Authority Cited: Littleton, Dr.
Author name and dates: Edward Littleton (bap.1698-1734)
BKG Bio-tweet: Cambridge degrees; scholar; popular Eton teacher, preacher; unpublished poet; died of fever; widow married cleric successor
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note: one E. Littleton cite in 1755 Dict. vol. 2. No E. Littleton cites identified as added in 1773 Dict. Spider poem also later included in v. 6 of Dodsley’s 1758 Collection, p. 298. Biography at http://words.fromoldbooks.org/Chalmers-Biography/l/littleton-edward.html says Discourses published by Dr. Morell.]
Author name and dates: Edward Littleton (bap.1698-1734)
BKG Bio-tweet: Cambridge degrees; scholar; popular Eton teacher, preacher; unpublished poet; died of fever; widow married cleric successor
Categories (list of works cited – preliminary) [BKG Note: one E. Littleton cite in 1755 Dict. vol. 2. No E. Littleton cites identified as added in 1773 Dict. Spider poem also later included in v. 6 of Dodsley’s 1758 Collection, p. 298. Biography at http://words.fromoldbooks.org/Chalmers-Biography/l/littleton-edward.html says Discourses published by Dr. Morell.]
- The Spider and Poet (posthumous publication attributed to Dr. Littleton in the GM Index; with a Latin translation by Robert Luck); The Gentleman's Magazine, 1737, p.446; spider [BKG Note: poem source identified in a review article: Reviewed Work: The First Magazine. A History of the Gentleman's Magazine, with an Account of Dr. Johnson's Editorial Activity and of the Notice Given America in the Magazine by C. Lennart Carlson; Review by: Donald F. Bond, Modern Philology © 1940 The University of Chicago Press. The text of the GM poem is transcribed below.]
Artist! that underneath my table
Thy curious structure hast displayed,
Who (if we may believe the fable)
Wast once a lovely, blooming maid.
Insidious, restless, watchful spider,
Fear no officious damsel's broom,
Extend thy labor'd structure wider,
And spread thy banners round my room.
Swept from the great man's costly ceiling,
Thou'rt welcome to my dusty roof,
Here may'st thou find a peaceful dwelling,
And undisturb'd attend thy woof.
Whilst I the wond'rous fabric stare at,
And think on hapless poet's fate,
Like thee confin'd to lonely garret,
And rudely banish'd rooms of state.
And as from out thy tortur'd body
Thou draw'st the slender strings with pain,
So does he labour, like a noddy,
To spin materials from his brain.
He, for some flatt'ring, tawdry creature
Who spreads her charms before his eyes?
And that's a conquest little better
Than thine o'er captive butterflies.
Thus far 'th plain you both agree,
Your deaths perhaps may better show it?
'Tis ten to one but penury
Ends both the Spider and the Poet.
Thy curious structure hast displayed,
Who (if we may believe the fable)
Wast once a lovely, blooming maid.
Insidious, restless, watchful spider,
Fear no officious damsel's broom,
Extend thy labor'd structure wider,
And spread thy banners round my room.
Swept from the great man's costly ceiling,
Thou'rt welcome to my dusty roof,
Here may'st thou find a peaceful dwelling,
And undisturb'd attend thy woof.
Whilst I the wond'rous fabric stare at,
And think on hapless poet's fate,
Like thee confin'd to lonely garret,
And rudely banish'd rooms of state.
And as from out thy tortur'd body
Thou draw'st the slender strings with pain,
So does he labour, like a noddy,
To spin materials from his brain.
He, for some flatt'ring, tawdry creature
Who spreads her charms before his eyes?
And that's a conquest little better
Than thine o'er captive butterflies.
Thus far 'th plain you both agree,
Your deaths perhaps may better show it?
'Tis ten to one but penury
Ends both the Spider and the Poet.