[Panegyric.] Swift, Jonathan.

8vo, 8pp., first edition, disbound.

Foxon P36; Teerink 691; Rothschild 2121; CBEL II, 1062.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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Scarce (seven copies listed in ESTC). An amusing poem, whose authorship has long been the matter of some dispute, and one of a series of "libels" which followed the appearance of a poetical address to Lord Carteret by Swift's friend, Patrick Delany (see also lots 278 and 280). In a letter to Lord Bathurst in October 1730, Swift referred to "all the libels that have been writ against me," and explained that he had written one of them himself, "a very scrub one in verses". These comments led Swift scholars, particularly Dr. Elrington Ball in his edition of Swift's correspondence, to identify the present poem as the one to which Swift alluded. Faulkner, however, had in 1768 identified the same poem as the work of a young poet and essayist James Arbuckle, and Foxon has noted the presence of a copy in a bound volume of Arbuckle's acknowledged poems and additional manuscripts in the National Library of Wales. Harold Williams, however, rejects this attribution: "But Faulkner was almost certainly mistaken. . . . The style of the piece is not reminiscent of Arbuckle's known work; the allusions to 'A Libel on Dr. Delany' suggest parody by Swift rather than by another hand; Arbuckle, even as a disguise, would not be likely to include himself among the 'long unbishoprick'd' (l. 147), nor speak of himself familiarly in conjunction with Grattan and Sheridan (l. 177). There can be little doubt that Dr. Ball's identification [of Swift's authorship] is correct." (The Poems of Jonathan Swift, II, p. 492.) The attribution to Swift is accepted by Teerink, the Rothschild Catalogue, and NCBEL.

A London quarto edition was printed later the same year, with a certain number of revisions.