This seems to be the first printing of the Story, though there are printings in Miscellanies, vol. XI, and by Faulkner in Works, vol. VIII in the same year. Swift probably wrote the piece at the time of the Union between England and Scotland, in 1707, but why it should have surfaced in London in the year of his death is unclear.

There are very few difference in substantives between the three editions of 1746, but this edition does not have ‘In a Letter to a Friend, with His Answer’, as a sub-title.

In typography this edition differs slightly from the Swift-Pope Miscellanies tradition by not having small capitals at the beginning of paragraphs, but it has capitals at the beginning of nouns.

Thomas and Mary Cooper took over Thomas Warner’s trade publishing business when he died in 1733. Their business was highly successful and continued until Mary’s death in 1761, but it is not clear why Mrs Cooper’s name is used in the imprint here. The name of a trade publisher usually appears when someone is trying to hide responsibility for the publication.

References: The Prose Writings of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis and others, 16 vols. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1939-74), vol. ix, pp. 1-12, 369; Irvin Ehrenpreis, Swift: The Man, His Works, and the Age, 3 vols. (London: Methuen, 1962-83), vol. ii, pp. 169-75; Michael Treadwell, ‘London Trade Publishers, 1675-1750’, Library, 6th ser. 4 (1982), 99-134.