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PREFACE

OF THE

PUBLISHER OF THE SURREPTITIOUS EDITION,

1735.

WE presume we want no apology to the reader for this publication, but some may be thought needful to Mr. Pope: however, he cannot think our offence so great as theirs, who first separately published what we have here but collected in a better form and order. As for the Letters we have procured to be added, they serve but to complete, explain, and sometimes set in a true light, those others, which it was not in the writer's or our power to recal.

This collection hath been owing to several cabinets: some drawn from thence by accidents, and others (even of those to Ladies) voluntarily given. It is to one of that sex we are beholden for the whole correspondence between H. C. Esq. which letters being lent her by that Gentleman, she took the liberty to print; as appears by the following, which we shall give at length, both as it is something curious, and as it may serve for an apology for ourselves.

TO HENRY CROMWELL, ESQ.

June 27, 1727.

AFTER so long a silence as the many and great oppressions I have sighed under have occasioned, one is at a loss how to begin a letter to so kind a friend

as yourself. But as it was always my resolution, if I must sink, to do it as decently (that is, as silently) as I could; so when I found myself plunged into unforeseen and unavoidable ruin, I retreated from the world, and in a manner buried myself in a dismal place, where I knew none, and none knew me. In this dull unthinking way, I have protracted a lingering death (for life it cannot be called) ever since you saw me, sequestered from company, deprived of my books, and nothing left to converse with, but the letters of my dead or absent friends; among which latter I always placed yours and Mr. Pope's in the first rank. I lent some of them indeed to an ingenious person, who was so delighted with the specimen, that he importuned me for a sight of the rest, which having obtained, he conveyed them to the press, I must not say altogether with my consent, nor wholly without it. I thought them too good to be lost in oblivion, and had no cause to apprehend the disobliging of any. The public, viz. all persons of taste and judgment, would be pleased with so agreeable an amusement; Mr. Cromwell could not be angry, since it was but justice to his merit, to publish the solemn and private professions of love, gratitude, and veneration, made him by so celebrated an author; and sincerely Mr. Pope ought not to resent the publication, since the early pregnancy of his genius was no dishonour to his character. And yet, had either of you been asked, common modesty would have obliged you to refuse, what you would not be displeased with, if done without your knowledge. And besides, to end all dispute, you had been pleased to make me a free gift of them, to do what I pleased with them; and every one knows, that the person to whom a letter is addressed, has the same right to dispose of it, as he has of goods purchased with his money. I doubt not but your generosity and honour will do me the right, of owning by a line that I came honestly by them. I

flatter myself, in a few months I shall again be visible to the world; and whenever through good Providence that turn shall happen, I shall joyfully acquaint you with it, there being none more truly your obliged servant, than, Sir, Your, etc.

E. THOMAS.

P. S. A letter, Sir, directed to Mrs. Thomas, to be left at my house, will be safely transmitted to her, by

Yours, etc.

E. CURLL.

MR. CROMWELL TO MR. POPE.

Epsom, July 6, 1727. WHEN these Letters were first printed, I wondered how Curll could come by them, and could not but laugh at the pompous title; since whatever you wrote to me was humour, and familiar raillery. As soon as I came from Epsom, I heard you had been to see me, and I writ you a short letter from Will's, that I longed to see you. Mr. D- -s, about that time, charged me with giving them to a mistress, which I positively denied: not in the least, at that time, thinking of it; but some time after, finding in the news-papers Letters from Lady Packington, Lady Chudleigh, and Mr. Norris, to the same Sappho, or E. T. I begin to fear that I was guilty. I have never seen these Letters of Curll's, nor would go to his shop about them; I have not seen the Sappho, alias E. T. these seven years. Her writing, That Į gave her 'em, to do what she would with 'em, is straining the point too far. I thought not of it, nor do I think she did then; but severe necessity, which catches hold of a twig, has produced all this; which has lain hid, and forgot by me so many years. Curll sent me a letter last week, desiring a positive answer

about this matter, but finding I would give him none, he went to E. T. and writ a postscript in her long romantic letter, to direct my answer to his house; but they not expecting an answer, sent a young man to me, whose name, it seems, is Pattison. I told him I should not write any thing, but I believed it might be so as she writ in her letter. I am extremely concerned that my former indiscretion in putting them into the hands of this Pretieuse, should have given you so much disturbance; for the last thing I should do would be to disoblige you, for whom I have ever preserved the greatest esteem, and shall ever be, Sir,

Your faithful friend, etc.

HENRY CROMWELL.

MR. CROMWELL TO MR. POPE.

August 1, 1727. THOUGH I writ my long narrative from Epsom, till I was tired, yet I was not satisfied; lest any doubt should rest 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 send you those letters, as a clear evidence that I was a perfect stranger to all their proceeding. Should I have 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 she expresses for all you write, and her passion 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 possession to the time of printing them, 'tis manifest, that I had not the least ground to apprehend such a design but as people in great straits bring