Commentary

These Observations seem to have been written in December 1733, but, as far as we know, this is the first printing. The professed purpose of this volume is to print pieces ‘Not Inserted In Mr. Sheridan’s Edition Of the Dean’s Works’, and its editor John Nichols may have had access to Swift’s manuscripts.

The printing is modern in its capitalization, and perhaps in its punctuation: there are few colons and semi-colons and many commas.

John Nichols (1745-1826) was a distinguished printer, antiquarian, and editor. He was apprenticed to William Bowyer, Jr., on 6 February 1759, and Bowyer encouraged his literary interests and took him into partnership in 1766. Nichols’ work on Swift began with his Supplements to the Works in 1775, 1776, and 1779, and developed into full-scale editing. Nichols was also distinguished for antiquarian projects, including a type facsimile of the Domesday Book and a history of Leicestershire.

Charles Dilly was a distinguished member of the trade and Samuel Johnson’s example of a wholesale bookseller in an important letter to Nathan Wetherell about trade in books (Letters of Samuel Johnson, ed. Bruce Redford, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), vol. ii, pp. 304-8).

References: The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis and others, 16 vols. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1939-74), vol. xiii, pp. 89-92, 221.