ft to return
him his letters. He had ceased to smile at the thought how Curll would
be bit by getting hold of them, and earnestly demanded that the Dean
should "secure him against that rascal printer."[128] If it is admitted
that Pope was the publisher of the P. T. collection, his accusations
against the rascal printer were groundless, and his fears were feigned.
He was endeavouring, under cover of a false pretence, to obtain
possession of his letters to Swift, and it was easy to foresee that when
he had succeeded in his object the secret store would soon be laid open
to the public. He had previously forced his other friends to surrender
his correspondence by the clamorous apprehensions he expressed of Curll.
The letters which were safe in their guardianship had not been long
committed to his keeping when they came forth from the shop of this very
individual, and Pope was now urging the fact as a reason why fresh
letters should be transferred from a custody which had been effectual to
a custody which had proved to be insecure. Swift, perhaps, by this time,
had begun to penetrate the designs of his friend, and he declined to
comply with his request. "You need not fear any consequence," he wrote
September 3, 1735, "in the commerce that hath so long passed between us,
although I never destroyed one of your letters. But my executors are men
of honour and virtue, who have strict orders in my will to burn every
letter left behind me. Yet I am loth that any letters from you and a
very few friends should die before me." No answer could have been less
pleasing to Pope than to be told that his letters were doomed to
destruction. His eagerness to rescue them must have been increased by
the announcement, and he offered, if Swift would let him have them at
once, to send him copies. The poet's excuse for a proposal which
defeated his professed purpose, was "merely that the originals might not
fall into the hands of Curll, and thereby a hundred particulars be at
his mercy."[129] The particulars would have been as much at Curll's
mercy in the copies as in the originals they replaced, unless Pope
intended to disavow the transcripts he had himself furnished, which
shows how much value is to be attached to his assertion that parts of
the collection of 1735 were forged. His remonstrances induced Swift to
promise that the letters should not be committed to the flames; but he
persevered in refusing to surrender them while he lived. "As to what