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Chudleigh, and Mr. Norris, to the fame Sappho or E. T. I began to fear that I was guilty. I have never seen thefe Letters of Curll's, nor would go to his thop about them; I have not feen this Sappho alias E. T. these feven years. Her writing, That I gave her 'em, to do what she would with 'em, is ftraining the point too far. I thought not of it, nor do I think he did then; but fevere neceffity, which catches hold of a twig, has produced all this; which has lain hid, and forgot, by me fo many years. Curl fent me a letter laft week, defiring a pofitive anfwer about this matter; but finding I would give him none, he went to E. T. and writ a Poftfcript in her long romantic letter, to direct my anfwer to his house; but they not expecting an answer, fent a young man to me, whofe name, it feems, is Pattifon I told him I should not write any thing, but I believed it might be fo as fhe writ in her letter. I am extremely concerned that my former indifcretion in putting them into the hands of this Preticufe, fhould have given you fo much difturbance; for the last thing I'fhould do would be to difoblige you, for whom I have ever preferved the greatest esteem, and fhall ever be, Sir,

THOU

:

Your faithful Friend, and

moft humble Servant,

HENRY CROMWELL.

To Mr. P O p E.

August 1, 1727.

HOUGH I writ my long narrative from Epsom till I was tired, yet I was not fatisfied; left any doubt fhould reft upon your mind. I could not make protestations of my innocence of a grievous crime; but I was impatient till I came to town, that I might fend you thofe Letters as a clear evidence that I was a perfect ftranger to all their proceeding. Should I have

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protested against it, after the printing, it might have been taken for an attempt to decry his purchase; and as the little exception you have taken has served him to play his game upon us for these two years, a new incident from me might enable him to play it on for two more. The great value fhe expreffes for all you write, and her paffion for having them, I believe, was what prevailed upon me to let her keep them. By the interval of twelve years at least, from her poffeffion to the time of printing them, it is manifeft, that I had not the leaft ground to apprehend such a design: but as people in great ftraights bring forth their hoards of old gold and most valued jewels; fo Sappho had recourfe to her hid treasure of Letters, and played off not only your's to me, but all those to herself (as the lady's laft stake) into the prefs.-As for me, I hope,' when you shall coolly confider the many thousand inftances of our being deluded by the females, fince that great Original of Adam by Eve, you will have a more favourable thought of the undefigning error of

Your faithful Friend,

and humble Servant,

HENRY CROMWELL.

Now fhould our apology for this publication be as ill received, as the lady's feems to have been by the gentlemen concerned; we fhall at least have Her Comfort, of being thanked by the rest of the world. Nor has Mr. P. himfelf any great caufe to think it much offence to his modesty, or reflection on his judgment; when we take care to inform the publick, that there are few Letters of his in this collection, which were not written under twenty years of age: on the other hand, we doubt not the reader will be much more Surprised to find, at that early period, fo much variety of Ayle, affecting fentiment, and juftness of criticism, in pieces which must have been writ in hafte, very few perhaps ever reviewed, and none intended for the eye of the publick.

A

CATALOGUE

LOGUE

OF THE

SURREPTITIOUS and INCORRECT EDITIONS

O F

Mr. POPE's LETTERS.

I. FAMILIAR LETTERS to Henry Cromwell, Efq. by Mr. Pope, 12mo. Printed for Edmund Curll,

1727.

[In this are Verfes, etc. afcribed to Mr. P. which were not bis.]

II. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence for thirty years: from 1704 to 1734. Being a Collection of Letters which paffed between him and feveral eminent perfons. Printed for E. Curll, 8°, 1735. Two editions. -The fame in 12m0, with cuts. The third edition. [These contain feveral Letters not genuine.]

III. Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence, Vol. II. Printed for the fame, 8°, 1735. [In this volume are no Letters of Mr. Pope's, but a few. of thofe to Mr. Cromwell reprinted; nor any to him, but one said to be Bishop Atterbury's, and another in that Bishop's name, certainly not his : One or two Letters from St. Omer's, advertised of Mr. Pope, but which proved to be only concerning him; fome fcandalous Reflections of one Le Neve on the Legislature, Courts of Juftice, and Church of England, pag. 116, 117. and the Divinity of Christ expressly denied, in pag. 123,124. With fome fcandalous Anecdotes, and a Narrative.]

The fame in duodecimo.

IV. Mr. Fope's Literary Correspondencc,Vol.III. Printed for E. Curll, 8°, 1735. [In this is only one Letter

by Mr. Pope to the Dutchess of Buckingham, which the Publisher fome way procured and printed against her order. It alfo contains four Letters, intitled, Mr. Pope's to Mifs Blount, which are literally taken from an old Translation of Voiture's to Mad. Rambouillet.] The fame in duodecimo.

V. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence, Vol. IV. Printed by the fame, contains not one Letter of this Author. The fame in duodecimo.

VI. Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence, Vol. V. containing only one Letter of Mr. P. and another of the Lord B. with a fcandalous Preface of Curll's, how he could come at more of their Letters, 8°, printed for the fame, 1736.

VII. Letters of Mr. Pope and several Eminent Persons. Vol. I. from 1705 to 1711. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Weftminster, 8°, 1735

The fame, Vol. II. from 1711, etc. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Westminster, 8°, 1735.-The fame in 12mo, with a Narrative. VIII. Letters of Mr. Pope and several Eminent Perfons. From 1705 to 1735. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Weftminfter, 12mo, 1735. [This edition is faid in the title to contain more Letters than any other, but contains only Two, faid to be the Bishop of Rochester's, and printed before by Curll.]

IX. Letters of Mr. Pope and several Eminent Perfons. From the year 1705 to 1735. Vol. I. and Vol. II. Printed for T. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-nofter Row, 1735, 12mo.

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[In this was inferted the Forged Letter from the Bishop of Rochester, and fome other things unknown. to Mr. Pope.]

PREFACE

PREFIXED TO

The First GENUINE EDITION in Quarto, 1737.

I

F what is here offered to the Reader fhould happen in any degree to please him, the thanks are not due to the Author, but partly to his friends, and partly to his enemies: it was wholly owing to the affection of the former, that fo many Letters, of which he never kept copies, were preserved; and to the malice of the latter, that they were produced in this manner.

He had been very difagreeably used, in the publication of fome Letters written in his youth, which fell into the hands of a woman who printed them, without his or his correfpondent's confent, in 1727. This treatment, and the apprehenfion of more of the fame kind, put him upon recalling as many as he could from those who he imagined had kept any. He was forry to find the number fo great, but immediately leffened it by burning three parts in four of them: the reft he fpared, not in any preference of their style or writing, but merely as they preferved the memory of fome friendships which will ever be dear to him, or fet in a true light fome matters of fact, from which the fcribblers of the times had taken occafion to afperse either his friends or himself. He therefore laid by the Originals, together with thofe of his correfpondents, and caufed a copy to be taken to depofit in the library of a noble friend ; that in cafe either of the revival of flanders, or the publication of furreptitious Letters, during his life or after, a proper ufe might be made of them.

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