![[SWIFT, Jonathan]. A Famous Prediction of Merlin, the British wizard; written above a thousand years ago, and relating to this present year. With explanatory notes. By T. N. Philomath. London: A. Baldwin, 1709.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/NYR/2015_NYR_12435_0170_000(swift_jonathan_a_famous_prediction_of_merlin_the_british_wizard_writte120548).jpg?w=1)
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[SWIFT, Jonathan]. A Famous Prediction of Merlin, the British wizard; written above a thousand years ago, and relating to this present year. With explanatory notes. By T. N. Philomath. London: A. Baldwin, 1709.
Folio broadsheet. Drop-head title and woodcut portrait, inscribed “Merlinus Verax”. The verse in black letter, accompanied by a prose preface and interpretations. (Inner margin with blank section cut away, soiling at edges.) Unbound; modern marbled paper portfolio with morocco label on cover.
PROBABLE FIRST EDITION of “Swift’s last contribution to the Partridge practical joke” (Williams). Valerie Rumbold in her edition of Swift’s Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock Treatises (Cambridge University Press, 2013), intending to take the first edition as her copy text, has adopted this one, while noting that as between it and Foxon S850, the "priority [is] unclear" (p. 657). The work, printed on both sides of a half sheet, contains twenty lines of verse prophecy, printed in black letter. The writer claims to have found the verses “in an old edition of Merlin’s prophecies; imprinted at London …, in the year 1530, pag. 39.” The use of archaic language and typography, coupled with mock antiquarian scholarship, “gave the hoax enough verisimilitude to deceive not only the innocent Samuel Johnson but some historians of printing as well” (Ehrenpreis, Swift. ii. 344-5). ). Rumbold notes the apparently deliberate reuse here of a woodcut portrait that Partridge himself had used to represent his enemy the almanac-maker John Gadbury (78-79). The poem's predictions take on a political character, serving to praise Marlborough [“herdie Chiftan”], favour the union with Scotland and accept the ministry’s plans in Spain, while remaining credible as a “prophecy made in the reign of Henry VII.” Foxon lists a total of five editions; the tract was also reprinted in Swift’s Miscellanies, 1711. ALL EDITIONS ARE RARE. ESTC locates only 9 copies of the first edition. Foxon S849; Rogers 645; Teerink 499; Kress S.2460; Rothschild 2002; Williams 101.
Folio broadsheet. Drop-head title and woodcut portrait, inscribed “Merlinus Verax”. The verse in black letter, accompanied by a prose preface and interpretations. (Inner margin with blank section cut away, soiling at edges.) Unbound; modern marbled paper portfolio with morocco label on cover.
PROBABLE FIRST EDITION of “Swift’s last contribution to the Partridge practical joke” (Williams). Valerie Rumbold in her edition of Swift’s Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock Treatises (Cambridge University Press, 2013), intending to take the first edition as her copy text, has adopted this one, while noting that as between it and Foxon S850, the "priority [is] unclear" (p. 657). The work, printed on both sides of a half sheet, contains twenty lines of verse prophecy, printed in black letter. The writer claims to have found the verses “in an old edition of Merlin’s prophecies; imprinted at London …, in the year 1530, pag. 39.” The use of archaic language and typography, coupled with mock antiquarian scholarship, “gave the hoax enough verisimilitude to deceive not only the innocent Samuel Johnson but some historians of printing as well” (Ehrenpreis, Swift. ii. 344-5). ). Rumbold notes the apparently deliberate reuse here of a woodcut portrait that Partridge himself had used to represent his enemy the almanac-maker John Gadbury (78-79). The poem's predictions take on a political character, serving to praise Marlborough [“herdie Chiftan”], favour the union with Scotland and accept the ministry’s plans in Spain, while remaining credible as a “prophecy made in the reign of Henry VII.” Foxon lists a total of five editions; the tract was also reprinted in Swift’s Miscellanies, 1711. ALL EDITIONS ARE RARE. ESTC locates only 9 copies of the first edition. Foxon S849; Rogers 645; Teerink 499; Kress S.2460; Rothschild 2002; Williams 101.