Scribleriana Transferred, 2003–2005: Manuscripts and Books at Auction and in Dealers’ Catalogues

83 spirits? What is the temporal and eternal place and function of the soul? Running throughout is Locke’s deep concern with the chain of being on the one hand and, on the other, with the goal of happiness in this life and the next—the latter in relation to morality and divine judgment. In several places Mr. Yolton provokes the reviewer’s responses. First, of Locke he declares that ‘‘his Christianity was minimalist (a belief in Jesus as the Messiah and a few other notions).’’ Certainly Locke, seeking common ground in sectarian times, regarded the specified doctrine as the minimum qualifying belief to entitle a person to the name ‘‘Christian’’; but he did not think that this was all that there was to be believed; and since he himself believed in a good deal more than this, ‘‘his Christianity’’ was more doctrinally robust than Mr. Yolton implies . Secondly, Mr. Yolton claims not to know whether Locke, given his aversion to enthusiasm, believed in legitimate divine inspiration of individuals. At the very least Locke could not deny the possibility (Essay, IV.xix.5). Thirdly, on Locke’s claim that from the notion of ‘‘an eternal, most powerful, and most knowing Being’’ all of God’s other attributes may be deduced, Mr. Yolton remarks , ‘‘He does not say what additional attributes could be deduced.’’But Locke, living at a time of fairly intense confessional debate, could probably assume that his readers were aware of lengthy lists of God’s so-called communicable and incommunicable attributes, these being understood as having been revealed to us. Perhaps the most provocative question of all: Does Locke really ‘‘inhabit’’ two intellectual worlds—the material and the spiritual, or one world, some parts of the terrain of which are less accessible to us and therefore less confidently mapped by, and accessible to, our reason than others? Mr. Yolton declares that ‘‘The two intellectual worlds of John Locke are closely linked.’’ But given Locke’s concern for morality, judgment, immortality, and happiness, are they not, in his mind, inseparable? The pedantry of one who toiled through Hebrew is provoked on p. 86, where the final s’s should be dropped from the already plural ‘‘cherubim’’ and ‘‘seraphim.’’ Will this book provoke irritation or dismay? Probably only in those philosophers who, when gazing into the Lockean pool, expect to see reflections of their hard-nosed empiricist selves, and are discomfited by a Locke encumbered with angels, spirits, and suchlike. Alan P. F. Sell Milton Keynes SCRIBLERIANA TRANSFERRED, 2003–2005: MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS AT AUCTION AND IN DEALERS’ CATALOGUES James E. May • Perhaps the most important sale during 2003–2005 was Sotheby’s, for £45,600, of the only known copy of Rochester’s Sodom on 16 December 2004, describing it as ‘‘the apparently unique extant copy of one of the most notorious publications in English literature.’’ The catalogue adds, ‘‘It is the rarest piece of early English pornog- 84 raphy on record. Except for one destroyed in the 1830s, no printed copy [of any edition ] since the early 1700s has ever been recorded’’ (p. 47). Along with the first two pages of Act 1 (pp. 8–9), Sotheby’s reproduced the full title: ‘SODOM, 兩 OR THE 兩 Gentleman Instructed. 兩 A 兩 COMEDY. 兩 By the E. of R. 兩兩 Mentula cum Vulva saepissime jungitur una, Duicius est mielles 兩 Vulvam fractare Puellae. 兩兩 [woodcut of cupid with bow, also used as final tail-piece] 兩 HAGUE: 兩 Printed in the Year 1000000.’ The octavo is 173 x 110 mm.; collates A-E8 F2 ; and is paginated [3], 43, [1] pp.; in cont. mottled calf. The catalogue notes the full contents, with ‘‘Epilogue Spoken by Cunticula ’’ on E4 (not accounting for E4v); ‘‘Eplogue [sic], Spoken by Fuckadilla’’ on F1-F2r, and, also on F2r, ‘‘Madam Swivia, in praise of her Cunt’’(F2v is blank). Sotheby also details the woodcut ornaments, and offers a summary and commentary on the farce, noting that the text ‘‘ conforms to the five act version edited by [Harold] Love from the main Princeton manuscript (though without that manuscript’s unique alternative continuation of Act II, scene ii and Act III, scene i: his pages 307–315). The textual variants are legion,’’ with stage...