2nd s. NO 48., Nov. 29. '56.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



421 



LONDON. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29. 1856. 



STRAY NOTES ON EDMUND CURLL, HIS LIFE, AND 

 PUBLICATIONS. 



No. 6. — CurWs Controversy with Mist, SfC. 



Among the number of books issued by Curll 

 between the years 1709 and 1718, there were some 

 which no respectable bookseller of the present 

 day would have anything to do with. Spades 

 were in those days called spades ; and we cannot 

 better prove this than by stating that when a 

 writer in one of the papers of the time undertook 

 to call attention to these objectionable publica- 

 tions, he himself indulged in such plain-spoken 

 language, that it cannot with propriety be trans- 

 ferred to the columns of " N. & Q." 



In the Weekly Journal, or Saturday Post, of 

 April 5, 1718, a paper published by Mist, and 

 afterwards known as Misfs Journal, there appears 

 a strong denunciation of some of Curll's publica- 

 tions. After a passage which is better left where 

 it is, on the " sin of Curlicism," the writer pro- 

 ceeds : 



" There is indeed but one bookseller eminent among us 

 for this abomination, and from him the crime takes the 

 just denomination of Curlicism. The fellow is a con- 

 temptible wretch a thousand ways : he is odious in his 

 person, scandalous in his fame ; he is marked by Nature, 

 for he has a bawdy countenance, and a debauched mien ; 

 his tongue is an echo of all the beastly language his shop 

 is filled with, and filthiness drivels in the very tone of his 

 voice. 



" But what is the meaning that this manufacturer of 



is permitted in a civilised nation to go unpunished, 



and that the abominable Catalogue is unsuppressed, in a 

 country where religion is talked of (little more, God 

 knows !), whose government is formed by wholesome laws, 

 where kings obstruct not the execution of the law ; where 

 justice may, if duly prompted, take hold of him : I say. 

 Mist, what can be the reason such a criminal goes un- 

 punished? How can our Stamp office take twelve pence 

 a piece for the advertisement of his infamous books, pub- 

 lishing the continued increase of lewd abominable pieces 

 of bawdry, such as none can read even in miniature, for 

 such an Advertisement is to a book. How can these re- 

 frain informing the government what mines are laid to 

 blow up morality, even from its very foundation, and to 

 sap the basis of all good manners, nay, and in the end, of 

 religion itself. 



" Where sleep the watchmen of Israel, that not one 

 divine of the Church of England — not one teacher among 

 the dissenters — has touched this crying curse ? O Bangor ! 

 O Bradbury I how much better had the kingdom of Christ 

 been established, had you attacked the agents of hell 

 that propagate the kingdom of the devil, instead of snarl- 

 ing about who are, or who are not, vested with effectual 

 power to act this way or that waj' in the Church, or in 

 the State ? How much more like ' preachers of righteous- 

 ness ' had ye appeared, if, as far as became you, ye had 

 laboured to establish our youth in virtue and piety, and 

 so suppressed the spreading abominable- vices by the 

 agency of the printing-press ! 



" In a word, Mist, record it for posterity to wonder at, 

 that in four years past of the blessed days we live in, and 



wherein justice and liberty are flourishing and established, 

 more beastly unsufFerable books have been published by 

 this one offender, than in thirty years before by all the 

 nation ; and not a man, clergyman or other, has yet 

 thought it worth his while to demand justice of the go- 

 vernment against the crime of it, or so much as to caution 

 the age against the mischief of it. 



" Publish this, Mist, as you value your promise, and 

 remember you'll be honoured with having put the first 

 hand to correct a crime which begins to make us scanda- 

 lous to our neighbours, and, in time, if not prevented, will 

 make us detestable among all the Christian nations of 

 Europe. 



"Your friend, 



« H." 



Curll was not the man to remain silent under 

 such an attack. He replied by a pamphlet en- 

 titled Curlicism Displayed, or an Appeal to the 

 Church. Being just Observations upon some Books 

 published by Mr. Curll. In a Letter to Mr. Mist. 

 London : Printed in the Year MDCCXViii. Price 

 Six Pence ; and thus commences his defence : 



« Mr. Mist, 

 " Your Journal is now become the Oracle of a discon- 

 tented Party whose fruitless Schemes and many disap- 

 pointments make them kick against the pricks, and who 

 like the deluded Multitude of Old had rather consult the 

 Devil than not hear some Responses in favour of their 

 wandering (pretended) Monarch : 



• Restless he rolls about from place to place. 

 But will not look an Army in the face.' 



Your superannuated Letter Writer was never more out 

 than when he asserted that Curlicism was but of four 

 years' standing. Poor Wretch ! he is but a mere novice in 

 (Chronology, and I do sincerely assure 3'ou, Mr. Mist, that 

 Curlicism (since it must be so called) dates its original 

 from that ever memorable ^ra of the reign of the first 

 Monarch of the Stuartine Race." — Pp. 1, 2. 



He then proceeds to defend several of his pub- 

 lications, with the titles of which we will not sully 

 our columns ; and specifies at considerable length 

 their nature, and the sources from which they 

 had been derived. But our readers may judge 

 of the style in which he does this, when we tell 

 them that, according to the writer, — 



" The first piece of Curlicism that appeared was that re- 

 markable Tryal between Robert Earl of Essex and the 

 Lady Frances Howard, who, after eight years' marriage, 

 commenced a suit against him for impotency." 



After defending, one by one, the works which 

 the writer in MisCs Journal had attacked, and 

 very justly so, if political or commercial jealousy 

 had no share in the transaction, Curll concludes 

 his letter as follows. We give the passage at 

 length, because we believe the pamphlet to be one 

 which is very rarely to be met with. 



" Thus, Mr. Mist, I have impartially laid before j'ou 

 and the world a full account of the books I have printed, 

 which give your religion mongers so much uneasiness. I 

 shall, in the next place, reduce all their trifling objections 

 under four heads, and prove them false in every particular. 



" 1. The first charge against me is, ' That I am the in- 

 ventor and introducer of a set of books into the world 



