University of Virginia Library

II

Identifying the various components of the controversy surrounding Johnson's role in the translation of the Commentary has been the first step; sorting out the chronological and textual relationships of the various translations of Crousaz is the next. Confusion surrounds the dates of publication of both the Examination and the Commentary. As Johnson points out in his letter

of 21 or 22 November 1738, in a controversy such as that surrounding Pope's Essay on Man "the names of the Authours concerned are of more weight in the performance than its own intrinsick merit," thus "the Publick will be soon satisfied with it." To make a profit from the controversy it was necessary for Cave to publish the two works in a timely fashion and forestall any rivals, neither of which he managed to do.

It is not known when Cave and Johnson decided to publish translations of Crousaz's two attacks on the Essay on Man, but Carter apparently began work on the translation of the Examen by late summer 1738, as it is difficult to imagine Cave making a preliminary announcement of its publication without some copy in hand. The translation of the Examen was announced in the Daily Advertiser for 9 September 1738 and in the London Evening Post for 7-9 September as in the press; a similar advertisement appeared at the end of the "Register of Books" in the Gentleman's Magazine for September 1738 (8:496):

Perhaps a preliminary announcement was deemed necessary because a rumor of a rival publication had reached St. John's Gate but, if so, a search of the newspapers and magazines has not uncovered an advertisement for any publication Cave might have felt the need to preempt. In any case, what occurred during the next ten weeks is something of a mystery. In a letter of 26 September 1738 to his daughter, Nicholas Carter suggests one explanation. He expresses satisfaction with Johnson's praise of the translation but frustration with Cave's lack of progress in printing the work: "That will, I suppose, please Cave; but is not sufficient it seems, to make him hasten the Press. . . . Dilatoriness is an inseparable Part of his Constitution."[24] This letter suggests that Elizabeth Carter had completed her share of the work on the translation before 26 September and was only awaiting its appearance in print.

But before Cave could publish Carter's translation of the Examen, Edmund Curll advertised on 21 November a translation by Charles Forman of Crousaz's Commentaire:

The news of Curll's publication caused a flurry at St. John's Gate. Cave apparently wrote to Johnson seeking his advice and the letter of 21 or 22 November is his response:

Cave followed Johnson's advice and on 23 November in the Daily Advertiser appeared the following advertisement, perhaps written by Johnson:

Before proceeding it is necessary to know something of the makeup of the book, which may be described as follows:

• AN | EXAMINATION | OF | Mr POPE's Essay ON MAN. | Translated from the French of | M. CROUSAZ, | Member of the Royal Academies of | Sciences at Paris and Bourdeaux; and Pro-|fessor of Philosophy and Mathematics at | Lausanne. | [single rule] | [printers' ornament] | [single rule] | LONDON: | Printed for A. Dodd, at the Peacock, without | Temple-Bar. M.DCC.XXXIX.
• Collation: 12° in 6s (160 x 95 mm.): A6 (-A2; A3 as 'A2') B6 (±B5) C6 (±C1) D6 (±D3) E-F6 G6 (±G4, G6) H-U6. Title page, i-viii Preface, 1-227 text, 228 In the Press, Translated likewise from the French of Mr Crousaz. A COMMENTARY. . . .
• Typography: Catchwords ii them∧] ˜. 24 the] as 59 Sounds∧] ˜, 61 short∧] ˜, 63 duction] tion 78 ∧IT] "˜ 98 [catchword NERO below footnote rather than above] 114 HE] He 148 lead] ead 180 does∧] ˜: 211 pos-] their 212 be] lose 214 for∧] or,
• Press figures: None.
• Paper: Crown with "WB" and fleur-de-lys with "IV." Like Heawood nos. 1073 and 1706.[27]
• Notes: The chain line patterns reveal that, in the five-leaf gathering A, leaf 2 has been deleted and leaf 3 signed 'A2'. That the signing is right for the gathering as it finally appears seems to indicate that the cancellation was planned. One replacement for a leaf cancelled elsewhere in the volume, therefore, may originally have been printed as leaf A2, with the remaining four cancel leaves printed as a unit.[28] The copy at Yale is Elizabeth Carter's own, with the inscription in her hand "E Libris Eliza Carter." It descended to her nephew, executor, and biographer, the Reverend Montagu Pennington, who has written his name on the flyleaf and added an ascription to E. Carter on the title page.
• Copies: CSmH, CSt, CtY, ICU, IU, MeB, MiU, NbU, NjP, NIC, PPL, TxU, ViU, David L. Vander Meulen; L (2), LeU, O

Because Johnson's letter of 21 or 22 November suggests that Cave's Commentary had little chance of appearing soon, the announcement of 23 November in the Daily Advertiser seems an attempt to ward off the competition by arguing a prior claim, at least for the Commentary: "Where may speedily be had, having been some Weeks in the Press." Johnson himself used a similar ploy a month earlier for the History of the Council of Trent when he wrote on 20 October 1738 to the Daily Advertiser, "It is generally agreed, that when any person has inform'd the world by advertisements, that he is engag'd in a design of this kind, to snatch the hint and supplant the first undertaker, is mean and disingenuous."[29] When Cave reprinted the advertisement of 23 November for the Examination and the Commentary in the 24 November Daily Advertiser, he inserted as the second line the description "Beautifully printed, Price Two Shillings sew'd", and he tried to ward off the threat from Curll by noting: "N.B. The Commentary of Mr. Pope's four Epistles publish'd by Mr. Curll, Price 1 s. 6 d. goes no further than the first Epistle."[30] Curll countered in the Daily Advertiser of 25 November by revising the opening of his advertisement and adding a note of his own: "This Day is publish'd, (With The Essay on Man inserted) Price but 1 s. 6 d. MR. FORMAN's Translation of A Commentary. . . . N.B. We shall pursue M. Crousaz in his Attacks upon Mr. Pope regularly, but not precipitately, without regarding whatever comes from Mrs. Dodd, who is only a Screen for anonymous Persons and Performances. E. Curll." Mrs. Dodd, it is curious to note, is among the booksellers and publishers listed in Curll's advertisement of 21 November.[31] In the Daily Advertiser for 27 November, Cave's advertisement appears as the second item and Curll's as the third item from the top of a left-hand column, allowing the reader to compare conveniently the two offerings.

As will be argued below, it is unlikely that Cave was able to ready the Examination for publication on 23 November, two days after Curll announced his publication of the Commentary on 21 November. Thomas Birch, because of his close relationship with Carter at the time, must have received one of the first complete copies of the Examination, and likely wrote his note of praise to her immediately. Therefore, Monday, 27 November, the date of Birch's note, would very probably be the first day the book was available.[32]

The Examination was now published, but what was the status of Johnson's Commentary? There is no evidence that Cave thought of abandoning the Commentary; instead he continued to spar with Curll. The advertisement for the Commentary on the verso of the last leaf of the Examination, taken from the announcement in the Daily Advertiser of 23 November—"In the Press, Translated likewise from the French of Mr Crousaz. A COMMENTARY. . . . French, for the Use of those who do not understand that Language, or are newly engaged in it"—argues for the superiority of Cave's publication. Cave needed to establish both that he was the first to have the idea of publishing Crousaz's two attacks on the Essay on Man and that he alone was making available not only the Examination but also the complete Commentary. Curll's initial announcement in the Daily Advertiser and his general threat to continue to pursue Crousaz was serious enough, but on acquiring a copy of Curll's publication Cave and Johnson discovered from the end of his Preface that Curll was proceeding with his translation: "The Commentary of Monsieur De Crousaz upon Mr Pope's Second Epistle is in the Press; and in the Conclusion of this Work will be subjoined the various Readings of its several Editions, with Remarks thereon" (x). This volume never appeared and Forman died 28 April 1739.[33] In fact, unknown apparently to Cave and Johnson, Forman's translation of the first epistle was not selling well; it was reissued by Curll, without the title page and Preface, in Miscellanies In Prose and Verse, By the Honourable Lady Margaret Penny-man in December 1740.[34]

Johnson, then, in spite of threats from Curll, continued to press on with his translation of Crousaz's Commentaire, even though for all Cave and Johnson knew Curll and Forman were hard at work preparing the second epistle of their Commentary for publication. It must have been in late November or early December 1738 that Johnson made his heroic effort to complete the Commentary and translated "six sheets," or at least a substantial amount, in one day. Exactly when he completed his translation is unknown. He presumably finished it in the winter of 1738-39, but certainly in time to have it printed with 1739 on the title page. No announcement of its publication has been discovered, suggesting that it was never published. It appears to have been withdrawn in order to privilege Elizabeth Carter's Examination, and the only known copy of the Commentary with "Printed for A. Dodd" and

"M.dcc.xxxix" in the imprint once belonged to Carter.[35] Cave, for reasons now obscure, stored the work for three years. Then in November 1741, the 1739 title page was cancelled and replaced by a bifolium containing the 1742 title page with Cave's name in the imprint and an Errata listing three errors discovered by Johnson.[36] The work was advertised in the November 1741 issue of the Gentleman's Magazine (11:614) and in the Scots Magazine of the same month. Johnson's prediction that "the Publick will be soon satisfied" proved correct. In an attempt to clear Cave's warehouse, Johnson puffed the work in a two-part essay in the Gentleman's Magazine for March and November 1743. The book did not sell well, and Cave was still advertising it as late as 1753.[37]