The Adventures of Roderick Random

Unsuccessful Attempts to Sell Poetry and Translations

Father O’Varnish suggests Melopoyn write poetry to sell to booksellers. Inspired by Pope’s success with pastorals, Melopoyn composes six eclogues in six weeks and offers them to a bookseller. The publisher returns them after two days, claiming they won’t serve his purpose, though he notes some clever lines. Melopoyn later learns the rejection stemmed from another author’s opinion. A second bookseller advises writing satirical or sensational works, recommending titles like Button Hole and The Leaky Vessel, which advice Melopoyn scorns. A third bookseller deals only in prose adventures like Robinson Crusoe or collections of conundrums for the plantations. Melopoyn then attempts translation work, applying to someone employing many translators, only to be told translations are worthless due to an oversupply of Scottish authors. When he demands half-a-guinea per sheet, the publisher refuses; lowering his price still yields no employment.

Melopoyn’s Turn to Grub Street Ballad and Sensational Writing

Reduced to desperation, Melopoyn approaches vendors of half-penny ballads. The most vociferous ballad-seller directs him to an employer entertaining a crowd with refreshments. Learning Melopoyn’s poetic inclination, the proprietor is delighted because his previous poets have gone mad in Bedlam or become drunkards. The agreement proves conditional and poorly compensated, with authors paid proportionally to sales. After being assigned a ballad subject and producing an ode in two hours, Melopoyn faces rejection for being too high-flown. After humbling his style for vulgar comprehension, he earns approximately fourpence halfpenny from the first printing. He diligently masters the Grub Street manner, eventually producing works in great demand among chairmen, draymen, coachmen, footmen, and servant maids. His ballads, adorned with cuts, appear on walls in beer cellars and cobbler stalls, and even reach clubs of substantial tradesmen. However, he discovers that empty praise cannot satisfy hunger; perhaps two of ten songs succeed. Turning to prose, he publishes sensational content—an apparition sustains him a month, monsters and tales of rape provide meals, and well-timed murders become his reliable resource. The constant demands of employers expecting instant prose and verse on any topic, regardless of his inclination, transforms his literary life into a burden.