Satire, Fantasy and Writings on the Supernatural by Daniel Defoe, Part I Vol 1

W R Owens, P N Furbank, David Blewett, Peter Elmer, John Mullan, Geoffrey Sill, G A Starr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000161779
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

The publication of the 44-volume Works of Daniel Defoe continues with this collection of Defoe's satirical poetry and fantasy writings, and writings on the supernatural.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

The following abbreviations have been used throughout the explanatory notes:

CJ	Journals of the House of Commons
Campbell	Mary Elizabeth Campbell, Defoe’s First Poem (Bloomington, Indiana, 1938)
Ellis	Frank H. Ellis (ed.), Poems on Affairs of State, Volume 6: 1697–1704, and Volume 7: 1704–1714 (New Haven and London, 1970, 1975)
HoP	Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley and D. W. Hayton, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1690–1715, 5 vols (Cambridge, 2002)
LJ	Journals of the House of Lords
Letters	George Harris Healey (ed.), The Letters of Daniel Defoe (Oxford, 1955)
Review	Defoe’s Review, facsimile ed. Arthur W. Secord, 22 vols (New York, 1938)

In identifying characters in some of the poems, reference is frequently made to a ‘Key’. This was included in a two-volume reissue of Defoe’s True Collection, under the title The Genuine Works of Mr. Daniel D’ Foe … To which is added a Complete Key to the whole, never before Printed [1721]. The ‘Key’ was included at the end of the second volume, separately paginated. The following works from the present volume are covered: A New Discovery of an Old Intreague, The Pacificator, The True-Born Englishman, The Mock Mourners, Reformation of Manners, The Spanish Descent, More Reformation, A Hymn to the Pillory, An Elegy on the Author of the True-Born-English-Man, A Hymn to Victory, The Double Welcome. The odd spelling of his name in the title would suggest that Defoe was not involved in the production of this edition, and therefore may have had nothing to do with the ‘Key’. One or two of the identifications made by the ‘Key’ are clearly wrong, either accidentally or deliberately, as is mentioned in the Explanatory Notes below, and thus, although an important source, the ‘Key’ is to be used with caution.

Reference is also made to a short ‘Key’ included at the end of what is almost certainly a pirated edition of The Dyet of Poland, the title of which runs: The Dyet of Poland, A Satyr. To which is Added A Memorial to the Tantivy-High-Flyers of England (‘Printed at Dantzick, in the Year 1705’). The ‘Key’ is on p. 30, at the end of the main text. There is even less reason to suppose that Defoe had anything to do with this ‘Key’.

Ten of the poems here were included by Frank H. Ellis in volumes 6 and 7 of the Yale Poems on Affairs of State. I refer often to his commentary on these poems in the notes that follow, but would like to acknowledge here more generally my indebtedness to his magnificent scholarship.

A New Discovery of an Old Intreague (1691)

Probably published in January 1691, since it refers to the arrest of the ringleader of a Jacobite plot (details below).

The immediate occasion of this, Defoe’s first published verse satire, was a petition presented to the House of Commons on 2 December 1690 by 117 members of the Common Council of the City of London. The petition complained that an Act of Parliament passed on 14 May 1690, reversing the judgement on a writ of Quo Warranto by which Charles II in 1683 had deprived the City of its liberties, had not been brought into effect. A number of Aldermen appointed arbitrarily by James II remained in office, and they and others had ensured that Whigs had gained control of the key offices in the City. In particular, Sir Thomas Pilkington, a Whig, had been chosen as Mayor over the Tory candidate, Sir Jonathan Raymond, and although the Tory Sir Peter Rich had at first been chosen Chamberlain, this had been set aside after scrutiny and a Whig, Leonard Robinson, appointed instead. The political situation in these early months of the new monarchy was uncertain, and Whigs like Defoe were certain that the petitioners were Jacobites trying to stir up trouble. An investigation by the House of Commons took place over the following couple of weeks, with each side putting its case, but the matter was dropped with the Petition ungranted. At almost the same moment there came dramatic news of a Jacobite plot. On the night of December 31, Sir Richard Grahme, Viscount Preston, and two companions, John Ashton and Edmund Elliot, were intercepted on their way to France carrying incriminating letters. Ashton was hanged on 28 January 1691; Elliot was not brought to trial on the grounds that he was not a party to the conspiracy; and Preston was imprisoned after giving a full account of the affair to the authorities. The only reference by Defoe to the Preston plot comes in the title page and prose preface, and in three lines in the body of the poem ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• General Editors’ Preface
• Chronology
• Introduction
• A New Discovery of an Old Intreague (1691)
• An Encomium upon a Parliament [1699]
• The Pacificator. A Poem (1700)
• The True-Born Englishman. A Satyr (1700 [perhaps for 1701])
• Ye True-Born Englishmen Proceed [1701]
• The Mock Mourners. A Satyr, by Way of Elegy on King William (1702)
• Reformation of Manners, a Satyr (1702)
• The Spanish Descent. A Poem (1702)
• More Reformation. A Satyr upon Himself (1703)
• A Hymn to the Pillory (1703)
• A Hymn to the Funeral Sermon [1703]
• An Elegy on the Author of the True-Born-English-Man. With an Essay on the Late Storm (1704)
• A Hymn to Victory (1704)
• The Double Welcome. A Poem to the Duke of Marlboro’ (1705)
• The Dyet of Poland, a Satyr (1705)
• A Hymn to Peace. Occasion’d, by the Two Houses Joining in One Addressto the Queen (1706)
• A Hymn to the Mob (1715)
• Explanatory notes
• Textual notes