Jonathan Swift,
D.D. D.S.P.D.
Published from the
Last manuscript Copy, Corrected and
Enlarged by the Author’s own hand.
London:
Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand:
MDCCLVIII.
ADVERTISEMENT
PREFIXED TO THE EDITION OF 1758.[1]
[Footnote 1: This advertisement was written by
the editor, Dr. Charles Lucas of Dublin. This
Lucas was the patriot who created such a stir in Irish
politics between the years 1743 and 1750. Lord
Townshend, in a letter to the Marquis of Granby, called
him “the Wilkes of Ireland.” As an
author he seems to have been very prolific, though
of no polish in his writings. Lucas’s disclaimers
of sympathy with the opinions contained in the work
he edited are somewhat over-stated, and his criticisms
are petty. A full account of this hot-headed physician
may be found in the Dictionary of National Biography.
It was Dr. Johnson, in his life of Swift, who first
published the information that Lucas edited this “History.”
[T.S.]]
Thus, the long wished for History of the Four
Last Years of the Queen’s Reign is at length
brought to light, in spite of all attempts to suppress
it!
As this publication is not made under the sanction
of the name, or names, which the author and the world
had a right to expect; it is fit some account of the
works appearing in this manner should be here given.
Long before the Dean’s apparent decline, some
of his intimate friends, with concern, foresaw the
impending fate of his fortune and his works.
To this it is owing, that these sheets, which the world
now despaired of ever seeing, are rescued from obscurity,
perhaps from destruction.
For this, the public is indebted to a gentleman, now
in Ireland, of the greatest probity and worth, with
whom the Dean long lived in perfect intimacy.
To this gentleman’s hands the Dean entrusted
a copy of his History, desiring him to peruse and
give his judgment of it, with the last corrections
and amendments the author had given it, in his own
hand.
His friend read, admired, and approved. And from
a dread of so valuable and so interesting a work’s
being by any_ accident lost or effaced, as was
probable by its not being intended to be published
in the author’s lifetime; he resolved to keep
this copy, till the author should press him for it;
but with a determined purpose, it should never see
the light, while there was any hopes of the author’s
own copy being published, or even preserved.
This resolution he inviolably kept, till he and the
world had full assurance, that the Dean’s executors,
or those into whose hands the original copy fell,
were so far from intending to publish it, that it
was actually suppressed, perhaps destroyed.
