An Introduction to: A Short Character of His Excellency Thomas Earl of Wharton Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
(Jim McLaverty)
- Abbreviated title
- A short character of his ex[cellency] T[homas] E[arl] of W[harton], L[ord] L[ieutenant] of I[reland]
- JSA Identification Number
- 6_3_2
- Teerink/Scouten Number
- 527
- ESTC Number
- T48134
- Copy and its Location
- CUL , Hib.7.711.5
- Publisher and Printer
- A short character of His Ex. T. E. of W. L. L. of I--. With an account of some smaller facts, during his government, which will not be put into the Articles of Impeachment., Vol. , pp .
- London, Coryton, William, 1711.
Commentary
This character was first printed in December 1710, as Swift refers to it in the Journal to Stella, vol. i, p. 115. It was printed in this edition by William Coryton in 1711. This printing here may be as close as we can get to Swift’s writing. There are a number of revisions for polish in the 1735 Works, though when Faulkner prints ‘in Ireland’ rather than ‘in that Kingdom’, he may be restoring a reading lost in this London edition.
William Coryton appears to have been a bookseller at the Black Swan on Ludgate Hill, but this is the only work ESTC lists as published by him. Perhaps he was a retailer who, for some reason, agreed to help with this controversial piece; perhaps he is a ghost.
References: The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis and others, 16 vols. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1939-74), vol. iii, pp. 175-84, 227-8; Journal to Stella, ed. Harold Williams, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948); Irvin Ehrenpeis, Swift: The Man, His Works, and the Age (London: Methuen, 1962-83), vol. ii, pp. 442-4.