THE STATE OF ROME, UNDER NERO AND DOMITIAN: a satire. Containing, a list of nobles, senators, high priests, great ministers of state, &c. &c. &c. By Messrs. Juvenal and Persius …

[STATE.]

Published by London: printed for C. Corbett bookseller and publisher at Addison's-Head in Fleet-street, 1739

About this Item

Folio, pp. 17; some dust-soiling at the beginning and end, a few short marginal tears, without loss, otherwise a good copy, disbound. First edition. A venomous satire on the Convention of Pardo, a treaty with Spain negotiated by Walpole to avoid armed conflict at sea; by the end of the year the agreement had broken down. Various members of Walpole government are abused in this poem, including the young Lord Hervey, whom Pope had pilloried as 'Sporus' in his Epistle to Arbuthnot four years earlier. The author of this poem retains Pope's classical allusion, with its sexual ambiguity: Here Sporus live and once more feel my Rage, Once and again I drag thee on the Stage; Male-female Thing, without one Virtue made, Fit only for the Pathicks loathsome Trade: Feeble and weak in all that's good and right, And only strong in Impudence and Spite. (p. 9) A copy of this poem at the British Library bears a manuscript attribution to Paul Whitehead, but this ascription has not been confirmed by other sources. Foxon S725; Rothschild 2551.

Seller Inventory # 23800

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE STATE OF ROME, UNDER NERO AND DOMITIAN: a satire. Containing, a list of nobles, senators, high priests, great ministers of state, &c. &c. &c. By Messrs. Juvenal and Persius …
• Publisher: London: printed for C. Corbett bookseller and publisher at Addison's-Head in Fleet-street
• Publication Date: 1739
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry