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.
| £ | s. | d. | ||
| 19 Feb. 1711-12. | ||||
| Statius, First Book | } | 16 | 2 | 6 |
| Vertumnus and Pomona | } | |||
| 21 March, 1711-12. | ||||
| First Edition Rape | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| 9 April, 1712. | ||||
| To a Lady presenting Voiture | } | |||
| Upon Silence | } | 3 | 16 | 6 |
| To the Author of a Poem called Successio | } | |||
| 23 Feb. 1712-13. | ||||
| Windsor Forest | 32 | 5 | 0 | |
| 23 July, 1713. | ||||
| Ode on St. Cecilia’s day | 15 | 0 | 0 | |
| 20th Feb. 1713-14. | ||||
| Additions to the Rape | 15 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 Feb. 1714-15. | ||||
| Temple of Fame | 32 | 5 | 0 | |
| 30 April, 1715. | ||||
| Key to the Lock | 10 | 15 | 0 | |
| 17 July, 1716. | ||||
| Essay on Criticism[242] | 15 | 0 | 0 | |
| 13 Dec. 1721. | ||||
| Parnell’s Poems | 15 | 0 | 0 | |
| 23 March, 1713. | ||||
| Homer, vol. i. | 215 | 0 | 0 | |
| 650 books on royal paper | 176 | 0 | 0 | |
| 9 Feb. 1715-16. | ||||
| Homer, vol. ii. | 215 | 0 | 0 | |
| 7 May, 1716. | ||||
| 650 royal paper | 150 | 0 | 0 | |
| 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 to | 3203 | 4 | 0 | |
| Copy-moneys for the Odyssey, vols. i. ii. iii.,and 750 of each vol. royal paper, 4to. | 615 | 6 | 0 | |
| Ditto for the vols. iv. v. and 750 do. | 425 | 18 | 7½ | |
| £4244 | 8 | 7½ |