Headnote

This contribution to the Bickerstaff hoax seems first to have been published, without date or place, as ‘Squire Bickerstaff Detected; or, the astrological impostor convicted, by John Partridge, student in physick and astrology. Part I, presumably during 1708. The implied promise of a further part seems not to have been fulfilled.

The present text, with the correction of three literal errors, is taken from the first inclusion of the piece alongside Swift's own Bickerstaff papers, in Miscellanies … The First Volume (1727), where it is introduced by a headnote: ‘This Piece being on the same Subject, and very rare, we have thought fit to add it, tho’ not written by the same Hand.’

In the first volume of Works (1735), ‘Squire Bickerstaff Detected is attributed to Nicholas Rowe (1674–1718): ‘The following Piece, under the Name of John Partridge, was written by that famous Poet Nicholas Row, Esq; and therefore being upon the same Subject, although not by the same Author, we have thought fit to publish it, that the Reader may have the whole Account together.’

In Hawkesworth's edition, however, it is attributed to Thomas Yalden (1670–1736): ‘In the Dublin edition it is said to be written by the late N. Rowe, Esq; which is a mistake: for the reverend Dr. Yalden, preacher of Bridewell, Mr. Partridge's near neighbour, drew it up for him.’ It seems highly unlikely that such a seasoned controversialist as Partridge would have felt the need of a ghost-writer, and equally unlikely that a Tory clergyman like Yalden would have leapt to the defence of a neighbour so flagrantly offensive to his profession and politics. The note also seems, implausibly, to take the piece as a defence rather than a satire of Partridge: if it is taken as a satire, Yalden would have had ample motive. William Congreve (1670–1729) has also been suggested as a possible author.6 It may be that it is to some extent a collaborative work.

The piece is written in the person of John Partridge, who is represented as priding himself on his ‘double Capacity’ (as trader in prognostication and in proprietary medicines – the reader will later be reminded also of his background as a shoemaker,when he is commemorated as ‘Practitioner in Leather, Physick, and Astrology’).