Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/42

 afterwards said he had made more by 'Paradise Lost ' than by any other poem (, Anecdotes, 1858, p. 261).

In the earlier part of his life Tonson was much associated with Dryden [see also ]. A step which did much to establish his position was the publication in 1684 of a volume of 'Miscellany Poems,' under Dryden's editorship. Other volumes followed in 1685, 1693, 1694, 1703, and 1708, and the collection, which was several times reprinted, is known indifferently as Dryden's or Tonson's 'Miscellany.' During the ensuing year Tonson continued to bring out pieces by Dryden, and on 6 Oct. 1691 paid thirty guineas for all the author's rights in the printing of the tragedy of 'Cleomenes.' Addison's 'Poem to his Majesty' was published by Tonson in 1695, and there was some correspondence respecting a proposed joint translation of Herodotus by Boyle, Blackmore, Addison, and others (, Works, v. 318-21).

Dryden's translation of Virgil, executed between 1693 and 1696, was published by Tonson in July 1697 by subscription. Serious financial differences arose between the poet and his publisher, and Dryden's letters to Tonson (1695-7) are full of complaints of meanness and sharp practice and of refusals to accept clipped or bad money. Tonson would pay nothing for notes; Dryden retorted, 'The notes and prefaces shall be short, because you shall get the more by saving paper.' He added that all the trade were sharpers, Tonson not more than others. Dryden described Tonson thus, in lines written under his portrait, and afterwards printed in 'Faction Displayed' (1705):

(Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 193). Subsequently the letters became more friendly, and on the publication of 'Alexander's Feast,'in November 1707, Dryden wrote to Tonson, 'I hope it has done you service, and will do more.'

Dryden's collection of translations from Boccaccio, Chaucer, and others, known as 'The Fables,' was published by Tonson in November 1699; a second edition did not appear until 1713. There is an undated letter from Mrs. [q. v.] to Tonson at Bayfordbury, thanking him warmly for what he had said on her behalf to Dryden. She begged hard for five pounds more than Tonson offered for some of her verses. In connection with Jeremy Collier's attack on the stage, the Middlesex justices presented the playhouses in May 1698, and also Congreve for writing the 'Double Dealer,' D'Urfey for 'Don Quixote,' and Tonson and Brisco, booksellers, for printing them (, Brief Relation of State Affairs, iv. 379). Tonson published Congreve's reply to Collier, and at a later date 'The Faithful Friend' and 'The Confederacy' by his friend, Sir John Vanbrugh.

Before the end of the century Tonson had moved from the Judge's Head to a shop in Gray's Inn Gate, probably the one previously occupied by his brother Richard. It is not unlikely that Richard was dead, and that Jacob, who had no children, and seemingly never married, now took into partnership his nephew Jacob, whose son was afterwards to be his heir. It is not always easy to distinguish the uncle from the nephew in later years; the latter will be referred to in future as Tonson junior.

By 1700 Tonson's position was well established, and about that time the Kit-Cat Club was founded, with Tonson as secretary. The meetings were first held at a mutton-pie shop in Shire Lane, kept by [q. v.], and may have begun with suppers given by Tonson to his literary friends. About 1703 Tonson purchased a house at Barn Elms, and built a room there for the club. In a poem on the club, attributed to Sir [q. v.], we find:One night in seven at this convenient seat:Indulgent Bocaj [Jacob] did the Muses treat.

Tonson was satirised in several skits, and it was falsely alleged that he had been expelled the club, or had withdrawn from the society in scorn of being their jest any longer ('Advertisement' in Brit. Mus. Libr. 816. m. 19/34).

In 1703 Tonson went to Holland to obtain paper and engravings for the fine edition of Caesar's Commentaries,' which was ultimately published under Samuel Clarke's care in 1712. At Amsterdam and Rotterdam he met Addison, and assisted in some abortive negotiations for Addison's employment as travelling companion to Lord Hertford, son of the Duke of Somerset (, Life of Addison, i. 148-55). In 1705 Tonson published Addison's 'Remarks on several Parts of Italy.'

Verses by young Pope were circulating among the critics in 1705, and in April 1706 Tonson wrote to Pope proposing to publish a pastoral poem of his. Pope's pastorals