[ANONYMOUS] The Garrulous Man. A parody upon L'Allegro of Milton address'd to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Bath: printed and sold by S. Hazard, 1777, 4° in 2's, 12p., FIRST EDITION, disbound. [A READABLE AND RARE SATIRE ON BATH SOCIETY addressed to two of its principal members. ESTCm records only 2 copies which are at the University of Illinois and the Bodleian Library]

細節

[ANONYMOUS] The Garrulous Man. A parody upon L'Allegro of Milton address'd to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Bath: printed and sold by S. Hazard, 1777, 4° in 2's, 12p., FIRST EDITION, disbound. [A READABLE AND RARE SATIRE ON BATH SOCIETY addressed to two of its principal members. ESTCm records only 2 copies which are at the University of Illinois and the Bodleian Library]

拍品專文

On their marriage in 1765, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, later Sir John and Lady Miller (the husband was created an Irish baronet in 1778), built a house at Batheaston, near Bath, at extravagant cost. Needing to retrench, the couple absented themselves in Italy for some years, and without speaking Italian Mrs. Miller brought out several volumes of "Letters from Italy." According to DNB, it was shortly after her return, and at about the same date that her husband received his baronetcy [i. e. 1778], that she instituted a literary salon at her villa. However, both this satire and that in lot 235 (vi) are dated 1777, an indication that her famous Poetical Society must date from that year at least. "It bore some resemblance to the later follies of the Della Cruscans ... she invited all persons of wit and fashion in Bath to meet once a fortnight at her house. An antique vase that had been purchased in Italy -- it was dug up at Frascati in 1759 -- was placed on a modern altar decorated with laurel, and each guest was invited to place in the urn an original composition in verse. A committee was appointed to determine the best three productions, and their authors were then crowned by Lady Miller with wreaths of myrtle ... The society became famous, and was much laughed at." (DNB)