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The English Spy An Original Work Characteristic, Satirical, And Humorous. Comprising Scenes And Sketches In Every Rank Of Society, Being Portraits Drawn From The Life By: C. M. (Charles Molloy) Westmacott (1788?-1868) |
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ENGLISH SPY: An Original Work CHARACTERISTIC, SATIRICAL, AND HUMOROUS. COMPRISING SCENES AND SKETCHES IN EVERY RANK OF SOCIETY, BEING PORTRAITS DRAWN FROM THE LIFE BY BERNARD BLACKMANTLE. THE ILLUSTRATIONS DESIGNED BY ROBERT CRUIKSHANK. By Frolic, Mirth, and Fancy gay, Old Father Time is borne away. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, JONES, AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW. 1825. [Illustration: Cover] [Illustration: Frontispiece] [Illustration: Titlepage]
BERNARD BLACKMANTLE{} TO THE REVIEWERS. "But now, what Quixote of the age would care
To wage a war with dirt, and fight with air?" Messieurs the Critics, After twelve months of agreeable toil, made easy by unprecedented
success, the period has at length arrived when your high mightinesses
will be able to indulge your voracious appetites by feeding and
fattening on the work of death. Already does my prophetic spirit picture
to itself the black cloud of cormorants, swelling and puffing in the
fulness of their editorial pride, at the huge eccentric volume which
has thus thrust itself into extensive circulation without the usual
cringings and cravings to the pick fault tribe . But I dare defy the venal crew that prates,
From tailor Place to fustian Herald Thwaites.{}
The woolly editor of the Breeches Makers', alias the
"Westminster Review." The thing who writes the leaden (leading) articles for
the Morning Herald. Let me have good proof of your greediness to devour my labours, and I
will dish up such a meal for you in my next volume, as shall go nigh to
produce extermination by surfeit . One favour, alone, I crave give me
abuse enough; let no squeamish pretences of respect for my bookseller,
or disguised qualms of apprehension for your own sacred persons, deter
the natural inclination of your hearts. The slightest deviation
from your usual course to independent writers or one step towards
commendation from your gang , might induce the public to believe I
had abandoned my character , and become one of your honourable
fraternity the very suspicion of which would (to me) produce
irretrievable ruin. Your masters , the trading brotherhood , will (as
usual) direct you in the course you should pursue; whether to approve or
condemn, as their 'peculiar interests may dictate. Most sapient sirs
of the secret bandit' of the screen, inquisitors of literature, raise
all your arms and heels , your daggers, masks , and hatchets , to
revenge the daring of an open foe , who thus boldly defies your base
and selfish views ; for, basking at his ease in the sunshine of public
patronage, he feels that his heart is rendered invulnerable to your
poisoned shafts . Read, and you shall find I have not been parsimonious
of the means to grant you food and pleasure : errors there are, no
doubt, and plenty of them, grammatical and typographical, all of which
I might have corrected by an errata at the end of my volume; but I
disdain the wish to rob you of your office, and have therefore left them
just where I made them, without a single note to mark them out; for if
all the thistles were rooted up , what would become of the asses? or
of those "Who pin their easy faith on critic's sleeve,
And, knowing nothing, ev'ry thing believe?" Fully satisfied that swarms of literary blow flies will pounce upon
the errors with delight, and, buzzing with the ecstasy of infernal joy,
endeavour to hum their readers into a belief of the profundity of their
critic erudition; I shall nevertheless, with Churchill, laughingly
exclaim "Perish my muse" "If e'er her labours weaken to refine
The generous roughness of a nervous line." Bernard Blackmantle.
CONTENTS. Page
INTRODUCTION 3 PREFACE, IN IMITATION OF THE FIRST SATIRE OF
PERSIUS 5 REFLECTIONS, ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO CAN
THINK... Continue reading book >>
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