ention to a menace that was not intended to be executed.
Unless Pope desired that the public should believe he was serious, the
whole proceeding was objectless. He was long in learning the
misconstruction which had been put upon his words. While the
announcement was fresh, and likely to have been a topic of conversation,
he remained completely passive, and it was not till after an interval of
more than eight months that he discovered he was supposed to have given
a pledge, and must immediately redeem it. He had forgotten that he had
betrayed to Fortescue that he was in earnest at the time the
advertisement appeared. On August 2, 1735, a fortnight after it was
issued, Pope wrote to him, and asked to have back his letters; "for,"
said he, "I find my collection, such as it is, must be hastened, or will
not be so effectual." It had not yet occurred to him to maintain that
his promised publication was a feint. The true cause of his
procrastination has been suggested by the critic in the Athenaeum. He had
distributed portions of his extensive correspondence with Caryll among
other groups, and addressed several of the letters to men of higher
position or greater fame. He must have rejected the fictitious compound
from his genuine edition, or waited till Caryll, who was sinking with
age and illness, was in his grave. The latter was the course which Pope
preferred. His friend was no doubt dying at the close of March, 1736,
and on the 6th of April he expired. With him disappeared the sole
difficulty which stood in the way of the new edition, and the poet from
that moment was active in its prosecution.

It is amusing to observe the indifference and distaste which Pope
feigned for an undertaking that was entirely within his own discretion.
He began by announcing that the work would be printed with speed. He
then protested he did not mean what he said, and only yielded because
others had erroneously inferred, that by advertising in the papers that
he would immediately print a book he intended to signify that a book
would be printed. He next resolved to publish by subscription, which was
a mode of levying forced contributions through the canvass of the author
and his friends. He hoped nevertheless that the subscription would fail,
in order that he might be excused from an act to which he had been
over-persuaded.[103] His hope that support would be withheld had grown
to a belief when he wrote to Allen, on the 30th of April, and Allen,