Author: [WILKIE (William)]:
Title: The Epigoniad. A Poem. In Nine Books.
Description: Edinburgh: Printed by Hamilton, Balfour, & Neill, 1757. FIRST EDITION. 8vo (in 4s), 153 x 92 mms., pp. xlii, 289 [290 blank], contemporary half calf, marbled boards, very worn. This copy belonged to the author and Church of England pastor Thomas Zouch (1737 - 185), with his autograph on the top margin of the title-page. and his cypher bookplate on the front paste-down end-paper. He is probably best-know as an editor of Izaak Walton's Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert and Sanderson (1796) and for his life of Walton. Writing in The Bee for 21 August 1793, an anonymous correspondent reported that Wilkie "told me himself, that the labour of this composition had been such, as so much to impair his constitution that it was never afterwards re-established; and the emoluments he derived from it were so inconsiderable, that he would have earned more money had he been employed all the time in hoeing potatoes, at the rate of eight-pence a day...." Wilkie was dubbed "The Scottish Homer," but so far as I know Homer has not been given the encomium of "The Greek Wilkie." His Scottish contemporaries, however, were very impressed by him; for example, Adam Smith stated that "He was a great and an odd man. His character, I venture to say, will never be successfully written, but by a great hand; and even when written, the theory of the man is above common comprehension." As the author of this epic poem called The Epigoniad, the Scottish poet William Wilkie (1721-1772) was dubbed "The Scottish Homer." His Scottish contemporaries were very impressed by him; for example, Adam Smith stated that "He was a great and an odd man. His character, I venture to say, will never be successfully written, but by a great hand; and even when written, the theory of the man is above common comprehension." A lesser-known fact about The Epigoniad is that Wilkie in his preface, when discussing epic poems in general, makes sweeping claims about John Milton's poem Paradise Lost. For instance, Wilkie writes that "the heroes of that poem are all of them immortals: but then it is to be remembered, that Paradise Lost is a work altogether irregular; that the subject of it is not Epic, but Tragic; and that Adam and Eve are not designed to be objects of admiration, but of pity: it is Tragic in its plot, and Epic in its dress and machinery…" (p. xxvi). Later on in his argumentation, Wilkie goes farther, asserting that the "author of Paradise Lost has offended notoriously", and that "tho' no encomiums are too great for him as a poet, he is justly chargeable with impiety, for presuming to represent the Divine Nature, and the mysteries of religion, according to the narrowness of human prejudices; his dialogues between the Father and the Son; his employing a Being of infinite wisdom in discussing the subtleties of school divinity; the sensual views which he gives of the happiness of heaven …" (p. xxviii). Wilkie's claims did not go unanswered. They were rebutted heatedly, and Milton was defended warmly, in an anonymous tract titled A Critical Essay on the Epigoniad wherein the Author's Horrid Abuse of Milton is Examined (Edinburgh, 1757). Wilkie's Epigoniad was also reviewed widely in the periodicals of the time. This copy of the first edition of Wilkie's Epigoniad (1757) has relevant and pleasing provenance. The signature "Thos. Zouch" at the top margin of the title-page is that of a poet and critic contemporary with Wilkie: the brilliant Cantabrigian scholar and poet Thomas Zouch (1737-1815), who wrote extensively about several of the great poets and writers of the English language, including Sir Philip Sidney, Izaak Walton, John Donne and George Herbert. Zouch had just attained his scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, when The Epigoniad came out, and he would remain at the university until 1770. At one point Pitt considered him for "the mastership of Trinity College in 1798" (DNB), but William Lort Mansel was ultimately elected instead. The armorial bookplate in this copy of The Epigoniad, with crest above and cypher initials below, enclosed in an oval border of linked tulips, appears not to be in Howe's 3-volume catalogue Franks Bequest. The cypher initials look like "P. L.", but are more likely "J. L.", "T. L.", or "T. Z." It cannot escape notice that Thomas Zouch's initials are "T. Z." Whether or not this is the bookplate of Thomas Zouch I cannot say for certain, but it must be interesting that the only other specimen of the bookplate of which I know is on a book from 1768 (it is in private hands), and that volume, too, has the signature of Thomas Zouch on the title-page.

Keywords: poetry association copy literature Scottish Enlightenment


See more books from our catalog: Poetry