LINTOT’S ACCOUNT-BOOK.

An odd sort of a literary curiosity has fallen in my way. It throws some light on the history of the heroes of the Dunciad; but such minutiæ literariæ are only for my bibliographical readers.

It is a book of accounts, which belonged to the renowned Bernard Lintot, the bookseller, whose character has been so humorously preserved by Pope, in a dialogue which the poet has given as having passed between them in Windsor Forest. The book is entitled “Copies, when Purchased.” The power of genius is exemplified in the ledger of the bookseller as much as in any other book; and while I here discover, that the moneys received even by such men of genius as Gay, Farquhar, Cibber, and Dr. King, amount to small sums, and such authors as Dennis, Theobald, Ozell, and Toland, scarcely amount to anything, that of Pope much exceeds 4000l.

I am not in all cases confident of the nature of these 329 “Copies purchased;” those works which were originally published by Lintot may be considered as purchased at the sums specified: some few might have been subsequent to their first edition. The guinea, at that time, passing for twenty-one shillings and sixpence, has occasioned the fractions.

I transcribe Pope’s account. Here it appears that he sold “The Key to the Lock” and “Parnell’s Poems.” The poem entitled, “To the Author of a Poem called Successio,” appears to have been written by Pope, and has escaped the researches of his editors. The smaller poems were contributed to a volume of Poetical Miscellanies, published by Lintot.[241]

MR. POPE.

330

£s.d.
19 Feb. 1711-12.
Statius, First Book}1626
Vertumnus and Pomona}
21 March, 1711-12.
First Edition Rape700
9 April, 1712.
To a Lady presenting Voiture}
Upon Silence}3166
To the Author of a Poem called Successio}
23 Feb. 1712-13.
Windsor Forest3250
23 July, 1713.
Ode on St. Cecilia’s day1500
20th Feb. 1713-14.
Additions to the Rape1500
1 Feb. 1714-15.
Temple of Fame3250
30 April, 1715.
Key to the Lock10150
17 July, 1716.
Essay on Criticism[242]1500
13 Dec. 1721.
Parnell’s Poems1500
23 March, 1713.
Homer, vol. i.21500
650 books on royal paper17600
9 Feb. 1715-16.
Homer, vol. ii.21500
7 May, 1716.
650 royal paper15000
This article is repeated to the sixth volume ofof Homer. To which is to be added another sumof 840l., paid for an assignment of allthe copies. The whole of this part of theaccount amounting to320340
Copy-moneys for the Odyssey, vols. i. ii. iii.,and 750 of each vol. royal paper, 4to.61560
Ditto for the vols. iv. v. and 750 do.425187½
£424487½

MR. GAY.

£s.d.
12 May, 1713.
Wife of Bath2500
11 Nov. 1714.
Letter to a Lady576
14 Feb. 1714.
The What d’ye call it?1626
22 Dec. 1715.
Trivia4300
Epistle to the Earl of Burlington10150
4 May, 1717.
Battle of the Frogs1626
8 Jan. 1717.
Three Hours after Marriage4326
The Mohocks, a Farce, 2l. 10s.
(Sold the Mohocks to him again.[243])
Revival of the Wife of Bath7500
£234100

331

MR. DENNIS.

£s.d.
Feb. 24, 1703-4.
Liberty Asserted, one half share[245]730
10 Nov. 1708.
Appius and Virginia21100
25 April, 1711.
Essay on Public Spirit2126
6 Jan. 1711.
Remarks on Pope’s Essay2126

Dennis must have sold himself to criticism from ill-nature, and not for pay. One is surprised that his two tragedies should have been worth a great deal more than his criticism. Criticism was then worth no more than too frequently it deserves; Dr. Sewel, for his “Observations on the Tragedy of Jane Shore,” received only a guinea.

I had suggested a doubt whether Theobald attempted to translate from the original Greek: one would suppose he did by the following entry, which has a line drawn through it, as if the agreement had not been executed. Perhaps Lintot submitted to pay Theobald for not doing the Odyssey when Pope undertook it.

MR. THEOBALD.

£s.d.
23 May, 1713.
Plato’s Phædon576
For Æsculus’s Trag.116
being part of Ten Guineas.
12 June, 1714.
La Motte’s Homer346

April 21, 1714. Articles signed by Mr. Theobald, to translate for B. Lintot the 24 books of Homer’s Odyssey into English blank verse. Also the four Tragedies of Sophocles, called Œdipus Tyrannus, Œdipus Coloneus, Trachiniæ, and Philoctetes, into English blank verse, with Explanatory 332 Notes to the twenty-four Books of the Odyssey, and to the four Tragedies. To receive, for translating every 450 Greek verses, with Explanatory Notes thereon, the sum of 2l. 10s.

To translate likewise the Satires and Epistles of Horace into English rhyme. For every 120 Latin lines so translated, the sum of 1l. 1s. 6d.

These Articles to be performed, according to the time specified, under the penalty of fifty pounds, payable by either party’s default in performance.

Paid in hand, 2l. 10s.

It appears that Toland never got above 5l., 10l., or 20l., for his publications. See his article in “Calamities of Authors,” p. [155]. I discovered the humiliating conditions that attended his publications, from an examination of his original papers. All this author seems to have reaped from a life devoted to literary enterprise, and philosophy, and patriotism, appears not to have exceeded 200l.

Here, too, we find that the facetious Dr. King threw away all his sterling wit for five miserable pounds, though “The Art of Cookery,” and that of “Love,” obtained a more honourable price. But a mere school-book probably inspired our lively genius with more real facetiousness than any of those works which communicate so much to others.

£s.d.
18 Feb. 1707-8.
Paid for Art of Cookery3250
16 Feb. 1708-9.
Paid for the First Part of Transactions500
Paid for his Art of Love3250
23 June, 1709.
Paid for the Second Part of the Transactions[246]500
4 March, 1709-10.
Paid for the History of Cajamai500
10 Nov. 1710.
Paid for King’s Gods5000
1 July, 1712.
Useful Miscellany, Part I116
Paid for the Useful Miscellany300

Lintot utters a groan over “The Duke of Buckingham’s Works” (Sheffield), for “having been jockeyed of them by Alderman Barber and Tonson.” Who can ensure literary celebrity? No bookseller would now regret being jockeyed out of his Grace’s works!

The history of plays appears here somewhat curious:—tragedies, then the fashionable dramas, obtained a considerable 333 price; for though Dennis’s luckier one reached only to 21l., Dr. Young’s Busiris acquired 84l. Smith’s Phædra and Hippolytus, 50l.; Rowe’s Jane Shore, 50l. 15s.; and Jane Gray, 75l. 5s. Cibber’s Nonjuror obtained 105l. for the copyright.

Is it not a little mortifying to observe, that among all these customers of genius whose names enrich the ledger of the bookseller, Jacob, that “blunderbuss of law,” while his law-books occupy in space as much as Mr. Pope’s works, the amount of his account stands next in value, far beyond many a name which has immortalised itself!