Very old books that are possibly comedy/satire

I have this book "Fifty years' correspondence, Inglish, French, and Latin, in proze and verse; between geniusses ov boath sexes, and James Elphinston: in eight pocket-vollumes....Volume 7.'

Printed by Ritchardson, et al. London. 1794. Front cover and first endpaper are detached, about top third of spine leather is mssing, otherwise binding is solid and textblock is clean. Bookplate of "H. Scofield, Library" on front endpaper.

I cannot tell if its supposed to be a comedy or not. I wrote to Adam the bookseller from Pawn Stars if he ever found old books that eventually turned out to be comedy/ satire but not appearing to be from the start, and he wrote me a nice letter back asking me to send some photos to him. Haven't heard back from him yet.

I'll post some pages but not sure how easy it will be to read them.

It may be necessary to right click save and then look at in image editor.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Elphinston

 

The spelling is not something I've encountered. The use of "d" for "t", when "t" is available, is strange to me. The "f" looking "s" is standard for the time but near to the end of that practice.

 

Thanks. That link doesn't list this book in his bibliography. It should probably be changed.

 

My opinion:

The spelling is consistent, so whoever was setting the type was either using some convention I've never encountered or, if working from manuscript letters, misreading the writing. I don't know how true it was, but typesetters were supposed to work letter for letter, not setting a text. Theoretically, you could be a brilliant typesetter and totally illiterate (that might even have been a plus).

 

Elphinston, James (1721–1809), educationist and advocate of spelling reform

According to this link the work began as "Forty years' correspondence between geniusses ov boath sexes, and James Elphinston..." it consists of 6 volumes, the 7th and 8 volumes are titled "Fifty years'..."
https://archive.org/details/fortyyearscorre00unkngoog

Biography ...
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Elphinston,_James

 

So maybe the spelling here is his own idiosyncratic approach, I would guess trying a more phonetic style.

Noah Webster tried to rationalize spelling, but his first dictionary was 1806. Maybe he was influenced by Elfinston.

 

The 5th paragraph speaks of Elphinston's role in spelling.
https://bahai-library.com/books/lango/lang30.html

More about his role.
https://www.researchgate.net/public..._Spelling_Reformers_of_the_Eighteenth_Century

 

From my ad copy:
The Samuel Johnson connection is interesting for Johnson's reputation as a lexicographer. Also, Johnson is known for his satirical humor, which perhaps was another reason why these two were friends -- if this is indeed written with a humorous bent in mind. Johnson vouched for Elphinston's character.

 

A bit tricky to read until one gets the 'jist' of it all!!!!

 

The one place I saw this, in a Q&D reading, was when 'th' was voiced, as in 'this' & 'that.' Gives it a Welsh look, presumably in use in Scotland at the time. Can you spot a place where 'dh' is used for 'th', as in thistle?

 

It occurs regularly: "Though" becomes "dho", "the" becomes "dhe", "then" becomes "dhen". Lower case "s" is frequently replaced with "z", "of" becomes "ov"... lots of suchlike.

 

Slowly morphing into Dutch.

 

The DNB entry is interesting as to the background of this item.