A Comment upon the History of Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb.

First edition, 24pp., disbound, a very good copy. A brilliant parody ridiculing the two numbers in Addisonís ëSpectatorí which praise ëChevy Chaseí. The poem on which Wagstaffe focuses critical attention is the old ballad of ëTom Thumb, his Life and Deathí (ìin Arthurís Court Tom Thumb did liveî - STC 24115, Wing T1789A-1790B), a work ìproper to adorn the shelves of Bodley or the Vaticanî. This powerful essay, full of mock learning (ìI have consulted Monsieur Le Clerk and my Friend Dr. B---lyî), textual criticism (having collated ìall the Manuscripts. also an Arabick Copy. I find it an Interpolationî), Virgilian parallels and critical acclaim for the balladís supposed ìPoetical Geniusî and emotions ìthat may move the Mind of the most polite Reader, with the inward Meltings of Humanityî. Suggestions that this piece may have sufficient literary merit to suppose that Swift must have had a hand in it may be discounted Wagstaffe was a physician at St. Bartholomewís Hospital, whether he was also an original satirist influenced by Swift is open to question, but he certainly must have met him quite frequently at the house of his father-in-law, Charles Bernard. Teerink-Scouten, 484 (ìdoubtfulî).