Large Paper Copy, with Swift's 'Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick'
Miscellanies in Prose and Verse.
London: John Morphew, 1711.
Price: $1,750.00
About the item
First edition, second state, large paper copy. [xii], 91, [1, blank], 95-416 pp. 8vo. Large Paper Copy, with Swift's 'Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick'. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards, red morocco spine label. Rubbed, rear joint cracked, front cover and front free endpaper detached, title lightly soiled, occasional spotting. ESTC N44669; Rothschild 2015; Teerink 2(1)(b).
Item #308172
Contains the first authorized printing of Swift's "Meditation upon a Broom-Stick," which was first printed by Curll on about 6 April 1710 from a manuscript stolen from Swift. The present volume was issued on 27 February 1711 to combat this piracy; it collects 25 works by Swift, including several Bickerstaff tracts and two celebrated poems from the Tatler ("A Description of the Morning" and "A Description of a City Shower"), and several of the works are published here for the first time.
In this second state of the first edition "The original leaves G6-7 (pp. 91-4), bearing the last paragraph of 'A Discourse of the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome' as printed in the original pamphlet, 1701, were cancelled and replaced by one new leaf (pp. 91 + bl.) omitting that paragraph, for which A8 was used" (Teerink).
