the fact that Peter Parker, not Simmons, issued the first
volumes. As we have pointed out above, the theory has been
advanced that the owner of the copyright was timid about
avowing his connection with the poet. A more natural reason
would seem to be that he was unable to print the book at
first, through losses, in the Fire perhaps, of presses and
types. Such a theory would seem to derive weight from the fact
that the issues of 1668 and 1669 which bear his name do not
give an address, and it is not until the second edition
of 1674 that we find him "next door to the Golden Lion in
Aldersgate-ſtreet."
The original selling price of the volume was three shillings.
The prices now vary according to the sequence of the
title-pages. A copy of the first issue sold in New York in
1901 for eight hundred and thirty dollars.
The volume has no introductory matter, but begins at once with
the lines "Of Mans Firſt Diſobedience"; Simmons added the
following note to the second edition: "There was no Argument
at firſt intended to the Book, but for the ſatisfaction of
many that have deſired it, is procured." The printer adopted
a very useful custom in numbering the lines of the poem. He
set the figures down by tens in the margin, within the double
lines that frame the text.
Quarto. The first edition with the first title-page.
COLLATION: _Two leaves without signatures; A-Z, and Aa-Vv2,
in fours. Without pagination._
JOHN BUNYAN
(1628-1688)
34. The | Pilgrims Progreſs | [Eleven lines] By John Bunyan. |
Licenſed and Entered according to Order. | London, | Printed for
Nath. Ponder at the Peacock | in the Poultrey near Cornhil, 1678.
In 1672 Bunyan was released from the gaol, which, possibly
with a brief interval, had been his "close and uncomfortable"
home for twelve years; and Ponder, who, for his connection
with his famous client, was called "Bunyan's Ponder," entered
the imperishable story, written in "similitudes," at the
Stationers' Hall, December 22, 1677. The customary fee of
sixpence being duly paid, early in the following year the
book was licensed, and soon after published at one shilling
sixpence.
Its success was very great: the first year saw a second
edition, and the year following a third, each with important
additions.
Southey stated, in 1830, when he put out a new edition of the
book, that there was no copy of the first edition known, but
since then five have been unearthed, two of which are perfect.
The portrait of Bunyan engraved by Robert White makes our copy
unique. It shows the author lying asleep over a lion's den,
while above him Christian is represented on his journey. Until
1886, when this volume was brought to light, the third edition
was supposed to be the first to have a picture of the author;
but now it seems quite certain that other volumes of the first
edition may, like this, have had the print. In the edition
of 1679, the label of the city from which the Pilgrim
was journeying, called "Vanity" here, was changed to
"Destruction."
The price paid for this volume, when it was sold at auction in
1901, was fourteen hundred and seventy-five pounds.
The second part of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ appeared in 1684.
It depends more upon reflected than intrinsic merit; but
copies of the first edition are even rarer than those of the
first edition of the first part.
Octavo.
COLLATION: _A-Q3, in eights. Portrait._
JOHN DRYDEN
(1631-1700)
35. Absalom | And | Achitophel. | A | Poem. | ... Si Propiùs ſtes |
Te Capiet Magis.... | London, | Printed for J. T. and are to be Sold
by W. Davis in | Amen-Corner, 1681.
The Earl of Shaftesbury, here typified as Achitophel for his
share in the conspiracy to place the young Duke of Monmouth,
Absalom, on the throne, was committed to the Tower in July,
1681; and this satire appeared in November, just before the
Grand Jury acquitted him. Notwithstanding the lateness of the
work, its success was unprecedented. We are told that Samuel
Johnson's father, a bookseller of Litchfield, said that he
could not remember a sale of equal rapidity, except that of
the reports of the Sacheverell trial.
The author's name does not appear in the book; nor yet in the
second edition, to which Tonson added two unsigned poems "To
the unknown author."
Jacob Tonson, the publisher of the work, was one of the
notable figures in the annals of book-publishing in England,
and his name is inseparably connected with some of the most
important literary ventures of the period: with those of
Milton, Addison, Steele, Congreve, but above all with those of
Dryden. Basil Kennett wrote in 1696: "Twill be as impossible
to think of Virgil without Mr. Dryden, as of either without
Mr. Tonson." He was so poor when he began business that he
is said to have borrowed the twenty pounds necessary to the
purchase of the first play of Dryden's that he published; but,
thanks to his shrewdness, and to the success of his ventures,
he died in affluent circumstances, having fully earned the
title of "prince of booksellers." He was the founder of the
famous Kit-Cat Club, and in spite of Dryden's ill-tempered
lines,
"With leering looks, bull-faced and freckled fair,
With two left legs, with Judas-coloured hair,
And frowsy pores that taint the ambient air,"
he was not unliked by his clients and friends.
The only decoration in the book consists of a head-band
preceding the poem, and an initial letter. In some copies the
head-band is pieced out to the width of the type page with
small ornaments.
Folio.
COLLATION: _Two leaves without signatures; B-I, in twos._
JOHN LOCKE
(1632-1704)
36. An | Essay | Concerning | Humane Understanding. | In Four Books.
[Quotation, Group of Ornaments] London: | Printed by Eliz. Holt,
for Thomas Baſſet, at the | George in Fleet-ſtreet, near St
Dunſtan's | Church. MDCXC.
Locke's two previous works had been issued anonymously; but
this book, while it has no name on the title-page, has the
author's name signed at the foot of the dedication to Thomas,
Earl of Pembroke; a dedication of such fulsome compliment that
even Pope, who called Locke his philosophic master, is said to
have thought he could never forgive it. In the first edition,
that appeared early in the year, the dedication is not dated,
but "Dorset Court, May 24, 1689," appears in all the following
issues.
Basset paid thirty pounds for the copyright of the work, and
later agreed to give six bound copies of every subsequent
edition, and ten shillings for every sheet of additional
matter.
Some copies of the first edition have the imprint: _Printed
for Tho. Baſſet, and ſold by Edw. Mory | at the Sign
of the Three Bibles in St. Paul's Church-Yard. MDCXC._ They
probably belong to an earlier issue: the two _ss_ in _Essay_,
which were here printed upside down, were set right in
the title-pages of the issue facsimiled; and the group
of printer's ornaments, here placed irregularly, were
straightened in our copy.
In August, 1692, Locke writes: "I am happy to tell you that
a new edition of my book is called for, which, in the
present turmoil of the protestant world, I consider very
satisfactory." The month of September, 1694 brought the book
again before the public, and by the year 1800 twenty different
editions had been published.
The first edition was full of faults that the second aimed
to correct. "Beſides what is already mentioned, this
Second Edition has the Summaries of the several § §. not only
Printed, as before, in a Table by themſelves, but in the
Margent too. And at the end there is now an Index added.
Theſe two, with a great number of ſhort additions,
amendments, and alterations, are advantages of this Edition,
which the bookseller hopes will make it ſell. For as to the
larger additions and alterations, I have obliged him, and he
has promiſed me to print them by themſelves, ſo that the
former Edition may not be wholly loſt to thoſe who
have it, but by the inſerting in their proper places the
paſſages that will be imprinted alone, to that
purpoſe, the former Book may be made as little defective as
poſſible."
The amendments and alterations were printed on separate slips
of paper, which were given to purchasers of the first edition
to be pasted into their copies; certainly an ingenious if
not altogether satisfactory way of keeping abreast with the
author's mind. It must have been considered useful, however,
for the same plan was resorted to with the fourth edition.
"Our friend Dr. Locke, I am told, has made an addition to his
excellent 'Essay,' which may be had without purchasing the
whole book," said the thrifty Evelyn to the careful Pepys,
who replied: "Dr. Locke has set a useful example to future
reprinters. I hope it will be followed in books of value." A
copy of the book in the Bodleian Library, which has its little
slips all carefully pasted in, has a note on the fly-leaf,
written by its owner:
"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)
37. The | Way of the World, | A | Comedy. | As it is Acted | At The
| Theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, | By | His Majeſty's Servants.
| Written by Mr. Congreve. | [Quotation] London: | Printed for Jacob
Tonſon, within Gray's-Inn-Gate next | Gray's-Inn-Lane. 1700.
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)
38. The | History | Of The | Rebellion and Civil Wars | In | England,
| [Five lines] Written by the Right Honourable | Edward Earl of
Clarendon, | [Two lines, Quotations] Volume The First. [Vignette]
Oxford, | Printed at the Theater, An. Dom. MDCCII. [-MDCCIV].
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
39. The | Lucubrations | Of | Iſaac Bickerſtaff Eſq; | Vol. I.
| [Quotation] London, | Printed: And ſold by John Morphew, near
Stationers-Hall. MDCCX. [-MDCCXI.] Note. The Bookbinder is deſired
to place the Index after [Tatler, No. 114] which ends the Firſt
Volume in Folio.
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.