An odd sort of a literary curiosity has fallen in my way. It throws
some light on the history of the heroes of the _Dunciad_; but such
_minutiae literariae_ are only for my bibliographical readers.
It is a book of accounts, which belonged to the renowned BERNARD
LINTOT, the bookseller, whose character has been so humorously
preserved by Pope, in a dialogue which the poet has given as having
passed between them in Windsor Forest. The book is entitled "_Copies,
when Purchased_." The power of genius is exemplified in the ledger of
the bookseller as much as in any other book; and while I here
discover, that the moneys received even by such men of genius as Gay,
Farquhar, Cibber, and Dr. King, amount to small sums, and such authors
as Dennis, Theobald, Ozell, and Toland, scarcely amount to anything,
that of Pope much exceeds 4000_l._
I am not in all cases confident of the nature of these "Copies
purchased;" those works which were originally published by Lintot may
be considered as purchased at the sums specified: some few might have
been subsequent to their first edition. The guinea, at that time,
passing for twenty-one shillings and sixpence, has occasioned the
fractions.
I transcribe Pope's account. Here it appears that he sold "The Key to
the Lock" and "Parnell's Poems." The poem entitled, "To the Author of
a Poem called _Successio_," appears to have been written by Pope, and
has escaped the researches of his editors. The smaller poems were
contributed to a volume of Poetical Miscellanies, published by
Lintot.[241]