NED WARD “THE BREWING POET”

Turnbull Library Record, Volume IV, 1 July 1941, Page 9

NED WARD “THE BREWING POET”

Nola L. Millar

“the Pert Style/’ remarks Pope in his Art of Sinking in Poetry in which he classifies the species of bad poets among his contemporaries, “does in a peculiar manner become the low in wit, as a pert air does the low in stature.”

As an example of the “pert style” Pope names Edward Ward, the “brewing poet,” to whom the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature credits over ninety works, more than twenty of which Alexander Turnbull has collected in first editions. Most of Ward’s poems were written anonymously and none of the volumes in the Alexander Turnbull Library has the author’s name on the title page.

Edward Ward was born in Oxfordshire but went early to London where, from 1699 to his death in 1731, he kept a punch shop and tavern, a rendezvous for many kindred spirits who enjoyed his good humour, his good liquor, and his laudable sentiments, which were their own. Ward spent some years in the West Indies on which he based A Trip to Jamaica, and

which provided a very good market for his wares. “Sail with Ward, to ape and monkey climes” (Pope, Dunciad, i, 234) though used in no complimentary sense, refers to the great number of his works yearly sold into the plantations.

In 1699 was published Hudibras Redivivus which violently attacked the low church party and the Government and was written in the style of Butler’s Hudibras. For this subversive activity, Ned Ward was indicted and ordered to stand twice in the pillory at the Royal Exchange and Charing Cross, where he received rough handling from the mob. “As thick as eggs at Ward in pillory” Pope remarks in the third book of the Dunciad. Hudibras Redivivus brought Ward notoriety and created a demand for further verses. These came in a procession, very popular at the time, but dreary reading now.

“Insinuating bawds,” “repenting harlots,” “the flesh and the devil,” and a “chirrupful bottle or two” give a little life to the plodding verses which won fleeting fame in Queen Anne’s reign. No whiffle of life remains in the causes, dead as the queen herself, which Ward championed; Tory against Whig, high church against low. The only remaining merriment for the reader of to-day is found on the few title pages which carry the author’s own endorsement “A Merry Poem.”

Of his works The London Spy alone remains vital to-day. This prose work is Ward’s best and best known and casts a great light on London life in his day. Ward revelled in being a citizen of London, knew and loved the streets and taverns with the strange company to be found there. His description of this street and tavern life has left a vivid picture of the social life of the early eighteenth century. Ned Ward was a better Cockney than many a native son.

The customer is always right being as good a motto for the poet as the publican, Ward gave his ready made audience, superficially learned as he himself was, what it wanted. “Panegyrick is not my business” he says in A Trip to Ireland’ and indeed it was not. He aimed at popularity and danced to the bookseller’s tune. Many of his catchpenny titles mirror their contents.

The earliest of Ned Ward’s works in the Library is The Miracles performed by Money, 1692. His fairly venomous and

sometimes scurrilous descriptions of foreign capitals which found favour with the honest English reader include A Trip to Ireland, 1699, A Trip to Holland, 1699, and Scotland Characteriz’d’ 1701, all of which are in the Turnbull collection.

First editions of pamphlets which add something to the picture of eighteenth century life in England are The Rambling Fuddle-caps A Frolick to Horn-Fair, with a Walk from Cuckold’s-Point thro’ Deptford and Greenwich, 1700; A Step to the Bath: with a Character of the Place, 1700; A Step to Stir-Bitch Fair: with Remarks upon the University of Cambridge, 1700; A Walk to Islington with a Description of New Tunbridge-Wells, and Sadler’s Musick-House, 1699. It is a matter for regret that Mr. Turnbull’s collecting had not yet secured either The London Spy or Hudibras Redivivus. The longest of Ward’s works in the collection is Nuptial Dialogues and Debates, 2 vols., 1710, which the author describes as “an useful prospect of the Felicities and Discomforts of a marry’d Life, incident to all Degrees from the Throne to the Cottage.” This contains one of the four known portraits of the author.

Other works of Edward Ward in the Library are: The World Bewitch’d, 1699; A Journey to Hell: Or, a Visit paid to the Devil, 1700; The Insinuating Bawds and the Repenting Harlot, 1700; Battel without Bloodshed, 1701; The Revels of the Gods: Or, a Ramble thro’ the Heavens, 1701; Three Nights Adventures or Accidental Intrigues, 1701; All Men Mad: Or, England a Great Bedlam, 1704; The Modern World Disrob’d: Or, Both Sexes Stript of their Pretended Vertue, 1708; The Republican Procession: Or, the Tumultuous Cavalcade, 1714; The Delights of the Bottle: Or, the Compleat Vintner, 1720; The Northern Cuckold: Or, the Garden House Intrigue, 1721; The Parish Gutt’lers: Or, the Humours of a Select Vestry, 1722; The Wand’ring Spy: Or, the Merry Travellers, Part 11, 1722; The Merry Travellers: Or, a Trip upon Ten-Toes from Moorpelds to Bromley, 1724; and The Dancing Devils: Or, the Roaring Dragon, 1724.