(1681-1687) Introduction by Violet Jordain PUBLICATION NUMBER 141 WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY University of California, Los Angeles 1970 GENERAL EDITORS William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles ASSOCIATE EDITOR David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles ADVISORY EDITORS Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan James L. Clifford, Columbia Un

( Observator No. 259, 16 December 1682) When the first of 931 single, folio sheets of the Observator appeared on 13 April 1681, the sixty-five-year-old Roger L'Estrange, their sole author, had been a controversial London Royalist for over twenty years. As Crown protégé, he had served intermittently as Surveyor of the Press, Chief Licenser, and Justice of the King's Peace Commission; as a writer, he had produced two newspapers, the Intelligencer and the Newes (1663-1666), dozens of political pamp

[1] The translations before 1681 are The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo (1667); A Guide to Eternity (1672); Five Love-letters from a Nun (1677); The Gentleman-Apothecary (1678); Seneca's Morals (1678); Twenty Select Colloquies of Erasmus (1679); and Tully's Offices (1680). [2] Various perspectives on L'Estrange's life and works can be found in the following: George Kitchin, Sir Roger L'Estrange (London, 1913) for L'Estrange's life and impact on the Restoration press; J. G. Muddiman, The Kin

To the READER . Most Prefaces are, (Effectually) Apologies ; and neither the Book , nor the Author , one Jot the Better for them. If the Book be Good , it will not Need an Apology ; If Bad , it will not Bear One: For where a man thinks, by Calling himself Noddy , in the Epistle , to Atone , for Shewing himself to be one, in the Text ; He does (with Respect to the Dignity of an Author ) but Bind up Two Fools in One Cover : But there's no more Trusting some People with Pen, Ink, and Paper , then t

WEDNESDAY , April 13. 1681. Q. WEll! They are so. But do you think now to bring'um to their Wits again with a Pamphlet? A. Come, Come; 'Tis the Press that has made'um Mad , and the Press must set'um Right again. The Distemper is Epidemical ; and there's no way in the world, but by Printing , to convey the Remedy to the Disease . Q. But what is it that you call a Remedy? A. The Removing of the Cause . That is to say, the Undeceiving of the People : for they are well enough Disposed, of themselves

SATURDAY , May 14. 1681. Q . But which way lies your Humour then? A. My way (you must know) lies more to History , and Books , and Politicks , and Religion , and such as That , But take this along with you too; that I am for turning over of Men , as well as Books ; for that's the Profitable Study when all's done. Q. Pre' thee commend me to the Common Hangman then, If He that turns over the most men be the Greatest Philosopher. But how turning over of Men? A. That is to say, I Read Them; I Study

SATURDAY , March 11. 1681. WHIG. Come; I'le shew ye my study, Tory . TORY. Why you have got a Brave Library here. Wh. For a Choice Collection , let me tell ye, as any is in Christendom . To. You have all the Greek and Latin Fathers , I suppose; the Councells , the Schoolmen , and those People. Wh. I had'em all; but there's a great deal of Trash ; and so I e'en rid my hands of'em; though some of'em did pretty well too; considering those Dark Times . Now here can I sit as Snug as a Hare in her For

A Schism a Greater Judgment then a Pestilence. The Natural Rhetorique of the Non-Cons. The Danger of them. Several Sorts and Degrees of Danger. Of Coming About, or Coming Over. The Cause Transferr'd from Government to Religion. Munday , September 28. 1685. OBSERVATOR. If I were the Master of a Territory , I would as soon Trust so many Spirits in my Pulpits, to Blow a Pestilence thorough my Dominions , as so many of our Non-Conforming Divines ; and reckon my People much Safer too, under the Dange

16. Henry Nevil Payne, The Fatal Jealousie (1673). 18. Anonymous, "Of Genius," in The Occasional Paper , Vol. III, No. 10 (1719), and Aaron Hill, Preface to The Creation (1720)....

19. Susanna Centlivre, The Busie Body (1709). 20. Lewis Theobald, Prepace to the Works of Shakespeare (1734). 22. Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), and two Rambler papers (1750). 23. John Dryden, His Majesties Declaration Defended (1681)....

26. Charles Macklin, The Man of the World (1792)....

31. Thomas Gray, An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church-yard (1751), and The Eton College Manuscript ....

41. Bernard Mandeville, A Letter to Dion (1732)....

104. Thomas D'Urfey, Wonders in the Sun; or, The Kingdom of the Birds (1706)....

110. John Tutchin, Selected Poems (1685-1700). 111. Anonymous, Political Justice (1736). 112. Robert Dodsley, An Essay on Fable (1764). 113. T. R., An Essay Concerning Critical and Curious Learning (1698). 114. Two Poems Against Pope : Leonard Welsted, One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope (1730), and Anonymous, The Blatant Beast (1742)....

115. Daniel Defoe and others, Accounts of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal . 116. Charles Macklin, The Covent Garden Theatre (1752). 117. Sir George L'Estrange, Citt and Bumpkin (1680). 118. Henry More, Enthusiasmus Triumphatus (1662). 119. Thomas Traherne, Meditations on the Six Days of the Creation (1717). 120. Bernard Mandeville, Aesop Dress'd or a Collection of Fables (1704)....

123. Edmond Malone, Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Mr. Thomas Rowley (1782). 124. Anonymous, The Female Wits (1704). 125. Anonymous, The Scribleriad (1742). Lord Hervey, The Difference Between Verbal and Practical Virtue (1742)....

129. Lawrence Echard, Prefaces to Terence's Comedies (1694) and Plautus's Comedies (1694). 130. Henry More, Democritus Platonissans (1646). 132. Walter Harte, An Essay on Satire, Particularly on the Dunciad (1730)....

133. John Courtenay, A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the Late Samuel Johnson (1786). 134. John Downes, Roscius Anglicanus (1708). 135. Sir John Hill, Hypochondriasis, a Practical Treatise (1766). 136. Thomas Sheridan, Discourse ... Being Introductory to His Course of Lectures on Elocution and the English Language (1759). 137. Arthur Murphy, The Englishman From Paris (1736). 138. [Catherine Trotter], Olinda's Adventures (1718). Publications of the first fifteen years of t