r preface, and inspired him immediately afterwards to
attach both to the copies which were instantly to be pounced upon by a
messenger from the Lords. To deceive Curll by promises was the first end
to be attained, and he was led to believe that he would have a monopoly
of the work. To deprive him of the advantages he imagined he had secured
was a second, though a subordinate object of the conspiracy. The whole
corporation of booksellers were to be invited to encroach upon his
rights, and the preface and title-page affixed to the copies produced at
the bar of the House of Lords had been drawn up with the secret purpose
of contradicting any claim which might be set up by Curll. When Smythe
wrote his deceptive explanation of the motives of P. T., these
confederates were endeavouring to coax their dupe into owning that he
was the collector of the letters, and it was necessary that he should
still be humoured and beguiled. When the mask was thrown off, P. T. and
Smythe joined in the declaration that they had neither of them "given or
could pretend to give any title whatever to Mr. Pope's letters to
Curll," and they promised "that every bookseller should be indemnified
every way from any possible prosecution or molestation of the said
Curll."[93] This invitation to all the world to republish the
correspondence of Pope was advertised in the newspapers, and the poet
shortly afterwards reprinted it in his "Narrative" without a word of
direct remonstrance against the pretension to dispose of his property.
P. T. had always hitherto adopted the course which furthered the
projects of Pope, and Pope, in return, appeared to smile upon the
enormous prerogative to make a general grant of his correspondence which
had been assumed by P. T. Commercial honesty was not to be expected in a
plan which was based upon falsehood and calumny; but if an ordinary
tradesman had conducted his dealings in the same manner as Pope, his
custom and character would have been destroyed. The events which
followed the publication lead to the same conclusion with the incidents
which preceded and attended it. Pope stated in his "Narrative" that
there were so many omissions and interpolations in the surreptitious
volume, that it was impossible for him to own the contents in their
present condition.[94] In two distinct advertisements which he put forth
in May and July, 1735, he went further, and declared that some of the
letters were not his at all.[95] Nevertheless