[Rarebooks] fa: GEORGE PARKER - HUMOROUS SKETCHES & SATYRICAL STROKES 1782 (Scarce; Dr. Johnson among the subscribers)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, May 31. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mr3mju3

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


George Parker: Humorous Sketches; Satyrical Strokes, and Attic Observations. London: Printed for the Author, and sold by S. Hooper, no. 188, Strand, [1782?]. FIRST EDITION; 8vo (18 cm) in recent brown buckram with gilt-lettered spine label; xvi, 192 pp,; subscribers list, engraved frontispiece. ESTC N479484.

A collection of poems, dialogues, epigrams, epitaphs, "theatrical sketches," etc., by the notoriously eccentric and peripatetic George Parker (1732-1800), sailor, soldier, failed publican, failed actor, failed husband, occasional lecturer and author. He had previously published the pseudo-autobiographical View of Society and Manners in High and Low Life (1781) and had caught the attention of Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other worthies. "His wit, humour, and knowledge of the world rendered him at one time an indispensable appendage to convivial gatherings of a kind; but in his later days he was so entirely neglected as to be obliged to sell gingerbread-nuts at fairs and race-meetings for a subsistence. He died in Coventry poorhouse in April 1800. In the obituary notices he is described as having been the ‘projector of the plan of police in Dublin’" (DNB).

The 10-page subscription list, a fascinating read in itself and as eclectic as one would expect of such a colorful author, includes: Johnson, doctor Samuel; Reynolds, sir Joshua, R.A.; Copley, esq., R.A., Leicester Square (presumably the painter and R.[oyal] A.[cademician] John Singleton Copley, who had a home there); Mr. Grimaldi, theatre, D.[rury] L.[ane] (presumably Joseph Grimaldi senior, comic actor and father of the famous clown); Mr. Holcroft, theatre, T.D. (Thomas  Holcroft, the playwright and future political radical); Mr. Perry, comedian, Portsmouth; Sir Ashton Lever, Museum; Mr. Bodfield, Exchequer Office; Mr. Taylor, master of Lloyds coffee-house; Mr. Tod, shrub merchant; Captain Ecles, Warwick; Mrs. Montresor, Tenhyham, Kent, 2 books; and Mr. N. Bond, Police, Bow-street. The contents include: Caravaggio, or The Disappointment of Avarice, A Tale; Polygamy, or Mahomet the Prophet, to Madan the Evangelist, An Heroic Poem; Description of an Island in Terra Incognita; A Dissertation on Masonry; A Vision or Neptune and Britannia, a Maritime Interview, a Poem in the Hudibrastic Style , ascribed to Admiral Mark Milbanke; etc., and mock epitaphs of many actors and actresses, most of whom appear in the list of subscribers (e.g. Charles Macklin, Charles Lee Lewis, Mr. Harwood, prompter of the Theatre-Royal Drury-lane, etc.).

Very scarce: ESTC locates only one copy, at Harvard. Heavy damp-stain to the bottom of frontispiece, title-page and first eight leaves (subscribers list and preface); lesser damp-staining to the bottom margins of some leaves toward the rear; frontis with small loss to the bottom corner; mild toning to the contents with occasional spots and small stains. There are two variants of the book mentioned in ESTC. This, the first mentioned and presumably the first issued, does not include the 4-page "list of additional subscribers."