A Tale of a Tub
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A Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697 and published in London in 1704. The work is a prose parody divided into sections of "digression" and
Jonathan Swift
Title page of the fifth edition, 1710, with the added Notes and Apology for the &c.
Woodcut from the Tale demonstrating the three stages of human endeavour: the gallows, the theatre, and the pulpit
Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, KG, PC, FRS was a British statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory mi
Portrait by Godfrey Kneller, 1714
Robert Harley by Jonathan Richardson, c. 1710.
Oxford (right), together with his friend and ally Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke and a portrait of Francis Atterbury. Engraving after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
Robert Harley pictured carrying the white staff of the Lord High Treasurer. Portrait by Jonathan Richardson.