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UNRECORDED BROADSIDE REFERENCING THE ODIHAM FIGHT

[MENDOZA, Daniel]. Brusing unmask'd. Being the Sum and Substance of the Odiham Riot in Moorfields, or a true Epitome of the Tragical Contest between Mendoza and Humphries; or, S. Oliver, (commonly call'd DEATH,) and CRAB, shewing how they painted each other.

[s.n., s.d., but c. 1790s].
Folio. Single leaf broadside, trimmed to text with title and sub-title separately trimmed, all mounted to later album sheet (with another apparently unrecorded broadside, unrelated ('Four potatoes'), similarly treated, tipped to verso), resulting in the loss of any imprint.
A remarkable survival of a likely late eighteenth-century broadside account of a fight 'between a Coalheaver and a Carman' in Moorfields, headed by a reference, which is apparently otherwise unrecorded - to the 'Odiham Riot' and specifically the 'Tragical Contest between Mendoza and Humphries', i.e. the second of three notorious Mendoza- Humphries bouts, which took place on January 9 1788 in front of 10,000 spectators, was disrupted by the blocking of a blow by Humphries second, the champion Tom Johnson, before eventually being forfeited by Mendoza's slipping on a wet ring-board.

The main body of the broadside refers to what otherwise seems to be a separate bout, witnessed by the author 'a few days ago crossing Moorfields', between two London deliverymen: 'one of the most stubborn battles...that perhaps ever was seen', and specifically refers to the professionally-influenced jargon that different spectators used to describe, or encourage, the boxers' efforts. Hence the blacksmith's speech is reported as 'Hammer away; nail him, ply briskly, my lad; make his anvil ring again', the shoemaker's as 'tan the dog's hide, curry him well...leather him well, the barber's as 'Lather away, Dick; shave him close...oil the dog's wig for him...dust him well...grind him to powder, that's the barber' etc. Whilst all of the aforementioned quotes also appeared in a published version of this text, found in The Comick Magazine (London, 1797, pp.50-52), credited to a 'Mr. Harrison' - i.e. the name of that work's publisher - there is in this version a telling additional spectator who specifically names Mendoza:

Jew.

Well done mine heartsh! gaul out hish
eyesh! och! dump him well! tip him Men-
dowsha! dare it ish! H------A------H.

Despite the condition, the rarity of this broadside reference of the most significant bouts of Despite the condition, the rarity of this broadside reference of the most significant bouts of renowned Jewish prize-fighting champion Daniel Mendoza (1734-1836) cannot be underestimated. Few ephemeral eighteenth-century boxing texts have survived at all; and whilst much of the main allegorical text of this production also appeared in elsewhere (as referenced above), we can locate no other examples of the heading linking the work to the Mendoza fight, nor indeed the addition of a reference to a Jew in the audience of the allegorical Moorfields fight, and indeed no recorded printed survival of this separate broadside version in ESTC, OCLC or COPAC.
Not in ESTC.
£ 3,750.00 Antiquates Ref: 29888