f what Johnson would have called the
"Hieroglyphic" significance of this collection. In Johnson's plays,
there is the odd mixture of vulgarity and sublimity, the comic and the
serious, the satirical and the nonsensical. If his dramas bear a
resemblance to Jarry's _Ubu Roi_, so _The Merry-Thought_ resembles the
kind of anthology that Jarry might have put together to illustrate the
absurd anarchy of the human spirit. Johnson, on the other hand, regarded
this seeming anarchy of human thoughts and feelings optimistically as an
emblem of human spirituality.

_University of California,_

_Los Angeles_

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Part 2 ("The SECOND EDITION") and Part 3 of _The Merry-Thought_ are
reproduced in photographic facsimile from the copies in the William
Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Shelf Mark: *PR1195/H8H9/1731). They are
bound together with Part 1 ("the Third Edition; with very Large
Additions and Alterations"), which was published as ARS 216 in 1982.
A typical type page (pt. 2. p. 7) measures 154 x 87 mm. Part 4 is
reproduced from the copy in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Shelf Mark:
Douce T. 168[5]).

The

MERRY-THOUGHT:

or, the

Glass-Window and Bog-House

MISCELLANY.

Taken from

The Original Manuscripts written in _Diamond_
by Persons of the first Rank and Figure in _Great
Britain_; relating to Love, Matrimony, Drunkenness,
Sobriety, Ranting, Scandal, Politicks, Gaming,
and many other Subjects, _Serious_ and _Comical_.

Faithfully Transcribed from the Drinking-Glasses and
Windows in the several noted _Taverns_, _Inns_, and
other _Publick Places_ in this Nation. Amongst which
are inserted several curious Pieces from both
Universities.

_Published by_ HURLO THRUMBO.

_Gameyorum, Wildum, Gorum,
Gameyorum a Gamy,
Flumarum a Flumarum,
A Rigdum Bollarum
A Rigdum, for a little Gamey._

Bethleham-Wall, Moor-Fields.

PART II.

The SECOND EDITION.

_LONDON_:

Printed for J. ROBERTS in _Warwick-Lane_; and Sold by
the Booksellers in Town and Country. [Price 6 _d._]

_N. B._ The Editor returns his hearty Thanks to those Gentlemen who have
favoured him with their Letters, and intreats that they will be so good
as to continue to communicate whatever they shall meet with of this Kind
to th