1 “A Letter concerning Enthusiasm to my Lord * * * * * [Somers].” 1708, Lord Shaftesbury. Guthkelch & Smith, p. 6. -Singh, 1996.
2 From Guthkelch & Smith: “Swift is referring to Dryden’s Discourse concerning Satire prefixed to his translation of Juvenal. See Essays of John Dryden, ed. W.P. Ker, vol. ii, pp.38 and 80: ‘I have patiently suffered therein of my small fortune, and the loss of that poor subsistence which I had from two kinds’; and ‘I have seldom answered my scurrilous lampoon . . . and, being naturally vindicative, have suffered in silence, and possessed my sould in quiet.” (Guthkelch & Smith, p. 7). -Singh, 1996.
3 Swift is referring to Wotton’s Defence of the Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1705), which has a 15 page polemic against Tale of a Tub. In the 1710 edition of the Tale, Swift directly cites in footnotes numerous from the Wotton text that directly `decipher’ the structure of Swift’s satire.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE,
JOHN
LORD SOMERS [1]
My Lord,
Tho’ the author has written a large Dedication, yet that being addressed to a prince, whom I am never likely to have the honor of being known to; a person besides, as far as I can observe, not at all regarded, or thought on by any of our present writers; and being wholly free from that slavery which booksellers usually lie under, to the caprices of authors; I think it a wise piece of presumption to inscribe these papers to your lordship, and to implore your lordship’s protection of them. God and your lordship know their faults and their merits; for, as to my own particular, I am altogether a stranger to the matter; and tho’ everybody else should be equally ignorant, I do not fear the sale of the book, at all the worse, upon that score. Your lordship’s name on the front in capital letters will at any time get off one edition neither would I desire any other help to grow an alderman, than a patent for the sole privilege of dedicating to your lordship.
I should now, in right of a dedicator, give your lordship a list of your own virtues, and, at the same time, be very unwilling to offend your modesty; but chiefly I should celebrate your liberality towards men of great parts and small fortunes, and give you broad hunts that I mean myself. And I was just going on, in the usual method, to peruse a hundred or two of dedications, and transcribe an abstract, to be applied to your lordship; but I was diverted by a certain accident. For, upon the covers of these papers, I casually observed written in large letters the two following words, DETUR DIGNISSIMO; which, for aught I knew, might contain some important meaning. But it unluckily fell out, that none of the authors I employ understood Latin (though I have them often in pay to translate out of that language); I was therefore compelled to have recourse to the curate of our parish, who Englished it thus, Let it be given to the worthiest: and his comment was, that the author meant his work should be dedicated to the sublimest genius of the age for wit learning, judgment, eloquence, and wisdom. I called at a poet’s chamber (who works for my shop) in an alley hard by, showed him the translation, and desired his opinion, who it was that the author could mean; he told me, after some consideration, t at vanity was a thing he abhorred; but by the description, he thought himself to be the person aimed at; and, at the same time, he very kindly offered his own assistance gratis towards penning a dedication to himself. I desired him, however, to give a second guess. Why, then, said he, it must be I, or my Lord Somers. From thence I went to several other wits of my acquaintance, with no small hazard and weariness to my person, from a prodigious number of dark, winding stairs; but found them all in the same story, both of your lordship and themselves. Now, your lordship is to understand, that this proceeding was not of my own invention; for I have somewhere heard, it is a maxim, that those to whom everybody allows the second place, have an undoubted tide to the first.
This infallibly convinced me, that your lordship was the person intended by the author. But, being very unacquainted in the style and form of dedications, I employed those wits aforesaid to furnish me with hints and materials, towards a panegyric upon your lordship’s virtues.
In two days they brought me ten sheets of paper, filled up on every side. They swore to me, that they had ransacked whatever could be found in the characters of Socrates, Aristides, Epaminondas, Cato, Tully, Atticus, and other hard names, which I cannot now recollect. However, I have reason to believe, they imposed upon my ignorance, because, when I came to read over their collections, there was not a syllable there, but what I and everybody else knew as well as themselves: therefore I grievously suspect a cheat; and that these authors of mine stole and transcribed every word, from the universal report of mankind. So that I look upon myself as fifty shillings out of pocket, to no manner of purpose.
If, by altering the title, I could make the same materials serve for another Dedication (as my betters have done) it would help to make up my loss; but I have made several persons dip here and there in those papers, and before they read three lines, they have all assured me plainly, that they cannot possibly be applied to an persons besides your lordship.
I expected, indeed, to have heard of your lordship’s bravery at the head of an army; of your undaunted courage in mounting a breach or scaling a wall; or to have had your pedigree traced in a linear descent from the house of Austria; or of your wonderful talent at dress and dancing; or your profound knowledge in algebra, metaphysics, and the oriental tongues. But to ply the world with an old beaten story of your wit, and eloquence, and learning, and wisdom, and justice, and politeness, and candor, and evenness of temper in all scenes of life; of that great discernment in discovering, and readiness in favouring deserving men; with forty other common topics; I confess, I have neither conscience nor countenance to do it. Because there is no virtue, either of a public or private life, which some circumstances of your own have not often produced upon the stage of the world; and those few, which for want of occasions to exert them, might otherwise have passed unseen or unobserved by your friends, your enemies have at length brought to light.
‘Tis true, I should be very loth, the bright example of your lordship’s virtues should be lost to after-ages, both for their sake and your own; but chiefly because they will be so very necessary to adorn the history of a late reign; and that is another reason why I would forbear to make a recital of them here; because I have been told by wise men, that as dedications have run for some years past, a good historian will not be apt to have recourse thither in search of characters.
There is one point, wherein I think we dedicators would do well to change our measures; I mean, instead of running on so far upon the praise of our patrons’ liberality, to spend a word or two in admiring their patience. I can put no greater compliment on your lordship’s, than by giving you so ample an occasion to exercise it at present. Tho’ perhaps I shall not be apt to reckon much merit to your lordship upon that score, who having been formerly used to tedious harangues, and sometimes to as little purpose, will be the readier to pardon this, especially, when it is offered by one, who is with all respect and veneration,
My Lord,
Your lordship’s most obedient,
and most faithful servant,
THE BOOKSELLER.
1 From Guthkelch and Smith: “Somers [chancellor of England in 1697] was well known for his generosity to men of letters. The following works (among many others) were dedicated to him: Addison’s Remarks on Italy (1705), Shaftesbury’s Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (1708), and the first volume of the collected edition of The Spectator (1712).” (Guthkelch & Smith, p.22). – Singh, 1996.
THE
BOOKSELLER
TO THE
READER
It is now six years since these papers came first to my hand, which seems to have been about a twelvemonth after they were writ; for the author tells us in his preface to the first treatise, that he hath calculated it for the year 1697, and in several passages of that Discourse, as well as the second, it appears they were written about that time.
As to the author, I can give no manner of satisfaction; however, I am credibly informed that this publication is without his knowledge; for he concludes the copy is lost, having lent it to a person, since dead, and being never in possession of it after: so that, whether the work received his last hand, or whether he intended to fill up the defective places, is like to remain a secret.