that of
Baldwin's and of "Charles Lillie, Perfumer, at the Corner of
Beaufort-Buildings in the Strand," who had sold the sheet from
the sixteenth number, dated March 19, 1711, until that time.

On December 6, 1712, the following notice by Steele appeared,
and as it sums up briefly the main points in the _Spectator's_
successful career, it may be regarded as a text for the
succeeding notes.

"I have nothing more to add, but having ſwelled this Work to
Five hundred and fifty-five Papers, they will be diſpoſed
into ſeven Volumes, four of which are already publiſh'd,
and the three others in the Preſs. It will not be demanded
of me why I now leave off, tho' I muſt own my ſelf obliged
to give an Account to the Town of my Time hereafter, ſince
I retire when their Partiality to me is ſo great, that an
Edition of the former Volumes of Spectators of above Nine
thouſand each Book is already ſold off, and the Tax on
each half Sheet has brought into the Stamp-Office one Week
with another above 20 l. a Week ariſing from this ſingle
Paper, notwithſtanding it at first reduced it to leſs than
half the number that was uſually Printed before this Tax was
laid."

Volumes 1 and 2, printed in octavo, were bound up, and,
dedicated to Lord Somers and Lord Halifax, were issued in
1712; volumes 3 and 4, with dedications to Henry Boyle and the
Duke of Marlborough, came out the next year; and the remaining
three, with dedications to the Marquis of Wharton, Earl of
Sunderland, and Sir Paul Methuen, were also published in
1713. With the help of Eustace Budgell, Addison issued a
continuation of the paper in 1714, which, when it made enough
numbers for a volume, was issued with a dedication to
Will Honeycomb, in 1715. An edition in duodecimo was also
published. A few copies on large paper sold at one guinea a
volume.

There is some difference of opinion as to the exact number
of copies circulated, all founded on the facts given in the
_Spectator_ itself. In No. 10, Addison says that there were
already 3000 copies distributed every day. "So that if I allow
Twenty Readers to every Paper, which I look upon as a modeſt
Computation, I may reckon about Threeſcore thouſand
Diſciples in London and Weſtminster". On July 23, 1711, he
wrote: "... my Bookſeller tells me, the Demand for theſe
my Papers increaſes daily," and on December 31 he repeated,
"I find that the Demand for my Papers has encreaſed every
Month ſince their firſt appearance in the World." On the
1st of August, 1712, St. John's Stamp Act came into force, by
which a halfpenny stamp was imposed upon all newspapers and
periodical sheets. This attempt to suppress free expression
of opinion succeeded to some extent; many of the papers of the
day ceased to exist. The _Spectator_ continued as before,
but the price was raised from one penny to twopence. "... A
payment of over £20. a week for stamp duty represents a daily
circulation of more than 1,600 copies, or 10,000 a week,
from the 1st August to the 6th December 1712, and the
daily circulation before the 1st August would therefore be,
according to Steele's statement, nearly 4000."

Two hundred and seventy-four of the 635 papers are attributed
to Addison, and from 236 to 240 to Steele. Addison usually
signed his essays with one of the letters of the name Clio,
and Steele wrote over the initials T. and R. Besides the two
principal writers, Budgell, Hughes, Parnell, Pope and Tickell
are thought to have contributed papers, but considerable
uncertainty exists with regard to their work.

Folio.

COLLATION: _In numbers._

DANIEL DEFOE

(1661?-1731)

The story is told of how Defoe's manuscript was refused by
many of the London publishers before William Taylor, one of
the most esteemed and successful of them, accepted it. The
book came out April 25, and its success was immediate; a
second edition was called for only seventeen days after the
first; a third followed twenty-five days later, and a fourth
on the 8th of August. _The Farther | Adventures | Of Robinson
Crusoe; | Being the Second and Laſt Part | Of His | Life ...
To which is added a Map of the World_ ... was issued in August
of the same year, and was followed on August 6, 1720, by a
sequel called _Serious Reflections | During | The | Life ...
of Robinson Crusoe_. Further evidence of the popularity of the
work is furnished by the piracies, numerous imitations, and
translations that appeared within a short time after its
publication.

Lowndes and others repeat an error of Dibdin's in saying that
_Robinson Crusoe_ first appeared in the _Original London
Post, or Heathcot's Intelligence_, from No. 125 to No. 289
inclusive, the latter dated October 7, 1719. The story
was _reprinted_ in that paper, "with a care to divert and
entertain the reader," but _beginning_ October 7, 1719, and
ending with No. 289, dated October 19, 1720. The unsigned
folding map was used in this last as well as in the fourth
edition of the first part. An engraving representing the hero
of the story is placed sometimes as a frontispiece. It is
signed, like the map of the island, "Clark & Pine Sc.," and,
while not remarkable for artistic merit, is certainly notable
as having been the model of all future conceptions.

Defoe sold all his property in _Robinson Crusoe_ to Taylor,
who gained a very large fortune by it and its successors. When
that worthy man died, only five years after the publication of
the book, he was reputed to be worth between forty and fifty
thousand pounds. He added an introduction to _The Serious
Reflections_, in which he says:

"The ſucceſs the two former Parts have met with, has been
known by the Envy it has brought upon the Editor, expreſs'd
in a thouſand hard Words from the Men of Trade; the Effect
of that Regret which they entertain'd at their having no Share
in it: And I muſt do the Author the Justice to ſay that
not a Dog has wag'd his Tongue at the Work itſelf, nor has a
Word been ſaid to leſſen the Value of it, but which has
been the viſible Effect of that Envy at the good Fortune of
the Bookſeller."

A guarantee of this good fortune may be seen in the imprint
of the book, which now reads: "At the Ship and _Black-Swan_
in Pater-noſter Row," that last-named property having been
purchased out of the proceeds of its sale. After Taylor's
death, the business was sold to Thomas Longman, the founder
of the firm of Longmans, Green & Co., for over three thousand
pounds.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _3 l., pp. 364. [4 l.] pp. 373. [9 l.], pp. 270,
84 [2 l.]_

JONATHAN SWIFT

(1667-1745)

"I have employed my time, (beside ditching) in finishing,
correcting, amending, and transcribing my travels in four
parts complete, newly augmented and intended for the press,
when the world shall deserve them, or rather when a printer
shall be found brave enough to venture his ears." This is what
Swift says in a letter written to Pope, and thus it will be
seen that there could have been no real doubt among Swift's
friends as to the authorship of the book, though for very
obvious reasons it was found desirable to have it published
anonymously. Even after it was issued, and had proved a
success, the pretense of ignorance of the author's identity
was kept up. Pope himself writes, November 16, 1726 (the work
appeared October 28):

"I congratulate you first on what you call your cousin's
wonderful book, which is _publica trita manu_ at present, and
I prophesy will hereafter be the admiration of all men...."
"Motte," (the publisher who had been brave enough to risk
his ears), "received the copy, he tells me, he knew not from
whence, nor from whom, dropped at his house in the dark, from
a hackney coach. By computating the time I found it was after
you left England, so for my part, I suspend my judgement."

Swift was staying with Pope when the manuscript was so
mysteriously left at Motte's door by Charles Ford, his
intermediary, through whom, and Erasmus Lewis, all the
business was conducted. Writing under the assumed name of
Sympson, Swift demanded that Motte should give him £200, which
the publisher agreed to do after six months if the success of
the book would allow. The whole issue was exhausted within
a week after its appearance, and a second edition speedily
followed, making the payment, which we learn was promptly
effected, an easy matter. We are told that Swift used to leave
the profits of his writing to the booksellers; but _Gulliver_
proved the exception to the rule. He says, in 1735, "I never
got a farthing by anything I writ, except one about eight
years ago, and that was by Mr. Pope's prudent arrangement for
me." Motte, like Taylor with _Robinson Crusoe_, grew rich out
of it; or, as Swift puts it to Knightley Chetwood in a letter
dated February 14, 1726-7, in which he still keeps up the
mystery of the authorship, "... in Engl^d I hear it hath made
a bookseller almost rich enough to be an alderman."

Of its success, Arbuthnot says, November 8, 1726: "_Gulliver's
Travels_, I believe, will have as great a run as John Bunyan.
It is in everybody's hands...." Gay wrote a few days later:
"The whole impression sold in a week. From the highest to the
lowest it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the
nursery." "Here is a book come out," says Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, "that all our people of taste run mad about...."

It speaks well for Motte's sagacity that he should have been
willing to undertake the publishing of so violent a book at
all, and we are little surprised that he balked at certain
passages, and that, to avoid offense, "he got those
alterations and insertions made" which Swift afterward so
bitterly resented. In the letter to Knightley Chetwood quoted
above, Swift said: "In my Judgment I should think it hath been
mangled in the press, for in some parts it doth not seem of
a piece, but I shall hear more when I am in England." In a
letter to Ford written more than six years later, we find him
still recurring to the matter:

"Now you may please to remember how much I complained of
Motte's suffering some friend of his (I suppose it was Mr.
Tooke, a clergyman, now dead) not onely to blot out some
things that he thought might give offence, but to insert
a good deal contrary to the author's manner and style and
intention. I think you had a Gulliver interleaved and set
right in those mangled and murdered pages.... To say the truth
I cannot with patience endure that mingled and mangled manner
as it came from Motte's hands, and it will be extremely
difficult for me to correct it by other means, with so ill a
memory and so bad a state of health." Swift had good reason to
complain about this matter as he did, personally and through
Ford, who wrote to Motte blaming him for the printer's gross
errors. "Besides the whole sting is absent out of several
passages in order to soften them. Thus the style is debased,
the humours quite lost, and the matter insipid," cries the
enraged author. The interleaved copy was forthcoming, and the
text as corrected was printed in Dublin in 1735.

The bibliography of the book is perplexing. There seem to have
been four distinct issues, or, rather, editions, during
the first year; while copies of the same edition show many
variations. The edition to which the large paper copies belong
is usually called the first. In it the four parts are paged
separately, and the portrait of Gulliver, signed "Sturt et.
Sheppard. Sc.," is found in two states. One of these states,
evidently the first, has the inscription, "Captain Lemuel
Gulliver, of Redriff Ætat. ſuæ 58.," in two lines below
the oval. The other has the inscription around the oval,
as follows: "Captain Lemuel Gulliver Of Redriff Ætat. Suæ
LVIII.," and beneath, where the name was before, a quotation
from Persius now appears.

The three other editions have distinct differences of type,
setting and ornaments. The portrait in all of these is of
the second state. Two of these editions have the parts paged
separately, but one has a continuous pagination for each
volume. One edition was reissued in 1727, with verses by Pope
prefixed. On the title-page of the first volume it is called
"second edition," and on that of the second volume, "second
edition corrected." This edition was probably considered
by the publisher to be the most correct, and was therefore,
probably, the last issued in 1726.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Two volumes._ Volume I: _1 l., xvi, 148 pp.; 3 ll.,
164 pp._ Volume II: _3 ll., 155 pp.; 4 ll., 199 pp._ Portrait,
four maps.

ALEXANDER POPE

(1688-1744)

The friend to whom, under the name of Lælius, the four
Epistles that make up the _Essay_ were addressed, was Henry
Saint John, first Viscount Bolingbroke, the object of Pope's
reverence, and the inspirer of much of his poetry. It seems to
be agreed that Bolingbroke's philosophical fragments gave the
"philosophical stamina" to this work also.

The first part appeared in February, the second, about April,
1733; they were undated and anonymous, for fear of charges
against the author's orthodoxy. Pope went to considerable
lengths to mislead the public in this matter, but, as Dr.
Crowley says, the applause received "took off all the alarm
which the writer might have felt at his new experiment in the
marriage of metaphysics with immortal verse." "The design of
concealing myself," said our author, "was good, and had its
full effect. I was thought a divine, a philosopher and what
not? and my doctrine had a sanction I could not have given to
it."

In "Epistle II," as the second part is called on the
title-page, there is a note "To the Reader" which says:
"The Author has been induced to publiſh theſe Epiſtles
ſeparately for two Reaſons; The one, that he might not
impoſe upon the Publick too much at once of what he thinks
incorrect; The other, that by this Method he might profit of
its Judgement on the Parts, in order to make the Whole leſs
unworthy of it." At the end of "Epistle III," which came out
the same year, is a note as follows: "N. B. The Reſt of this
Work will be publiſhed the next Winter." And at the end of
the fourth Epistle, issued about the middle of January, 1734:
"Lately Publiſhed the three former Parts of An Essay on Man.
In Epiſtles to a Friend. Sold by J. Wilford at the Three
Flower-de-Luces, behind the Chapter-Houſe in St. Paul's
Church-yard."

All four parts were issued in octavo and quarto, as well as
in folio. The quarto edition bears the dates of publication. A
second edition of the first part, called "Epistle I, corrected
by the Author," contained a table of contents to the first
three Epistles. The fourth Epistle was originally issued with
such a table called, "The Contents, Of the Nature and State of
Man, with reſpect to Happiness."

Pope intrusted the publication of the book to John Wilford,
who was afterward summoned before the House of Lords for
breach of privilege in publishing, with the bookseller,
Edmund Curll, the names of the titled correspondents in the
advertisement to the quasi-unauthorized _Letters_. Pope
made the change from Bernard Lintot, his usual publisher, to
Wilford in order to conceal his identity the more completely,
and to add to the mystery of authorship.

The volume is handsome in appearance: it is ornamented
with initial letters, and woodcut and type-metal head- and
tail-pieces.

Folio.

COLLATION: _19 pp., 1 l., 18, 20 pp., 2 ll., 18 pp., 1 l._

JOSEPH BUTLER

BISHOP OF DURHAM

(1692-1752)

The _Analogy_ ran into edition after edition, and is reprinted
even now. "Few productions of the human mind," Allibone tells
us, "have elicited the labours of so many learned commentators
as have employed their talents in the exposition of Butler's
Analogy." He gives seventeen editions with commentaries,
printed before 1858. In recent times no less a name than that
of Gladstone may be counted among the number.

The Knaptons were the publishers of Butler's first printed
volume, _Fifteen Sermons_, 1726.

Quarto.

COLLATION: _5 ll., x, 11-320 pp._

THOMAS PERCY

BISHOP OF DROMORE

(1729-1811)

Although his name does not appear upon the title-page, the
author signed it to the dedication to Elizabeth, Countess
of Northumberland. He offers the book, he says, with some
hesitation, yet hopes that the names of so many men of
learning and character among his patrons and subscribers will
"ſerve as an amulet to guard him from every unfavourable
cenſure for having beſtowed any attention on a parcel of
Old Ballads."

The book came out in February, after four or five years of
active preparation. Johnson criticised it, but in the main the
work was received with the verdict, which has held ever since,
that it marked an epoch. Dibdin says that when it appeared,
the critics "roared aloud for a sight of the MS.!" especially
Joseph Ritson, the antiquary, who denied its existence.
Dibdin, however, saw the folio, and describes it at some
length, besides quoting notes in the Bishop's handwriting, one
of which is of especial interest:

"Memorandum. _Northumberland House, Nov. 7, 1769._ This very
curious old Manuscript in its present mutilated state, but
unbound and sadly torn, I rescued from destruction, and begged
at the hands of my worthy friend _Humphrey Pitt, Esq._ then
living at Shiffnal in Shropshire, afterwards of Prior Lee near
that town; who died very lately at Bath: viz. in Summer,
1769. I saw it lying dirty on the Floor under a Bureau in ye
Parlour: being used by the Maids to light the fire. It was
afterwards sent most unfortunately to an ignorant Bookbinder,
who pared the margin, when I put it into Boards in order to
lend it to Dr. Johnson."

James Dodsley, the printer of our charming volumes, was the
younger brother of Robert, with whom, as _R. & J. Dodsley_,
he was for some time a partner, until, in 1759, he became
the sole proprietor of the house. He lacked the elder
man's energy, but he carried on an extensive and profitable
business. He is said to have paid Percy 100 guineas for the
first edition of the _Reliques_--not a very large sum for such
a work. Pickford tells us, however, that "as the _Reliques_
became popular, and as other editions were in request, so did
the sums paid to Percy increase; and best of all, the book
attracted the notice of those in a high class, in whose power
it was to forward and promote the interests of the editor."
Whatever the basis of his relations with Dodsley, we have his
own word for it that when the third edition was published he
"had no share in the property of the impression." Those "in
a high class" promoted our author from one thing to another,
until, as Granger had hoped he would do, "he found himself
sung into a throne," a reward quite as much to his mind, no
doubt, as anything Dodsley could have arranged.

It is only fair to say that few authors of the period were
better served by their publisher than Percy was by his in the
matter of typography. The ornament used is also especially
good. A frontispiece to the first volume, surmounted by the
inscription, "Non Omnis Moriar," and representing a harper
delighting an audience, is signed by Samuel Wale, who was
chiefly employed in designing vignettes and illustrations for
books. He had studied with Francis Hayman, a printer and maker
of illustrations, who, with N. Blakey, was employed by Messrs.
Knapton and Dodsley to execute the first series of historical
prints designed by Englishmen. The plate was engraved by
Charles Grignion, or Grignon, a pupil of Gravelot and Le Bas,
who, like Wale, was much employed by publishers. Together they
illustrated a large number of books; but the charm of their
work seems to be chiefly due to Grignion. The vignettes, with
the motto "Durat Opus Vatum" on the title-pages and the head-
and tail-pieces, though unsigned, were evidently designed and
engraved by the same hands.

There are three parts to each volume, and each part begins and
ends with a copper-plate engraving illustrative of a ballad.
The head-pieces refer to the first ballad in the book, but the
tail-pieces have legends showing where the poem is found. On
page 24 of the second volume, the following note is attached
to the poem "For the Victory of Agincourt": "This ſong or
hymn is given meerly as a curioſity, and is printed from a
MS copy in the Pepys collection, vol. I. folio. It is there
accompanied with the muſical notes, which are copied in a
ſmall plate at the end of this volume."

A table of "Errata" for all three volumes, an "Advertisement,"
and a note "To the Binder" are found at the end of the first
volume. The Advertisement reads: "The Editor's diſtance from
the preſs has occaſioned ſome miſtakes and confuſion
in the Numbers of the ſeveral Poems, and in the References
from one Volume to another: the latter will be ſet right by
the Table of Errata, and the former by the Tables of Contents.
In the Second Volume, page 129 follows page 112: this was
merely an overſight in the Printer; nothing is there
omitted."

The binder finds this caution addressed to him: "The Binder
is deſired to take Notice that the marginal Numbers of the
1ſt and 3^d Volumes are wrong: that the Sheets marked Vol.
i. are to be bound up as Volume The Third: and that thoſe
noted Vol. III. as Volume The First." Neither author nor
printer thought to tell us of the addition of "George
Barnwell" in eight leaves, at page 224 of Volume III; but
perhaps the inclusion was decided upon too late for the
crowding in of another note.

The notes are interesting, and are quoted here as showing that
Percy made many changes in the work even after it was ready
to be sewed, perhaps after some copies had been issued. For
instance, there seems to be no reason to doubt that he changed
the order of the volumes after they were all printed, making
the first last, in order to bring the ballads of "Chevy Chase"
and the Robin Hood cycle at the beginning. Two volumes of the
_Reliques_ without imprints, preserved in the Douce collection
of the Bodleian Library, are interesting in this connection
since they contain many pieces not in the published edition.
A note by Furnivall, added to Rev. J. Pickford's Life of Percy
which prefaced the Hales and Furnivall _Bishop Percy's Folio
Manuscript_, 1867, gives the omission and changes in detail.
We quote only the following: "... and the engraving at the end
of Douce's volume ii., instead of being the published rustic
sketch, is a coat of arms, with a lion and unicorn at the
side with the Percy motto 'Esperance en Dieu.' This was wisely
cancelled, no doubt, as the Countess of Northumberland might
not then have appreciated the compliment of the grocer's son
claiming kinship with her."

Octavo.

COLLATION: _Three volumes_.

WILLIAM COLLINS

(1721-1759)

Collins and his friend Joseph Warton, the critic, both at the
time unknown, proposed to issue a volume of poems together:
"Collins met me in Surrey, at Guildford races, when I wrote
out for him my odes, and he likewise communicated some of his
to me; and being both in very high spirits, we took courage,
and resolved to join our forces, and to publish them
immediately." The plan, however, fell through and they finally
published separately, though almost simultaneously. This work,
though dated 1747, really appeared in December, 1746. Warton's
_Odes on various Subjects, London, 1746_, reached a second
edition, but Collins's book was not a success, and it is said
that, in disgust, he burned the larger part of the unsold
edition.

"Each," wrote Gray, "is the half of a considerable man, and
one the counterpart of the other. The first [i.e. Warton] has
but little invention, very poetical choice of expression, and
a good ear. The second [i.e. Collins] a fine fancy, modelled
upon the antique, a bad ear, great variety of words, and
images with no choice at all. They both deserve to last some
years, but will not." Time has set Collins right.

The vignette on the title-page, representing a pan-pipe and
harp surrounded by a wreath of fruit, laurel, oak, and palm,
with heads of Pan and Apollo at the top, is by Gerard (?) Van
der Gucht. Thin woodcut head-bands at the beginning of some
of the odes, and a tail-piece after the first one, furnish all
the ornament for this pathetic volume.

Octavo.

COLLATION: _2 ll., 52 pp._

SAMUEL RICHARDSON

(1689-1761)

_Pamela_ was written at the suggestion of two booksellers,
Rivington and Osborne, who published it in four volumes
in 1741-42; and as it proved a great success its "Editor"
followed it with _Clarissa_. Only the last five volumes
appeared in 1748, the first two having come out the previous
year.

In connection with the mistaken idea, which has existed, that
there were eight volumes in the first edition, Mr. Dobson,
in his life of Richardson, gives us these quotations from the
author himself:

"There were in fact, in the first edition, not eight volumes
but seven. "I take the liberty to join the 4 Vols. you have
of _Clarissa_, by two more," says Richardson to Hill in an
unpublished letter of November 7, 1748. "The Whole will make
Seven; that is, one more to attend these two. Eight crowded
into Seven by a smaller Type. Ashamed as I am of the
Prolixity, I thought I owed the Public Eight Vols. in Quantity
for the Price of Seven"; and he adds a later footnote to
explain that the 12mo book "was at first published in Seven
Vols. [and] Afterwards by deferred Restorations made Eight as
now."" Then Mr. Dobson goes on to add the following:

"Of the seven volumes constituting the first edition, two were
issued in November, 1747; two more in April, 1748 (making
"the 4 Vols. you have," above referred to); and the remaining
three, which, according to Mr. Urban's advertisement,
"compleats the whole," in December, 1748."

The second and succeeding volumes have the line, _And Sold
by John Osborn, in Pater-noſter-Row_, added to the imprint,
after Richardson's name.

Bishop Warburton presented the author with a preface in which
he pointed out the variety of the characters in the book, and
commended the moral tendency of the work. This, by the
way, serves to remind us that he afterward quarrelled with
Richardson because the novelist ventured to censure Pope's
sentiment, "Every woman is at heart a rake."

In a catalogue like this, no name has more interest than that
of Samuel Richardson, "The Father of the English Novel," and a
printer and publisher of distinction. At the age of seventeen
he chose the profession of printer, because he thought that in
it he would be able to satisfy his craving for reading. After
a diligent apprenticeship to John Wilde, whose daughter was
his first wife, he gradually won his way until he became one
of the leading printers of his time. He issued twenty-six
volumes of _Journals_ of the House of Commons, though he found
the position more honorable than lucrative; he was the printer
of the _Daily Journal_ from 1736 to 1737, and of the _Daily
Gazetteer_ in 1738; he was chosen printer to an interesting
_Society for the Encouragement of Learning_, for whom
he printed and edited their first and only volume, _The
Negociations of Sir Thomas Roe in his Embassy to the Ottoman
Porte from the year 1621 to 1628 inclusive_. He also printed,
among other books, an edition of _Æsop's Fables_, De Foe's
_Tour through Great Britain_, Young's _Night Thoughts_, and
the second volume of De Thou's _Historia Sui Temporis_, 1733.
He became a member of the Stationers' Company in 1689, and its
master in 1754.

Duodecimo.

COLLATION: _Seven volumes._

HENRY FIELDING

(1707-1754)

The announcement of the appearance of the work in the _General
Advertizer_ for February 28, 1749, reads as follows:

"This day is published, in six vols., 12mo, The History of Tom
Jones, A Foundling.--Mores hominum multorum vidit. By Henry
Fielding Esq.

"It being impossible to get sets bound fast enough to answer
the demand for them, such Gentlemen and Ladies as please may
have them served in Blue Paper and Boards, at the price of
16s. a set, of A. Millar, over against Catharine Street, in
the Strand."

The sale was really enormous for those days, and Millar, the
successful publisher, could afford to be generous to Fielding,
as he had been to others, thus winning for himself the
position of a patron as well as publisher. Johnson called him
"the Mæcenas of literature." "I respect Millar, sir;" said he,
"he has raised the price of literature."

Horace Walpole gives us an account of the dealing of this
remarkable man in this case. He says, in a letter to George
Montagu: "Millar, the bookseller, has done very generously
by him [Fielding]; finding 'Tom Jones' for which he gave him
£600. sell so greatly, he has since given him another £100."

A second edition in four volumes was issued the same year, and
a third, also in four volumes, the year following. The book
has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Dutch,
Russian, and Swedish. It was frequently dramatized, and was
also turned into a comic opera.

An original document in the possession of the owner of the
book from which the facsimile was made shows that the value
of _Tom Jones_ had not decreased with successive editions, or
else the various partners, whose well-known names are
signed to it, would not have thought it worth their while to
prosecute.

"Memorandum July, 24. 1770.

"At the Chapter Coffee-house, it is agreed by the Partners
in Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, to prosecute Alexander
Donaldson, Bookseller in the Strand, for printing the above
Books, in the Court of Chancery, and do agree to pay our
respective Shares of the Expence of the Proscecution.

WILL: STRAHAN
THO^S. LONGMAN
W. JOHNSTON
ROBERT HORSFIELD
THO: CADELL
T BECKET
ROBINſON & ROBERTS
HAWES, CLARKE & COLLINS
STANLEY CROWDON
EDM^D. & CH^S DILLY
WM. & J. RICHARDſON
THO^S. LOWNDES
THOMAS CASLON"

Duodecimo.

COLLATION: _Six volumes._

THOMAS GRAY

(1716-1771)

In 1750 Gray finished a poem which he had begun eight years
before, and it was circulated freely, in manuscript, among his
delighted friends. One of them, Horace Walpole, received the
following communication from the author, dated at Cambridge,
February 11, 1751:

"As you have brought me into a little sort of distress, you
must assist me, I believe, to get out of it as well as I can.

"Yesterday I had the misfortune of receiving a letter from
certain gentlemen (as their bookseller expresses it), who have
taken the Magazine of Magazines into their hands. They tell
me that an _ingenious_ Poem, called reflections in a Country
Church-yard has been communicated to them, which they
are printing forthwith; that they are informed that the
_excellent_ author of it is I by name, and that they beg not
only his _indulgence_, but the _honour_ of his correspondence.
As I am not at all disposed to be either so indulgent or so
correspondent as they desire, I have but one bad way left to
escape the honour they would inflict upon me; and therefore am
obliged to desire you would make Dodsley print it immediately
(which may be done in less than a week's time) from your copy,
but without my name, in what form is most convenient for him,
but on his best paper and character; he must correct the
press himself, and print it without any interval between the
stanzas, because the sense is in some places continued beyond
them; and the title must be,--Elegy, written in a Country
Church-yard. If he would add a line or two to say it came into
his hands by accident, I should like it better. If you behold
the Magazine of Magazines in the light that I do, you will not
refuse to give yourself this trouble on my account, which you
have taken of your own accord before now. If Dodsley do not do
this immediately, he may as well let it alone."

"You have indeed, conducted with great decency my little
_misfortune_:" (this was written to Walpole on Ash-Wednesday,
after the book was published): "you have taken a paternal care
of it, and expressed much more kindness than could have been
expressed from so near a relation. But we are all frail; and I
hope to do as much for you another time.

"Nurse Dodsley has given it a pinch or two in the cradle, that
(I doubt) it will bear the marks of as long as it lives. But
no matter: we have ourselves suffered under her hands before
now; and besides it will only look the more careless and by
_accident_ as it were. I thank you for your advertisement [the
preface, signed 'The Editor'], which saves my honour, and in a
manner _bien flatteuse pour moi_, who should be put to it even
to make myself a compliment in good English."

Dodsley's promptness was noteworthy; on February 16 the book
was issued, having been six days, at most, in the printer's
hands. The author, even if he had desired, could hardly have
complained about the ornaments on the title-page, since he had
given Dodsley a free hand. It would be pleasant to see in
the woodcuts, with their death's-heads, spades, cross-bones,
hour-glasses, pickaxes and crowns, an argument for a sense
of decoration, or even of a sense of humour, rather than the
evidences of a habit of the use of such things for funeral
sermons.

Speaking of Nurse Dodsley's "pinches," the following extract
from a letter to Walpole, dated March 3, 1751, proves of
additional interest: "I do not expect any more editions; as
I have appeared in more magazines than one. The chief errata
were _sacred_ bower for _secret_; _hidden_ for _kindred_ (in
spite of dukes and classics); and "_frowning_ as in scorn" for
_smiling_. I humbly propose, for the benefit of Mr. Dodsley
and his matrons, that take _awake_ for a verb, that they
should read _asleep_, and all will be right."

The two versions of the poem probably appeared on the same
day.

_The Magazine of Magazines Compiled from Original Pieces,
With Extracts from the moſt celebrated Books And Periodical
Compoſitions Publiſhed in Europe_, was issued by William
Owen, maker of mineral water, at Homer's Head, near Temple
Bar. Owen's compositor, having had more time, avoided some
of the errors of the printers of the book, but he fell into
others of his own; and he completely frustrated Gray's desire
to be anonymous. The poem is introduced, amidst a running fire
of talk, in this way: "Gentlemen, ſaid _Hilario_, give
me leave to ſooth my own melancholy, and amuſe you in a
moſt noble manner, with a fine copy of verſes by the
very ingenious Mr. Gray, of _Peterhouſe_, Cambridge.--They
are--"Stanza's written in a Country Church-yard.""

The book proved immensely popular. Gray himself received
no pecuniary reward from it, having given the copyright
to Dodsley in accordance with a notion, very common in the
preceding century but seeming quixotic now, that it was
beneath a gentleman to receive money from a bookseller, a view
in which, we are told, Dodsley warmly concurred. Later, Mason,
Gray's friend, attempted to regain possession of the copyright
by means of litigation.

We are indebted to our Author for the following
bibliographical note: "Publish'd in Feb^{ry}, 1751, by
Dodsley, & went thro' four editions, in two months; and
afterwards a fifth, 6th, 7th, & 8th, 9th, & 10th, & 11th;
printed also in 1753 with Mr. Bentley's Designs, of w^{c}h
there is a 2d Edition, & again by Dodsley in his _Miscellany_,
Vol. 7th & in a Scotch Collection call'd the _Union_;
translated into Latin by Ch^{r} Anstey, Esq., and the Rev^{d}.
Mr. Roberts, & published in 1762, & again in the same year by
Rob. Lloyd, M.A."

Dodsley figures so prominently in the publication of the
_Elegy_ that we are reminded that he was himself a poet and
also a dramatist. His epitaph in the churchyard of Durham
cathedral lays stress on this point:

"If you have any respect
for uncommon industry and merit,
regard this place,
in which are deposited the remains of
Mr. Robert Dodsley;
who, as an Authour, raised himself
much above what could have been expected
from one in his rank in life,
and without a learned education;
... ... ... ..."

Quarto.

COLLATION: _11 pp._

SAMUEL JOHNSON

(1709-1784)

Robert Dodsley first suggested to Johnson that a dictionary of
the English language would take well with the public; though
Johnson afterward told Boswell that he had long thought of it
himself. But it was Dodsley who, in accordance with the
custom of the time of placing books under the patronage of
an influential person, suggested the Earl of Chesterfield as
patron for the work; and Johnson addressed him as such in _The
Plan Of A Dictionary Of The English Language; Addreſſed to
the Right Honourable Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield: ...
London_, 1747, a pamphlet of thirty-four pages.

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