[12.] Roberts was almost certainly the collector of the graffiti printed in The Merry-Thought as well as the author of the dedication, but the dedication was itself signed with the name "Hurlo Thrumbo." Similarly, the title-page listed Hurlo Thrumbo as the publisher of the work. In 1729 Hurlothrumbo: or, The Super-Natural, a play by a half-mad dancer and fiddler, Samuel Johnson of Cheshire (1691-1773), had set all of London talking. The irrational, amusing speeches and actions of Hurlothrumbo, the play's title-character, gained instant fame, and two years later Roberts, by attributing his collection to the labors of that celebrity, had every reason to expect that the book would attract immediate attention. For a detailed account of the relationship between Johnson's play and The Merry-Thought, see George R. Guffey, "Graffiti, Hurlo Thrumbo, and the Other Samuel Johnson," in Forum: A Journal of the Humanities and Fine Arts (University of Houston), XVII (1979), 35-47.
[13.] See, for example, The Scarborough Miscellany (London, 1732), pp. 34, 35; The Connoisseur, April 11, 1754, p. 87; The New American Magazine, No. 12, December, 1758.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The Merry-Thought: or, The Glass-Window and Bog-House Miscellany is reproduced from a copy of the third edition in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. A typical type page (p. 20) measures 173 x 87 mm.
