e fiction which made him responsible was
afterwards dropped. Pope found, or thought that he had found, on the
next occasion, a more convenient cat's-paw. Curll, it could not be
doubted, would snatch at any chance of publishing more correspondence;
and, as Pope was anxious to have his letters stolen and Curll was ready
to steal, the one thing necessary was a convenient go-between, who could
be disowned or altogether concealed. Pope went systematically to work.
He began by writing to his friends, begging them to return his letters.
After Curll's piracy, he declared, he could not feel himself safe, and
should be unhappy till he had the letters in his own custody. Letters
were sent in, though in some cases with reluctance; and Caryll, in
particular, who had the largest number, privately took copies before
returning them (a measure which ultimately secured the detection of many
of Pope's manoeuvres). This, however, was unknown to Pope. He had the
letters copied out; after (according to his own stating) burning
three-fourths of them, and (as we are now aware) carefully editing the
remainder, he had the copy deposited in Lord Oxford's library. His
object was, as he said, partly to have documents ready in case of the
revival of scandals, and partly to preserve the memory of his
friendships. The next point was to get these letters stolen. For this
purpose he created a man of straw, a mysterious "P. T.," who could be
personated on occasion by some of the underlings employed in the
underground transactions connected with the Dunciad and the Grub-street
Journal. P. T. began by writing to Curll in 1733, and offering to sell
him a collection of Pope's letters. The negotiation went off for a time,
because P. T. insisted upon Curll's first committing himself by
publishing an advertisement, declaring himself to be already in
possession of the originals. Curll was too wary to commit himself to
such a statement, which would have made him responsible for the theft;
or, perhaps, have justified Pope in publishing the originals in
self-defence. The matter slept till March 1735, when Curll wrote to Pope
proposing a cessation of hostilities, and as a proof of goodwill sending
him the old P. T. advertisement. This step fell in so happily with
Pope's designs that it has been suggested that Curll was prompted in
some indirect manner by one of Pope's agents. Pope, at any rate, turned
it to account. He at once published an insulting advertisement. Cur