POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. CONTAINING THE PROGRESS OF MUSIC IN IRELAND, THE POET'S WELL, AN ESSAY TOWARDS A TRANSLATION OF ANACREON, AN ODE TO HIS MAJESTY'S BIRTH-DAY. TO WHICH IS ADDED THE PLAGUE OF WEALTH OCCASION'D BY THE AUTHOR'S RECEIVING FIFTY POUNDS FROM HIS EXCELLENCY, THE LORD CARTERET, FOR THE FOREMENTION'D ODE. WITH SEVERAL POEMS NOT IN THE DUBLIN EDITIN, REVISED BY THE REVEREND DR. SWIFT; Poems on Several Occasions. Contining...To Which is added the Plague of Wealth occasion'd by the Author's receiving fifty Pounds from his Excellency, the Lord Carteret..Revised by the Reverend Dr. Swift
London. Printed for T. Toodward, at the Half Moon over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet; Charles Davis in Pater-noster-row, and W. Bowyer, 1731. First London Edition (2nd actual). Leather-bound. Octavo. 3/4 leather with marbled paper sides. Spine heavily chipped. Both front and rear covers detached (but present). Clean copy. 7-1/2 in. 184pp. Revised from the Dublin Edition of 1730. Binding: Poor; Interior Very Good. Item #82988
"FIRST LONDON EDITION, printed by William Bowyer; his records show 750 copies printed. A “diminutive and poor Irish parson'', Pilkington married the notorious Laetitia in 1729, whose memoirs throw some light on Swift’s later years. His ingratiating preface formally thanks “the admired Doctor Swift'' for correcting his poems, one of which was an “Ode'' for the Birthday of George II, 30 October 1729. Swift’s mockery of this effusion, “Direction for a Birth-day Song, October 30, 1729,'' is described by Ehrenpreis as “unfit for publication in his lifetime, but one of his most forthright, powerful lampoons'' (Swift. iii. 640-1) Teerink 703; cf. Williams 459..." (Bloomsbury Auction Records: Bibliophile. 4/2/2009).
Price: $125.00