Beschreibung:

The Spectator.
London: for Messrs. Payne, Rivington, Davis [etc.], 1789. 8 vols. 8vo (218 x 131 mm.). Contemporary sprinkled calf gilt, spines gilt with red morocco gilt title labels and circular black morocco gilt numeral labels (that for vol. 3 a replacement; that for vol. 8 detached but present). Spines of vols. 2 and 8 with central vertical cracks, a few other joints partly cracked, some old repairs to joints and corners. Flyleaves in first three vols. detached. In a red morocco flap-top box within a pull-off red morocco gilt case by The French Binders. Condition: some leaves spotted. hester lunch thrale piozzi's copy with extensive autograph manuscript ink marginalia on 786 pages for a total of over 6,300 lines of varying breadth . Signed "H:L: Piozzi 1794" on front flyleaf of vol. 1 (detached). Piozzi was clearly an admiring and devoted reader of The Spectator , moved at one place to exclaim "Immortal Spectator, praised by the wisest, the wittiest, & the best & never praised enough" (vol. 2, p. 216). Alongside many passages she has added brief encomiums such as "Charming," "That's exquisitely pretty," or simply "Beautiful." Clearly, her extensive and careful annotations attest to multiple readings of this treasured edition from her library. Many of the marginalia are dated by specific years: 1794, 1795, 1796, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809 and 1812. In several places she has added elaborative comments upon her own marginalia of earlier epochs. Every entry is completely intact and legible throughout although the extreme edges of a very few letters have been ever so slightly touched by the binder's knife, indicating that she probably commissioned the binding soon after 1812. Samuel Johnson is referenced eight times in the marginalia. No. 163 contains a letter signed "Leonora," causing Piozzi to comment "Dr. Johnson wd. have said 'Put Leonora into a small retail Shop, & give her a young Child to tend; & She will soon forget her Lover & her Passion. Those who work for their Living says he, know no Sorrow when they can get their Bread [underlined]. Dr. Johnson recommended going to Work [underlined]; & said ye: hard Labour would cure all Affliction for Distresses of Sentiment [underlined]." (vol. 2, pp. 466 and 467). In no. 189, as a riposte to the view of siding with parents in controversies with their children "Dr. Johnson profess'd the direct Contrary--his immediate Prejudice was always in favour of the Young against the Old" (vol. 3, p. 123). Piozzi recollects, in no. 445, "the Luctus et Gaudia published on George the 3: d's Accession, there was a copy of Verses--an Epigram the Writer called it, composed in the Phoenician language, & its meaning Dr. Johnson told me, was simply this. George the second is dead--Jupiter & Juno mourn; George the third lives & reigns, Jupiter & Juno rejoyce." (vol. 7, p. 286). A supernatural narrative in no. 611 prompts her recollection "This very Tale did I hear Mr. Wraxall [probably the author Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall] repeat as having witness'd [underlined] the Transaction: He told it at Mrs. Montague's Table & I asked Mrs. Scott if it was not in the Spectator? To be sure said she it is. Dr. Johnson sate so far off the Narrator he could not hear: but I thought it a shameless endeavour at Imposition, and very unlikely to succeed…it happened very many Years ago." (vol. 8, p. 292). At the end of the small-pox sufferer Monimia's letter concluding no. 613, Piozzi comments, "Johnson's Letters from Victoria in ye Rambler are much improved upon this. The Smallpox being nearly annihilated among us, has taken from our Pleasure in reading these Papers, but cannot take from their Merits." (vol. 8, p. 303). Among Piozzi's references to historical figures and events include humorous comments about the Prince of Wales. In no. 32 she notes that he "likes Corpulent Beauties best they say. So the Girls stuff themselves with Eggs & Chocolate in a Morning for Breakfast; Oysters before Dinner, & Porter to fatten