OF THE EXTRAORDINARY TRANSACTIONS RESPECTING THE PUBLICATION OF POPE'S
LETTERS.
JOHNSON observes, that "one of the passages of POPE'S life which seems
to deserve some inquiry, was the publication of his letters by CURLL,
the rapacious bookseller."[208] Our great literary biographer has
expended more research on this occasion than his usual penury of
literary history allowed; and yet has only told the close of the
strange transaction--the previous parts are more curious, and the
whole cannot be separated. Joseph Warton has only transcribed
Johnson's narrative. It is a piece of literary history of an uncommon
complexion; and it is worth the pains of telling, if Pope, as I
consider him to be, was the subtile weaver of a plot, whose texture
had been close enough for any political conspiracy. It throws a strong
light on the portrait I have touched of him. He conducted all his
literary transactions with the arts of a Minister of State; and the
genius which he wasted on this literary stratagem, in which he so
completely succeeded, might have been perhaps sufficient to have
organised rebellion.
It is well known that the origin of Pope's first letters given to the
public, arose from the distresses of a cast-off mistress of one of his
old friends (H. Cromwell),[209] who had given her the letters of
Pope, which she knew how to value: these she afterwards sold to Curll,
who preserved the originals in his shop, so that no suspicions could
arise of their authenticity. This very collection is now deposited
among Rawlinson's MSS. at the Bodleian.[210]
This single volume was successful; and when Pope, to do justice to the
memory of Wycherley, which had been injured by a posthumous volume,
printed some of their letters, Curll, who seemed now to consider that
all he could touch was his own property, and that his little volume
might serve as a foundation-stone, immediately announced _a new
edition_ of it, with _Additions_, meaning to include the letters of
Pope and Wycherley. Curll now became so fond of _Pope's Letters_, that
he advertised for any: "no questions to be asked." Curll was willing
to be credulous: having proved to the world he had some originals, he
imagined these would sanction even spurious one. A man who, for a
particular purpose, sought to be imposed on, easily obtained his wish:
they translated letters of Voiture to Mademoiselle Rambouillet, and
despatched them to the eager Bibliopolist to print, as Pope's to Miss
Blount. He went on increasing his collection; and, skilful in catering
for the literary taste of the town, now inflamed their appetite by
dignifying it with "Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence!"
But what were the feelings of Pope during these successive surreptitious
editions? He had discovered that his genuine letters were liked; the
grand experiment with the public had been made for him, while he was
deprived of the profits; yet for he himself to publish his own
letters, which I shall prove he had prepared, was a thing unheard of in
the nation. All this was vexatious; and to stop the book-jobber and open
the market for himself, was a point to be obtained.
While Curll was proceeding, wind and tide in his favour, a new and
magnificent prospect burst upon him. A certain person, masked by the
initials P. T., understanding Curll was preparing _a Life of Pope_,
offered him "divers Memoirs gratuitously;" hinted that he was well
known to Pope; but the poet had lately "treated him as a stranger."
P. T. desires an answer from E. C. by the _Daily Advertiser_, which
was complied with. There are passages in this letter which, I think,
prove Pope to be the projector of it: his family is here said to be
allied to Lord Downe's; his father is called a merchant. Pope could
not bear the reproach of Lady Mary's line:--
Hard as thy heart, and as _thy birth obscure_.
He always hinted at noble relatives; but Tyers tells us, from the
information of a relative, that "his father turns out, at last, to
have been a linen-draper in the Strand:" therefore P. T. was at least
telling a story which Pope had no objection should be repeated.
The second letter of P. T., for the first was designed only to break
the ice, offers Curll "a large Collection of Letters from the early
days of Pope to the year 1727." He gives an excellent notion of their
value: "They will open very many scenes new to the world, and make the
most authentic Life and Memoirs that could be." He desires they may be
announced to the world immediately, in Curll's precious style, that he
"might not appear himself to have set the whole thing a-foot, and
afterwards he might plead he had only sent some letters to complete
the Collection." He asks nothing, and the originals were offered to be
deposited with Curll.
Curll, secure of this promised addition, but still craving for more
and more, composed a magnificent announcement, which, with P. T.'s
entire correspondence, he enclosed in a letter to Pope himself. The
letters were now declared to be a "Critical, Philological, and
Historical Correspondence."--His own letter is no bad specimen of his
keen sense; but after what had so often passed, his impudence was
equal to the better quality.
"SIR,--To convince you of my readiness to oblige you, the inclosed
is a demonstration. You have, as he says, disobliged a gentleman,
the initial letters of whose name are P. T. I have some other
papers in the same hand, relating to your _family_, which I will
show, if you desire a sight of them. Your letters to Mr. Cromwell
are out of print; and I intend to print them very beautifully, in
an octavo volume. I have more to say than is proper to write; and
if you will give me a meeting, I will wait on you with pleasure,
and close all differences between you and yours,
"E. CURLL."
Pope, surprised, as he pretends, at this address, consulted with his
friends; everything evil was suggested against Curll. They conceived
that his real design was "to get Pope to look over the former edition
of his 'Letters to Cromwell,' and then to print it, as _revised_ by
Mr. Pope; as he sent an _obscene book_ to a _Bishop_, and then
advertised it as _corrected_ and _revised_ by him;" or perhaps to
extort money from Pope for suppressing the MS. of P. T., and then
publish it, saying P. T. had kept another copy. Pope thought proper to
answer only by this public advertisement:--
"Whereas A. P. hath received a letter from E. C., bookseller,
pretending that a person, the initials of whose name are P. T., hath
offered the said E. C. to print a large Collection of Mr. P.'s
letters, to which E. C. required an answer: A. P. having never had,
nor intending to have, any private correspondence with the said E. C.,
gives it him in this manner. That he knows no such person as P. T.;
that he believes he hath no such collection; and that he thinks the
whole a forgery, and shall not trouble himself at all about it."
Curll replied, denying he had endeavoured to _correspond_ with Mr.
Pope, and affirms that he had written to him by _direction_.
It is now the plot thickens. P. T. suddenly takes umbrage, accuses
Curll of having "betrayed him to 'Squire Pope,' but you and he both
shall soon be convinced it was no forgery. Since you would not comply
with my proposal to advertise, I have printed them at my own expense."
He offers the books to Curll for sale.
Curll on this has written a letter, which takes a full view of the
entire transaction. He seems to have grown tired of what he calls
"such jealous, groundless, and dark negotiations." P. T. now found it
necessary to produce something more than a shadow--an agent appears,
whom Curll considered to be a clergyman, who assumed the name of R.
Smith. The first proposal was, that P. T.'s letters should be
returned, that he might feel secure from all possibility of detection;
so that P. T. terminates his part in this literary freemasonry as a
nonentity.
Here Johnson's account begins.--"Curll said, that one evening a man in
a clergyman's gown, but with a lawyer's band, brought and offered to
sale a number of printed volumes, which he found to be Pope's
Epistolary Correspondence; that he asked no name, and was told none,
but gave the price demanded, and thought himself authorised to use his
purchase to his own advantage." Smith, the clergyman, left him some
copies, and promised more.
Curll now, in all the elation of possession, rolled his thunder in an
advertisement still higher than ever.--"Mr. Pope's Literary
Correspondence regularly digested, from 1704 to 1734:" to lords,
earls, baronets, doctors, ladies, &c., with their respective answers,
and whose names glittered in the advertisement. The original MSS. were
also announced to be seen at his house.
But at this moment Curll had not received many books, and no MSS. The
advertisement produced the effect designed; it roused public notice,
and it alarmed several in the House of Lords. Pope doubtless
instigated his friends there. The Earl of Jersey moved, that to
publish letters of Lords was a breach of privilege; and Curll was
brought before the House.
This was an unexpected incident; and P. T. once more throws his dark
shadow across the path of Curll to hearten him, had he wanted courage
to face all the lords. P. T. writes to instruct him in his answers to
their examination; but to take the utmost care to conceal P. T.; he
assures him that the lords could not touch a hair of his head if he
behaved firmly; that he should only answer their interrogatories by
declaring he received the letters from different persons; that some
were given, and some were bought. P. T. reminds one, on this occasion,
of Junius's correspondence on a like threat with his publisher.
"Curll appeared at the bar," says Johnson, "and knowing himself in no
great danger, spoke of Pope with very little reverence. 'He has,' said
Curll, 'a knack at versifying; but in prose I think myself a match for
him.' When the Orders of the House were examined, none of them
appeared to have been infringed: Curll went away triumphant, and Pope
was left to seek some other remedy." The fact, not mentioned by
Johnson, is, that though Curll's flourishing advertisement had
announced _letters written by lords_, when the volumes were examined
not one written by a lord appeared.
The letter Curll wrote on the occasion to one of these dark familiars,
the pretended clergyman, marks his spirit and sagacity. It contains a
remarkable passage. Some readers will be curious to have the
productions of so celebrated a personage, who appears to have
exercised considerable talents.
_15th May, 1735._
"DEAR SIR,--I am just again going to the Lords to finish Pope. I
desire you to send me the _sheets_ to _perfect_ the first fifty
books, and likewise the _remaining three hundred books_; and pray
be at the Standard Tavern this evening, and I will pay you twenty
pounds more. My defence is right; I only told the lords I did not
know from whence the books came, and that my wife received them.
This was strict truth, and prevented all further inquiry. _The
lords declared they had been made Pope's tools._ I put myself on
this single point, and insisted, as there was not any Peer's
letter in the book, I had not been guilty of any breach of
privilege. I depend that the _books_ and the _imperfections_ will
be sent; and believe of P. T. what I hope he believes of me.
"For the Rev. Mr. SMITH."
The reader observes that Curll talks of a great number of _books not
received_, and of _the few_ which he has received, as _imperfect_. The
fact is, the whole bubble is on the point of breaking. He, masked in
the initial letters, and he, who wore the masquerade dress of a
clergyman's gown with a lawyer's band, suddenly picked a quarrel with
the duped bibliopolist: they now accuse him of a design he had of
betraying them to the Lords!
The tantalized and provoked Curll then addressed the following letter
to "The Rev. Mr. Smith," which, both as a specimen of this celebrated
personage's "prose," in which he thought himself "a match for Pope,"
and exhibiting some traits of his character, will entertain the
curious reader.
_Friday, 16 May, 1735._
"SIR,--1st, I am falsely accused. 2. I value not any man's change
of temper; I will never change my VERACITY for falsehood, in
owning a fact of which I am innocent. 3. I did not own the books
came from _across the water_, nor ever _named you_; all I said
was, that the books came _by water_. 4. When the books were
seized, I sent my son to convey a letter to you; and as you told
me everybody knew you in Southwark, I bid him make a strict
inquiry, as I am sure you would have done in such an exigency. 5.
Sir, _I have acted justly_ in this affair, and that is what I
shall always think wisely. 6. I will be kept no longer in the
dark; P. T. is _Will o' the Wisp_; all the books I have had are
imperfect; the first fifty had no titles nor prefaces; the last
five bundles seized by the Lords contained but thirty-eight in
each bundle, which amounts to one hundred and ninety, and fifty,
is in all but two hundred and forty books. 7. As to the loss of a
future copy, I despise it, nor will I be concerned with any more
such dark suspicious dealers. But now, sir, I'll tell you what I
will do: when I have the _books perfected_ which I have already
received, and _the rest of the impression_, I will pay you for
them. But what do you call this usage? First take a note for a
month, and then want it to be changed for one of Sir Richard
Hoare's. My note is as good, for any sum I give it, as the Bank,
and shall be as punctually paid. I always say, _gold is better
than paper_. But if this dark converse goes on, I will instantly
reprint the whole book; and, as a supplement to it, all the
letters P. T. ever sent me, of which I have exact copies, together
with all your originals, and give them in upon oath to my Lord
Chancellor. You talk of _trust_--P. T. has not reposed any in me,
for he has my money and notes for imperfect books. Let me see,
sir, either P. T. or yourself, or you'll find the Scots proverb
verified, _Nemo me impune lacessit_.
"Your abused humble servant,
"E. CURLL.
"P.S. Lord ---- I attend this day. LORD DELAWAR I SUP WITH
TO-NIGHT. Where _Pope_ has one lord, I have twenty."
After this, Curll announced "Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence, with
the _initial correspondence_ of P. T., R. S. &c." But the shadowy
correspondents now publicly declared that they could give _no title_
whatever to Mr. Pope's letters, with which they had furnished CURLL,
and never pretended any; that therefore any bookseller had the same
right of printing them: and, in respect to money matters between them,
he had given them notes not negotiable, and had never paid them fully
for the copies, perfect and imperfect, which he had sold.
Thus terminated this dark transaction between Curll and his _initial_
correspondents. He still persisted in printing several editions of the
letters of Pope, which furnished the poet with a modest pretext to
publish an authentic edition--the very point to which the whole of
this dark and intricate plot seems to have been really directed.[211]
Were Pope not concerned in this mysterious transaction, how happened
it that the letters which P. T. actually printed were genuine? To
account for this, Pope promulgated a new fact. Since the first
publication of his letters to his friend Cromwell, wrenched from the
distressed female who possessed them, our poet had been advised to
collect his letters; and these he had preserved by inserting them in
two books; either the originals or the copies. For this purpose an
amanuensis or two were employed by Pope when these books were in the
country, and by the Earl of Oxford when they were in town. Pope
pretended that Curll's letters had been extracted from these two
books, but sometimes imperfectly transcribed, and sometimes
interpolated. Pope, indeed, offered a reward of twenty pounds to
"P. T." and "R. Smith, who passed for a clergyman," if they would come
forward and discover the whole of this affair; or "if they had acted,
as it was reported, by the _direction_ of any other person." They
never appeared. Lintot, the son of the great rival of Curll, told Dr.
Johnson, that his father had been offered the same parcel of printed
books, and that Pope knew better than anybody else how Curll obtained
the copies.
Dr. Johnson, although he appears not to have been aware of the subtle
intricacy of this extraordinary plot, has justly drawn this inference:
"To make the copies perfect was the only purpose of Pope, because the
numbers offered for sale by the private messengers, showed that hope
of gain could not have been the motive of the impression. It seems
that Pope, being desirous of printing his letters, and not knowing how
to do, without imputation of vanity, what has in this country been
done very rarely, contrived an appearance of compulsion; when he could
complain that his letters were surreptitiously printed, he might
decently and defensively publish them himself."
I have observed, how the first letter of P. T. pretending to be
written by one who owed no kindness to Pope, bears the evident
impression of his own hand; for it contains matters not exactly true,
but exactly what Pope wished should appear in his own life. That he
had prepared his letters for publication, appears by the story of the
two MS. books--that the printed ones came by water, would look as if
they had been sent from his house at Twickenham; and, were it not
absurd to pretend to decipher initials, P. T. might be imagined to
indicate the name of the owner, as well as his place of abode.
Worsdale, an indifferent painter, was a man of some humour in
personating a character, for he performed Old Lady Scandal in one of
his own farces. He was also a literary adventurer, for, according to
Mrs. Pilkington's Memoirs, wishing to be a poet as well as a mimic, he
got her and her husband to write all the verses which passed with his
name; such a man was well adapted to be this clergyman with the
lawyer's band, and Worsdale has asserted that he was really employed
by his friend Pope on this occasion.
Such is the intricate narrative of this involved transaction. Pope
completely succeeded, by the most subtile manoeuvres imaginable; the
incident which perhaps was not originally expected, of having his
letters brought before the examination at the House of Lords, most
amply gratified his pride, and awakened public curiosity. "He made the
House of Lords," says Curll, "his tools." Greater ingenuity,
perplexity, and secrecy have scarcely been thrown into the conduct of
the writer, or writers, of the Letters of Junius.