ANONYMOUS [William Wagstaffe]
The testimonies of several citizens of Fickleborough, in the Kingdom of Fairy-Land,
£375
London: Printed for John Morphew. 1713.
First and only edition. 8vo in 4s. 180x115mm. pp. 23, [1]. In modern pink wrappers. Some slight foxing and staining to head of first gathering but overall a very good copy. Although published anonymously, this Tory response to Robert Hush's (i.e. Robert Walpole's) pamphlet The present state of fairy-land is recognised as the work of the doctor and satirist William Wagstaffe who moved in the same political and literary circles as Swift and John Arbuthnot. This 1713 exchange of pamphlets was a skirmish in the propaganda battle between Whigs and Tories over British involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession. Walpole had criticised the Tory attempt to secure a peace settlement with France (which he called Slave-onia). This reply is a splendidly eighteenth century mix of obscure circumlocution and low insult.
First and only edition. 8vo in 4s. 180x115mm. pp. 23, [1]. In modern pink wrappers. Some slight foxing and staining to head of first gathering but overall a very good copy. Although published anonymously, this Tory response to Robert Hush's (i.e. Robert Walpole's) pamphlet The present state of fairy-land is recognised as the work of the doctor and satirist William Wagstaffe who moved in the same political and literary circles as Swift and John Arbuthnot. This 1713 exchange of pamphlets was a skirmish in the propaganda battle between Whigs and Tories over British involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession. Walpole had criticised the Tory attempt to secure a peace settlement with France (which he called Slave-onia). This reply is a splendidly eighteenth century mix of obscure circumlocution and low insult.
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