gnd s. No 45., Nov. 8. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES, 



361 



LONDON. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8. 1866. 



8TRAT NOTES ON EDMUND CURLL, HIS LIFE, AND 

 PUBLICATIONS. 



No. 4. '— How Curll was punished by the 

 Westminster Scholars. 



We will now turn our attention to the next diffi- 

 culty in which Curll's greed for publication appears 

 to have embroiled him in this unlucky year, 1716. 

 We have just seen him engajted with a single 

 adversary, strong, subtle, virulent, — a scorpion 

 whose bite was fatal, — we shall now find him 

 surrounded by a host of enemies, a cloud of mos- 

 quitoes, each ready with his, tiny but irritating 

 sting to add to the torments of their victim. 



On Sunday, July 8, 1716, the Church of Eng- 

 land lost one of her greatest sons. On that day 

 died the learned, pious, and witty Robert South, 

 Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon of Christ 

 Church, Oxford. Four days after his decease, 

 his corpse, having for some time lain in a decent 

 manner in the Jerusalem Chamber, was brought 

 thence into the College Hall, where a Latin ora- 

 tion was pronounced over it by Mr. John Barber, 

 then Captain of the King's Scholars."" Of this 

 funeral discourse Curll would Appear, by some 

 means or other, to have obtained a copy ; and, pre- 

 suming from the celebrity of South's name that 

 it would be readily purchased by the public, he — 

 " did th' Oration print 

 Imperfect, with false Latin in't." f 



This appears to have excited the anger of 

 Barber and the King's Scholars, and they de- 

 termined upon taking vengeance in a very charac- 

 teristic manner upon the unlucky Curll. They 

 decoyed him into Dean's Yard, on the pretence of 

 giving him a more perfect copy of the Oration, 

 but when they had got liim within their power 

 they gave him a taste of the " discipline of the 

 school," and something more. What were the 

 " Purgings, pumpings, blankettings and blows,'' 

 to which he was subjected on this occasion, we are 

 told in the following letter, which appeared at the 

 time in The St. James's Post. 



" King's College, Westminster, 

 August 3, 1716. 



" Sir, — You are desired to acquaint the public that a 

 certain bookseller near Temple Bar, not taking warning 



* Barber was admitted into St. Peter's College in 1712 ; 

 elected to Oxford, 1717 ; and took his degree of M.A. in 

 1724. 



•f The writer of these Notes has not been able to meet 

 with a copy of this imperfect edition of Barber's Oration. 

 It is reprinted in the Posthumous Works of South issued 

 b}' Curll in 1717, and which contains the Life of South 

 to -which reference has already been made. It should also 

 be mentioned that Curll published in the same year (1717) 

 an octavo volume containing South's Opera Fosthuma La- 

 tino, &c. — S. N. M. 



by the frequent drubs that he has undergone for his often 

 pirating other men's copies, did lately, without the con- 

 sent of Mr John Barber, present Captain of Westminster 

 School, publish the scraps of a Funeral Oration, spoken 

 by him over the corpse of the Rev. Dr. South. And being 

 on Thursday last fortunately nabbed within the limits of 

 Dean's Yard, by the King's Scholars there, he met with a 

 college salutation, for he was first presented with the 

 ceremony of the blanket, in which, when the skeleton had 

 been well shook, he was carried in triumph to the school ; 

 and after receiving a grammatical construction for his 

 false concords, he was reconducted to Dean's Yard, and on 

 his knees asking pardon of the aforesaid Mr. Barber for 

 his offence, he was kicked out of the Yard, and left to the 

 huzzas of the rabble. 



" I am, Sir, yottrs, &c. 



« T. A." 

 This story was too good to be lost. Pope, in a 

 letter to Martha Blount, alludes to " Mr. Edmund 

 Curll having been exercised in a blanket, and 

 whipped at Westminster School by the boys, 

 whereof the common prints have given some ac- 

 count," and it was made the theme of a pam- 

 phlet which, although it has already been the sub- 

 ject of some communications to " N. & Q.," well 

 deserves to be reproduced in this place. It 

 occupies sixteen octavo pages in the original, but 

 will take very little room in these columns. It is 

 entitled : 



" I^eck or Nothing.* 



A Consolatory Letter from Mr. D — nt — n to Mr. C — rll, 

 upon his being Tost in a Blanket, &c. 



' Id coglto quod res est quando eum qusestum occeperis, 

 Accipiuuda et mussitanda injuria adolescentium est.' 



Tbrent. 

 ' Truth is truest poesy.' — Cowle"^ 



Sold by Charles Eling in Westminster Hall, mdccxvi. 

 Price 4d:" 



■} 



" Lo ! I that erst the glory spread 

 Of Worthies, who for Monmouth bled; 

 In letters black, and letters red : 

 To thee, Dear Mun, Condolence write. 

 As suff 'rer from the Jacobite : 

 For just as they were martyrs, so 

 A glorious Confessor art thou : 

 Else should this matchless pen of mine 

 Vouchsafe thee not a single line; 

 Nor wave its politicks for this, 

 Its dark and deep discoveries, 

 Nor for a moment should forbear 

 To charge the faction in the rear. 



Could none of thy poetick band 



Of mercenary wits at hand. 



Foretell, or ward the coming blow. 



From garret high, or cellar low ? 



Or else at least in verse bemoan 



Their Lord, in double sense cast down ? 



Or wast thou wam'd, and couldst believe 



That habit fitted to deceive. 



That corner'd cap, and hanging sleeve ? 



What Protestant of sober wits 



Would trust folks drest like Jesuits ? 



} 



* This tract must not be confounded with John Dun- 

 ton's Neck or Nothing, in a Letter to the Earl of Oxford, 

 1713, noticed in Swift's Public Spirit of the Whigs, Scott's 

 edition of Swift's Works, iv. 224. 



