Description

[Francis Chute] Mr. Gay, The Petticoat: an Heroi-Comical Poem. In Two Books. Price One Shilling. London, Printed for R. Burleigh in Amen Corner, MDCCXVI (1716). 18.5 cm; 39 pages; 8vo; [half-title, verso blank; title-page, verso blank, address to the ladies, iii, verso of p. iii blank (A4 unsigned); pp. 21-22 unpaginated (half-title for Book II); verso of p. 39 blank]. Printer’s device of two peacocks feeding on a bowl of fruit on the title-page; decorative head-piece above address to the ladies, historiated initial also on A3; identical head-piece on B1 (page 1 of Book I) and on D4 (page 1 of Book II); historiated S on B1; historiated T on p.23 (D4); tail-piece p. 39. Errata at the foot of A4 (p. iii). This is a false imprint, one printed for E. Curll. Second edition corrected. ESTC T43931 Ralph Straus, The Unspeakable Curll, pp. 241-242; D. F. Foxon, English Verse 1701 – 1750, C190, “The second edition corrected. Dated July 9, 1716 by Straus, who remarked: “… many people bought it, I imagine, as Gay’s work. Its ostensible publisher was Burleigh and it professed to be the work of Mr. J. Gay, but in this case the J stood for Joseph for many years. Pope mentions the phantom in the Dunciad : “Curl stretches after Gay, but Gay is gone: / He grasps an empty Joseph for a John.” Rebound in twentieth century marbled paper boards with a decorated blue morocco label on a red morocco spine. Pencil annotation on title-page, otherwise fine.