6M
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
cember 4, 1690 ; turned over to John Harding,* 169...; and made firee March 18, 1699. He soon afterwards commenced business as a book- seller, at the sign of the Cross Keys, between the Temple gates, where he was patronized by many of the most eminent writers of a period whicn has been styled the Aug^ustine age of English literature. John Dunton thus characterizes Mr. Lintot: — He lately published a Collection of Tragic Tales, &c., by which I perceive he is angry with the world, and scorns it into the bar- in ; and I cannot blame him : for D'Urfey bis author) both treats and esteems it as it de- serves ; too hard a task for those whom it flatters ; or perhaps for Bernard himself, should the world ever change its humour, and grin upon him. However, to do Mr. Lintott justice, he is a man of very g^d principles, and I dare engage will never want an author of Sol-Fa, so long as the playhouse will encourage his comedies." In 1716 he served the office of renter warden to the stationers' company; in 1722-3, he was elected into the court of assistants ; and served the office of under warden in 1729. In 1714, Lintot en- tered into a very liberal agreement with Pope, for his translation of Homer'i Iliad ; the printing of which was soon afterwards begun by Mr. Bowyer, and diligently attended to by all parties. Gay,t in a letter to Congreve, April 7, 1716, facetiously says, " Mr. Pope's Homer is retarded by the great rains that have fallen of late, which causes the sheets to be long a-drying. This gives Mr. Lintot great uneasiness ; who is now endeavouring to engage the curate of the parish to pray for fair weather, that his work may go on.^ There does not appear to have been any altercation between the bookseller and the au- thor during the whole period of the publication of the Iltad or Odyuey, which continued till 1725 ; but, from whatever cause it may have arisen, the friendship between Mr. Pope and his publisher appears to have terminated with the
- without flattery he deserrefl to be cmlled a very ooarte-
ODS man, of a lovely proportioii, exttemdy well nuule — ■a handionie a mien, and ai good an air aa, perhaps, few of hi* nelghbonrs exceed him, lo that hla body makes a Twy bandflome tenement for his mind. I came acquainted with him at Stuibiteh fair, and taavlag dealt with him several years, I find him to be a very honest man— am on- derstanding bookseller, and a zealons Chnrch-of-England' man, yet to do him justice, he is no bigot to any party.
t John Gay was born at or nesr Barnst^ile, in Devon- shire, in 1088, and educated at the Qtammar school in that town. He was apprenticed to a silk mercer in London, but in a few years quitted trade, and commenced aathor. His first poem, entitled Rural SporU, printed in I711« and dedicated to Toft, gained him me ftiendship of that poet and his Mends. Gay obtained aevenl employments in the reign of qaeen Anne, bat on the accession of thehoose of Hanover, bis expectations of fortho' preferment were disappointed. In 1710 he pnbUsbed his poems, by snli- aciipUon, which produced him ^1000, but embaiUng in the South Sea bubble, he lost the whole. In 1727 appeared Us Beggar't Opera, by which he got altogether about jf 1600. Gay was at all times a bad economist, and ^e duke and duchess of Queensbury took him into their house, and managed bis ailUrs, so that at bis death, which took place December 4, 179s, he left upwards of .^SOW. His remains were interred in Westminster abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory, with an epitaph written by Pope, who describes him
Of manners gentle, of aflkctions mild. In wit a man, stmidldty a child.
conclusion of Homer.* In an undated letta, addressed by Mr. Pope to the eail of BmliiigtaB about that period, his description of his vki friend Bernard Lintot is given with the moei exquisite humour.f " I know of nothings in onr language," says Dr. Warton, " that e^oeJs it. except, perhaps, Mr. Colman's description in a Teme Filitu, of an expedition of a bookselkr and his wife to Oxfortt." Peihaps Mr. P<^ conceived that Lintot had risen above his prvftr level ; for it appears that early in 1727, having, by successful exertions in business, acquired a decent competence, and made some addititnis to his paternal inheritance in Sussex , he was de- sirous of tracing the origin of his famihr ; awl for that purpose consulted Humphrey Wanley, who had then the custody of the earl of Oxfords heraldic manuscripts, and in whose diarf is the following memorandum : — " Young Mr. lintm the bookseller, came enquiring after amu, whs now, it seems, want to turn gentlefolks. I oooM find none of their names." In 1727 Pope ns-
- The following dnms were paid by lintot to Ttif, hr
the various works here mentioned :
^ a. a. 1711, ret. If, statins, first book; Vertmnniu
and Pomona Iff S S
„ JforeAM, First edition of the Rape 7 t •
„ April 9, to a Lady presenting Voltnre upon Silence. To the author of a Poem called Snccesslo s IS (
1713, lei. S3, Windsor Forest SS S •
„ July 31, Ode on St. Cecilia's Day IS • •
1714, Fe6. SO, Additions to the Hape IS • 9
„ JforeA as, Homer, vol. I tis (0
660 books on royal paper I7ff • *
171s, Fet. 1, Temple of Fame 3S s •
„ ^prU SI, Key to the Lock !• 13 •
171s, Fei. g. Homer, vol. II tlS • •
„ Jfiqr 7, 630 royal paper I3« • •
„ Juljr 17, Essay on Criticism IS •
1717, .<l<i«iu< g. Homer, vol. Ill lis • •
171 8, Jon. 6, 630 royal paper I3« • •
„ afore* 3, Homer, VOL rv ais • •
630 royal paper 1st • •
„ Oc*. 17. Homer, VOL V Sis • •
I7ig, JprU 6, 650 royal paper II* •
1790, Fci. 26, Homer, VOL VL tIS • t
' „ Jira]r7,6soroyidpaper It* • •
I7SI, Dee. IS, PameU's Poems
Paid Mr. Pope for the subscription money due on the md vol. of his Homer, and on his 6th vol. at the agreement for the said 6tta VOL (I had Mr. Pope's assign- ment for the roysl paper that were
then left of his Homer) 84* « •
Copy money for the Odyssey, vols. I. H. 111. I and 730 of each vol. printed on
royal paper, 4to 6IS t •
Copy money for the Odyssey, vols. IT.
v., and 730 of each vol royal «M IS 7t
vtf4a44 s H
Dr. Johnson says, that Pope oflered an Knglfaih niad to the subscribers, in six volumes quarto, for stx guineat. Bernard Lintot became proprietor, on condition of siqifiy. ing, at his own expense, all the copies which were to k» deuvered to subscribers, or presented to IMends, and pay- ing if 100 for every volume.
The subscribers were fire hundred and serenty-Cn. Hie copies for which subscriptions were given, wo* di hundred and fiity-four. For these copies, P^e had notUag to pay ; he, thea^ore, received, including the jffSM pa volume, five thousand three hundred and twenty poasils, four shillings, without deduction, as the books were of- pUed by lintot.
Homer, finely printed from an Elzevir letter by WiDiaB Bowyer, sold at Sf . 6rf. a volume bound.
t See Nichols's IMerarp Aneahtte, vol. vU. p. i;«.
VjOOQ IC
