The entries in this bibliography, with a few necessary exceptions, are
arranged as follows:
_a._ a transcript of the text of the title-page of the first
edition;
_b._ a collation of the first edition by pages;
_c._ locations of copies of the first edition that I have used
and have had reproduced or consulted for me;
_d._ a list of later editions, variant issues, and reprints.
Under _c_ a complete census has not been attempted, and not every copy
located may be assumed to be perfect. Under _d_ sufficient information
is given to identify the various editions, but differences in title,
text, and collation are not recorded unless they are essential for
identification. To give complete descriptions of all the issues of
Tickell’s writings would require from two to three times the space of the
present bibliography.
The symbols for locations should be expanded thus: BA = Boston Athenæum,
BM = British Museum, BP = Boston Public Library, C = Library of Congress,
HC = Harvard College Library, HEH = Henry E. Huntington Library, JCB =
John Carter Brown Library, LHB = the present editor, NEWB = Newberry
Library, NYP = New York Public Library, WLC = William L. Clements
Library, YU = Yale University Library.
As stated earlier, the place of publication, unless otherwise indicated,
is London.
i
The Project. A Poem. Dedicated to Dean Tucker. Verum, ubi, tempestas, et
cæli mobilis humor Mutavêre vias, et Jupiter uvidus Austris Densat erant
quæ rara modo, et quæ densa, relaxat; Vertuntur species animorum;⸺Virgil.
London: Printed for T. Becket, Adelphi, in the Strand. M DCC LXXVIII.
4to. P. [i], title, verso blank; pp. [iii—iv], “Dedication”; pp. [1]-12,
text.
Copies: BM, HC, LHB.
Second, Third, and Fourth Editions, Becket, 1778. Fifth Edition, Becket,
1779. Sixth Edition, Becket, 1780. Reprinted in _The New Foundling
Hospital for Wit.... A New Edition.... In Six Volumes_, J. Debrett,
1786, I, 307-317. Reprinted in _Bell’s Classical Arrangement of Fugitive
Poetry_, British Library, 1789-94, IV, [92]-101.
ii
The Wreath of Fashion, or, the Art of Sentimental Poetry. ⸺ Demetri, teq;
Tigelli, Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras. Horace. London:
Printed for T. Becket, Adelphi, in the Strand. M DCC LXXVIII. [Price One
Shilling.]
4to. P. [i], title, verso blank; pp. [iii]-iv, “Advertisement”; pp.
[1]-14, text; p. [15], advertisement of _The Project_, Second Edition,
verso blank.
Copies: BM, HC, LHB.
Second, Third, and Fourth Editions, Becket, 1778. Fifth Edition, Becket,
1778 or 1779 (I have traced no copy). Sixth Edition, Becket, 1780.
Dublin: Wm. Wilson, 1779. Reprinted in _The New Foundling Hospital for
Wit.... A New Edition.... In Six Volumes_, J. Debrett, 1786, I, 295-306.
Reprinted in _Bell’s Classical Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry_, British
Library, 1789-94, V, [76]-85. Reprinted in _The School for Satire: or, A
Collection of Modern Satirical Poems Written during the Present Reign_,
Jacques and Co., 1801 (sometimes 1802), pp. 143-159.
iii
Prologue to the Camp. Written by Richard Tickell, Esq.
This entry is from _The London Chronicle_, 23 October 1778. Though
printed in several magazines at the time of the production, the Prologue
seems first to have accompanied the text of the play in John Murray’s
edition of Sheridan’s _Works_, 1821, II, 161-162.
_The Camp_, “a musical entertainment,” was first performed 15
October 1778, at Drury Lane Theatre; it was first printed,
without publisher’s name, London, 1795. Sheridan’s authorship
was universally accepted by the press of the time and in the
early biographical notices of Sheridan; see R. Crompton Rhodes’
edition of Sheridan’s _Plays and Poems_, New York, 1929, II,
271. The first to question it was Tate Wilkinson, who asserted
that Sheridan “never wrote a line” of this “catchpenny for
the time” (_The Wandering Patentee_, York, 1795, IV, 124).
Later, Thomas Moore likewise thought _The Camp_ “unworthy” of
Sheridan’s genius and declared, on the evidence of a rough copy
in Tickell’s hand, that Tickell was the author (_Sheridan_, 2nd
ed., 1825, I, 264). Following Moore, some editors have omitted
it from editions of Sheridan. Library catalogues and recent
bibliographies, apparently following Walter Sichel (_Sheridan_,
I, 443), whose statements on these matters are sometimes
merely conjectures, generally assign _The Camp_ to Tickell as
“revised” by Sheridan.
A rough copy in Tickell’s hand is very inconclusive evidence of
his authorship. In view of known “catchpenny” work by Sheridan,
the alleged inferiority of _The Camp_ is still less conclusive.
Tickell may of course have contributed to the dialogue, as he
later did in many of the Drury Lane productions. But there are
no adequate grounds for denying the contemporary attribution to
Sheridan.
iv
Anticipation: Containing the Substance of His M⸺y’s Most Gracious Speech
to both H⸺s of P⸺l⸺t, on the Opening of the approaching Session, together
With a full and authentic Account of the Debate which will take Place in
the H⸺e of C⸺s, on the Motion for the Address, and the Amendment. With
Notes. “So shall my Anticipation Prevent your Discovery.” Hamlet. London:
Printed for T. Becket, the Corner of the Adelphi, in the Strand. 1778.
8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank;
pp. [v]-vi, “Advertisement”; p. [vii], “The Gentlemen trading to the
East-Indies ...,” verso blank; pp. [1]-74, text. (The last leaf of the
text is signed L, and it is likely that a blank leaf should follow as
the conjugate. In all the copies I have seen and in all but one of those
consulted for me by librarians, this final leaf is wanting. Miss Anne
S. Pratt reports a copy in the Mason-Franklin Collection at Yale that,
though closely bound, appears to have been issued with this final blank
leaf.)
Copies: BA, BP, C, HC, HEH, JCB, NEWB, NYP, WLC, YU. Sabin #95788.
Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Editions,
Becket, 1778. Also a variant “Second Edition,” with the same imprint
and date but with a different number of blanks in the words containing
deleted letters in the title and with different collation: p. [i], title,
verso blank; pp. [iii]-iv, “Advertisement”; pp. [5]-67, text; p. [68],
blank. Tenth Edition, Becket, 1780. A New Edition, Becket, 1794. Dublin:
Byrn and Son, 1778. Philadelphia: T. Bradford, 1779; called “The Sixth
Edition.” New York: James Rivington, 1779 (no copy traced; announced as
published in Rivington’s _Royal Gazette_, 17 March). Reprinted in _The
Pamphleteer_; _Dedicated to Both Houses of Parliament_, A. J. Valpy, XIX,
1822, [309]-345.
Of the numerous continuations and imitations that appeared
in the next few years, none except _Common-Place Arguments_,
1780 (no. viii, below), is by Tickell. _Opposition Mornings:
with Betty’s Remarks_, J. Wilkie, 1779, is assigned to him in
Halkett and Laing (_Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous
Literature_, new ed., Edinburgh, 1926-34, IV, 265), in Sabin
(#95797), and in library catalogues generally. Not made by
earlier bibliographers, this attribution is probably based on a
conjecture in _The Monthly Review_ that _Opposition Mornings_
might be an inferior work by Tickell (LX, 1779, 473). The tract
makes use of several of Tickell’s satirical devices of the kind
easily borrowed. But there is no good evidence that he wrote
it, and the lack of a spark of wit in the whole performance is
strong evidence to the contrary.
v
La Cassette Verte de Monsieur de Sartine, Trouvée chez Mademoiselle Du
Thé. Ipse dolos tecti ambagesque resolvit. Virgil. (Cinquième Edition
revue & corrigée sur celles de Leipsic & d’Amsterdam.) A La Haye: Chez la
Veuve Whiskerfeld, in de Platte Borze by de Vrydagmerkt. M,DCC,LXX,IX.
8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank;
pp. [1]-4, “Avis au Lecteur”; p. [5], “Avant Propos,” verso blank; pp.
[7]-71, text; p. [72], blank.
Copies: HEH, NYP, YU. Sabin #95793.
Sixième Edition, with identical title (except for change in number of
edition), identical imprint and date; the text is set largely from the
same type but extended by new matter to p. 76, and there is no blank page
at the end. The Cinquième Edition described above may be safely regarded
as the _editio princeps_; there were, however, at least three variant
issues, two of which are easily confused with the original edition. One
of these corresponds exactly in imprint, pagination, and signatures with
the regular Cinquième Edition but is set from different type, has a
different title-page border, and uses less elaborate printer’s ornaments
throughout; it may be at once distinguished from the original by the fact
that the words “Monsieur de Sartine” in the title are printed, not in red
as in the original, but in black; copies in BA, NYP. A second variant has
the same imprint as the regular Cinquième Edition, but the title-page
has a still different border, no rubrication, and the word “Cinquième”
is erroneously printed with an acute instead of a grave accent; the
pagination is the same as that of the regular Cinquième Edition, but
the variant is a smaller octavo, the type is not the same, nor are the
signatures (regular: []², B-K⁴; variant: []², B-E⁸, F⁴); copies in NYP,
YU. There is, finally, in the Yale University Library an issue called
the “Cinquieme [_sic_] édition,” with a title-page border different from
any in the preceding issues, with the same pagination as the regular
Cinquième Edition, but from different type, with signatures[]¹, B⁸, C-I⁴
(half-title doubtless wanting), and with the puzzling date “M. DCC.
LXXXII.”
_La Cassette verte_ is a political and bibliographical hoax.
The text purports to be secret papers found in a dispatch-box
belonging to M. de Sartine, French Minister of Marine. (On
Mademoiselle Du Thé, i.e., Rosalie Duthé, a Parisian courtesan
who had recently visited England, see Pierre Larousse,
_Grand dictionnaire ... du XIXᵉ siècle_, Paris, 1866-90,
VI, 1447-1448.) The papers expose the motives of the French
government in aiding the United States and satirize Franklin’s
activities in Paris, English sympathizers with the American
cause, and the like. A letter supposedly written by one of
Sartine’s agents in London provides a gloss on certain passages
in _Anticipation_. I quote from the English version (no. vi,
below):
Alas! in these times, a spy’s office here is almost a sinecure:
a dozen newspapers in the morning, and as many fresh ones
every evening, rob us of all our business: a secret even in
private affairs is a prodigy in London; but as to public
matters, it is the patriot’s boast, that a free constitution
abhors secrecy: and so indeed it seems; for, not only the
minutest accounts of the army, the navy, and the taxes, but
the minister’s letters, official instructions, and in short,
every paper, the disclosure of which may serve opposition, and
tend to prejudice the ministers by a premature discovery of
their plans, are perpetually called for, and must lie on the
tables of Parliament; where, as soon as they are once brought,
their contents one way or other get into print; consequently,
... the French ministers are not only as much in possession of
them as the English, but study them far more attentively, and
to ten times more advantage than _they_ do who called for their
disclosure in England⸺All this is bad encouragement to a spy at
London.
Bibliographically, the pamphlet raises questions that cannot be
answered with complete certainty. How is the number of variant
issues to be accounted for, and what are their relations to the
_editio princeps_? The satire was originally written by Tickell
in English and was then translated into bad French to circulate
on the Continent as propaganda against the Franco-American
alliance (see the extract from _The Monthly Review_ under the
next entry, and that from Bachaumont’s _Mémoires_ further on in
the present entry). However, the French version, purporting to
be the “Cinquième Edition,” published “A La Haye,” and “revue
& corrigée sur celles de Leipsic & d’Amsterdam,” appeared in
England earlier than the English original (_La Cassette verte_
was noticed in _The Monthly Review_ for May 1779, p. 394; _The
Green Box_ in the following month, p. 473). It seems most
likely that the regular Cinquième and the Sixième Editions
were printed on the Continent and that the variant issues were
English reprints. Typographical evidence tends to confirm this
supposition. The type and ornaments of the regular Cinquième
Edition and the Sixième seem clearly not to be English. The
variants, on the other hand, all appear to be English in
origin, and it may be noted that their less elaborate ornaments
give the impression of feeble imitation.
There is evidence that the hoax was disliked in certain high
quarters. In Louis Petit de Bachaumont’s _Mémoires secrets pour
servir à l’histoire de la republique des lettres en France_,
1780-89, appears an “Extrait d’une lettre d’Amsterdam du 22 Mai
1780,” which reads, in part:
Il a paru dans ce pays, il y a déja du tems, peut-être un an,
une brochure très courte, intitulée _la cassette verte_.... On
ne sait si M. de Sartine en a été piqué, ou si c’est un zele
de ses partisans dans ce pays; mais on mande de la Haye que
le jeudi 19 de ce mois, on y a arrêté une Dame Godin, comme
ayant eu quelque part à cette _cassette verte_ & qu’elle en est
partie le jour même avec des gardes qui la conduisent jusqu’aux
frontieres de France, d’où vraisemblement elle sera transférée
à la Bastille (XV, 189).
vi
The Green Box of Monsieur de Sartine, Found at Mademoiselle du Thé’s
Lodgings. From the French of the Hague Edition. Revised and corrected by
those of Leipsic and Amsterdam. “I translate for the Country Gentlemen.”
Anticipation. London: Sold by A. Becket, corner of the Adelphi, Strand;
and R. Faulder, Bond-street. M DCC LXXIX.
8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank; pp.
[1]-4, “Advertisement”; p. [5], note by the “Editor,” verso blank; pp.
[7]-71, text; p. [72], advertisement of _Anticipation_, Ninth Edition,
_La Cassette verte_, and other works by Tickell.
Copies: BP, HC, HEH, NYP. Sabin #95796.
Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Editions, Becket and Faulder, 1779.
Dublin: James Byrn and Son, 1779. Also an edition dated 1779 without
place or publisher’s name and with different collation; evidently a
piracy. Heartman’s Historical Series No. 19; “Sixty-five copies printed
for Charles F. Heartman, New York City 1916”; this is an independent
translation of _La Cassette verte_.
“It now appears that this pretended English translation is the
_original work_, as it came from the ludicrous pen of Mr.
Tickell ...; and that the French edition ... was only a
_circumstance_ in the _joke_” (_The Monthly Review_, LX,
1779, 473).
A number of imitations followed _La Cassette verte_ and _The
Green Box_. Among these are _An English Green Box_ ..., G.
Kearsly, 1779; _Histoire d’un pou françois_ ..., “A Paris, de
l’Imprimerie Royale,” 1779, and the English version of the
latter, _History of a French Louse_ ..., T. Becket, 1779—all
of which have been erroneously ascribed to Tickell.
vii
Epistle from the Honourable Charles Fox, Partridge-Shooting, to the
Honourable John Townshend, Cruising. London: Printed for R. Faulder, New
Bond Street. M DCC LXXIX.
4to. P. [1], half-title, verso blank; p. [3], title, verso blank; pp.
[5]-14, text; pp. [15-16], blank.
Copies: BM, HC. Sabin #95795.
A New Edition, Faulder, 1779. Third Edition, Faulder, 1780. Dublin: R.
Marchbank, 1779. Reprinted in _The New Foundling Hospital for Wit ... A
New Edition ... In Six Volumes_, J. Debrett, 1786, I, 318-323. Reprinted
in _Bell’s Classical Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry_, British Library,
1789-94, IV, [86]-91.
The _Epistle_ is a pleasing Horatian piece that makes
good-natured fun of the Whig wits and politicians of Brooks’s
Club. On John Townshend (1757-1833), later called Lord John,
second son of the first Marquis Townshend, see W. P. Courtney,
_Eight Friends of the Great_, 1910, pp. 172-183. Fox, in the
country, is depicted urging on his pointers with “patriot
names”:
No servile ministerial runners they!
Not RANGER then, but WASHINGTON, I cry;
Hey on! PAUL JONES, re-echoes to the sky:
Toho! old FRANKLIN—SILAS DEANE, take heed!—
Cheer’d with the sound, o’er hills and dales they speed.
But as he toils through fields of stubble he yearns for “The
long lost pleasures of ST. JAMES’S STREET,” which are set
forth by Tickell in graceful and glowing lines. The _Epistle_
was very highly praised by the reviewers and by others, but
Horace Walpole, in a letter to Lady Ossory of 2 December 1779,
recorded an acute dissent: “Towards the end there seems some
very pretty lines; but, upon the whole, _à quoi bon? à quel
propos?_ I believe it was meant for a satire, but the author
winked, and it flashed in the pan (_Letters_, ed. Toynbee, XI,
74-75).”
viii
Common-Place Arguments against Administration, with Obvious Answers,
(Intended for the Use of the New Parliament.) London: Printed for R.
Faulder, New Bond Street. M DCC LXXX.
8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank;
pp. [v]-viii, “Advertisement”; pp. [an inserted leaf], “Contents”; pp.
[9]-101, text; p. [102], blank.
Copies: HC, NYP. Sabin #95794.
Second, Third, and Fourth Editions, Faulder, 1780. Dublin: R. Marchbank,
1780; called “The Third Edition.”
A transparent attempt to repeat the success of _Anticipation_,
this satire was unanimously assigned to Tickell by the reviews
and is clearly his. Opposition charges and ministerial replies
are provided on such topics as “Best Officers drawn from the
Service,” “The last Campaign, and State of the Nation,” and the
like, together with a section of “Miscellaneous Eloquence, or,
Collateral Rhetoric for the Gallery,” which contains the best
mimicry the tract affords. The reviewers justly taxed Tickell
with writing for hire and borrowing from himself.
ix
Select Songs of the Gentle Shepherd. As It Is Performed at the
Theatre-Royal, Drury-Lane London: Printed for T. Becket, Adelphi, Strand.
M DCC LXXXI. [Price Six-pence.]
8vo. P. [1], title, verso blank; pp. [3]-19, text; p. [20], blank.
Copy: HEH.
There were no other issues.
This pastoral opera in two acts, performed as an afterpiece
at Drury Lane, 29 October 1781, is an alteration of Allan
Ramsay’s _Gentle Shepherd_, 1725, which had already had a long
stage history. It ran for twenty-two nights and remained the
standard stage version until after 1800. In an article entitled
“Reviving ‘The Gentle Shepherd,’” W. J. Lawrence condemned
Tickell’s alteration out of hand because “the abounding Doric
had been bled white, and new music had been substituted for
the fine old Scots melodies” (_The_ [London] _Graphic_, CVIII,
1923, 340). The music has not survived, but the discriminating
review in _The Universal Magazine_ praised Linley’s skill in
preserving the original airs while providing accompaniments for
an expanded orchestra (LXIX, 1781, 237). The dialogue, however
handled, was certain to produce disagreement, but Tickell was
more faithful to the original than previous adapters had been.
On this point James Boaden wrote:
The simple beauties of the poem were ... felt on this occasion,
and the lovers of rustic nature were obliged to Mr. Tickell for
the restoration of its original language—the _pronunciation_,
and still more the _cadence_, suffered as might be expected
from diffidence and badness of ear (_Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons_,
1827, I, 252).
x
Songs, Duos, Trios, Chorusses, &c., in the Comic Opera of the Carnival
of Venice, as it is Performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. London.
1781. Pr. Iˢ.
8vo. P. [1], title, verso blank; p. [3], “Dramatis Personæ,” verso blank;
pp. 5-27, text; p. [28], blank.
Copy: BM.
There were no other issues.
_The Carnival of Venice_ opened on 13 December 1781 and
played twenty-three times during the season but was never
revived. It was written to suit what Tickell himself, in a
letter to an aspiring playwright, called “the present taste
for complicated plot and perplexed incidents” (unpublished
letter to A. Becket, August 1781, in the Widener Collection,
Harvard College Library); for the plot, see the review in _The
Universal Magazine_, LXIX, 1781, 328. The music was provided by
Linley, and the elaborate sets and costumes by De Loutherbourg.
In particular the songs were admired: Tom Moore and Samuel
Rogers remembered and quoted them in the next century (Moore,
_Sheridan_, 2nd ed., 1825, II, 227; Rogers, _Table-Talk_, p.
72). Mary Young, in her _Memoirs of Mrs. Crouch_, 1806, said
that “Many of the songs in this piece so perfectly resemble,
in poetic beauty, those which adorn the Duenna [by Sheridan],
that they declare themselves to be the offspring of the same
Muse” (I, 127). Sheridan’s biographers have variously ascribed
the songs, in part or entirely, to him and Mrs. Sheridan, but
on what grounds save their excellence does not appear (Sichel,
_Sheridan_, I, 443, and II, 459; Rae, article on Tickell in the
_DNB_).
xi
[Prologue to] Variety; A Comedy, in Five Acts: as it is performed at the
Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. London: Printed for T. Becket, Adelphi,
Strand, Bookseller to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and Their
Royal Highnesses the Princes. MDCCLXXXII.
Copies: BM, C.
8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank; pp.
[v-vi], “Prologue, by Richard Tickell, Esq;”; p. [vii], “Epilogue”; p.
[viii], “Epilogue,” continued, and “Dramatis Personæ”; pp. [1]-71, text;
p. [72], publisher’s advertisements.
Subsequent issues disregarded here.
_Variety_ was written by Richard Griffith (d. 1788), and was
first performed 25 February 1782.
xii
Remarks on the Commutation Act. Addressed to the People of England.
London: Printed for T. Becket, in Pall-Mall. M DCC LXXXV. [Price One
Shilling and Six-pence.]
8vo. P. [i], title, verso blank; pp. [1]-81, text; p. [82], blank.
Copy: YU.
Second, Third, and Fourth Editions, Becket, 1785.
Assigned to Tickell by a MS. note on the title-page of a copy
of the Fourth Edition in the New York Public Library. It is
characteristically Tickell’s in substance and style. Intended
as an attack on a proposed reduction of the tea-duty, it
enlarges into a satire on Pitt’s administration, especially
the ascendancy of the East India Company interest therein.
While the Company continues its corrupt sway, Pitt directs
the energies of Parliament to “Edicts against the Waste of
Wafers in Public Offices, and Registrations of the Nett
Consumption of Quills; together with Sworn Meters of Sand, and
a Comptroller-General of Blotting-Paper.”
xiii
Contributions to _The Rolliad_.
The work known as _The Rolliad_ is only for the sake of
convenience so styled. The name serves as a collective title
for a group of many works, differently titled and separately
published, ranging from squibs a quatrain long to extended
mock-heroic poems. These collaborative Whig satires began
to appear in Henry Bate’s _Morning Herald_ late in 1784;
and the inclusive editions, issued from 1795 on under the
title of _The Rolliad_, contain _Criticisms on The Rolliad_,
_Political Eclogues_, _Probationary Odes for the Laureateship_,
and _Political Miscellanies_. Many ancillary pieces by the
same group of authors appeared in newspapers and fugitive
miscellanies but were never reprinted.
A good deal has been written in appreciation of the literary
and political satire of the _Rolliad_ pieces, but no thorough
study of their history and bibliography has been attempted.
So complex is their bibliography that it is impossible to
give a satisfactory account of any single author’s share.
The principal information on authorship will be found in
several contributions to _Notes and Queries_, 1st ser., II,
1850, and III, 1851, from copies of _The Rolliad_ annotated
by the authors or by those who knew them, as follows:
French Laurence’s notes, II, 373, and III, 129-131; George
Ellis’ notes, II, 114-115; Alexander Chalmers’ notes, II,
242; Sir James Mackintosh’s notes, III, 131. To these should
be added Sheridan’s notes in a copy used by Walter Sichel;
see his _Sheridan_, II, 87ff. There is much other scattered
information, of which full use has not yet been made, in late
eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century memoirs and journals.
According to French Laurence, who acted as editor, “the piece
first published, and the origin of all that followed,” was
the “Short Account of the Family of the Rollos, now Rolles,”
written principally by Tickell and purporting to be a genealogy
of the family of John Rolle, M.P. for Devon, the unlucky
hero of the projected mock epic. Tickell designed the absurd
family tree that served as frontispiece for _Criticisms on
The Rolliad_ (information from Sheridan, in Lord Broughton
[John Cam Hobhouse], _Recollections of a Long Life_, ed. Lady
Dorchester, 1909-11, I, 202). He had also a leading hand in
the next project of the group, the _Probationary Odes_, for
which he provided the editorial preliminaries, the first of
the trial odes, supposed to be by Sir Cecil Wray, and the
ninth, supposed to be by Nathaniel Wraxall and one of the best
in the series. (According to Mackintosh, the ninth ode was
“sketched by Canning, the Eton boy, finished by Tickell.”)
The most successful of the _Political Eclogues_, a satire on
Lord Lansdowne called _Jekyll_, was the collaborative work
of Tickell and Lord John Townshend; it first appeared as a
quarto poem published by J. Debrett, 1788. For the smaller
contributions of Tickell, which are numerous, the lists in
_Notes and Queries_ may be consulted.
xiv
A Woollen Draper’s Letter on the French Treaty, to His Friends and Fellow
Tradesmen All over England. “The clothiers all not able to maintain “The
many to them ’longing, have put off “The spinsters, carders, fullers,
weavers.” Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. London: Printed for the Author,
and sold by J. French, Bookseller, No. 164, Fenchurch-street, by the
Booksellers near the Royal Exchange, Pater-Noster-Row, Fleet-street, &c.
&c. &c. M,DCC,LXXXVI.
8vo. P. [i], title, verso blank; pp. [I]-48, text.
Copies: HC, NYP.
Second Edition, French, 1786.
This tract is here first assigned to Tickell, who stated he
was the author in a letter to Samuel Parr, 20 February [1787]
(Parr, _Works_, ed. J. Johnstone, 1828, VIII, 131). It is
assigned to a different author in Halkett and Laing (new ed.,
1926-34, VI, 252), where a copy is reported that contains a MS.
dedication signed “Lieut. J. Mackenzie.” Tickell’s statement of
authorship, the lack of any information about J. Mackenzie, and
various circumstances (too involved to detail here) relating
to Whig propagandist activity at this time, all suggest that
Lieut. J. Mackenzie is a fictitious person. As the Foxites’
chief pamphleteer Tickell did his duty, but as a member of
Brooks’s he did not care to associate his name with a sober
commercial tract.
This supposed Woollen Draper, who seems to be well acquainted
with the subject he treats, endeavours to shew his fellow
tradesmen the very great injuries to which the woollen trade is
exposed, by the commercial treaty, lately signed at Paris....
In his own style, the sample, which he hath here offered to the
Public, is well wrought, and of a good fabric (_The Monthly
Review_, LXXVI, 1787, 71).
xv
The People’s Answer to the Court Pamphlet: Entitled A Short Review of
the Political State of Great Britain. Quid prius dicam solitis Parentis
Laudibus?⸺Printed for J. Debrett, opposite Burlington-house Piccadilly.
MDCCLXXXVII.
8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank; pp.
[1]-50, text; pp. [51-52], blank.
Copies: HC, NYP, WLC.
Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Editions, Debrett, 1787. Dublin: White,
Byrne, Moore, and Jones, 1787.
This tract is here first assigned to Tickell. His letter to
Parr of 20 February [1787], mentioned in the preceding entry,
begins:
From some enquiries in your letter to Mrs. Sheridan, I believe
you thought it was right to answer _the Political Review_. I
mean the pamphlet that traduced the Prince of Wales and every
one else except Hastings. I now send you the answer I gave
it, because, as you thought it right it should be answered,
you will excuse faults in a paper written in a hurry (Parr,
_Works_, VIII, 131).
The pamphlet to which Tickell refers is _A Short Review of
the Political State of Great-Britain at the Commencement
of the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Seven_,
Debrett, 1787, a collection of political portraits and cursory
observations as thin in substance as they are florid in style.
Its authorship was acknowledged in the _Posthumous Memoirs_,
1836, of Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, who told there of its immense
success upon publication: it ran through six editions in the
last ten days of January, sold 17,000 copies, and elicited a
half-dozen replies within a month (_Historical and Posthumous
Memoirs_, 1884, IV, 372-375). _The People’s Answer_ was written
from Tickell’s precise political position at this time and
displays his characteristic style.
Beginning in his usual brisk and pointed manner, Tickell
suggests that the celebrity of the _Short Review_ is due
largely to such a total want of polite wit among the supporters
of Administration “that even a Charade from one of the _King’s
Friends_ would excite ... admiration.” The author has provided
“the dull desponding train of an unlettered Court” with
a sort of handy manual for the Levee ..., lightly touching on
the topicks most in vogue, and sketching out handy sentences
for the Lords of the Bedchamber to retail, or the Maids of
Honour to scribble on their fans.
Here is the hand of the author of _The Wreath of Fashion_. In
his treatment of Pitt’s commercial treaty, his gift of mimicry
is also apparent. Tickell the elegant amateur cannot resist
parodying the style of writers on commercial subjects:
Every leaf of these motley compositions displays an epitome
of all the tricks of invitation, that are practised by the
trades they discuss; some of them intoxicating the eye, like
Vintners’ windows, with BRANDY! RUM! and BRITISH SPIRIT! in
capitals—while others denote their beaten track, and towns
of baiting; like the lettered pannels of a stage coach, in
characters of a most extensive and convincing size; as,
HULL,
LEEDS,
WAKEFIELD,
YORK,
or
BOCKING,
BRAINTREE,
DUNMOW,
COLCHESTER, &c.
Perhaps the most amusing thing about this passage is that
Tickell is ridiculing, among others, himself, for these are
the very devices of the honest Woollen Draper’s _Letter_. The
defence of the Prince of Wales’ conduct and friends, which
occupies the later pages of _The People’s Answer_, is in a more
serious tone.
xvi
[Prologue to] The Fugitive: A Comedy. As it is performed at the King’s
Theatre, Haymarket. By Joseph Richardson, Esq. Barrister at Law.
Ætherias, lascive cupis, volitare per auras I, fuge, sed poteris,
tutior esse domi. Martial. London: Printed for J. Debrett, opposite
Burlington-House, Piccadilly. MDCCXCII.
8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank; pp.
[v-viii], “Advertisement”; pp. [ix-x], “Prologue written by Richard
Tickell, Esq.”; p. [xi], “Dramatis Personæ,” verso blank; pp. [1]-83,
text; p. [84], blank; pp. [85-86], “Epilogue, written by the Right Hon.
Lieutenant General Burgoyne.”
Copies: BM, C.
Subsequent issues disregarded here.
Joseph Richardson (1755-1803) was an intimate of the
Sheridan circle, a Foxite politician, and one of the largest
contributors to _The Rolliad_. _The Fugitive_ was first
performed 20 April 1792.