670
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
Osborne and Mr. Riviugton, of writing a volume of Familiar Letters to and from teveral Pertoiu upon Burinea and other Sutjecit ; which he per- formed with great readiness ; and in the progress of it was soon led to expand his thoughts in the two volume* of the Hittory of Pamela ; which appear to have been written in three months * This first introduced him to the literary world ; and never was a book of the kind more generally read and admired.f It was even recommended from the pulpit, particularly by Dr. Benjamin Slocock, of Christ Church, Surry.
1744. Robert Foulis, who had commenced the art of printing in the city of Glasgow, in 1740, and executed a good edition of Dmutriiu Phalereut, in 4to ; in 1744 produced his cele- brated immaculate edition of Horace, the sheets of which were hung up, as printed, within the coUege of Glasgow, and a reward offered to any person who should discover an error. In the coune of this year, his brother Andrew was taken into partnership, and these two printers were so industrious that in thirty years time ther pro- duced as many well-printed classics, either in Greek and Latin, or in Greek only, as even Bodoni of Parma, or Borbou of Paris, and are as remarkable for their beauty and exactness as any in the Aldine series.
1744. Cicero's Cato Major, with explanatory notes by Benjamin Franklin, LL.D., 8vo. Lon- don, 17^78. The London editor of this work im- posed the name of Dr. Franklin on his title- page, in order the better to sell it. But it is well known to be the work of Mr. Logan, in which Dr. Franklin held no other part than printing the first edition at Philadelphia.
1744. It is stated in Crantz's Hutory of the United Brethren, that about this year, a small family printing office was set on foot in the palace of Marienbom, belonging to the counts of Ysenburgh Meerholz, in Wetteravia, (which about the year 1737 became the residence of the ordinary of Moravian brethren,) with intent to print, in small quantities, some pieces which were either not at all designed for the public, or not until they they were properly examined and amended ; and to distribute them solely among the labourers, both for their own private use ana for their revisal. But yet it could not be entirely prevented that more members of the congrega- tion, also friends, and even enemies, of theirs, got them into their hands, and the last often sooner thsui the brethren themselves.
1744. John Henry Miller, printer, formerly at Zurich, and afterwards at Philadelphia, set up a press at Marienburg, distant about ten leagues firom Dresden, in Upper Saxony, where he published a newipaper. His residence in Marienburg, however, was not of long continu- ance, and after various peregrinations he finally fixed himself in Pennsylvania, where he ended his days in the year 1782.
• See Aaion HUl's Utten, In hia Works, vol. U. p. ags.
t This mukt be imdentood of the first and second volumes only, of which Jive editions were sold in 1741, the feat in which it was published.
1744, Jfay 30. Died, Alexan deb PoPE.whose celebrity as a poet stood without a rival in his own day, and was not eclipsed till those of Byron. He was born in Lombard-street, Lon- don, May 22, 1688, where his &ther carried on the business of a linen-draper; and being a Catholic he was placed at eight years of atge under one Tavemer, a priest, who taught him the rudiments of the Latin and Greek to- gether. In 1700, his father retired to a seques- tered villa which he had purchased in Windstn- forest; and there he produced the first-fruits of his poetic genius, the Ode on Solitude. The ex- treme wesLKness and deformity of his person in- clined him to a studious life ; and as be did not require to apply to any profession for his support, he was encouraged by his father to become a poet. In 1704, he wrote his Pattorali, and the beginning of a poem entitled Windsor Forest, which when published, in 1710, obtained a hi^ praise for melody and versification. At the age of twenty-one appeared his Essay on Criticism, which, notwithstanding the youth of the author, excited universal admiration. In 1711, when only twenty-three years of age, he wrote two of the most beautiful of all his original poems, the Rape of the Lock and the Elegy on an unfortu- nate iady, printed in 1712. The former of these is a heroic-comical poem, in five short cantos, and contains more fancy than any of the other poems of its author, though it is exerted only on ludicrous and artifical objects. His Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard, and the Temple of Fame soon followed, and added to his reputation as an author. In 1713, appeared his proposals for a translation of the Iliad, in which he met with uncommon encouragement, and it enabled him to purchase a house at Twickenham, whither he removed with his parents in 1716. After com- pleting the Iliad, he undertook the Odyssey, iot which also he experienced a liberal snracription. He was, however, materially assisted in these works by the learning and abilities of others, par- ticularly Broome,* Fenton,f and Pamell.| The notes from Eustathius were chiefly extracted byMr. Jortin. In 1721, our author published an edition of Shakspeare, which shows that thereiii
- WilUun Broome wss born in Cheshire, and edocatK
at Eton and Cambridge, and entered into orders. For writing notes on the IHad and translating part at the Odptiey, he received 40500 and one hundred copies. Jk dilference afterwards taliinr place between him and Fope, he was placed in the Dtauiad. In 1733 Mr. Broome was created L.L.D. He obtained the rectory of Polham, in NorfoUc, and the vicara^ of Eye, In Suffolk; and died at Bath, November It, 174s. A volume of his inems has been printed.
t BUah Fenton assisted Pope In the translation of Ou OdgMseji, and was the author of some sprightly venes. Untot paid him In 1718 for his JfiMeUiiiita, igil los. and for more Mitcellania, jC13 4s. 3d. He was born at Shelton, in StaObrdshire, May 20, lSS3, and educated at Cambridge, but refusing to take the oaths to William and Mary, he obtained no church perferment. He died at East- hampstead, in Berkshire, July 13, 1730. He wrote the U/e of Milton, and the tragedy of Marianne.
t Thomas Faracll was a learned divine and ingenious pocti his moral tale of the Hermit is still held in estima- tion. He wrote several papen In the Spectator and OvanHan, and was the intimate friend of Pc^ and SvUt. He was bora in Dublin in l679. and died at Chester in July, 1717.
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