" As such a
weighty bit of Black Art did Mr. Antrobus make its details into a
book. As such he printed it. Doubtless he thought that a betrayed
secret may lawfully be re-betrayed as fully as possible.
Nevertheless, it was not so much of a re-betrayal. For less than
what a publisher of this day would call one fair-sized edition of
"The Square of Sevens," printed for Antrobus by the great John
Gowne, of The Mask book-shop, has ever appeared. And, to
account for the semi-privacy surrounding the little work, must be
set forth the dolesome incident of a printing-house fire burning,
"all except about a dozen or so of copies," before there had been
any "distribution of the Book" among the author's "Friends, Male
or, Female, or to the Publick." By some sudden change of his own
mind or his conscience, Mr. Antrobus did not order any new
edition. The prefatory "Afterthought" mentioned may be found,
only if stuck in some of the copies of the volume--doubtless by
quick and clumsy after-pastings.
Why Antrobus did not give the volume real currency is not known.
That he was urged to do so is certain. It is likely, however, that
about this same time some pecuniary losses withheld him from
such expensive bobbies as printing books. He returned to Bath,
and died there in 1740. We have no particulars of the event, nor
are there more than allusions to it in the journal of the date or in
the letters of contemporaries.
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