716
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
game shop which had been poosessed by his father and great uncle, opposite Catharine-street, in the Strand ; but some years before his death, removed to a new house on the other side of the way, near Catharine-street, where he died, without issue. Mr- Steevens in a prefatory advertise- ment to the edition of Shakspean/* in 1778, honoured the memory of Mr. Tonson with the following characteristic eulogium. "To those who have advanced the reputation of our poet, it has been endeavoured, by Dr. Johnson, in the foregoing preface, impartially to allot their divi- dend of fame ; and it is with great regret that we now add to the catalogue, another, the con- sequence of whose death will perhaps affect, not only the works of Shakspeare, but oi many other writers. Soon after the first appearance of this edition, a disease, rapid in its progress, deprived the world of Mr. Jacob Tonson ; a man, whose zeal for the improvement of English literature, and whose liberality to men of learning, gave him a just title to aJl the honours which men of learning can bestow. To suppose that a person employed in an extensive trade lived in a state of indifference to loss and gain, would be to con- oeire a character incredible and romantic ; but it may be justly said of Mr. Tonson, that he had enlarged his mmd beyond solicitude about petty losses, and refined it from the desire of uniea- ■onable profit. He was willing to admit those with whom he contracted, to the just advantage of their labours ; and never learned to consi&r the author as an under agent to the bookseller. The wealth which he inherited or acquired, he enjoyed like a man conscious of the dignity of a profession subservient to learning. His manners were soft, and his conversation delicate : nor is, perhaps, any quality in him more to be censured, than tnat reserve which confined his acquaint- ance to a small number, and made his example less useful, as it was less extensive. He was Uie last commercial name of a family which will be long remembered ; and if Horace thought it not improper to convey theSosii to posterity ; if
• The iiricei which the London bookaellera have pnld to the dUEsrent editors of Slialupeere, are not generally known, but prove that the poet has enriched Ihote who have UnpoverMed Mm.
Mr. Rowe was paid ^SS 10
Mr. Hughes S8 7 o
Mr.Fope 817 H
Mr.Fenton SOU
Mr-G«T S5 17 B
Mr.Wlialley 19 o
Mr. Theobald 053 lo
Mr. Warbuiton soo
Mr. Capel soo o o
Dr. Johnson, for first edition .... 375 o o „ for second edition .. loo o o
Total. j^ass 10 A
Betides very considerable sums to critics without critl- cism, and conunentators without a name.
At the sale of the effects of Mi. Jacob Tonson, in 1767 one hundred and forty copies of Mr. Pope's edition of Shakspeare, in six volumes -Ito. {for which the original subscribers paid six guineas) were disposed of at sixteen shillings (only) per set. Seven hundred and fifty of that edition had then been printed. On the contrary, sir Thomas Hanmer's edition, printed In 1744, which was first sold for tliree euineas, had arisen to ten before it was le- printed.— aeiUfnnan'f Magwtine, vol. Ivil. p. 70.
rhetoric suffered no dishononr from Quintiliu'i dedication to Tm)ho ; let it not be thought that we disgrace Shakspeare, by appending io iis works uie name of Tonson." Mr. Tonson seired the office of high sheriff for the county of Sony in 1750; and in 1759 paid the customary fine for being excused serving the same impoitailt office for the city of London and county of Middlesex. In 1747 Dr. Warburton's edition of Shakspeare was issued from the press, bt which Tonson paid him £600. Though bo younger brother, Richard, survived him a fe* years, he interfered but little with the concenn of the trade, but lived principally at Wats Oakley, in the parish of Bray, near Windsor; where he was so much respected, that the elecUus of New Windsor almost compelled him to lepie- sent them in parliament ; an honour which be enjoyed at the time of his death. In this de- lightful retreat, where his benevolence and tiot- mtality were long recollected, he built a ronn lighted at the top by a dome, and an anti- chamber for the reception of the celebr^ed Kit- cat portraits,* which descended to him on tlie death of his brother Jacob. Mr. Tonson did nX long enjoy the improvement he had made in Ini house, and the ornaments he had added to it; being unexpectedly cut off, after a few days Al- ness, to the regret of his firiends, and the ieef affliction of all his poor neighbours.
1767, Aug. 21. Ditd, Thomas Osbome, a bookseller of great eminence, in Gray's Iim, London, and many years one of the court of assistants of the stationers' company. " Of Tom Osbome," says Dr. Dibdin, in his Bibliomnk, p. 470, " I have in vain endeavoured to coDect some interesting biographical details. What I know of him shall be briefly stated. He m the most celebrated bookseller of his day; and appears, from a series of his Catalogues, is my possession, to have carried on a successfiil tiade from the year 1738 to 1768. What fortune he amassed is not, I believe, very well known: he collections were truly valuable, for they con- sisted of the purchased libraries of the nuat eminent men of those times. In his stature be was short and thick ; and, to his inferiors, gene- rally spoke in an authoritative and insolest manner.f ' It has been confidently related,' sajs Boswell, ' that Johnson, one day, knocked Os- bome down in his shop, with a folio, and jnit his foot upon his neck.' The simple truth I bad from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was inpeiti- nent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in
- These celebrated pottraits became the propoty <t
Wmiam Baker, esq., M.P. for Berts; whose (tthcr, ik V^lliam Baker, many years an aldennan cf the wird of Baaslshaw, In the dty of London, manied tfaetnari daughter of the second Jacob Tonson.
t In the latter part of his life his manners were am. siderably softened, parUculaily to the yoong baokKlla> who had occasion to frequent hisshoplathcponattflf their orders. If they were so fortunate as toaUwIiiM he was taking wine after his dinner, they were refslailr called Into the little parlour in Giay*s Inn to taks s ^M with him. " Tonng nan," he would say, " I ban bea in business more than fitfty years, and am now wtfd more than i£'40,ooo. Attend to your bnalaessj and jM will be as rich as I am."
VjOOQ IC
