rouble himself in the matter.[34] The poet might not choose to have
any intercourse with a former enemy of no good fame, but it was a
strange return for his peace-offering that he should advertise an insult
on him, and equally singular when he was incredulous, and had resolved
not to trouble himself about the matter, that he should parade in the
newspapers the contents of a private note. Yet extraordinary as was his
conduct, if he had not any covert design, it was consistent enough if he
was the agent in the plot for bringing his letters before the world. His
advertisement would convey the impression that he could not have
connived at the publication he was contriving; it would afford an
opening for P. T. to come again upon the stage; and by infuriating Curll
it would induce him to close at once with the proposal which was ready
to be made to him. In conformity with this supposition P. T., who had
not communicated with the bookseller for upwards of two years, saw the
advertisement directly it appeared, and he lost not an instant in
informing Curll that since their last negotiation he had printed the
letters.[35] It was true that Curll had betrayed him to Pope, but P. T.
was generous and would still give him the preference. The game required
that Pope should be incapable of being conciliated, and P. T. of taking
offence.

P. T. demanded that Curll should show he was in earnest by putting forth
the old advertisement. Curll complied, and the negotiation went forward.
An agent was sent to him who assumed the name of Smythe and professed to
be a clergyman, but who was so little conversant with the character he
personated that he wore a clerical gown and lawyer's bands. On the 7th
of May he went to Curll's house at night; and, to bring the bargain to a
conclusion, exhibited to him most of the sheets of the volume, and a
dozen original letters.[36] Before Curll had published this statement
Pope, for the purpose of discrediting the promise which had been made in
the advertisement, that the originals should be produced when the book
appeared, had committed himself to the assertion that they all remained
in their proper place.[37] They must nevertheless, observes the critic
in the Athenaeum, have been out of his possession, and doing service on
the evening when Smythe trafficed with Curll. The bookseller was not
likely to be deceived, for he had the Cromwell correspondence in his
keeping, and knew the poet's handwriting well.[38]