ANTICIPATION BY RICHARD TICKELL Reprinted from the First Edition, London, 1778 With an Introduction, Notes & a Bibliography of Tickell’s Writings BY L. H. BUTTERFIELD NEW YORK King’s Crown Press, Morningside Heights 1942 Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography copyright 1942 by L. H. BUTTERFIELD PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA KZ-19-VB-500 King’s Crown Press is a division of Columbia University Press organized for the purpose of making certain scholarly material available at minimu

Some years ago a literary investigator came into my office and inquired whether he could find a copy of Richard Tickell’s Anticipation in our library. He was thinking of sending to the British Museum for a photostatic copy, in case we could not supply his need. We were able to reply that we had sixteen editions of this book—ten of them printed in the year 1778 alone. Now publishers do not re-issue a book unless someone is reading it. The number of reprints induced me to read the book, and I foun

This is the first reprint since 1822 of a politico-literary satire that delighted a generation of readers during and after the American War of Independence. It has seemed to the editor, and to others who encouraged the project, that the neglect of Anticipation has been due less to its want of interest than to the want of a properly edited reprint. The mere presence in it of so many names with deleted letters has discouraged later readers. [1] The present volume provides an account of the author

Early in 1778 a new satirical poet caused a flutter in the polite circles of London. Within a few weeks of one another two poems, The Project and The Wreath of Fashion , were issued by Becket, the bookseller of the Adelphi in the Strand. Though anonymous, their author was soon known to be a young barrister named Richard Tickell. The Project treats of a scheme overlooked by the Academy of Projectors which Captain Gulliver visited in the course of his third voyage. In deft octosyllabics the satiri

Who was the new poet? The turn of his couplets and the delicate barbs of his satire suggested a poetic school then growing outmoded. There were those who, when they learned his name, remembered his grandfather, Thomas Tickell, a poet of Queen Anne’s day and the particular friend of Mr. Addison. Thomas Tickell (1685-1740) served as Addison’s Under-Secretary of State and retained his post under Craggs and Carteret. In 1724, when Carteret became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, Tickell was sent to Dubli

No one in any party was disposed to deny the seriousness of the moment. The preceding twelve months, as some were then aware, had proved the turning-point in the war with America. The threat of French aggression following Burgoyne’s defeat had transformed Britain’s war of subjugation into one of defence. After a comfortable winter in Philadelphia, without having struck a blow at the inferior American forces at Valley Forge, Sir William Howe was ordered to evacuate that city lest it be cut off by

Affairs stood in this critical posture when Parliament was summoned in the last week of November. Fearing defection in the Tory ranks, North called a private meeting of his friends beforehand to consult on strategy. He was himself there taxed with negligence, and extraordinary steps were taken to secure attendance in the government seats. Now a favorite parliamentary weapon of North’s had always been humor—or, as his opponents styled it, “buffoonery.” His motto, said Walpole, ought to have been

Anticipation had a great run. Such was the popular demand that a “Fourth Edition” was advertised by Becket within a week of first publication. Five more London editions and a Dublin reprint appeared before the end of the year. As soon as copies reached America, Anticipation was reprinted at both the British headquarters in New York and the American headquarters in Philadelphia. In announcing his New York reprint, James Rivington stated, with what degree of exaggeration the reader is free to gues

As a successful parody of parliamentary proceedings and eloquence at the time of the American Revolution, Anticipation retains historical interest. One reviewer went so far as to say that a comparison of the actual debate with Tickell’s anticipated version would show that between the two “the difference as to the material grounds of disputation is trifling.” [43] This is scarcely an exaggeration, though, as it turned out, the House was less full and the debate less animated than had been expecte

1 A certain A. Buzaglo, who had a shop in the Strand, opposite Somerset House, frequently advertised in the newspapers in 1778. His warming-pans, for curing the gout, were highly recommended to the nobility. 2 Letter to Mason, 18 April 1778 ( The Letters of Horace Walpole , ed. Mrs. Paget Toynbee, Oxford, 1903-05, X, 222). 3 Boswell’s Life of Johnson , ed. G. B. Hill and L. F. Powell, Oxford, 1934—, III, 318. 4 XLV, 1778, 310. 5 See Ruth A. Hesselgrave, Lady Miller and the Batheaston Literary Ci

Several reasons concurred to urge the Editor to this publication. The critical situation of public affairs seemed to require an extraordinary diffusion of political knowledge; yet, in the common course, but few of the millions, who are so deeply interested in the result of parliamentary debates, can be admitted to an audience of them. Sometimes, the Members shut their galleries against the intrusion of any of their Constituents; and it is always a standing order, from the opening of the session,

The Gentlemen trading to the East-Indies, &c. The publisher’s advertisement burlesques a practice of the bookseller John Almon (1737-1805), friend and biographer of John Wilkes, and between the years 1761-81 publisher-in-ordinary to the Whig Opposition. Almon had extensive connections in the American colonies and was the compiler of The Remembrancer , 1775-84, a valuable collection of materials relating to the Revolution. In his satire on the French ministry, The Green Box of Monsieur de

The entries in this bibliography, with a few necessary exceptions, are arranged as follows: a. a transcript of the text of the title-page of the first edition; b. a collation of the first edition by pages; c. locations of copies of the first edition that I have used and have had reproduced or consulted for me; d. a list of later editions, variant issues, and reprints. Under c a complete census has not been attempted, and not every copy located may be assumed to be perfect. Under d sufficient inf