2'>'» 8. N» 60., Fkb. 21. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



141 



LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1857. 



STBAT NOTES ON EDMUND CURLL, HIS LIFE, AND 

 PUBLICATIONS. 



No. 8. — Cwll indicted, convicted, fined, impri- 

 soned, and pilloried. 



We now come to a very memorable period in 

 the life of Edmund Curll. The year 1725 saw 

 him indicted for the publication of certain libels. 

 Such at least was the form which the indictment 

 assumed, the books being proceeded against as 

 libellous, whereas, in fact, they were made the 

 subject of prosecution because they were ob- 

 scene. 



What induced the government, in 1725, to in- 

 dict Curll for the publication of books whicli had 

 been issued from his press many years before, we 

 have no means of ascertaining with certainty. It 

 would seem, however, that dissatisfaction had 

 been publicly expressed that some of Curll's pub- 

 lications should be permitted to pass unpunished : 

 for we have seen an imperfect copy of a tract 

 published by Curll, probably about this time, in 

 defence of certain books.* 



It is entitled The Humble Representation of 

 Edmund Curll, Bookseller and Citizen of London, 

 concerning Five Books complained of to the Secre- 

 tary. As the books were of a nature to require 

 such a publication, it is obvious we cannot give 

 any extracts from it ; but must content ourselves 

 with stating that the five works so complained of, 

 and so justified by Curll, are — 1. The Transla- 

 tion of Meibomius, and Tractatus de Hermaphro- 

 ditus, published in 1718 ; 2. Venus in the Cloister; 

 3. Ebrietatis Encomium, published in 1723 ; 4. 

 T'hree New Poems, viz. " Family Duty," " The 

 Curious Wife," and " Buckingham House ; " and 

 5. De Secretis Mulierum, published in 1725. 



However, be the reason what it may, the go- 

 vernment did at length interfere; as we learn 

 from the following notice in Boyer's Political State, 

 Nov. 1725, p. 514.: 



" On Nov. 30, 1725, Curll, a bookseller in the Strand, 

 was tried at the King's Bench Bar, Westminster, and 

 convicted of printing and publishing several obscene and 

 immodest books, greatly tending to the corruption and 

 depravation of manners, particularly one translated from a 

 Latin treatise, entituled De Usu Flagrorum in re Venerea, 

 that is, ' Of the Use of Flogging in Venery ; ' and another 

 from a French book called La Religieuse en Chemise, that 

 is, ' The Nun in her Smock.' " 



Among the Rawlinson MSS. there occurs the 

 following note, probably by Curll, of these indict- 

 ments ; and what we may consider his instructions 

 to his counsel for his defence : 



* Unfortunately the title-page is wanting : so that we 

 do not know the date, and it likewise wants all after 

 p..l2. 



" DoMiNus Kex v. Cubl. 



" Two Informations brought for Printing and Publishing 

 Two Books, viz. : 



" 1. A Treatise of the Use of Flogging in (Physical) 

 and Venereal Affairs : also of the Office of the Loins and 

 Reins, written to the famous Christainous-Cassius, Bi- 

 shopp of Lubeck and Privy Counsellour to the Duke of 

 Holstein, by John Henry Meibomius, M.D., made English 

 from the Latin originall by a Phj'sician, viz. Mr. George 

 Seweli, and printed in the year 1718. 



" 2. Venus in the Cloister, or the Nun in her Smock ; 

 a Satirical Piece exposing the Intrigues of the Nuns and 

 Fryars, done out of French by Mr. Samber of New Inne, 

 of which we only sold one, as any other bookseller might 

 do. 



" Not guilty is pleaded. 



" Case. 



" This prosecution appears to be malitious for the fol- 

 lowing reasons ; in being brought seven years after the 

 publication of the first book, which will be proved a 

 physick book ex professo by Dr. Rose of the Coll. of 

 Physicians. We no [_sic'] of no law prohibiting the trans- 

 lations of books, either out of Latin or French or any 

 other language ; neither, we presume, can such transla- 

 tions be deemed libels. 



" The originalls of both books will be in court. 



To prove that the treatise of the use of ) j-, -p „ 

 flogging is a physicall book, call ] "^' ■'*°*^- 



" Endorsed : 



" To be tryed Tuesday the thirtieth day of this instant 

 November at Westm''. 



"Pember, CI. in Co"^' 

 HlGGS, SolK" 



Rawlhison MS., C. 195. 

 Curll was found guilty, but moved an arrest of 

 judgment, on the ground that the offence was not 

 a libel ; but if punishable at all, was an offence 

 contra bonos mores, and punishable only in the 

 spiritual courts. The case is reported at consi- 

 derable length in Strangers Reports, some extracts 

 from which we will now give : 



" Michaelmas Term, 1 Geo. 2. 



" Dominus Rex versus Curl. 



" Information exhibited by the Attorney-General 

 against the defendant Edmund Curl, for that he ' existens 

 homo iniquus et sceleratus ac nequiter machinans et in- 

 tendens bonos mores subditorum hujus regni corrumpere, 

 et eos ad nequitiam inducere, quendam turpem iniquum et 

 ohscenum libellum intitulat, Venus in the Cloister, or the 

 Nun in her Smock, impio et nequiter impressit et pub- 

 licavit ac imprimi et publicari causavit (setting out the 

 several lewd passages) in malum exemplum,' &c. And of 

 this the defendant was found guilty. And in I'rinity last 

 it was moved in arrest of Judgment by Mr. Marsh, that 

 however the defendant may be punished for this in the 

 Spiritual Court as an offence contra bonos mores, yet it 

 can't be a libel for which he is punishable in the temporal 

 court. Libellus is the diminutive of the word liber, and 

 'tis libellus from its being a book and not from the matter 

 of its contents. In the case de libellis famosis my Lord 

 Coke says, that it must be against the publick, or some 

 private person, to be a libel : and I don't remember ever 

 to have heard this opinion contradicted. Whatever tends 

 to corrupt the morals of the people ought to be censured 

 in the spiritual Court, to which properly all such Causes 

 . belong : what their proceedings are I am a stranger to : 



