Arbuthnotiana: The Story of the St. Alb-ns Ghost (1712) A Catalogue of Dr. Arbuthnot's Library (1779) Read online

  NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

  [1] See advertisements in the _Evening Post_, 19, 21, 26 February, 13March 1712; and in the _Post-Boy_, 10 May and 19 July 1712.

  The research necessary for the present publication was supported by agrant from the University of Victoria and by a Leave Fellowship from theCanada Council.

  [2] The dates given by Professor H. Teerink in _The History of John Bullfor the first time faithfully re-issued from the original pamphlets_(Amsterdam, 1925), pp. 6-7, are drawn from dates in the Examiner, aweekly newspaper. Three of these dates are correct, and the other twoare close, but can be corrected by consulting papers published moreoften. The first pamphlet seems to have appeared on 4 March 1712 (see_Post-Boy_ of that date), and the third may have appeared on 16 April1712 (see the _Daily Courant_ of 16 and 17 April; the _Post-Boy_,however, agrees with the _Examiner_ on the date 17 April).

  [3] Although no publisher is named on the title page of the Keys, thefifth edition is advertised among "New Pamphlets Printed for E. Curll"on the back of the half-title page to _The Tunbridge-Miscellany:Consisting of Poems, &c. Written at Tunbridge-Wells this Summer. BySeveral Hands_ (London, 1712).

  [4] Wagstaffe died 5 May 1726, Levett 2 July 1726; the _MiscellaneousWorks_ were published on about 18 October 1726. Dr. Norman Moore in hisaccount of Wagstaffe has shown that the "life" in the _MiscellaneousWorks_ is substantially correct, and has suggested that Dr. Levett wroteit; see Moore, _History of St. Bartholomew's Hospital_ (London, 1918),II, 523-529.

  [5] Thomas Roscoe, ed., _The Works of Jonathan Swift_ (London, 1850), I,529; [C.W. Dilke], "Dean Swift and the Scriblerians v. Dr. Wagstaffe,"_Notes and Queries_, 3d ser., I, 381-384; Sir Walter Scott, ed., _TheWorks of Swift_, 2d ed. (London, 1883), V, 414; Herbert Davis,"Introduction," Prose Works of Swift, VIII, xiv-xv; Mark Noble, _ABiographical History of England, From the Revolution to the end ofGeorge I's Reign_ (London, 1806), III, 367-368. Vinton A. Dearing in his"Jonathan Swift or William Wagstaffe?" _HLB_, VII (1953), 121-130, makesa survey of previous discussions, and concludes that Wagstaffe wrote allthe pieces in the _Miscellaneous Works_. See also the article cited infootnote 6.

  [6] "Words and Numbers: A Quantitative Approach to Swift and someUnderstrappers," _Computers and the Humanities_, IV (1970), 289-304.This article has been reprinted with minor revisions in Roy Wisbey, ed.,_The Computer in Literary and Linguistic Research_ (Cambridge, 1971),pp. 129-147.

  [7] The question of verb typography will be further studied in a futurearticle.

  [8] _Poems on Affairs of State: Augustan Satirical Verse_, II (NewHaven, 1965), 217.

  [9] _Tint for Taunt. The Manager Managed: or the Exemplary MODERATIONand MODESTY, of a Whig Low-Church-Preacher discovered, from his ownMouth_ (London, 1710); _and Punch turn'd Critick, in a Letter to theHonourable and (some time ago) Worshipful Rector of Covent-Garden. Withsome Wooden Remarks on his Sermon_ (n.p., 1712). Neither squib is ofmuch literary value, but the second acquires some interest by beingassociated with the _Story of the St. Alb-ns Ghost_ and a third editionof _A Learned Comment on Tom Thumb_ (an earlier Pseudo-Wagstaffe piece)in the advertising column of _Examiner_, vol. II, no. 13 (28 February1712).

  [10] Reproduced in _The Novels of Mary Delariviere Manley_, intro. by P.Koester (Gainesville, Fla., 1971), 2 vols.

  [11] Jane Wenham was sentenced 4 March 1712. White Kennet lists a numberof pamphlets on both sides in _The Wisdom of Looking Backwards_ (London,1715), pp. 203-205, but does not mention the _Story_. The _ProtestantPost-Boy_ has a series of articles, stemming from the trial, on theimprobability of witchcraft (3, 5, 8, 12 April 1712), but predictablyignores the _Story_.

  [12] Dr. Moore, however, seems to include the _Story_ in hiscondemnation of all the Pseudo-Wagstaffe pieces except the _Comment upon... Tom Thumb_ (now reproduced in Augustan Reprint no. 63) as "abusive,coarse, or dull" (_History of St. Bartholomew's Hospital_, II, 526).

  [13] Mr. Allan Trumpour wrote a sorting program which provided thestatistics here and below; Mr. James Carley and Mrs. Edna Cox both gaveconsiderable help in preparing the contents of the _Catalogue_ forcomputer sorting.

  [14] For biographical information see G.A. Aitken, _The Life and Worksof John Arbuthnot_ (Oxford, 1892), pp. 159-161.

  [15] See W. Wulff, "Introduction," _Rosa Anglica seu Rosa Medicinae_,Irish Texts Society, XXV (London, 1929), p. xix.

  [16] Aitken, p. 159.