Wafer, Lionel

8vo (187 x 110mm.), OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE OF JONATHAN SWIFT ('Jon: Swift') on title-page, FIRST EDITION, folding engraved map, 3 folding engraved plates, 2pp. publisher's advertisements at end, late nineteenth century calf, marbled endpapers, some spotting and browning, occasional tears and minor loss to margins, occasional running of edge colouring, loss to edge of folding map and loss to lower margin, tears and loss to edges of first folding plate

[Ralph Sympson; sale to Sir William Temple; gift to] Jonathan Swift, sale, 1746, lot 442, sold for 3s.6d.; Sir Thomas Phillipps, sale, Sotheby's, 3 August 1886, lot 137; William O'Brien, bequest bookplate dated 1899

Wing W193; Sabin 100940; Passmann and Vienken, p. 1948

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where 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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

JONATHAN SWIFT'S OWN COPY OF A TEXT WHICH PROBABLY INFLUENCED GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.

As stated by R.W. Frantz in 1931: 'That Swift was fond of voyage accounts and was influenced by them in writing Gulliver is common knowledge… What is not apparently so well known is that various details from Swift's reading of the voyagers seem to have stuck in his mind and to have suggested certain revolting habits and personal characteristics of the Yahoos…' (see 'Swift's yahoos and the Voyagers', Modern Philology, August 1931, pp. 49-50).

Swift had a habit of creating lists of books he had read or owned. Two still exist: one from 1697/1698 and one from 1715. A further manuscript comprises an inventory made by Dr John Lyon of books belonging to Swift ("…taken about Octbr 6th 1742 & compared June 2d 1744…"). After his death, Swift's library was sold by auction with a catalogue printed in 1746.

Given the publication date of Wafer's work, the book appears in all appropriate listings of Swift's library: 1715 (fol. 13r), Lyon (fol. 10v) and 1746 (lot number 442). After the auction in 1746 the provenance of the book appears to be lost to modern scholarship. Passmann and Vienken in their monumental The Library and Reading of Jonathan Swift (Lang, 2003) cannot provide any location or provenance. However, it now appears that this copy was offered at auction by Sotheby's in August 1886 from the Phillipps library (as lot 137). A note by O’Brien ('Cost me before binding £1.10. From the Middle-Hill (Sir Thomas Phillipps) Library lot 137') corresponds to the auction catalogue and a need to have the book rebound: the description notes 'with the autograph "Jon: Swift," on the title (one cover off)'.

Harold Williams, in his Dean Swift's Library (Cambridge, 1932) identifies the rarity of travel books in Swift's collection of books: 'English works of travel remaining in Swift's library at the time of his death are fewer than might be expected. The group is headed by Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages and the five volumes of Purchas his Pilgrimes. The others are Linschoten's Voyages into ye Easte and West Indies in English, another translated work which appeared under the title of Voyages and Discoveries in South America, 1698, and A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America by the buccaneer, Lionel Wafer.'

R.W. Frantz was one of the first to identify the similarity between Swift's Yahoos showering excrement on Gulliver and Wafer's monkeys: "They are a very waggish kind of Monkey, and plaid a thousand antick Tricks as we march'd at any time through the Woods, skipping from Bough to Bough… making Faces at us, chattering, and, if they had opportunity, pissing down purposely on our Heads".

Passmann and Vienken also note the importance of this text to the third section of A Tale of a Tub: '...Moreover, [Swift] was indebted to the story of the American fortune-tellers in Mechanical Operation of the Spirit… to Wafer's account of "pawawing" on p. 29 of his travel account…'

Conjecturally the provenance of the volume can be traced back to Sir William Temple. Irvin Ehrenpreis (Swift: the man, his works and the age, 1962-83, I, p. 287) notes that a copy of Wafer's 1699 edition was bought by Temple from Ralph Sympson in 1698 and it is therefore possible that Swift received the book as a gift from Temple.