EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
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and Mr. Oldmixon, assisted bv Steele and An- Uiony Henley. The first Medley was concluded August 6, 171 1 , extending to forty-tire numbers.
1712. The Stamford Mercury. This paper originated in the following manner: — Messrs. Thomson and Bailey commenced printing in the parish of St. Martin ; and afterwards removed into the borough of which they were made free, with liberty to publish a paper, on condition that they printed the official papers of the corporation gratis ! ! !
1712. A Cry from the Wildemest ; "Peace, Good-will to all Men ;" in the Voice of the Her- mit (and servant of Jesus) to the Clergy and People of God, of what denomination or distinc- tion soever. No. 1 .
1712. The Deutsche (or German) Acta Eru- ditorum began to be published at Leipzig, and was continued till 1740 ; the whole forming forty volumes.
1712. The Rambler, No. 1. It U probable, says Dr. Drake, that Johnson was ignorant of this anticipation of title. Only one copy has escaped the ravages of time, and is now in the British museum To what extent this paper was carried is unknown.
1713, Feb. 14. Died, Anthony Ashley Cooper, third earl of Shaftesbury. He was born Febru- ary 26, 1671, and during the reign of queen Anne attracted much attention by his numerous publications concerning the operations of the human mind, the most of which were collected into one work, entitled Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times, in three volumes, published immediately after his death, which occurred at Naples. The style of Shaftesbury is elegant and lofty, but bears too many marlcs of labour to be agreeable, and is slightly tinged with scepticism regarding revelation, and, upon the whole, is somewhat fantastic ; though, for a number of years, no book was more universally admired, or more geneially read than Shaftes- bury's Characteristics. Thomson appears en- raptured with the philosophy of this nobleman, in the following character which he has drawn of him : —
The generons Ashley iUne, the friend of man ; Who actmn'd his nature with a brother's eye, His weakness prompt to shade, to raise his aim. To touch the finer moTements of the mind. And with the moriU beauty charm the heart.
1713, Feb. 16. Died, William Harrison, author of the Tatler, volume the fifth (see page 600, ante), in which he was assisted by Swift, and the occasional assistance of Hemey and Congreve. It consists of fifty-two numbers ; the first appeared Jan, 13, 1711, and the last May, 19, following. It is chiefly valuable for the light occasionally thrown on the history of the genuine Tatler. Mr. Harrison was educated at Oxford, and settling in London, obtained the friendship of Swift, who much befriended him in his last ackness. He died at a very early age.
1713. Lintot gave Mr. Pointer £10 15*. for his Chronological History.
1713, April 7. Joseph Addison received from Tonson the sum of £107 10». for the copyright of the tragedy of Cato. First acted at Drury- lane theatre on the 14th of the same month.
At the time when Cato was produced upon the stage the whole nation was on fire with faction. St. John (Bolinbroke) was waging a crusade against the liberty of the press, which tended to increase the virulence of the writers of the oppo- sition. The whigs applauded every line in which liberty was mentioned, as a satire on the tories : and the tories echoed every sound of applause to show that the satire was unfelt. When it was printed, notice was given that the queen would be pleased if it were dedicated to her ; " but as Addison had designed that compliment else- where, he found himself obliged, by his duty on the one hand, and his honour on the other, to send it into the world without a dedication." At the publication " the wits seemed proud to pay their attendance with encomiastic verses ;" but Cato had yet other honours. It was censured as a party play by a scholar of Oxford, and defended m a favourable examination by Dr. Sewell. It was ti-anslated by Salvini into Italian, and acted at Florence ; and by the Jesuito of St. Omer's into Latin, and played by the pupils.
1713, May 7. Nicholas Rowe received of Lintot the sum of £50 15«. for the tragedy of Jane Shore ; and in the following year Rowe received the sum of £76 5s. for his tragedy of Jane Graf. Lintot paid Dr. Sewell £.1 \s. for writing Observations on Jane Shore.
1713, May 19. The vice-chancellor of Oxford grants his imprimalure for the publication of Dr. Young^s poem of the Last Day.
1713. Died, Henry Hills, pnnter, in Black Fryars, London. He was printer to Oliver Cromwell, Charles II. and James II. and served the office of master of the stationers' company, in 1684. This Henry Hills and Thomas Newcomb were for a short time (from January 10, 1709) printers to queen Anne, under a reversionary patent for thirty-four years granted December, 1666, on the expiration of a patent then held by the Barkers, in which family it had continued from the reign of Elizabeth. In the Evening Post, November 12, 1713, there is the following advertisement. "Mr. Henry Hills, printer, in Black Fryars, being dead, hu stock, consisting of the most eminent Sermons, Poems, Plays, ice. is now to be disposed off, at the Blue Anchor, Pater Noster Row. — N.B. There can never be any of the same, or any in like manner, reprinted after these are gone, there being an act of parliament to the contrary." He was a great retailer of cheap printed ser- mons and poems, which he pirated, and printed upon bad paper.
Then Pirate Hills' brown sheets and sorry letter.
In 1710, he pirated Addison's Letter from Italy, and this, with other circumstance of the like kind, led to the direction in the act of 8 Anne, that fine paper copies should be given to the public libraries.
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