Grub-Street satirist and publican, Ned Ward’s set of military characters, including ‘A Spy’, bound together with an incomplete set of his more common naval characters - 1709 and 1708.
Contemporary panelled calf with two spine labels and remains of an overlaid morocco label to the second compartment. Skilful repair to the head and tail of the spine and strengthening of the corners. Pencil marks to the front pastedown; no flyleaf. Mars Stript appears second in the book, collating complete [12] pp108 (ESTC T62093); The Wooden World, 2nd edition, 1708 (ESTC T62083) comes first: [12] pp 1-36; 61-108 - lacking the C gathering. A few light pencil marks but both texts are essentially unmarked; paper showing toning throughout. PROVENANCE: Written on the rear pastedown: ‘Joe Lewis 141 Southgate Road, Potters-Bar, 1938. Found in the ruins of an old castle in the loft covered over with rags and dust.’ Alas, the castle’s name is not revealed! ($2,400)
Ned Ward (1667-1731) travelled to Jamaica in 1697 which inspired his early publications A Trip to Jamaica (1697) and A Trip to New England (1699) before adapting the ‘trip’ format to satirical depictions of London with which he filled his London Spy, racy anecdotes, verse and all. This satirical vein is exploited in these two publications in which he placed 17th century character writing into a particular locale and brought it vividly to life, here in his character of a spy: ‘The frequent Executions he sees of his Friends, and his Enemies, that are Brothers of the Trade, make just the same Impression on him, as a Hanging-day upon a Pick-pocket... both mind their Business in the fatal Hour, and the one steals your Money at such a Time, and the other your Secrets.’ (p68) Sales of Ward’s books were strong not only at home but in North America: so much so that Cotton Mather in 1726 warned his readers against 'such Pestilences, and indeed all those worse than Egyptian Toads (the Spawns of a Butler, and a Brown, and a Ward...)' Pope also denounced him in the Dunciad apparatus as an ‘ale-house keeper’ - intended as an insult but actually a statement of fact.
