The Merry-Thought: or the Glass-Window and Bog-House Miscellany

A surprising slice of eighteenth‑century culture, this collection gathers the rough‑and‑ready verses that once scrawled themselves on windows, tables and the walls of public latrines. Printed in four parts beginning in 1731, the poems revel in bawdy humor, crude observations and the kind of spontaneous wit that would have been shunned by the era’s “polite” anthologies. Their notoriety earned the work a reputation as an infamous counter‑canon, deliberately parodying the lofty miscellanies of Pope and Swift.

Listening to the selections, you’ll hear everyday concerns—love, politics, tavern life—filtered through a raw, folk‑art sensibility that feels oddly modern. The accompanying scholarly introduction situates the pieces within the broader debate about what counts as “good taste” and shows how these graffiti‑like verses served as a playful dialogue across generations. Together they offer a vivid glimpse into a hidden literary underworld that both mocked and complemented the high culture of its day.