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A Brief History of pre-20th Century Editions of A Tale Of A Tub

All of the information in the following comes from from Guthkelch & Smith's Introduction and Teerink's Bibliography (Dr. H. Teerink. A Bibliography of the Writings of Jonathan Swift. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963).

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667, of English parents, and died in October 1745. He probably first wrote the bulk A Tale Of A Tub as an apprentice under Sir William Temple (author of On Ancient and Modern Learning; `Ancient'; see Swift's "Battle of the Books") in 1696 or 1697. However, he did not publish the work until 1704. It was published anonymously, which was a fairly common practice for 18th century satirists and political writers.

Three `corrected' editions follow in 1704-05.

William Wotton's third addition of Reflections Upon Ancient and Modern LearningA Tale of a Tub.

Swift releases an edition of A Tale Of A Tub in 1710 with a great number of new notes, including several direct quotes from the "learned commentator" Wotton, an Apology to the Reader which Swift himself writes, as well as eight engravings.

Edmund Curll releases The Complete Key to the Tale Of The Tub in 1710.

Two `corrected' editions of Swift's 1710 text soon follow.

A 1720 edition appears, with the first text of The History of Martin, a sort of sequel. Also a 1724, 1727, 1734, 1739, 1743, in which there are minimal or no changes to the text. All told, 10 editions of the work appear in Swift's lifetime.

After Swift's death, separate publication of A Tale Of A Tub declines in favor of various "collected works." This is much the pattern for the next hundred years, and it has persisted until the current day...

The first Works of Jonathan Swift is published in four by George Faulkner in 1735. A 1738 edition follows. After Swift's death in 1745, a 1747 edition appears in 8 volumes. The next Works appears in 1763, initially in 11 volumes, and eventually in 20 (adding in letters and unpublished works).

John Hawkesworth's Works of Swift begins to appear in 1755, in six volumes. By 1768 (again, factoring in letters, etc.), it expands to thirteen volumes.

There are dozens of 19th century editions of Swift. Only two are notable for my purposes:

Sir Walter Scott edits a Works of Swift that appears in 1824.

Thomas Roscoe's 1850 edition crams the whole of Swift's work into two densely printed volumes.