"F AMILIAR LETTERS to Henry Cromwell, Efq. by Mr. Pope, 12mo. Printed for Edmund Curl, 1727. [In this are Verfes, &c. afcribed to Mr. P. which were not his.] II. Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence for thirty years from 1704 to 1734. Being a Collection of Letters which paffed between him and several eminent perfons. Printed for E. Curl, 8°, 1735, Two editions. The fame in duodecimo, with cuts. The third edition. [These contain several 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 those to Mr. Cromwell reprinted; nor any to him, but one faid to be Bishop Atterbury's, and another in that Bishop's name, certainly not his: One or two Letters from St. Omer's, advertized of Mr. Pope, but which proved to be only concerning him; some scandalous Reflections of one Le Neve on the Legislature, Courts of Justice, and Church of England, pag. 116, 117. and the Di- . vinity of Chrift exprefsly denied, in pag. 123, 124] With fome fcandalous Anecdotes, and a Narrative. The The fame in duodecimo. IV. Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence, Vol. III. Printed for E. Curl, 8°, 1735. [In this is only one Letter by Mr. Pope to the Duchefs 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 tranflation 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 Curl's, how he could come at more of their Letters, 8°, printed for the fame, 1736. VII. Letters of Mr. Pope and feveral Eminent Perfons, Vol. I. from 1705 to 1711. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Westminfter, 8°, 1735 The fame, Vol. II. from 1711, &c. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Weftminster, 8°, 1735.-The fame in 12mo, with a Narrative. VIII Letters of Mr. Pope and feveral Eminent Perfons. From 1765 to 1735. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Westminster, 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 Rochefter's, and printed before by Curl.] IX. Let Surreptitious and Incorrect Editions, &c. xi 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. [In this was inferted the Forged Letter from the Bishop of Rochester, and fome other things, unknown to Mr. Pope.] PREFACE PREFACE Prefixed to the First Genuine Edition quarto, 1737. in F what is here offered the reader, fhould happen I 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 ufed, 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 thofe 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 prefe rence of their ftyle 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 fcriblers of the times had taken occafion to afperfe either his friends or himself. He therefore lay'd by the Originals, together with thofe of his correfpondents, and caufed a copy a copy to be taken to depofite 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. The next year, the pofthumous works of Mr. Wycherley were printed, in a way difreputable enough to his memory. It was thought a justice due to him, to fhew the world his better judgment; and that it was his laft refolution to have fuppreffed thofe poems. As fome of the Letters which had paffed between him and our author cleared that point, they were published in 1729, with a few marginal notes added by a friend. If in these Letters, and in those which were printed without his confent, there appear too much of a juvenile ambition of wit, or affectation of gaiety, he may reasonably hope it will be confidered to whom, and at what age, he was guilty of it, as well as how foon it was over. The reft, every judge of writing will fee, were by no means efforts of the genius, but emanations of the heart: and this alone may induce any candid reader to believe their publication an act of neceffity, rather than of vanity. It is notorious, how many volumes have been published under the title of his correfpondence, with promises ftill of more, and open and repeated offers of encouragement to all perfons who should send any letters of his for the prefs. It is as notorious what methods were taken to procure them, even from the publisher's own accounts in his prefaces, viz. by tranfacting with people in neceffities, or of abandoned + characters, or fuch as dealt without names in the dark. Upon a quarrel with one of these * * See the Preface to Vol. I. of a Book called Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence. + Poftfcript to the Preface to Vol. IV. Narrative and Anecdotes before Vol. II. last, |