The thimble. An heroi-comical poem. In four cantos. Dedicated to Miss Anna Maria Woodford. Canto the First and Second.
London.
Printed for J. Roberts, 1743.
First edition.
Folio.
16pp. Disbound. Title page lightly creased and dust-soiled, some loss to gutter margin, inked author attribution above imprint.
The first edition of the first published work of Church of England clergyman William Hawkins (1721-1801), a satirical poem written in obvious imitation of Pope's Rape of the Lock (1714) and dedicated to Miss Anna-Maria Woodford, 'the compleatest housewife in Europe'. As stated by the title, only the first two cantos, of a planned four, are present; the third and fourth first appeared in the 1744 revision of the text, with the addition of a new opening line for the first canto ('What art divine the shining thimble found'). The poem was reissued in an expanded five-canto version, with notes of explanation by Scriblerus Secundus, in his Works of 1758.
ESTC T75201.
£ 100.00
Antiquates Ref: 21259