302 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«<iS. N<>42., Oct. 18. '56. 



knew how I was driven homewards. For my part, I was 

 ever inclined to secrecy and fidelity ; and, therefore, I 

 ■was nowise inquisitive concerning our hospitable enter- 

 tainer; yet 1 thouglit the imprisoned clergyman was 

 hnppy, though he knew it not, in having so illustrioiis a 

 friend, who privately strove for his releasement. But, 

 happening afterwards to behold a state prisoner in a 

 coach, guarded from Westminster to the Tower, God 

 bless me, thought I, it was no less than the Bishop of 

 Rochester, Dr. Atterbury, by whom my master and I had 

 been treated ! Then came to my mind his every feature, 

 but then altered through indisposition, and grief for being 

 under royal displeasure. Though I never approved the 

 least thing whereby a man might be attainted, yet I ge- 

 nerally had compassion for the unfortunate; 1 was more 

 confirmed it was he, because I heard some people say at 

 that visit, that we were got into the Dean's yard ; and, 

 consequently, it was his house, though I then did not 

 know it ; but afterwards learned that the Bishop of Ro- 

 chester was always Dean of Westminstep. I thanked 

 God from my heart that we had done nothing of offence, 

 at that time, on any political account; a thing that 

 produces such direful consequences." 



All the various social conditions to which we 

 have just referred would have to be considered 

 and discussed, if these "jottings" were intended 

 to form a regular Biography of Curll.* They 

 do not, however, lay claim to that character, yet 

 it is but justice to Curll himself, to the writer 

 of these remarks, and, indeed, to the readers of 

 " N. & Q.," that when Curll's conduct is under 

 consideration, the character of the age in which 

 he lived, and the conduct of his contemporaries, 

 should not be lost sight of. 



On the same grounds the reader ought not 

 hastily to upbraid Curll for the grossness of too 

 many of his publications, without bearing in mind 

 that in this respect he sinned in company with 

 men like Swift and Pope. Those who denounce 

 Curll as a publisher of books of an offensive cha- 

 racter — and the charge is true enough — would 

 do well to remember that indecency was one vice 

 of the age in which he lived ; and that nothing 

 that Curll ever issued from the press did, or 

 could, exceed in coarseness and indecency' those 

 satirical articles in Pope and Swift's Miscellanies 

 in which Curll figures as the hero. 



In an introductory chapter like the present, the 

 reader will probably look for some particulars of 

 the birth, parentage, and education of the subject 

 of our remarks. It is a natural curiosity, but one 

 which we are unable to gratify. Indeed we may 

 say, with the writer of the Authentic Memoii-s of 



the Life and Writings of E • C—l, appended 



to the Remarks on Squire Ayre's Memoirs of the 

 Life and Writings of Mr. Pope : 



* The reader is requested to bear in mind that these 

 Notes are merely Notes, and have no pi-etensions to be 

 considered as forming a complete Life of Curll. They are 

 thrown out as materials for future writers, and as pegs 

 upon which the Correspondents of "N. & Q." may hang 

 any Notes they may have made relative to Curll's Life 

 or Publications. 



"As to his Birth, Parentage, and Education, — these, 

 the two former especially, being somewhat obscure, and 

 Nothing of Consequence having been related about them, 

 I shall not trouble the Readers of this Letter with a 

 formal Account of them, especially as the Publick may 

 very properly expect, if this Gentleman go on in the 

 Paths of Glory he hath hitherto trod, to see them given 

 b3' a much abler Hand among the accurate Annals of 



Mr. G . And as he is much more conversant with 



the Lives, Characters, &c. of Men of this Stamp, than I 

 can pretend to be, I would not willingly anticipate a 

 Thing that will make so great a Figure, in all Proba- 

 bility, one Time or other, in his full and true Accounts." 



In place of this, however, we will give some 

 particulars as to liis "whereabouts" at different 

 periods of his varied career. As a Bookseller, 

 his frequent changes of residence, as shown on 

 the title-pages of his various publications, would 

 seem to indicate that,^with all his tricks and in- 

 genuity, he was by no means a successful trades- 

 man. 



1708. This is the earliest date at which we have 

 met with CufU's name on a title-page. A 

 translation of Boileau's Lidrin was published 

 in 1708, among others by " E. Sanger and 

 E. Curll, at the Post House at the Middle 

 Temple Gate, and at the Peacock without 

 Temple Bar." 



1709. Muscipula was published by him, "ad in- 

 signe Pavonis extra Temple Bar." 



1710. We find him removed to the premises for- 

 merly occupied by the well-known book- 

 seller A. Bosvill ; for A Complete Key to the 

 Tale of a Tub, &c. was " printed for Ed- 

 mund Curll, at the Dial and Bible against 

 St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street. 

 Here he remained certainly until 1718 ; 

 but in 



we find him removed to Paternoster Row ; 

 where, in that year, he appears to have pub- 

 lished Jacob's Lives of the Poets. 

 shows another removal, for in that year 

 Nichols (Lit. Anec. iv. 273.) states that he 

 lived " over against Catherine Street in the 

 Strand," and he was living there in 1726, 

 when he published Ashmole's Order of the 

 Garter. In 1728 he is still described on 

 title-pages as " in the Strand ; " but Mrs. 

 Thomas speaks of him in 



1729 as living "next to AVill's Coffee House, in 

 Bow Street, Covent Garden;" and that is 

 the place of publication of "Mr. Congreve's 

 Last Will and Testament," issued by him in 

 1730. How long he remained here is un- 

 certain, but in 



1733, when he published The Case of Elizabeth 

 Fitzmaurice, alias Leeson, and the Lord 

 William Fitzmaurice, he was residing at 

 "Burghley Street in the Strand." 



1735. In this year, when he published Pope's 

 Letters, we find Lim in " Rose Street, 



1720, 

 1723 



