Eloisa to Abelard Parody
Eloisa en Dishabillé, being a New Version of That Lady's Celebrated Epistle to Abelard, Done into Familiar English Metre, by a Lounger.
London: R. Faulder, 1780.
Price: $1,000.00
About the item
First edition. [iii]-ix, [i], [9]-26 pp., lacking half-title. 4to. Eloisa to Abelard Parody. Modern quarter blue morocco and marbled boards. Text toned, small dampstain to lower margin throughout. Manuscript attributions in two hands on title-page to John Matthews and Richard Ponson, with long note on verso of title by one J. Ewen ascribing the poem to Porson and John Tweddell on the authority of Richard Heber. ESTC T93896(5 copies). Provenance: J. Ewen (manuscript note on verso of title ascribing the poem to Porson and John Tweddell on the authority of Richard Heber).
Item #308107
Scarce parody of Pope's Eloisa to Abelard by the hack poet and physician John Matthews (1755-1826). "John "Matthews was a man of versatile disposition and generous tastes, which frequently left him at a financial loss. His works were published anonymously. The best-known of them is Eloisa en dishabille: being a new version of that lady's celebrated epistle to Abelard, done into familiar English metre by a lounger (1780), which is a parody of Pope's ‘Eloisa to Abelard’. It was reprinted in 1801, and again in 1822, when the bookseller put on the title-page that it was ‘ascribed to [Richard] Porson’. Matthews wrote other verse, some of it described as ‘contemptible’ by contemporaries, and much of it badly received" (ODNB).
