[WAGSTAFFE (William)] - A Comment upon the History of Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb.

London: Printed for J. Morphew, 1711. First edition, 24pp., disbound, a very good copy. A brilliant parody ridiculing the two numbers in Addison's 'Spectator' which praise 'Chevy Chase'. The poem on which Wagstaffe focuses critical attention is the old ballad of 'Tom Thumb, his Life and Death' ("in Arthur's Court Tom Thumb did live" - STC 24115, Wing T1789A-1790B), a work "proper to adorn the shelves of Bodley or the Vatican". This powerful essay, full of mock learning ("I have consulted Monsieur Le Clerk and my Friend Dr. B---ly"), textual criticism (having collated "all the Manuscripts.... also an Arabick Copy.... I find it an Interpolation"), Virgilian parallels and critical acclaim for the ballad's supposed "Poetical Genius" and emotions "that may move the Mind of the most polite Reader, with the inward Meltings of Humanity". 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. Bartholomew's 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 ("doubtful").

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