His Life and Works (1910), pp. 22, 29, 127.

  [2] The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, ed. Andrew Clark (1892), II, 48-49.

  [3] Games and Gamesters of the Restoration, ed. Cyril Hughes Hartmann (The English Library, 1930), pp. 123-137.

  [4] E.g. Alfred Beasley's in The History of Banbury (1841), pp. 448-492, and G. T. Crook's in The Complete Newgate Calendar (1926), pp. 117-124.

  [5] The text of The Compleat Memoirs is indeed a composite. Paragraph one of p. 1 unites a paragraph from p. 1 of Part One and a paragraph from pp. 34-35 of Part Two; pp. 1-27 are the same as pp. 5-27 of Part One; pp. 27-46: pp. 2-21 of Part Two; pp. 46-50: pp. 27-29 of Part One; pp. 50-57: pp. 22-29 of Part Two; pp. 57-65: pp. 30-36 of Part One; pp. 66-71: pp. 29-36 of Part Two.

  [6] The Post Boy advertised The Compleat Memoirs from February 17 to April 23, 1698. See also W. Carew Hazlitt (Bibliographical Collections, Third Series, p. 229) for a description of a copy dated 1699.

  [7] Morrell's last impersonation involving the fake will resembles Pantalon's "last Will and Testament" jest in Mabbe's The Rogue or The Life of Guzman de Alfarache (The Tudor Translations, 1924), II, 184-186.

  [8] Settle's authorship of The Notorious Impostor is confirmed by his name appended to the Dedication of The Compleat Memoirs. Although Diego Redivivus occasionally resembles The Notorious Impostor, it need not necessarily be Settle's work. The similar style and the identical documentation (e.g. the will) may be due to Settle's direct use of the earlier narrative. None of its minutely-drawn description, curiously, is perpetuated in The Compleat Memoirs. The authorship of Diego Redivivus remains an unsettled question.

  [9] The Literature of Roguery (1907), I, 153: The Mary Carleton Narratives (1914), p. 6.

  [10] I, 153. Ernest A. Baker makes a similar statement (The History of the English Novel [1937], III, 46). With respect to the influence of The Notorious Impostor on Mrs. Eliza Haywood, he should have cited Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751)—the very book praised by Captain Minikin as "worth reading" in Ferdinand Count Fathom (Chap. XXXIX).

THE

Notorious Impostor,

Or the History of the LIFE of

William Morrell,

ALIAS

BOWYER,

Sometime of Banbury, Chirurgeon.

Who lately personated Humphrey Wickham of Swackly, in
the County of Oxon, Esquire, at a Bakers House in
the Strand, where he Died the third of Jan. 169-1/2

Together

With an Authentick Copy of his Will, taken out of the
Prerogative Court, and the manner of his Funeral in
St. Clements Church-yard.

LONDON,
Printed for Abel Roper at the Mytre near
Temple-Bar, 1692.

TO THE

Honourable Capt. Humph. Wickham.

SIR,

When this following 'Paper makes thus bold to be your Addressor, the only Encouragement for the Presumption is, that your borrow'd Name has fill'd up so large a Sheet in our History, as justly entitles You to this Presentation. And truly as a considerable part of it has already furnisht you with no small Jest at your Laughing Hours, we hope the Life of our English Guzman, your late Adopted Name-sake, will be no undiverting Entertainment. His Life, 'tis true, has been little else than a continued Scene of Masquerade; and if to finish his last Act, he had occasion of borrowing a Face and Character of Quality and consequently fixt upon Captain Wickham; alas, you must consider he wanted Worth and Honour, and can you blame him for looking for 'em where they were to be found? You stood fair for him, and the World, however, it may censure his Impudence, at least it cannot but commend his Choice. And the Reason (if you have any) to complain, is, that whereas the World is but a Stage, and Life but a Play, and Captain Wickham was only personated to Cheat a poor Baker of a Fortnights Lodging and Bread. 'Tis pity your Name, that much better deserved, was only drawn in to the filling up of a Farce. But, as great a Thief as he was to steal a Title of Honour, whatever hard Charge the poor suffering Baker has against him, yet considering how little you have lost by him, we hope your excusing Goodness will not load him higher than Petty Larceny. And truly if he can feel it in his Grave, he has sufficiently felt the Lash for it. His Last Will and Testament, I confess, has very bountifully cantoned out your Estate; all the sorrow is, that the Gaping Executors, and the rest of the Inheritors, have no shorter a Walk than into Fairy-Land to receive their Legacies; a longer Journey, 'tis to be feared, than either the Bright Bay, or Dappled Grey, will ever be able to carry 'em.

And now to do our last Office, viz. to speak a good word of the Dead (for truly he had no Funeral Sermon to do it) they may talk of Monuments and Epitaphs for preserving of Memories; but our quondam Operator of Banbury, tho' with plainer Funeral Ceremonies, has taken care for a lasting Renown, when much finer Dust under Statues and Marble shall sleep forgotten: And whereas there are famous Examples of old, that have perpetuated their Names at no less price than the burning of Temples, his better Husbandry, to his Glory be it recorded, has purchased Immortality much cheaper; where we'll leave him, and beg your Pardon for this Boldness

Of

Your unknown Humble Servant.

THE

Notorious Impostor:

OR THE

HISTORY

OF THE

LIFE

OF

William Morrell alias Bowyer, &c.

This Famous Rover, from the Multitude of his Titles, to begin with his right Name William Morrell, was by Profession a Chyrurgion, and more than twenty Years ago, for many Years together, a Practitioner of good Credit in Banbury, where his Industry