‘Fame’ is usually thought to be an ironicallyself-referential gesture toward Haywood’sill-fame: the scandalous reputation of herown life and work. The oppositional cast ofthe political wares ‘to be had’ at Fame suggestsan additional layer of symbolic meaning. In thevibrant, intensely visual culture of mid-centuryEngland, Fame was a stock allegorical figurewho took the form of a robed and wingedfemale bearing a trumpet with which to pro-claim the triumph of virtue over corruption.14

A representation of this winged, trumpet-bearing woman—I reckon it to be a reproduc-tion of the sign that hung outside Haywood’sshop in Covent Garden—dominates the upperthird of the 1745 frontispiece to the first col-lected edition of Female Spectator. This framedpicture of the emblematic figure of Fame floatsabove the lively scene of female collaborativeauthorship beneath that has compelled atten-tion in our own feminist moment. The sign ofFame, present but until now unnoticed in thisoft-examined frontispiece, stands a fittingreminder how much remains to be learnedabout this elusive author within her contempo-rary contexts.

KATHRYN R. KING

University of Montevallo

doi:10.1093/notesj/gjp251� The Author (2010). Published by Oxford University Press.

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DYSTOPIA: AN EARLIEREIGHTEENTH-CENTURY USE

UNTIL recently it was believed that the ear-liest appearance of dystopia ‘printed as an

English word’ was in 1782, contrary to the gen-eral understanding that it was coined by JohnStuart Mill in 1868.1 According to PatriciaKoster, it was Baptist Noel Turner, ‘a loverof word-play’, who coined this concept, and,as she further notices, he may be credited withthe word’s etymology as he prefixed it withGreek letters: �ty-topia.2 A recent discoveryby Deirdre Ni Chuanachain, noted in LymanTower Sargent’s ‘In Defense of Utopia’, how-ever, challenges this assertion.3 The anon-ymously published Utopia: or Apollo’s GoldenDays of 1747, attributed to Lewis HenryYounge, clearly makes use of the word dysto-pia, though erroneously spelled, and contrastsit directly to utopia.4 In the attempt to expressthe opposite notion of utopia, the author of thepoem, it would seem, mistakenly rendered theGreek prefix ‘dty’ (in its meaning of ‘bad’ or‘unlucky’5) as ‘dus’. As a result, the newlycoined word appears three times in this workas DUSTOPIA.6

My research into the appearance of the con-cept, however, led to a new find which provesthat the use of dystopia was not an isolatedcase in 1747; it surprisingly emerged again inprint the very next year. Extracts from Utopia,enclosed in a letter to the editor, appeared inThe Gentleman’s Magazine for September1748. This time the typographically puzzlingrendition of dustopia was corrected to comeout as dystopia. Moreover, the excerpted ver-sion of the poem includes additional explana-tory footnotes, absent in the Dublin edition of1747, clearly defining dystopia and utopia asopposites. While it may be under dispute whocorrected the prefix from ‘dus’ to ‘dys’—thecontributor or the editor—it may be arguedthat the 1748 September issue of TheGentleman’s Magazine printed perhaps the ear-liest possible spelling version of dystopia,

14 H. M. Atherton, Political Prints in the Age of Hogarth(Oxford, 1974), 28. See, e.g., To the Glory of Walpole (Plate10) and The Noble Stand (Plate 12).

1 Patricia Koster, ‘Dystopia: an Eighteenth-CenturyAppearance’, N&Q, February (1983), 65–6. For the coinageof ‘dystopia’ in 1868, apart from Koster’s note, see OxfordEnglish Dictionary (2nd edn) on CD-ROM. Version 3.0(Oxford, 2002). For an update on the origin of the word,indicating its appearance in the late eighteenth century, see‘dystopia noun’ The Oxford Dictionary of English (revisededition) ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson(Oxford, 2005). Oxford Reference Online. OxfordUniversity Press. Sofia University Library. 11 June 2009<http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview¼Main&entry¼t140.e23522>.

2 Ibid., 65–6.3 Lyman Tower Sargent, ‘In Defense of Utopia’,

Diogenes, liii, 1 (2006), 11–17.4 Ibid., 15.5 Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edn) on CD-ROM.

Version 3.0 (Oxford, 2002).6 Lewis Henry Younge, Utopia: or, Apollo’s Golden Days

(Dublin: George Faulkner, 1747), 4, 6, 21.

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known to the present and, very likely, shows itsearliest possible definition in print.The poem praises the Earl of Chesterfield’s

administration in Ireland and was ‘designed asan abstract of the most remarkable passagesof his excellent government.’7 It allegoricallyenvisages Ireland as dystopia beforeChesterfield’s arrival there as lord lieutenantof Ireland:

But heav’n, of late, was all distraction,And, more than ever, rent in faction;Caus’d only by a wretched isle,On which we thought no God would smile:Not stor’d with wealth, nor blest in air:No useful plants would ripen there,Mismanag’d by th’ unskilful hinds,Or nipt by chilling eastern winds:Or if they flourish’d for a day,They soon became some insect’s prey:For many such infest the soil,Devouring th’ honest lab’rer’s toil;So venomous, that some had ratherHave, in their stead, the toad or adder.Unhappy isle! scarce known to fame;DYSTOPIA was its slighted name. (399–400)

A footnote by the contributor gives a defini-tion of dystopia which reads ‘An unhappycountry’ (400). This short annotation adds toa variety of meanings which the coined wordmay have evoked. A late seventeenth-centurydictionary, for example, specifies ‘dys’ as ‘evil,difficult, or impossible’;8 ‘evil’, ‘bad’, ‘diffi-cult’, and ‘ill’, on the other hand, are used asqualifiers in dictionary definitions of scientific,predominantly medical, terms starting withthis prefix.9 Obviously, dystopia benefitedfrom these adverse notions and was coined tosuggest negation in order to put a moral slanton current political affairs.Further in the poem, by the order of

Jove, Apollo—presumably the Earl of

Chesterfield—is sent on a mission to the‘unhappy country’ to help better its condition:

Then to Apollo thus began:‘Haste, my beloved friend to man:Fly to yon barren, dreary shore—Thou know’st my will—there needs

no more.’Again a God forsakes the skies,To make a sinking nation rise:But needs not study to assumeA shape, as Maia’s son for Rome.To mortals, STANHOPE he appears,Come to dry up Dystopia’s tears. (400)

Almost at the end of the poem, dystopiaappears as diametrically opposed to utopia.In the next lines, the monarch praises Apollofor his success in inverting the state of dystopiawhich has finally come in agreement withBritish royal policy:

Dystopia own’d that shaking throne,And made our royal cause her own.We, therefore, mindful of her zeal,For yours and for your monarch’s weal,Sent bright APOLLO, for a while,To cheer that loyal, drooping isle!If Gratitude appears on earth,To heav’n the Goddess ow’d her birth:Then, let her not be wholly drivenTo grosser earth, from purer heaven.Such bliss we never gave before:We ought no less—we could no more.Thrice happy isle! the boast of fame,Henceforth, UTOPIA be thy name.And now, behold, he upward flies,Once more to grace his native skies. (401)

In this excerpt, an explanatory footnote refer-ence to utopia points out ‘a happy or blessedcountry’ (401); it makes a clear contrast to thedefinition of dystopia, given previously on page400. A comment in prose, intercepting thepoem, regrets that the ‘beloved and just nowbless’d Utopia’ is ‘bewailing the absence of hertutelaries’ (401) and sorrowfully concludes,apparently after the Earl of Chesterfield’sreturn to England, that misrule may prevailagain:

Still hapless isle!—how shortly blest! (402)

Obviously, dystopia was coined to suggest theinverted, negative meaning of utopia in a poem

7 ‘Utopia, &c.’, The Gentleman’s Magazine, xviii (Sept.1748), 399. Subsequent references are cited parentheticallyin the text.

8 Francis Gouldman, A Copious Dictionary in Three Parts(Cambridge, John Hayes, 1674).

9 Elisha Coles, An English Dictionary (1676; London,1717). On the scientific notions of ‘dys’, see also the OED.

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praising Chesterfield’s administration inIreland and warning against imminentsocio-political disorder after his departure.While the contrast between dystopia and

utopia can be inferred contextually from the1747 Dublin edition, the excerpted version ofUtopia: or Apollo’s Golden Days in TheGentleman’s Magazine illustrates this opposi-tion by means of footnoted definitions.Though it may be uncertain when exactly itwas coined, apparently dystopia silentlyentered the public sphere in Dublin, in 1747,and in London, in 1748. The polarity betweenthe two concepts is very much similar to J. S.Mill’s construal of dystopia as the opposite ofutopia; yet, dystopia was coined, printed inEnglish, and even defined as a concept muchearlier than it was believed.

V. M. BUDAKOV

Sofia University

doi:10.1093/notesj/gjp235� The Author (2010). Published by Oxford University Press.

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THE MYSTERY OF ISAAC AXFORD AND

HANNAH LIGHTFOOT

NEITHER Mary Pendered (The Fair Quaker,1910), nor Justinian Mallett (Princess orPretender, 1939), nor John Lindsey (TheLovely Quaker, 1939) felt the need to repro-duce in their respective books the conclusiveevidence surrounding this mysterious affairthat had been discovered by the foundingeditor of Notes & Queries. Mr W. J. Thomshad established that the Isaac Axford, whoallegedly married the Fair Quaker, HannahLightfoot, was born at Erlestoke, Wilts. inthe year 1734 (N&Q, 3rd S (285) vol. 11, 15June 1867, p. 484); for a reader had alsobrought to Mr Thoms’s attention evidenceshowing that this Isaac Axford was the IsaacAxford ‘of the same parish’, described on themarriage bond as a widower, who had goneon, as legend had it, to lawfully marry MaryBartlett, spinster of Warminster at HolySaviour’s Church, Erlestoke on 3 December1759. The reader had proof not only of theAxford/Bartlett marriage but also the‘baptismal certificates of both parties’ (N&Q,

3rd S (278) vol. 11, 1867, pp. 342–3). IsaacAxford’s personal history was confirmed sub-sequently in greater detail by Mr HoraceBleackley: the Erlestoke Registers recordedthat Isaac Axford, the son of John andElisabeth Axford, was born on 17 August1734 (N&Q, 10th S. viii, 21 December 1907,pp. 483–4).B. Wood-Holt of St John, New Brunswick,

Canada, attempted in the early 1980s to con-struct the family tree of the Axfords ofEarlestoke, Wilts, whilst omitting any mentionof John and Elisabeth Axford (N&Q, vol 229,1984, p. 397–401). Sheila Mitchell and W. IanAxford of Swindon did disprove B. Wood-Holt’s contrasting conclusion that a Williamand Hester Axford were the parents of theIsaac Axford, who allegedly married HannahLightfoot (N&Q, vol 241, 1996, pp. 304–5)whilst professing that their own scrutiny offamily tradition had led them to believe thata William Axford and his wife, Susannah(Exton) were the parents. Mitchell andAxford neglected similarly the conclusive evi-dence provided by Messrs. Thoms andBleackley, as did Matthew Kilburn of theNew Dictionary of National Biography.Mitchell and Axford’s assertion appears in

the ODNB, citing an Isaac Sylvester Axford, anote of whose apprenticeship appears in theregisters of the Commissioners of Stamps ofDuty received on indentures, 2 June 1747:

Isaac, son of William Axford was indenturedfor 6 years to Master John Barton,Broiderer, from Lady Day 25 March 1747.

His adult baptism is assumed to have beenregistered in the parish of St Martin, Ludgate(Guildhall library MS 10214),

1747, May 24, Isaac Sylvester Axford, anadult person, aged 16 years.

It is very apparent that two Isaac Axfords didflourish in Wiltshire and London at this partic-ular time. Isaac Sylvester Axford was bornat Xmas (?) in 1730/31 to William andSusannah Axford, and indentured to MasterJohn Barton, Broiderer in the year 1747.Isaac Sylvester Axford had no connectionwith Hannah Lightfoot whatsoever. TheIsaac Axford who allegedly married HannahLightfoot at Keith’s Chapel, Mayfair on

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