Observator, in Dialogue, The

L ESTRANGE, Roger

Published by London: Printed by J. Bennet, for WIlliam Abington, 1684

About this Item

First Collected Edition of The Observator "A Feat of Literary Endurance" Roger L'Estrange's Newspaper, The Observator, Corroded the Foundations of Whiggery… L ESTRANGE, Roger. The Observator, in Dialogue. The First Volume…[Nos. 1 (Wednesday April 13, 1681)-470 (Wednesday, January 9, 1683)]. London: Printed by J. Bennet, for William Abington, 1684. Volume I (of 3) of the first collected edition of The Observator, Nos. 1-470. Folio (13 1/8 x 8 1/8 inches; 333 x 207 mm.). [2], [4, "To the Reader"], [8, "The Table"], [3, contents], [1, blank] pp. followed by The Observator Nos. 1-470 (unpaginated). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Roger L Estrange, dated 1684, by R. White after G. Kneller. Handsomely rebound in 'antique Cambridge-style' paneled calf. Covers decoratively ruled and tooled in blind, spine richly tooled in gilt in compartments with six raised bands and red morocco gilt lettering label, board edges and turn-ins decoratively tooled in blind, marbled endpapers. An excellent copy. "The Reader will find in the First Number of This Collection, the True Intent, and Design of the Undertaking; And he will likewise find, in the very Date of it, (April 13. 1681.) the Absolute Neccessity of some Such Application, to Encounter the Notorious Falsehoods; the Malicious Scandals, and the Poysonous Doctrines of That Season" ("To the Reader"). The Observator was a newspaper written in the form of a dialogue by Roger L'Estrange, and published from April 13, 1681 to March 9, 1687. There were 470 issues in the first volume (as offered here), 215 issues in the second volume and 246 issues in the third and last volume. "Rumbustious and vitriolic, satiric and savage, week after week for six years and through two million words, Roger L'Estrange's newspaper, The Observator, corroded the foundations of Whiggery… "The Observator was the work of a compulsive writer, a feat of literary endurance…L'Estrange was, said his enemies, the 'scribbler-general of Tory-land'…Its prose hectic, its thoughts haphazard, the Observator lay, its author admitted, somewhere 'betwixt fooling and philosophizing.' It transposed to print the Restoration's fondest verbal facility, raillery, delivering a cascade of libel and abuse, tempered by seriocomic moralizing, and philosophy and political theory reduced to epithets and exclamations. "Its deliberate coarseness puts it at an arresting remove from the high eloquence of Dryden. Polite it was not. The Observator was Toryism at its most unbuttoned and vulgar. It was routinely scatological, or, more precisely, urological. The Whig newsmonger Langley Curtis is 'the common piss pot [for] the fanatical clubs about town." Henry Care, 'holds up his leg and pisses upon the government… "The relentless repetitiveness of the Observator is half-redeemed by its inventiveness. The Whigs are not just a faction: they are a 'cabal,' 'consult,' consistory,' 'confederacy,' conspiracy,…' This was politics by thesaurus" (Mark Goldie. Roger L'Estrange's Observator and the Exorcism of the Plot. In Roger L'Estrange and the Making of Restoration Culture, edited by Anne Duncan-Page and Beth Lynch, pp. 67-68). Roger L'Estrange (1616-1704) fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War. In 1644 he led a conspiracy to deliver the town of Lynn to the king and was sentenced to death as a spy. He escaped and took refuge in Holland. In 1653, he returned to England. By 1659, however, he was making his presence as a Royalist known. He printed several pamphlets supporting a return of Charles II. As a reward for his propaganda, L'Estrange was appointed Surveyor of the Imprimery (Printing Press) in 1663. Thereafter, also appointed Licenser of the Press, he retained both positions until the lapse of the Licensing of the Press Act in 1679. As Licenser and Surveyor, L Estrange was charged with the prevention of the publication of dissenting writings, and authorized to search the premises of printers and booksellers on the merest suspicion of dissension. Seller Inventory # 00811

Bibliographic Details

Title: Observator, in Dialogue, The

Publisher: London: Printed by J. Bennet, for WIlliam Abington, 1684

Edition: 1st Edition