reprint the whole book; and, as a supplement to it, all the
letters P. T. ever sent me, of which I have exact copies, together
with all your originals, and give them in upon oath to my Lord
Chancellor. You talk of _trust_--P. T. has not reposed any in me,
for he has my money and notes for imperfect books. Let me see,
sir, either P. T. or yourself, or you'll find the Scots proverb
verified, _Nemo me impune lacessit_.

"Your abused humble servant,
"E. CURLL.

"P.S. Lord ---- I attend this day. LORD DELAWAR I SUP WITH
TO-NIGHT. Where _Pope_ has one lord, I have twenty."

After this, Curll announced "Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence, with
the _initial correspondence_ of P. T., R. S. &c." But the shadowy
correspondents now publicly declared that they could give _no title_
whatever to Mr. Pope's letters, with which they had furnished CURLL,
and never pretended any; that therefore any bookseller had the same
right of printing them: and, in respect to money matters between them,
he had given them notes not negotiable, and had never paid them fully
for the copies, perfect and imperfect, which he had sold.

Thus terminated this dark transaction between Curll and his _initial_
correspondents. He still persisted in printing several editions of the
letters of Pope, which furnished the poet with a modest pretext to
publish an authentic edition--the very point to which the whole of
this dark and intricate plot seems to have been really directed.[211]

Were Pope not concerned in this mysterious transaction, how happened
it that the letters which P. T. actually printed were genuine? To
account for this, Pope promulgated a new fact. Since the first
publication of his letters to his friend Cromwell, wrenched from the
distressed female who possessed them, our poet had been advised to
collect his letters; and these he had preserved by inserting them in
two books; either the originals or the copies. For this purpose an
amanuensis or two were employed by Pope when these books were in the
country, and by the Earl of Oxford when they were in town. Pope
pretended that Curll's letters had been extracted from these two
books, but sometimes imperfectly transcribed, and sometimes
interpolated. Pope, indeed, offered a reward of twenty pounds to
"P. T." and "R. Smith, who passed for a clergyman," if they would come
forward and discover the whole of this affair; or "if they had acted,
as it was reported, by the _dire