John Gay, A Strange and Wonderfull Relation of how the Devill Appear'd last night at the Masquerade

Pat Rogers (University of South Florida)

Ed. by Nicholas Seager, University of Keele
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1717

Places

England (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Ballad
Poem
Satire

Resources

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This is a ballad of fifteen stanzas, in rollicking anapests. It runs to 98 lines (or 105, if we open out the contracted form of the two-line refrain found in seven of the stanzas). The complete text was first published by P. J. Croft in 1973 from a holograph manuscript in the Portland Papers at the University of Nottingham. It has never been included in any edition of Gay’s work. Previously, the sole fragment known was a version of two stanzas in the handwriting of Alexander Pope, first printed in his works in 1776 and naturally supposed to be his own composition. It is found among the author’s drafts for his translation of the

Iliad

in the British Library, and this enables us to fix the date for this segment of the ballad at September 1718. As will emerge, the most plausible time of…

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3016 words

Citation: Rogers, Pat. "A Strange and Wonderfull Relation of how the Devill Appear'd last night at the Masquerade". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41528, accessed 08 May 2024.]

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