[Rarebooks] fa: JONATHAN SWIFT - CADENUS AND VANESSA: A POEM - 1726

[ArCh]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, March 17. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y42bxmll

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[Jonathan Swift:] Cadenus and Vanessa. A Poem. To which is added, A true and faithful inventory of the goods belonging to Dr. S—t, Vicar of Lara Cor; upon lending his House to the Bishop of —, till his own was built. By Dr. S—t. The fourth edition. London: Printed for N. Blandford, at the London-Gazette, Charing-Cross; and sold by J. Peele, at Locke's-Head in Pater-Noster-Row, 1726. Slim 8vo (19.5 cm) in modern, but not recent, morocco-backed boards; 31, [1] pp. ESTC T448; Teerink-Scouten 658; Foxon S822.

Light soiling to the title and last page, else exceedingly clean and bright, and firmly bound in modern morocco-backed boards with a hint of sunning to the edges. Written for Esther Vanhomrigh ("Vanessa") and published at her desire after her death, the poem is a "narrative, in mock classical form, of the author's relations with 'Vanessa' and an apology for his conduct" (Oxford Companion to English Literature). The name "Cadenus" is an anagram of the Latin word (decanus) for dean, the post Swift held at St. Patrick's, and "Vanessa" is a name coined from the first three letters of Esther Vanhomrigh's surname and the first two of her given name. Surprisingly (to us at least), this now-popular woman's name didn't exist until Swift invented it. This fourth edition was published the same year as the first; in all, Blandford published seven separate editions within the year.