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 fortwo 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 leaft, from her poffeflion to the time of printing them, 'tis manifeft, that I had not the leaft ground to apprehend fuch a defign: but as people in great ftraits, bring forth their hoards of old gold and most valued jewels; fo Sappho had recourse to her hid treasure of Letters, and play'd off not only your's to me, but all those to herself (as the lady's laft take) into the prefs. As for me, I hope, when you fhall 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 shall at leaft have Her Comfort, of being thanked by the rest of the world. Nor has Mr. P. himSelf any great cause to think it much offence to his modefty, or reflection on his judgment; when we take care to inform the public, 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 furprized 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 public. A CATALOGUE OF THE Surreptitious and Incorrect Editions of Mr. POPE'S LETTER S. 1. FAMIL AMILIAR LETTERS to Henry Cromwell, Efq; by Mr. Pope, 12mo. Printed for Edmund Curll, 1727. [In this are Verfis, etc. ascribed to Mr. P. which were not his.] II. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence for thirty years: from 1704 to 1734. Being a Collection of Letters which paffed between him and several eminent perfons. Printed for E. Curll, 8°, 1735, Two editions. -The fame in duodecimo, with cuts. The third edition. [1hese contain several Letters not genuine.] III. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence, Vol.11. 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, 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 Chrift exprefsly denied, in pag. 123, 124. With fome fcandalous Anecdotes, and a Narrative.] The fame in duodecimo. IV. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence, Vol. III.Printed for E. Curll, 89, 1735. [In this is only one Letter 8o, by Mr. Pope to the Duchefs of Buckingham, which the Publisher fome way procured and printed against her order. It also contains four Letters, entitled, 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. M. Pope's Literary Correspondence, Vol. IV. Printed by the fame, contains not one Letter of this Author. -The fame in duodecimo. VI. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence, Vol. V. containing only one Letter of Mr. P. and another of the Lord B. with a scandalous 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 feveral Eminent Persons, Vol. 1. from 1705 to 1711. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Westminster,. 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 vir. Pope and several Eminent Perfons.. From 1705 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 Rochester's, and printed before by Curll.] IX. Letters of Mr. Pope and feveral 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, 12m0. [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. IF what is here offered 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 preferv'd; and to the malice of the latter, that they were produced in this manner. He had been very disagreeably 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, 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 so great, but immediately leffened it by burning three parts in four of them: the reft he fpared, not in any preference of their ftyle or writing, but merely as they preferv'd the memory of fome friendfhips 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 caused 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 use might be made of them. The next year, the pofthumous works of Mr. Wycherley were printed, in a way disreputable enough to his memory. It was thought a juftice 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 thefe 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 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. was over. It is notorious how many volumes have been published under the title of his correfpondence, with promises still 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 transacting with people in neceflities, or of abandoned † characters, or fuch as dealt without names in the dark. Upon a quarrel with one of these laft, he betrayed himself fo far, as to appeal to the public in Narratives and Advertisements: like that Irish highway-man a few years before, who preferr'd a bill against his companion, for See the Preface to vol. i. of a Book called Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence. Poftfcript to the Preface to vol. iv. |