The Deserted Village, A Poem.

Notes

One of a number of small-format piracies of the authorised quarto edition, which was printed by Griffin in May 1770. In his detailed study of these printings, previously thought to be private trial printings for the quarto, William B. Todd identifies this one as variant C, with a double rule to the title-page and 'head' on page 9 line 1, one of a cluster of reprints which take their text from a recension printed in Walter Ruddiman's 'Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement', with the first of these probably issuing from Ruddiman's print shop in the middle of July 1770, with three further editions from different print shops following, each with the same text (excepting the page 9 issue point), format and fictitious imprint. Todd suggests as possible printers of this version either Francis Robertson, 'an expert in duplications of the kind represented by [the Edinburgh piracies]' or Alexander Donaldson, a London-based 'specialist in cheap reprints of work not specifically covered by copyright' (Todd, The 'Private Issues' of "The Deserted Village", Studies in Bibliography, Vol. 6 (1954), p. 34).
Todd does not attempt precise dating for each of his identified editions, placing the Edinburgh-derived piracies in the years following 1770; ESTC also opts for 'possibly printed as late as 1777'.