Honesty in Distress; But Relieved by No Party: Giving an Account..

1810. Unrecorded.. Unrecorded. Honesty Scorned by Lawyers: An Unrecorded Provincial Imprint [Ward, Edward (1667-1731)]. Honesty in Distress; But Relieved by No Party. Giving an Account How She Went to Court, But was Scorned and Slighted; She Went Next to Westminster-Hall, Which Set the Lawyers in an Uproar; Then She Went to the City, Making Her Complaint to the Linen-Draper and Apothecary, Grocer and Hosier, Baker and Butcher, Vintner and Victualler, Pawnbroker, Usurer and Miller, And Found No Relief. Afterwards She Went to the Exchange Amongst the Merchants; But They Sent Her to the Priests, Who Said it was Enough for Them to Teach; Therefore They had No Relief for Her:- So Poor Honesty, Being Slighted by All, At Last Died a Miserable Death, For Want of Relief!! Belper: Printed and sold (Wholesale and Retail) by S. Mason, 1810. 8 pp. Octavo (7" x 4-1/2"). Disbound stab-stitched pamphlet. Moderate toning, occasional light soiling and very small stains. Rare. $450. * Later edition. Edward (Ned) Ward was a prolific satirist. "Though vulgar and often grossly coarse, his writings throw considerable light on the social life of the time of Queen Anne," particularly the slang and vernacular of the time (DNB). Honesty in Distress, a dramatic work first published in 1705, portrays Honesty as a young woman seeking relief but spurned by all parties as a "mumping, ragged, idle Varlet" (among other epithets). Even by the eminent lawyers of Westminster Hall, she is dismissed as a "saucy slut" with "no business here." Our 1810 edition from a Derbyshire press is unrecorded. No copies located on OCLC or Library Hub. Dictionary of National Biography 59:312.