Mr. Lintott, ſome time ſince,
intending to Reprint my Poems, deſir’d me to permit him to add to
’em a Dialogue I had in the Year 1700, written on a Sermon preach’d by
Mr. Sprint, a Non-Conformist, at
Sherbourn in Dorſetſhire: I refuſing,
for ſeveral Reaſons, to grant his Request, he, without my Knowledge, bought
the Copy of the Bookſeller who formerly Printed it, and, without my Conſent,
or once acquainting me with his Reſolution, added it to the Second Edition of
my Poems: and that which makes the Injury the greater, is, his having omitted
both the Epiſtle Dedicatory and the Preface; by which
means, he has left the Reader wholly in the Dark, and expos’d me to Cenſure.
This paragraph expresses Chudleigh’s genuine alarm at
the piracy of her work, but it is also somewhat formulaic; the chain of
events she rehearses is a variant on a stock narrative often offered by
female authors as an excuse for the appearance of their work in public.
Bernard Lintott (December 1, 1675 - February 9, 1736),
English publisher.
Not identified.
In a letter to her sister in which she quoted this
passage, Chudleigh mentioned an omitted Appendix as well; however,
this has never been found.
Sherbourne, a market town in northwest Dorset, England
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