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143 lany’s prose works and thus to the broader reaches of this literary career. Begun with Mr. Hogan as its editor, the project was taken up by Mr. Mell after Mr. Hogan’s death in 1999. The completed edition includes Mr. Hogan’s Introduction, his notes to the individual poems, his Bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and his list of Delany ’s prose works. Mr. Mell has added a Preface and fleshed out the Introduction with notes and a bibliography; he has also supplemented Mr. Hogan’s notes to individual poems. The result is a wealth of information, unfortunately not always graceful. Scholars will appreciate the manuscript and publishing histories of these poems and their interlocking notes. However, the usually short and visually accommodating poems are sometimes overwhelmed by the lengthy and occasionally convoluted scholarly apparatus. At the risk of recalling Swift’s surly dog at the feast, one might wish for a different arrangement . Focusing on the years between 1720 and 1730, the period during which Delany produced most of his poems, Messrs. Hogan and Mell expand our knowledge of one of eighteenth-century Ireland’s more accomplished poets and a small but vital part of his cultural milieu . Lila Miranda Graves University of Alabama at Birmingham The New Foundling Hospital for Wit, ed. Donald W. Nichol. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2006. 3 volumes. Pp. 1408. $495. Reviving the spirit of Scriblerian satire at its most outrageous, The New Foundling Hospital for Wit ran to six parts or volumes from 1768 to 1773. By turns clever, scurrilous, and bawdy, this collection was wildly popular in its own day, but has long been overlooked if not forgotten. Now, however, Mr. Nichol’s scholarly three-volume set makes the full run of this important collection of British satire widely accessible. The New Foundling was a ‘‘bastion of bastard literature’’ compiled by the radical bookseller John Almon at a time when legal difficulties prohibited him from publishing his usual fare, political tracts for the opposition. For this reason , as I have argued elsewhere, Almon turned to literary representation, assembling some of the eighteenth century’s most scathing and popular satires, parodies , imitations, and lampoons. These works served as an alternative outlet for political expression. In his general Introduction, Mr. Nichol plausibly argues that although Almon edited the The New Foundling anonymously , he did not do so alone. Almon’s friend, the notorious rake and ‘‘George III’s devil incarnate,’’ John Wilkes, was not only a contributor, but also a collaborator , helping Almon select and, perhaps , solicit material. The neglect of The New Foundling is of special concern since it includes little-known or forgotten works by major figures including Milton, Pope, Congreve , Churchill, Chesterfield, Lyttelton, Garrick, Johnson, Walpole, Gray, and, of course, Wilkes himself. Although their contributions were outweighed by those of men, women were represented by the likes of Carter, Montagu, and Lennox. In fact, Almon and Wilkes may have made a special effort to include women, if the demand for equality in one anonymous poem in the collection is any indication: ‘‘Then equal laws let custom find. . . . / More freedom grant 144 to woman-kind / Or give to mankind less.’’ Like its forerunner, The Foundling Hospital for Wit (1743–1749), the new miscellany united the ‘‘satiric collaboration of the Scriblerians’’ with the political agenda of the opposition. Published on the brink of the American Revolution with a view toward influencing its course, Almon’s collection disseminates social commentary and political ideas in Scriblerian satire. Perhaps because Almon preserved literature notable for its timeliness rather than its timelessness, the objects of the scandalous, satiric attacks are no longer easily recognized. As Mr. Nichol suggests , one reason for the neglect of this literature is the ‘‘time-and-place-limited nature of satire itself.’’ By ignoring such work, however, we may have been missing some of what was most representative of eighteenth-century life and literature . After all, Mr. Nichol suggests, Swift warned Pope that even his contemporaries living a distance from London would find it difficult to understand topical references in The Dunciad. Mr. Nichol literally fills in the blanks (for example, W—kes for Wilkes), which were used to avoid libel...

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