The Sot-weed Factor: or, A Voyage to Maryland. A Satyr. / In which is Describ'd The Laws, Government, Courts and Constitutions of the Country, and also the Buildings, Feasts, Frolicks, Entertainments and Drunken Humours of the Inhabitants of that Part of America. In Burlesque Verse.

Transcriber's Notes:


The Laws, Government, Courts and Constitutions of the Country, and also the Buildings, Feasts, Frolicks, Entertainments and Drunken Humours of the Inhabitants of that Part of America .
In Burlesque Verse.
By Eben. Cook , Gent.
LONDON:
Printed and Sold by D. Bragg , at the Raven in Pater-Noster-Row . 1708. (Price 6d.)

e have no means of knowing the history of Master Ebenezer Cook, Gentleman, who, one hundred and forty-six years ago, produced the Sot-Weed Factor's Voyage to Maryland. He wrote, printed, published, and sold it in London for sixpence sterling, and then disappeared forever. We do not know certainly that Mr. Cook himself was the actual adventurer who suffered the ills described by him in burlesque verse. Indeed, Eben: Cook, Gent. may be a myth—a nom de plume . Yet, there is a certain personal poignancy and earnestness about the whole Story that almost forbid the idea of a secondhand narrative. Nay, I think it extremely probable that it was Eben: Cook, Gent. or, some other equally afflicted gentleman assuming that name, who—
Condemn'd by Fate to wayward Curse, Of Friends unkind and empty purse, —
A pious, Concientious Rogue