A Second Tale Of A Tub: or, The History of Robert Powell the Puppet-Show-Man

London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1715. First edition. leather_bound. Contemporary full Cambridge style brown calf, tooled panels with tulip florets at each corner. Very good. [4] xlii [43] 219 [5] pages. 19.5 x 12 cm. The second edition appeared the same year. A political satire on the statesman Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford (1661-1724). It takes the form of an account of Martin Powell (fl.1709-29), the somewhat physically deformed, and noted Irish showman who ran a celebrated puppet-show in Covent Garden. It also, of course, adopts the title of Swift's celebrated Tale of a Tub (but is not recorded by Teerink-Scouten in the list of this work's spurious sequels etc). Powell is presented in the frontispiece as a hunchback, which appears to be true. The author's substitution of "Robert" for Powell's real name, Martin, made to render the obvious satire more effective. Burnet was an English wit; barrister and judge. He wrote this work at age 21 with his friend and colleague George Duckett. The allusion of puppet strings controlled by a higher power was a popular analogy of political machinations of the period. Engrave bookplate of John Collins, Devises. Contemporary owner inscription notes the satire's intent, some old scribbling on blank endpapers, moderate text toning.