35. Absalom " And " Achitophel. " A " Poem. " ... Si PropiÙs ?tes " Te Capiet Magis.... " London, " Printed for J. T. and are to be Sold by W. Davis in " Amen-Corner, 1681.

The Earl of Shaftesbury, here typified as Achitophel for his share in the conspiracy to place the young Duke of Monmouth, Absalom, on the throne, was committed to the Tower in July, 1681; and this satire appeared in November, just before the Grand Jury acquitted him. Notwithstanding the lateness of the work, its success was unprecedented. We are told that Samuel Johnson's father, a bookseller of Litchfield, said that he could not remember a sale of equal rapidity, except that of the reports of the Sacheverell trial.

The author's name does not appear in the book; nor yet in the second edition, to which Tonson added two unsigned poems "To the unknown author."

Jacob Tonson, the publisher of the work, was one of the notable figures in the annals of book-publishing in England, and his name is inseparably connected with some of the most important literary ventures of the period: with those of Milton, Addison, Steele, Congreve, but above all with those of Dryden. Basil Kennett wrote in 1696: "Twill be as impossible to think of Virgil without Mr. Dryden, as of either without Mr. Tonson." He was so poor when he began business that he is said to have borrowed the twenty pounds necessary to the purchase of the first play of Dryden's that he published; but, thanks to his shrewdness, and to the success of his ventures, he died in affluent circumstances, having fully earned the title of "prince of booksellers." He was the founder of the famous Kit-Cat Club, and in spite of Dryden's ill-tempered lines,

he was not unliked by his clients and friends.

The only decoration in the book consists of a head-band preceding the poem, and an initial letter. In some copies the head-band is pieced out to the width of the type page with small ornaments.

Folio.

Collation: Two leaves without signatures; B-I, in twos.