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)
41. The | Life | And | Strange Surprizing | Adventures | Of | Robinson
Crusoe, | Of York, Mariner: | [Nine lines] Written by Himſelf. |
London: | Printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater-Noſter- | Row.
MDCCXIX.
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)
42. Travels | Into Several | Remote Nations | Of The | World. | In
Four Parts. | By Lemuel Gulliver, | Firſt a Surgeon, and then a
Cap- | tain of ſeveral Ships. | Vol. I. | London: | Printed for Benj.
Motte, at the | Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-ſtreet. | MDCCXXVI.
"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)
43. An | Essay | On | Man | Addreſs'd to a Friend. | Part I. |
[Printer's ornament] London: | Printed for J. Wilford, at the Three
Flower-de-luces, be- | hind the Chapter-Houſe, St. Pauls. | [Price
One Shilling.]
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)
44. The | Analogy | Of | Religion, | Natural and Revealed, | [Six
lines] By | Joseph Butler, L.L.D. Rector of | Stanhope, in the
Biſhoprick of Durham. | [Quotation] London: | Printed for James,
John and Paul Knapton, at the | Crown in Ludgate Street. MDCCXXXVI.
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)
45. Reliques | Of | Ancient English Poetry: | [Five lines] Volume The
First. | [Vignette with the words] _Durat Opus Vatum._ | London: |
Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall. | MDCCLXV.
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)
46. Odes | On Several | Deſcriptive and Allegoric | Subjects. |
By William Collins. | [Quotation, Vignette] London: | Printed for A.
Millar, in the Strand. | M.DCC.XLVII. | (Price One Shilling.)
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)
47. Clarissa. | Or, The | History | Of A | Young Lady: | [Six lines]
Publiſhed by the Editor of Pamela. | Vol. I. | London: | Printed
for S. Richardſon: | And Sold by A. Millar, over-againſt
Catharine-ſtreet in the Strand: | J. and Ja. Rivington, in St.
Paul's Church-yard: | John Osborn, in Pater-noſter Row; | And by J.
Leake, at Bath. | M.DCC.XLVIII.
_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: