The Invisible Man of Indecency: Profanity and the Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African (1782)

AbstractThis essay analyses vulgarities in Ignatius Sancho's letters, which were collected and published posthumously (in 1782) by one of his correspondents to provide revenue for Sancho's widow and children. It proposes a role for Sancho in English letters never previously suggested: that he used sexual innuendo in the manner of Swift, Sterne and London playwrights to spur a number of patrons and benefactors to provide gifts of money, food and other necessities when he had difficulty feeding his children. The posthumous collection continued that effort but elided some of his frankness, possibly because Sancho's widow was involved in its publication.