Part 8

_Is Omiah to pay us another visit?_ Omiah or Omai, a native of Otaheite (Tahiti), was brought to England in 1774 by Captain Tobias Furneaux of the _Adventure_. As the first South Sea Islander ever seen in England, Omiah made a stir in fashionable and literary society, sat for his portrait to the most eminent artists, and was the subject of countless newspaper paragraphs and several pamphlet poems. There are well-known lines by Cowper on Omiah in the first book of _The Task_, 1785:

The dream is past; and thou hast found again Thy cocoas and bananas, palms and yams, And homestall thatch’d with leaves. But hast thou found Their former charms? And, having seen our state, Our palaces, our ladies, and our pomp Of equipage, our gardens, and our sports, And heard our music; are thy simple friends, Thy simple fare, and all thy plain delights, As dear to thee as once?

_Sir Harry Clinton._ Sir Henry Clinton (1738?-1795), K.B.; Major-General; succeeded Sir William Howe as Commander-in-Chief in America, May 1778.

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_Mr. Vyner._ Robert Vyner (1717-1799), M.P. for Lincoln. He was, said Nathaniel Wraxall, a gentleman of large property in Lincolnshire, whose person suggested “the portraits of ‘Hudibras’” (_Historical and Posthumous Memoirs ... 1772-1784_, ed. H. B. Wheatley, 1884, V, 203).

_his offer of fifteen shillings in the pound._ In a debate on the budget, 3 May 1775, Vyner defended the motives of the country gentlemen in supporting the ministers’ coercive American policy. He said, in part:

In support of such a cause ... he was willing to pay not only 4s. but 14s. in the pound: and as he entertained not a single doubt but we should prevail in the contest, we ought to oblige America to pay the expence she had wantonly put us to, and which would likewise enable us to bring back our quondam peace establishment, that of a land-tax of 2s. in the pound (_Parliamentary History_, XVIII, 625).

_a great statesman had once boasted, &c._ William Pitt the elder, during the Seven Years’ War.

_Mr. Van._ Charles Van, prior to his death, in April 1778, M.P. for Brecon.

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_Hon. T. Luttrel._ Temple Simon Luttrell (d. 1803), third son of the first Earl of Carhampton; M.P. for Milborne Port. A florid orator, Luttrell was always pertinacious in debates on naval affairs. Tickell’s parody perhaps reflects an interminable speech on the state of the navy, 11 March 1778, in which Luttrell described the timber used for ship-repairs as so “singularly spungy and porous” that “your seamen ... are frequently set afloat in their hammocks, from the water soaking in, over-head, through the planks,” related an instance of a seaman’s driving his fist, “without much pain to his knuckles,” through the hull of a man-of-war, and entered into a detail of the twenty-four invasions of Great Britain and Ireland since the Norman Conquest (_Parliamentary History_, XIX, 874-892).

_the noble Earl who is now at the head of that department._ John Montagu (1718-1792), fourth Earl of Sandwich; First Lord of the Admiralty. Sandwich was notorious for the dissoluteness of his private life.

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_Regattaites._ Not a tribe or nation, but participants in the summer regattas on the Thames. In _The Annual Register_ for 1775 appears “Some Account of the new Entertainment, called a _Regatta_, introduced from _Venice_ into _England_, in the Course of the Year 1775,” from which the following sentences are extracted:

Before five o’clock, Westminster bridge was covered with spectators, in carriages and on foot, and men even placed themselves in the bodies of the lamp-irons. Plans of the regatta were sold from a shilling to a penny each, and songs on the occasion sung, in which _Regatta_ was the rhyme for _Ranelagh_, and _Royal Family_ echoed to _Liberty_.... Before six o’clock it was a perfect fair on both sides the water, and bad liquor, with short measure, was plentifully retailed.... The Thames was now a floating town. All the cutters, sailing-boats, &c. in short, every thing, from the dung-barge to the wherry, was in motion (“Appendix to the Chronicle,” pp. 216, 217).

_the Captain of the Licorne._ The _Licorne_ frigate, encountered and detained by Admiral Keppel on the 17th of June, yielded Keppel information respecting the strength of the French fleet.

_the wretched deficiency in our late naval equipments._ War-profiteering is not of recent origin; in the Eighteenth Century the loose organization of finance and supply in both services gave large opportunities to contractors and commissaries. “You must not think of persuading us that you are no gainer,” Lord Loudoun remarked to Benjamin Franklin when the latter sought reimbursement for outlays in connection with Braddock’s expedition in 1755; “we understand better those affairs, and know that every one concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the doing it, to fill his own pockets” (Franklin, _Writings_, ed. A. H. Smyth, New York, 1905-07, I, 430). Satirists frequently exposed this form of parasitism. Samuel Foote produced a comedy called _The Commissary_ in 1765. In Sheridan’s _The Camp_, 1778, the commissary Gage supplied a regiment with lime (which he dug himself, at no expense) instead of hair-powder. It did very well, he reported, while the weather was fine, but when a shower came up the troops’ heads were all slacked in an instant. “I stood a near chance of being tied up to the halberts; but I excused myself by saying, they looked only like raw recruits before; but now they appeared like old veterans of service” (I, i).

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_Mr. Penton._ Henry Penton (1736-1812), M.P. for Winchester and a Lord of the Admiralty.

_a certain Great Personage._ On their tour of the militia camps at Winchester and Salisbury in September, the King and Queen “alighted at Mr. Penton’s house [in Winchester], where they were waited on by the Mayor and Corporation” (_The Annual Register_ for 1778, “Appendix to the Chronicle,” p. 235).

_Mr. Burke._ Edmund Burke (1729-1797), M.P. for Bristol. The dominant theme of Burke’s speech, “the ruin of this declining empire” was a favorite one among anti-ministerial orators, pamphleteers, and poets during the Revolution. Soon after the appearance, in 1781, of the second and third volumes of Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall_, Thomas Powys, M.P. for Northamptonshire, read extracts from that work in a debate on a motion for putting an end to the American war. Powys ventured to say that the description of Rome in the Fifth Century by Mr. Gibbon,

whose enrolment in the administration was the only accession of which his Majesty’s ministers had to boast, ... was so strong, so expressive, so applicable, that though it was said to belong to Rome, he could not help thinking that it alluded to a nearer country, and a nearer period (_Parliamentary History_, XXII, 805).

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_the pageantry of domestic warfare._ An allusion to the vogue of the militia encampments as places of fashionable resort.

_important depredations at—Martha’s Island._ Early in September Major-General Grey, under orders from Sir Henry Clinton, invested Martha’s Vineyard and carried off “a considerable and most desirable contribution, consisting of 10,000 sheep, and 300 oxen, for the public service at New York” (_The Annual Register_ for 1779, “History of Europe,” p. 2).

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_Mr Dunning._ John Dunning (1731-1783), M.P. for Calne; the leading Whig lawyer in the House of Commons; cr. Baron Ashburton of Ashburton, 1782.

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_Mr. Sollicitor-General._ James Wallace (d. 1783), M.P. for Horsham; succeeded Wedderburn as Solicitor-General, June 1778.

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_Mr Fox._ Charles James Fox (1749-1806), third son of the first Baron Holland; M.P. for Malmesbury and leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. Either out of personal regard for Fox or at the request of Lord North, Tickell does not burlesque Fox’s oratory. It is stated in the review of _Anticipation_ in _The Town and Country Magazine_ that Fox’s speech actually “was noticed by that gentleman in the house, who, at the same time, lamented his incapacity of making so good an harangue upon the occasion” (XI, 1779, 45). According to a note in Horace Walpole’s copy of _Anticipation_, “Charles Fox said, ‘he has anticipated many things I have intended to say, but I shall say them nevertheless.’”

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_General Lee._ Charles Lee (1731-1782), Lieutenant-Colonel in the British army; appointed Major-General by Congress, 1775; court-martialed and suspended from service for disobedience to orders and misbehavior before the enemy during the battle of Monmouth Court House, June 1778.

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_the Prince of Brunswick._ Either Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick (1721-1792), Commander of the English and Hanoverian forces in the Seven Years’ War; or his nephew, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand (1735-1806), Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, who commanded a division in his uncle’s army. Clinton served in Germany, 1760-63, acting for a time as aide-de-camp to the Hereditary Prince.

_the noble Lord who planned that expedition._ Lord George Germain; see above, note to p. 31.

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_Monsieur Vaugelin._ Not further identified. The name is unusual and may be misspelled.

_Colonel Tufnell._ George Foster Tufnell. (1725-1798), M.P. for Beverly and Colonel of the East Middlesex Militia.

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_their Bavarian contest._ The War of the Bavarian Succession, 1778-79, occasioned by the extinction of the electoral house of Bavaria upon the death of Maximilian Joseph.

_Lord North._ Frederick, Lord North (1732-1792), eldest son of the first Earl of Guilford; M.P. for Banbury; First Lord of the Treasury, 1770-82; succeeded as second Earl of Guilford, 1790; see Introduction, _passim_.

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_a great Character._ William Pitt, Lord Chatham.

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_Col. Barré._ Isaac Barré (1726-1802), M.P. for Calne. Barré, who had served with Wolfe in America, was a devoted friend of the colonists and in Parliament was regarded as a master of invective and the special antagonist of Lord North. North had his revenge in _Anticipation_; see Introduction, p. 12.

_the Indians, headed by Col. Butler, began their rapine in Cherry Valley._ John Butler (1725-1796), Indian agent under the Johnsons in the Mohawk Valley; Lieutenant-Colonel of Militia, 1768; Major in command of Butler’s Rangers, 1777. Under his leadership parties of Loyalists and their Indian allies of the Six Nations systematically harried the back settlements in New York and Pennsylvania during the Revolution. Their raids reached a peak of frequency and destructiveness in the early summer of 1778, the notorious “Wyoming Massacre” occurring 3-4 July. None of the settlements mentioned by Barré had been attacked at the time his informant is supposed to have written; but rumors were rife on the frontier as well as at the Poughkeepsie headquarters of the Continental Army; and the worst fears of the settlers were realized when Butler’s son, Captain Walter Butler, together with the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, sacked the village of Cherry Valley on the 11th of November. See Howard Swiggett, _War out of Niagara: Walter Butler and the Tory Rangers_, New York, 1933, chs. vi-vii.

_Gen. Carlton._ Guy Carleton (1724-1808), Lieutenant-General; Governor of Quebec, 1775-78; requested his recall because of differences with Lord George Germain, May 1777; cr. Baron Dorchester of Dorchester (Oxford), 1786.

_Miss Macrea._ Jane MacCrea, daughter of a Tory clergyman residing near Fort Edward on the upper Hudson, was scalped by a marauding party of Burgoyne’s Indian allies, 27 July 1777. This incident, about which a mass of romantic legend soon grew up, proved highly embarrassing to Burgoyne and the Administration.

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_no Secretary of War in this house._ “Ld Barrington [William Wildman Barrington (1717-1793), second Viscount] was out of Parliament, and no successor was then appointed” (note by Horace Walpole in his copy of _Anticipation_). Barrington, Secretary at War since 1765, had given notice of his retirement in the previous May; in December Charles Jenkinson was named his successor.

_Mons. Neckar._ Jacques Necker (1732-1804), Director-General of Finances in the French government, 1777-81; famous for his fiscal and administrative reforms.

_Monsieur Bouillé._ The island of Dominica, ceded by France to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, was retaken, 7 September 1778, by the French under the command of the Marquis de Bouillé (1739-1800), Governor of Martinique.

_the Pacte de Famille._ The defensive alliance formed in 1761 among the Bourbon states of France, Spain, and the Two Sicilies.

_Count Almodovar._ Pedro Jiménez de Góngora, Marquès (later Duque) de Almodóvar (d. 1794), Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, 1778-79.

_Don Francisco Buccarelli._ Spanish Governor of Buenos Aires who ordered the expedition against the Falkland Islands that led to the surrender of the English garrison at Port Egmont, June 1770, and aroused great indignation in England; see above, note to p. 36, on Falkland’s Islands. Probably a member of the family of Bucareli y Ursúa, of Seville, several of whom held high military and colonial posts at that period.

_Count Cobentzel._ This may refer either to Johann Philipp, Graf von Cobenzl (1741-1810), Austrian statesman who drafted the Peace of Teschen, 1779; or to his cousin, Johann Ludwig Joseph, Graf von Cobenzl (1753-1809), Austrian Ambassador to the Court of Catherine II, 1779-97.

_Baron Reidesdel._ Joseph Herman, Baron Riedesel (1740-1785), Prussian diplomat, traveler, and archeologist.

_Duke de Chartres._ Louis-Philippe-Joseph de Bourbon (1747-1793), Duc de Chartres, son of the Duc d’Orléans, whom he succeeded, 1785; later known as Philippe Égalité.

_Monsieur de Sartine._ Antoine-Raimond-Jean-Gualbert-Gabriel de Sartine (1729-1801), Comte d’Alby, French statesman; Lieutenant-General of Police, 1759-74; Minister of Marine, 1774-80. He was satirized in Tickell’s _Green Box of Monsieur de Sartine_, 1779; see Bibliography, pp. 88-90.

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_Il alte se volto, &c._ This defies translation. Tickell perhaps deliberately garbled Barré’s Italian.

_Alderman Oliver’s letter._ Richard Oliver (1734?-1784), Alderman of Billingsgate Ward and M.P. for the City of London; remembered for his defiance of the House of Commons in the case of the printer Millar, for which he was committed to the Tower, 1771. On 6 September 1778 Oliver wrote a letter, soon published in the papers, declining nomination as Lord Mayor and quitting his seat in Parliament in view of a prospective visit to his property in Antigua, W.I., which he feared stood in danger of seizure by France; _The Annual Register_ for 1778, “Chronicle,” pp. 200-201.

_Mr. H. Stanley._ Hans Stanley (1720?-1780), M.P. for Southampton, Governor of the Isle of Wight, and Cofferer of the Household. He had lived for some years in France and was regarded as an authority on the affairs of that nation.

_Mr. Byng._ George Byng (1735-1789), nephew of the third Viscount Torrington; M.P. for Wigan. An ardent supporter of Fox, he here acts in the role of party whip.

_Mr. Robinson._ John Robinson (1727-1802), M.P. for Harwich and a Secretary of the Treasury. A favorite of George III’s, Robinson managed the Treasury boroughs and served as the King’s personal agent in Parliament. In _The Castle of Infamy_, 1780, an anonymous satirist describes

how Rob[in]son’s quick Eye Controll’d the _pension’d, plac’d_, expectant Fry.... At his shrewd Look, his pregnant Nod, or Wink, The Spirits of all Parties rise or sink.

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_the Fermeurs Generaux._ The _Fermiers-Généraux_ were the body of French officials who, under the _Ancien Régime_, leased as a concession the collection of taxes.

_Gen. Conway._ Henry Seymour Conway (1721-1795), second son of the first Baron Conway; M.P. for Bury St. Edmunds; General; Governor of Jersey; cousin and correspondent of Horace Walpole.

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_Admiral Barrington._ Samuel Barrington (1729-1800), fifth son of the first Viscount Barrington; Rear-Admiral; Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies until superseded by Byron in January 1779.

_Count Broglio._ Victor-François, Duc de Broglie (1718-1804), Marshal of France; appointed Commander-in-Chief on the Coasts on the Ocean, May 1778.

_Mr Sawbridge._ John Sawbridge (1732?-1795), Radical M.P. for the City of London; an intimate of John Wilkes’, and active in founding the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights.

_Sister Macauly._ Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay (1731-1791), afterwards Mrs. Graham, sister of the foregoing; republican bluestocking; wrote _The History of England from the Accession of James I to That of the Brunswick Line_, 1763-83, much praised and damned in its day for its republicanism; visited America and stopped with Washington for ten days, 1785. Dr. Johnson took satisfaction in having exposed her principles by once desiring her to invite her footman to sit at table with her; _Boswell’s Johnson_, ed. Hill and Powell, I, 447.

_Warley-Common._ In Essex, where one of the militia camps was situated.

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_a majority of 261 to 148._ The motion for the amendment to the address was rejected on the opening day of the session by a vote of 226 to 107, an indication that the House was less crowded than had been expected.

_Mr Charles Townshend._ Charles Townshend (1728-1810), nephew of the third Viscount Townshend; M.P. for Yarmouth; cr. Baron Bayning of Foxley, 1797.

_Mr Charles Turner._ Charles Turner (1726?-1803), M.P. for York; cr. a baronet, 1782. He was a staunch Whig and according to Nathaniel Wraxall “one of the most eccentric men who ever sat in Parliament” (_Historical and Posthumous Memoirs_, II, 267).

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TICKELL’S WRITINGS

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TICKELL’S WRITINGS

The entries in this bibliography, with a few necessary exceptions, are arranged as follows:

_a._ a transcript of the text of the title-page of the first edition;

_b._ a collation of the first edition by pages;

_c._ locations of copies of the first edition that I have used and have had reproduced or consulted for me;

_d._ a list of later editions, variant issues, and reprints.

Under _c_ a complete census has not been attempted, and not every copy located may be assumed to be perfect. Under _d_ sufficient information is given to identify the various editions, but differences in title, text, and collation are not recorded unless they are essential for identification. To give complete descriptions of all the issues of Tickell’s writings would require from two to three times the space of the present bibliography.

The symbols for locations should be expanded thus: BA = Boston Athenæum, BM = British Museum, BP = Boston Public Library, C = Library of Congress, HC = Harvard College Library, HEH = Henry E. Huntington Library, JCB = John Carter Brown Library, LHB = the present editor, NEWB = Newberry Library, NYP = New York Public Library, WLC = William L. Clements Library, YU = Yale University Library.

As stated earlier, the place of publication, unless otherwise indicated, is London.

i

The Project. A Poem. Dedicated to Dean Tucker. Verum, ubi, tempestas, et cæli mobilis humor Mutavêre vias, et Jupiter uvidus Austris Densat erant quæ rara modo, et quæ densa, relaxat; Vertuntur species animorum;⸺Virgil. London: Printed for T. Becket, Adelphi, in the Strand. M DCC LXXVIII.

4to. P. [i], title, verso blank; pp. [iii—iv], “Dedication”; pp. [1]-12, text.

Copies: BM, HC, LHB.

Second, Third, and Fourth Editions, Becket, 1778. Fifth Edition, Becket, 1779. Sixth Edition, Becket, 1780. Reprinted in _The New Foundling Hospital for Wit.... A New Edition.... In Six Volumes_, J. Debrett, 1786, I, 307-317. Reprinted in _Bell’s Classical Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry_, British Library, 1789-94, IV, [92]-101.

ii

The Wreath of Fashion, or, the Art of Sentimental Poetry. ⸺ Demetri, teq; Tigelli, Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras. Horace. London: Printed for T. Becket, Adelphi, in the Strand. M DCC LXXVIII. [Price One Shilling.]

4to. P. [i], title, verso blank; pp. [iii]-iv, “Advertisement”; pp. [1]-14, text; p. [15], advertisement of _The Project_, Second Edition, verso blank.

Copies: BM, HC, LHB.

Second, Third, and Fourth Editions, Becket, 1778. Fifth Edition, Becket, 1778 or 1779 (I have traced no copy). Sixth Edition, Becket, 1780. Dublin: Wm. Wilson, 1779. Reprinted in _The New Foundling Hospital for Wit.... A New Edition.... In Six Volumes_, J. Debrett, 1786, I, 295-306. Reprinted in _Bell’s Classical Arrangement of Fugitive Poetry_, British Library, 1789-94, V, [76]-85. Reprinted in _The School for Satire: or, A Collection of Modern Satirical Poems Written during the Present Reign_, Jacques and Co., 1801 (sometimes 1802), pp. 143-159.

iii

Prologue to the Camp. Written by Richard Tickell, Esq.

This entry is from _The London Chronicle_, 23 October 1778. Though printed in several magazines at the time of the production, the Prologue seems first to have accompanied the text of the play in John Murray’s edition of Sheridan’s _Works_, 1821, II, 161-162.

_The Camp_, “a musical entertainment,” was first performed 15 October 1778, at Drury Lane Theatre; it was first printed, without publisher’s name, London, 1795. Sheridan’s authorship was universally accepted by the press of the time and in the early biographical notices of Sheridan; see R. Crompton Rhodes’ edition of Sheridan’s _Plays and Poems_, New York, 1929, II, 271. The first to question it was Tate Wilkinson, who asserted that Sheridan “never wrote a line” of this “catchpenny for the time” (_The Wandering Patentee_, York, 1795, IV, 124). Later, Thomas Moore likewise thought _The Camp_ “unworthy” of Sheridan’s genius and declared, on the evidence of a rough copy in Tickell’s hand, that Tickell was the author (_Sheridan_, 2nd ed., 1825, I, 264). Following Moore, some editors have omitted it from editions of Sheridan. Library catalogues and recent bibliographies, apparently following Walter Sichel (_Sheridan_, I, 443), whose statements on these matters are sometimes merely conjectures, generally assign _The Camp_ to Tickell as “revised” by Sheridan.

A rough copy in Tickell’s hand is very inconclusive evidence of his authorship. In view of known “catchpenny” work by Sheridan, the alleged inferiority of _The Camp_ is still less conclusive. Tickell may of course have contributed to the dialogue, as he later did in many of the Drury Lane productions. But there are no adequate grounds for denying the contemporary attribution to Sheridan.

iv

Anticipation: Containing the Substance of His M⸺y’s Most Gracious Speech to both H⸺s of P⸺l⸺t, on the Opening of the approaching Session, together With a full and authentic Account of the Debate which will take Place in the H⸺e of C⸺s, on the Motion for the Address, and the Amendment. With Notes. “So shall my Anticipation Prevent your Discovery.” Hamlet. London: Printed for T. Becket, the Corner of the Adelphi, in the Strand. 1778.

8vo. P. [i], half-title, verso blank; p. [iii], title, verso blank; pp. [v]-vi, “Advertisement”; p. [vii], “The Gentlemen trading to the East-Indies ...,” verso blank; pp. [1]-74, text. (The last leaf of the text is signed L, and it is likely that a blank leaf should follow as the conjugate. In all the copies I have seen and in all but one of those consulted for me by librarians, this final leaf is wanting. Miss Anne S. Pratt reports a copy in the Mason-Franklin Collection at Yale that, though closely bound, appears to have been issued with this final blank leaf.)

Copies: BA, BP, C, HC, HEH, JCB, NEWB, NYP, WLC, YU. Sabin #95788.