Sales catalogue 550: Maggs Bros

Date:
1931
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/99
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 550: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mie lish Witerature, and History FROM THE I5TH TO THE 18TH CENTURY. ABELA RDVAND) HELOALS E: 1 Lerrers or ABELARD AND Hetorsz. ‘To which is prefix’d, A Particular Account of their Lives, Amours, and Misfortunes. Extracted chiefly from Monsieur Bayle. Translated from the French. With engraved frontispiece by E. Kirkall. Third Edition, corrected. 12mo. Original calf. London, Printed for ]. Watts, 1718. £1 5s ADDISON (Joseph), 1672-1719. As a light essaytst, Joseph Addison has no equal in English literature. As a poet and dramatist, he enjoyed constderable success. His poetry shows facility and poetic sensibility, stopping short of poetic genius. 2 Tue Campaicn. A Poem, to his Grace the Duke of Marlborough. First Epition. Folio. Half morocco, gilt, g. e. London, 1705. £12 12s ‘‘ The success of his poem, the ‘ Campaign,’ was rewarded by promotion to an under-secretaryship of state. Godolphin, according to Tickell, saw the poem when finished ‘ as far as the applauded simile of the angel,’ and gave the commis- sionership in consequence. The anecdote has been coloured by the desire to represent Addison as a poor author raised from a garret to fortune by discerning patronage. Godolphin cared more for horse-racing than poetry, and was much less likely to reward the author of a set of verses than to gratify an important politician by advancing an adherent. In any case, the poem and the simile achieved a great success. The poem, like all Addison’s performances of the kind, shows facility and poetic sensibility, stopping short of poetic genius.’’ (D.N.B.).
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