342 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



I2«i S. NO 44., Nov. 1. '66. 



particularly on myself; and it is said therein, that I was 

 the publisher of certain verses called Court Poems, and 

 that I wrote the Preface: I herebj' declare, that I never 

 saw a great part of those Verses, nor ever saw or heard 

 of the Title or Preface to them till after the Poems were 

 published. 



" J. Oldmixon. 

 « Witness, E. Curll." 



Most readers of tbe Miscellanies have, we dare 

 say, been of opinion, that " the Full and True Ac- 

 count " was a mere got-up story against Curll. It 

 would seem, however, that, whether Pope did or 

 did not contrive that an emetic potion should be 

 administered to him, Curll believed, or perhaps 

 Ave should rather say pretended to believe, that 

 the fact was so. 



For commenting upon that part of the note in 

 The Dunciad, book ii. line 54, where Pope says 

 Curll was 



" every day extending his fame and enlarging his writ- 

 ings, witness innumerable instances, but it shall suffice 

 only to mention The Court Poems, which he meant to pub- 

 lish as the work of the true writer, a Lady of Quality'; 

 but being first threaten'd and afterwards punish'd for it 

 b}^ Mr. Pope, lie generously transferred it from Jier to 

 him, and has now printed it twelve years in his name. 

 The single time that ever he spoke to C. was on this 

 affair, and to that happy incident he owes all the favours 

 since received from him " : — 



Curll gives us in The Curliad the following ac- 

 count of the transaction. 



" The whole of this charge is false, the Matter of Fact 

 stands thus. About the year 1715, Mr. Joseph Jacobs 

 (late of ffoxton, the Founder of a Remarkable Sect called 

 the Whiskers) gave to Mr. John Oldmixon three Poems 

 at that time handed about, entitled The Basset Table, 

 The Toilet, and The Drawing Room. These Pieces were 

 printed in Octavo, and published bj'' Mr. James Roberts, 

 near the Oxford Arms in IVarwick Lane, under the Title 

 of Court Poems. The Profit arising from the Sale was 

 equally to be divided between Mr. Johji Oldmixon, Mr. 

 John Pembcrton (a Bookseller of Parliamentarj-- Note in 

 Fleet Street, tho' he has not had the good fortune to be 

 immortalized in the Dunciad), and myself. And I am 

 .•iure my Brother Lintot will, if asked, declare this to be 

 the same state of the Case I laid before Mr. Pojje, when 

 he sent for me to the Swan Tavern in Fleet Street to en- 

 quire after this Publication. My brother Lintot drank 

 his half Pint of Old Hock, Mr. Pope his half Pint of Sack, 

 and I the same quantity of an Emetic Potion (which was 

 the Punishment referred to by our Commentator), but 

 no threatenings past. Mr. Pope, indeed, said, that Sa- 

 tires should not be printed (tho' he has now changed 

 his mind). I answered, they should not be wrote, for if 

 they were, tliey would be printed. He replied, Mr. Gay's 

 Jiderest at Court would be greatly hurt by publishing these 

 Pieces. This was all that passed in our Triumvirate. We 

 then parted, Pope and my brother Lintot went together, 

 to his Shop, and I went home and vomited heartil3'. 1 

 then despised the Action and have since in another man- 

 ner sufficiently Purged the Author of it. In the Advertise- 

 ment prefixt to the Court Poems, the Hearsay of the 

 Town is only recited, some attributing them to a Ijody of 

 Quality, others to Mr. Gay, but the Country-confirmation 

 was (^Chelsea being named) that the Lines could come 

 from no other hand than the laudable Translator of Homer. 

 This is a Demonstration of the Falsehood of our Com- 

 mentator's Assertion, that any transfer was made, from a 



Lady to Mr. Pope, they being originally charged upon 

 him as his lawful Issxie ; and so I shall continue his Fame*, 

 having lately printed a new Edition of them and added 

 them to his Letters, which come next under considera- 

 tion." 



And a little further on, after giving an ex- 

 planation about the publication of Pope's Letters, 

 he proceeds : 



" I solemnly declare in the high style of Scriblerus 

 {Testimonies, ^c, pp. 11, 12.). If there be living any owe 

 Lady of Quality, yea any one Gentlewoman, let her stand 

 forth that Truth may appear! Amicus Pope, Amicus 

 Scriblerus, sed magis arnica Veritas. Whensoever I say the 

 trite Owner will claim these Goods following, in'z. the 

 Basset-Table, Toilet, and Furniture of the Drawing Room, 

 thej'^ shall by me be readily given up without an Action 

 of Trover." 



Having given Curll's account of the publica- 

 tion of The Court Poems, and of the interview 

 wliich he had on the occasion with Pope and Lin- 

 tot, we should have contented ourselves with a 

 mere reference to the " Full and True Account " 

 for Pope's ludicrous, and it must be confessed 

 somewhat Indecent, version of the same story, 

 but that, though the Miscellanies are not very 

 difficult to be met with, some readers of " N. & Q." 

 may like to have a taste of the humour with which 

 Pope treated this incident. The whole paper is 

 too long to transcribe, even if parts were not of 

 such a character as to forbid republication : — 



" History furnishes us with Examples of many Saty- 

 rical Authors who have fallen Sacrifices to Revenge, but 

 not of any Booksellers that I know of, except the unfor- 

 tunate Subject of the following Paper ; I mean Mr. Ed- 

 mund Curll, at the Bible and Dial in Fleetstreet, who was 

 yesterday poison'd bj' Mr. Pope, after having liv'd many 

 Years an Instance of tbe mild Temper of the British 

 Nation. 



*' Every Body knows that the said Mr. Edmund Curll, 

 on Monday the 2Gth Instant, publish'd a Satyrical Piece, 

 entituled Court Poems, in the Preface whereof they were 

 attributed to a Lady of Quality, Mr. Pope, or Mr. Gay ; 

 by which indiscreet Method, though he had escap'd one 

 Revenge, there Avere still two behind in reserve. 



" Now on the Wednesday ensuing, between the Hours 

 of Ten and Eleven, Mr. Lintott, a neighb'ring Bookseller, 

 desir'd a Conference with Mr. Curll about settling a Title- 

 Page, inviting him at the same Time to take a Whet 

 together. Mr. Pope, (who is not the only Instance how 

 Persons of bright Parts may be carry'd away by the In- 

 stigation of the Devil) found Means to convey himself 

 into the same Room, under pretence of Business with 

 ]\Ir. Lintott, who it seems is the Printer of his Homer. 

 This Gentleman, with seeming Coolness, reprimanded 

 Mr. Curll for wrongfully ascribing to him the aforesaid 

 Poems: He excused himself by declaring that one of his 

 Authors (Mr. Oldmixon by Name) gave the Copies to the 

 Press, and wrote the Preface. Upon this Mr. Pope (being 

 to all appearance reconcil'd) very ci^#ly drank a Glass of 

 Sack to Mr. Curll, which he as civilly pledged ; and tho' 

 the Liquor in Colour and Taste diflfer'd not from common 

 Sack, yet was it plain by the Pangs this unhappy Sta- 



* This was in 1729. But Curll " continued his Fame," 

 for the Court Poems are inserted by him in the 4th volume 

 of his edition of BIr. Pope's Literary Correspondence in 

 12mo., 173G. 



