Scribleriana Transferred: MSS & Rare Books, 1999–2001

Abstract

98 representative demons include Spenser, Pope, Conrad, and the World Bank. Unlike the founding myths of most other cultures, the naissance of any Western European power repeats the founding of Rome by Aeneas. Agriculture enters this pattern as a justification of what is civilized, although, as Mr. Waswo points out, civilization is, in effect, warfare. The ancient portrayal of civilization connecting agriculture and cities means thatthere is no place for ‘‘hunters, gatherers, and nomads’’—of course not, because they are the barbarians that ‘‘we’’ once were. This leads Western civilization to create itself in history and literature at the expense of others. Windsor-Forest is thus a celebration of ‘‘a national myth.’’ More startling, the poem ‘‘offers a virtual blueprint for both the theme and the outcome of Clarissa’’because Pope introduces the classical trope of Apollo chasing Daphne and the attendant idea that death is the consequence of possession. Mr. Waswo’s sweeping narrative is about the power of the ‘‘culture-bringer’’ to invade other people’s land and oblige ‘‘them’’ to do with it what ‘‘we’’ want them to do, not only at key historical moments but in the fabric of everyday history . Although he avoids merely repeating a succession of identical instances,he cannotavoid theproblemofhisambitious scope: likeeveryoneelse,Richardsonand Pope seem to have little to say except what is in the service of the imperial, colonizing , self-interested, destructive, ethnocidal , triumphalist theme that is Western civilization. The theme is important, and Mr. Waswo really shows its versatile omnipresence, but still it is not the only one. SCRIBLERIANA TRANSFERRED: MSS & RARE BOOKS, 1999–2001 James E. May MANUSCRIPTS On 11 Nov. 1999 Bloomsbury Book Auction (BBA) sold a MS account of ‘‘Fees for the Funerall of the Hon.ble Joseph Addison Esq in [Westminster’s] King Henry the 7th Chappell’’ in two hands signed ‘‘John Battely,’’ receiver of Westminster Abbey 1723–1729, dated 22 June 1719, 1 1/2 pp. folio (sold to C. L. Edwards for £420). The document records that the Countess of Warwick paid £54, 8 s., ‘‘by ye hands of Mr. Tho. Beckington,’’ for the funeral’s ‘‘full’’ bill. Also offered was a one-page ALS of Addison to Lord Warwick dated 20 January 1709, wishing ‘‘many happy Birth-days’’ and enclosing a ‘‘silver pen,’’ and another from Addison to Warwick of 3 pp., dated Dublin Castle, 19 May 1709, with news from Dublin and the remark ‘‘we are here very much pleas’d with a paper call’d the Tatler’’(Steele’s first issue had appeared 12 April). Addison’s copy of a New Testament in Greek (L, 1764), annotated throughout in Addison ’s hand and, interleaved, with an MS essay, sold at Waddington’s, 8 July 1999. Still available from Edwards’s 17 is Addison’s ALS (autograph letter signed) to the Earlof Warwick ([Dublin]20 Jan. 1709),1p.,publishedinGraham’sLettersofAddison. John Wilson’s Cat. 88 (Nov. 2000) listed a deposition by Johanna Riches relating to 99 a smuggling suspect witnessed by Addison as Commissioner of Appeals, signed ‘‘Feb. 17. 1707/8 兩 Jurat. coram me/Jos. Addison.’’ The Bolingbroke’s ALS to an unnamed gentleman, dated 7 June 1725 and touching on Mons. de St. Victor’s ‘‘Horse given him by my Lord Godolphin,’’ was sold from Edwards’s 18 to a collector inclined to donate it to Pembroke College, Cambridge. Christie’s on 3 June 1998 offered a presentation volume by John Boyle, fifth Earl of Cork and Orrery, with two very rare editions of Orrery’s verses on the death of Edmund Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham: Verses by a young Nobleman, on the Death of His Grace the Duke of B—, privately printed [London, 1736] for the Duchess of Buckingham , 8vo, Foxon B354 citing only 1 copy, and A Poem to the Memory of Edmund Sheffield (D: G. Faulkner, 1741), 8vo, Foxon B355 citing 1. This interleaved volume has a five-page autograph preface by Orrery addressed to his daughter Lucy Boyle and conveying the poem’s publication history, noting that it preceded the folio edition (as Foxon suspected). Drawing on that preface or other MS notations, Christie’s remarks that the second edition in the volume ‘‘was printed from a copy...