t to be treacherous to both
Pope and Cromwell. With more reason she inferred that neither of them at
heart would be vexed at the proceeding. Cromwell, she urged, could not
be angry that the world should know "the professions of love, gratitude,
and veneration made him by so celebrated an author," and Pope could not
resent the exhibition of the "early pregnancy of his genius." "And yet,"
she continued, "had either of you been asked, common modesty would have
obliged you to refuse what you would not be displeased with if done
without your knowledge."[15] There can be little doubt, from his
subsequent conduct, that this was the light in which the publication was
viewed by the poet, notwithstanding his assertion in a note to the
Dunciad, "that he was ashamed of the letters as very trivial things,
full not only of levities, but of wrong judgments of men and books, and
only excusable from the youth and inexperience of the writer." Mrs.
Thomas did him an incalculable injury, not by revealing his secrets, but
by flattering his vanity. The favourable reception of his correspondence
originated the desire to give some further specimens to the world, and
led him into the miserable series of falsehoods and frauds by which he
endeavoured to accomplish his design without seeming to be privy to it.

The letters to Cromwell were published in Curll's "Miscellanea," of
which the title-page says "Printed in the year 1727;" but the dedication
to the letters themselves is dated June, 1726, and it was in 1726 that
they appeared. The incidental and scanty notices of them at the time are
sufficient to indicate the impression they produced. Thompson, writing
in October to Aaron Hill, says that "though careless and uncorrected,
they are full of wit and gaiety." There may have been many who thought
that they did as much credit to the heart as to the head of the poet. "I
have read the collection of letters you mention," Fenton wrote to Broome
in September, 1726, "and was delighted with nothing more than that air
of sincerity, those professions of esteem and respect, and that
deference paid to his friend's judgment in poetry which I have sometimes
seen expressed to others, and I doubt not with the same cordial
affection. If they are read in that light, they will be very
entertaining and useful in the present age; but in the next, Cicero,
Pliny, and Voiture may regain their reputation." The comments on Pope's
sincerity were plainly ironical. Fenton co