d quarto, he was
clandestinely printing an octavo edition in which he put back the whole
of the omitted letters he allowed to be genuine, and his imperfect
quarto was simply a fraud upon the purchasers for the purpose of
accrediting his feigned reprobation of the P. T. volume.

One Watson, who assumed for the occasion the name of T. Johnson, printed
a piratical edition of the new octavos. Dodsley filed a bill against him
in Chancery on November 25 for the invasion of the copyright of Pope's
edition in folio. On October 31, Dodsley had entered at Stationers'
Hall, "The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., Vol. V. and Vol. VI. The
second edition corrected. 8vo." He had omitted to enter the previous
edition of the octavos, and in a letter which Watson wrote on November
30 he objected that the folio was not the book he had pirated, and that
the octavo volumes were only entered at Stationers' Hall on October 31,
which he says "was at least a full month after the publication of the
edition complained of, and Pope's own first edition entirely sold before
the octavo was entered." His meaning was that since the first edition of
the octavo had not been entered, the entry of the second edition, which
was subsequent to the piracy, came too late to secure the copyright. The
greater part, however, of Watson's volumes were identical with the text
of the folio which had been entered on May 18, and Watson did not
persevere in his defence. He consented to deliver up the 1646 copies in
his possession on the receipt of 25_l._, and to give Pope a bond in
which he undertook to pay a penalty of 100_l._ if he ever again invaded
his rights by printing any of his works.[114]

Pope's prohibition of Watson's work, coupled with his own publication of
the octavos, is fresh evidence of the insincerity of his professed
dissatisfaction with the P. T. selection. His apology for replacing in
the octavos the letters he had rejected was that they were in process of
being reinstated in a piratical edition of the quarto.[115] Pope had the
power, which he used, to stop piratical publications, and at the same
time he absurdly made the piracy the plea for publishing himself the
condemned letters he had cast aside. His mode of relieving his disgust
at their appearance, and of giving effect to his eager desire for their
suppression was to lay hold of a hollow excuse for reprinting them.

While Pope proceeded against Watson he submitted to the piracies of
Curll. His c