Scribleriana Transferred: Acquisitions, 2006–2009: Part Two

241 makes works like The Holy War and The Pilgrim’s Progress so interesting. Mr. Runyon’s argument that ‘‘victory is impossible when man acts in his own strength and according to his own will; . . . victory is inevitable when man acts in obedience and conforms his will to guidance from the Holy Spirit’’ may persuade the devout, but it will never work with any philosopher. And we might wonder why it should be the task of a literary commentator to ‘‘save the phenomena’’ of his religion anyway. The biblical scholarship notwithstanding , the final effect of a study such as this is to diminish Bunyan. Like any author, he is of his time, but that does not mean his work cannot transcend that, or what to later generations may appear as rather narrow concerns. If ever there was an author who has proved that his work goes well beyond his intentions, it is Bunyan. Stuart Sim University of Sunderland SCRIBLERIANA TRANSFERRED: ACQUISITIONS, 2006–2009: PART ONE James E. May • Last summer the Clark Memorial Library purchased from Christopher Edwards an autograph letter signed (‘‘J.A.’’) from Joseph Addison to Richard Steele (greeted as ‘‘Dear Dick’’), and dated ‘‘Malmesbury March 4th 1709/10,’’ 2 pp. of text with integral blank endorsed by Steele, ‘‘Mr. Addison 兩 March 4th.’’ Rebecca Fenning, manuscripts librarian at the Clark Library, reports that the letter (MS.2008.016), measuring 21 ⫻ 16.5 cm, has chain-lines running cross-wise and a watermark of the arms of Amsterdam; also the letter’s second page ‘‘has been neatly remargined with modern paper.’’ This autograph is a rarity justifying our survey: it is one of the very few recorded letters exchanged by Addison and Steele and is largely unpublished by Rae Blanchard (The Correspondence of Richard Steele, 1941). Calhoun Winton, Steele’s biographer, who will be publishing an edited transcript, writes that the letter was sold at Sotheby’s in 1920 from the Blenheim collection. Apparently, it is the only letter with Addison’s response to and advice concerning the Tatler. According to Peter Smithers, Addison was in Malmesbury from around 21 February, hoping to enter Parliament in the seat of Captain Henry Mordaunt, then dying of smallpox, his death being announced in the newspapers of 24 February. Following Addison’s election 11 March, he soon resumed his own contributions to the Tatler (16 March). Smithers cites Addison’s letter to Steele of 4 March in locating Addison, noting that it ‘‘approve[d] his Tatler upon courtship’’ (The Life of Joseph Addison, 2nd ed. [1968], p. 177–79; referencing the letter, ‘‘Blenheim MSS. Cat. item F.I.89’’). The letter begins, ‘‘I am much obliged to you for ye Letters relating to Sacheverell, having just now received that of the 2d. Instant.’’ There follows a second paragraph on the Tatler, discussing topics treated, in part by letters to Bickerstaff, in No. 140 (2 March): ‘‘I very much liked your last paper upon the Courtship that is usually pay’d to the fair sex. I wish you had reserved the Letter in this days paper concerning Indecencies at Church for an Entire piece. It wd have made as good as one as any you have published. Your reflections upon Almanza are very good.’’ (The last sen- 242 tence apparently refers to remarks in No. 140 about a scheme to care for children of deceased veterans; one of the children’s fathers died at Almanza. Addison’s main intent in the letter seems to be the request or reminder in the next paragraph: ‘‘I am something troubled that you have not sent away ye Letters received from Ireland to [2nd page] my L. Lieutenant . . . with the Enclosed petition about the Light-House.’’ The letter ends with the postscript, ‘‘Pray send the Enclosed to my Lady Warwicks House to be left for ye young Lord.’’ • In the Spring 2008 issue of The [UCLA] Center & Clark Newsletter (47: 1–2), Bruce Whiteman announced the acquisition of an ‘‘uncensored and unrevised text, with cuts and rewritten passages’’ of Charles Gildon’s The Patriot, or the Italian Conspiracy (1703), an adaptation of Nathaniel Lee’s Lucius Junius Brutus, a play banned in 1680. In this middle stage between...