First edition of this mine of contemporary literary gossip. Rogers is among that select group of poets to have declined the laureateship, and his poetry once had an ardent fan in Byron, who saw him as a much needed antidote to the Lake poets. His most durable achievement, however, has proved to be his position in the social life of literary London in the first half of the nineteenth century, his affability and affluence drawing the most sparkling guests to his table for lunch, dinner, and, most famously, breakfast.

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THE DEFINITIVE TEXT [GOLDSMITH, Oliver.]

The Vicar of Wakefield: a Tale. Supposed to be written by himself … The second Edition. Vol. I. [–II].

Second edition, published two months after the first, printed by William Strahan in 1000 sets, and revised throughout by Goldsmith, with more than 450 new substantive readings, nearly all of them accepted by Arthur Friedman as authorial and admitted into the definitive Oxford text (Collected Works, 1966, volume IV). Although the next three editions also appeared in Goldsmith’s lifetime, Friedman is convinced that he did not revise any of them. ‘They contain occasional new substantive readings, [but] when Goldsmith revised [a work] he always made … frequent and extensive changes, so that his hand is clearly visible. In these three editions the changes are … infrequent and … minor [and] none … has been admitted into the edited text’ (Collected Works, IV, 11–12).

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'WITH A BUNDLE' TO THE REVEREND

and merry Answerer of Vox Cleri. To be left at Mr. Brabazon Aylmer’s at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill. With a Bundle.

First and only edition. Attempts to revise the Book of Common Prayer in the wake of the 1689 Toleration Act found opposition in, among others, the Exeter clergyman Thomas Long. His Vox cleri, or, The Sense of the Clergy, concerning the making of Alterations in the established Liturgy (1690) received an immediate reply from the controversialist, William Payne (An Answer to Vox Cleri, 1690), who is in turn attacked here, point by point, albeit in a light-hearted way.

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