Dick Merryman

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I found a pamphlet dating from the 1700s by this author.



The following is from a Sothebys listing for one of them. Does anyone have any information on this author?

Merryman, Dick (pseud.)

Round about our Coal Fire: or, Christmas Entertainments. London: Printed for J. Roberts, 1734

8vo (216 x 137 mm). Half-title with publisher's advertisements on verso, 7 woodcut illustrations including a fine cut of Jack Spriggins; half-title and terminal leaf a trifle discolored, lacks 88-page publisher's advertisements at the end. Stabbed and stitched, housed in a modern card box.

The fourth edition, "with great additions" and the first to contain "Jack Spriggins" (i.e. "Jack and the Bean-stalk" pp. 35-48). Popular work on magic and conjuring with an account of a hoax involving a woman said to give birth to rabbits, and some rather racy parlour games, including "Puss in the Corner," in which, "when a man catches a woman he may kiss her till her ears crack." This wry treatment of witchcraft also features an account of the legendary conjurer Isaac Fawkes (1675–1732).

www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/the-ricky-jay-collection/merryman-dick-pseud-the-mirth-and-jollity-of-the

internet archive says: This book contains the first printed version of Jack and the Beanstalk, under the title The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean.

Goodreads gives the title as: Round about Our Coal Fire: Or, Christmas Entertainments. with Memoirs of Old Father Christmas; Shewing What Hospitality Was in Former Times, and How Little There Remains of It at Present. the Fourth Edition, Printed in the Year 1734.

There is also a Christmas Entertainments from 1740, but I'm not sure if it is the same book.

Any information would be welcome, thank you.

[helrunar]

Intriguing find, Anna! The mention of bullbeggars struck my eye, having recently read Paul Finch's crackling little yarn "Bullbeggar Walk," set on the rough, raw Devonshire coast. It was included in his anthology, Terror Tales of the West Country.

cheers, Hel.