Poems for Young Ladies: In Three Parts. Devotional, Moral, and Entertaining

1792

De Beer Eb 1792 G

Perth, Scotland: Printed by R. Morrison Junior

William Cowper’s (1731-1800) comic ballad, The History of John Gilpin (1785), became the most ‘popular poem of the decade’. It was aided in its popularity by the energetic reading of it by actor William Henderson at the Freemason’s Tavern in London in 1785. This foldout frontispiece is by engraver David Blakemore Pyet (1759-95), and contains a scene from the poem with accompanying verse. The image serves as both an advertisement and a point of difference – book illustrations were used to distinguish or ‘assert [the publisher’s] editions’ difference from others on the market’ (Sandro Jung, 2015). Publishers worked with designers and engravers to produce a more marketable product.