THE LIFE AND GENUINE CHARACTER OF DOCTOR SWIFT. Written by himself.

[SWIFT, Jonathan.]

Published by London: printed for J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane and sold at the pamphlet shops &c, 1733

About this Item

Folio, pp. 19; a fine large copy, uncut, in later wrappers, and preserved in a brown cloth slipcase. First edition. The authorship of this fine poem has long been debated. It was explicitly repudiated by Swift himself, and for a long time was regarded as a spurious piece reconstructed from memory by someone like Matthew Pilkington who had heard a reading of Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift. At the very least the two poems do have much in common. For a full discussion, see Harold Williams, pp. 541-3; the most telling point, perhaps, is that Faulkner printed the poem as Swift's in 1746. Foxon points out that if Faulkner was wrong for some reason, then a good case could be made for Pope's authorship. As it stands, there is a long dedication to Pope, signed with the initials 'L.M.' Who this might have been is a matter of conjecture, with 'Little Matthew' having been suggested as one possibility, and 'Letitia + Matthew' (i.e. the Pilkingtons) as another; either guess sounds more like Swift than Pope. Foxon S884; Teerink 727; Rothschild 2143.

Seller Inventory # 23804

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE LIFE AND GENUINE CHARACTER OF DOCTOR SWIFT. Written by himself.
• Publisher: London: printed for J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane and sold at the pamphlet shops &c
• Publication Date: 1733
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry