University of Virginia Library

The Publication Of Steele's Conscious Lovers
by
Rodney M. Baine

The accessible accounts concerning the publication of Sir Richard Steele's Conscious Lovers are confused and conflicting. These accounts should be clarified, not only because the date of publication is generally incorrectly given but especially because in his interesting current biography Willard Connely unintentionally reflected upon Steele's honesty by showing Sir Richard selling to Lintot rights which he had already sold to the Tonsons:

Although Steele desperately needed cash, he did not sell the same copyright to both the Tonsons and Lintot. Instead, Lintot paid these sums

to the Tonsons, not to Steele.[2] In publishing The Conscious Lovers, Steele dealt only with the Tonsons. In the original agreement he assigned the play to Jacob Tonson, Jr., in return for £40 "in hand" and "divers other good Causes and Consideracions":

That these "divers other good Causes and Consideracions" were not a previous money payment seems probable, for in a Chancery pleading of December, 1722, Tonson deposed that for the copyright of The Conscious Lovers he had paid Steele £40 "and other valuable considerations."[4] Had Tonson made previous cash payments it would have been to his advantage to cite them. But by the spring of 1722 Steele must have reached some tentative understanding with Tonson, for on 1 March 1722 Lintot had agreed with Tonson for "the Half of Sir R. Steele's Comedy that was to be published," and paid him £25.[5]

A few days after he purchased the copyright from Steele, Tonson on 26 October 1722 made an "assignment" to Lintot of "the Half of the Conscious

Lovers, for £70."[6] These two transactions between Lintot and Tonson are somewhat puzzling, especially since according to Aitken, "In February, 1718, Lintot entered into an agreement with Tonson to be equally concerned in all the plays they should buy after eighteen months following the date of agreement." This £70, or £95,[7] seems rather a high price for a partner to pay for his half of a copyright purchased from the author for £40 and undefined considerations. Moreover, it seems unlikely that the £70 was payment for half the copies of the printed play. Lintot's notation "An Assignment for the Half of the Conscious Lovers" is not the usual notation for half a printing; and surely Tonson did not rush the play through the press in six days, then withhold publication for more than a month. Although Steele probably exacted a promise that publication should be delayed until after the first run of the play, the opening performance was scheduled for Novemver 7. An additional indication that the play could hardly have been printed by October 26 is the fact that in his Preface and his Dedication to the King, Steele announced with pride that his play had been "supported and encouraged" and "received with universal Acceptance, for it was in every Part excellently performed."

But the actual agreement between Lintot and Tonson, as ambiguously recorded by Lintot, was "to be equally concerned in all the Plays they should buy, Eighteen Months following the above Date [16 February, 1718]." Evidently their blanket agreement had lapsed by 1722, and the original £25 paid Tonson as an "Agreement for the Half of Sir R. Steele's Comedy" was a preliminary and partial payment. On October 26, as Lintot's memorandum book shows, Tonson and Lintot reached a final agreement about The Conscious Lovers.[8]

On the last day of the phenomenal run of eighteen successive performances, ending 27 November 1722, The Conscious Lovers was finally announced for publication on December 1, and it duly appeared on that day,[9] although with a title-page post-dated 1723.

The Epilogue actually spoken at the performance was prefixed to the second edition of Benjamin Victor's An Epistle to Sir Richard Steele, on his Play called The Conscious Lovers, published 4 December 1722, and was printed four days later in The British Journal.[10] It has probably never been printed with the play.

Of their edition of "many thousand," "a good part" had been sold when the publishers were threatened with a piratical edition. This edition, advertised for 8 December 1722, was, according to Tonson, to be sold by Francis Clifton, Robert Tooke, John Lightbody, and Susanna Collins. Their ventures were indeed not above suspicion. Clifton was a Catholic, and the other three were classed by Negus among the High Fliers, or Jacobites. All except "Lightbody" (or Lightboy), and possibly even he, printed in the Old Bailey. Clifton was continually in trouble for printing attacks against the government.[11] However Susanna Collins was, according to her quondam employee Thomas Gent, a good hearted "ancient gentlewoman."[12] Immediately instituting proceedings in Chancery Court, Tonson deposed that he

had obtained the copyright from Steele by deed-poll on October 20 and had duly entered his copy in the Stationers' Register. Yet Clifton and Susanna Collins had "procured or bought one of the printed copies of the Comedy, and had caused several copies to be printed without consent." Under the Copyright Act of 8 Queen Anne he prayed for an injunction. This he obtained on 11 December 1722, after Tooke alone answered proceedings and denied complicity.[13]

But piratical editions from other sources Tonson could not prevent. In December there appeared at Dublin an octavo edition.[14] Another edition dated 1723 was published by "T. Johnson: London,"[15] and a duodecimo edition for the same year is listed by Nicoll.[16] Despite these piracies printed outside the publishers' reach, however, Tonson and Lintot did not lose by their venture. One of the most popular plays of its day, The Conscious Lovers by 1791 reached its fifteenth edition.