Notes

1.
Barthes, Roland.  "The Death of the Author." Image-Music-Text. Trans. Stephen Heath.  New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.  142-48.  [close].

2.
Foucault, Michel.  "What Is an Author?"  The Foucault Reader.  Ed. Paul Rabinow.  Trans. Josue V. Harari.  New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.  101-20.  [close].

3.
Complete electronic texts of the relevant parodies--complete with facsimile title pages--are available in the e-text area of the BioText.   Alternatively, these links will lead directly to the individual parodies: The Late John Wilkes's Catechism, The Political Litany, and The Sinecurist's Creed. [close].

4.
Wood, Marcus. Radical Satire and Print Culture, 1790-1822. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. In an appendix to the book, Wood includes a full transcription of the MS of The Late John Wilkes's Catechism showing the original in Wilkes's hand and the alterations in Hone's. [close].

5.
An incomplete list of these publications (as documented in the Home Office correspondence) may help demonstrate the rapidity and breadth of the parodies' dissemination: [close].

• 21 January, a correspondent from Manchester encloses a "diabolical tract"—a Political Litany, title page slightly different from Hone’s, published by J. Molineux in Manchester. (HO 42/158, f. 113)
• 27 January, a correspondent writes from Bath to inform the Home Secretary about a parodic Catechism and a Litany which are circulating in that city. The correspondent is also horrified that a local Hampden club is charging its members a penny per week fee explicitly for "distributing seditious publications!" (HO 42/158, f. 21)
• 30 January, a government infiltrator into a Spencean meeting at the Mulberry Tree public house reports that the attendees enjoyed a collective reading of Hone’s Sinecurists’ Creed. (Enclosed copies of Creed and Litany.) (HO 42/158, f. 13)
• An undated letter from very early February encloses a smaller format version of Hone’s Political Litany printed by John Aston of Coventry, apparently set from the Molineux edition. (HO 42/159, f. 254)
• 3 February, letter from the Mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne encloses a Political Litany identical to Hone’s but printed in Newcastle by J. Marshall. (HO 42/159, f. 108)
• 8 February, a correspondent encloses a Political Litany printed by Joseph Arnold of Bristol. (Arnold also printed the Sinecurists’ Creed.) (HO 42/159, f. 464)
• 10 February, George Allen from Durham encloses the Marshall publication. (HO 42/159, f. 300)
• 12 February, a letter from Litchfield encloses copies of both the Coventry and Newcastle printings. (HO 42/159, f. 554)
• 13 February, a "Loyal Subject" encloses copies of Hone’s parodies apparently printed in Manchester. (Molineux’s printing?) (HO 42/160, f. 10)
• 18 February, the Mayor of Weymouth writes to ask whether he should prosecute a bookseller named Groves (or Graves) of Wareham for printing and selling the Political Litany. (HO 42/160, f. 137)
• 25 February, letter encloses a version of the Political Litany printed by James Williams of Portsea. (HO 42/160, f. 475)
• 26 February, letter from the Attorney General’s office notes that Shepherd intends to prosecute Hone. (HO 42/160, f. 275)
• 27 February letter from King’s Lynn correspondent encloses the Political Litany printed by J. Jackson, Boston. (HO 42/160, f. 514)
• 28 February, letter from Leeds encloses an abbreviated version of the Political Litany printed by James Willan of Dewsbury and a Political Litany without a title page printed by Slater in Sheffield. (HO 42/160, f. 555)

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