Now fhould our apology for this publication be as ill received, as the lady's feems to have been by the gentlemen concerned; we shall at least have Her Comfort, of being thanked by the reft of the world. Nor has Mr. P. bimfelf any great caufe to think it much offence to his modefty, or reflection on his judgment; when we take care to inform the public, that there are few Letters of his in this collection, which were not written under twenty years of age: on the other hand, we doubt nat the reader will be much more furprized to find, at that early period, fo much variety of ftyle, affecting fentiment, and juftness of criticism, in pieces which muft have been writ in hafte, very few perhaps ever reviewed, and none intended for the eye of the public.

A CA

A

CATALOGUE

OF THE

Surreptitious and Incorrect Editions of Mr. POPE'S LETTERS.

'F

AMILIAR LETTERS to Henry Cromwell, Efq. by Mr. Pope, i2mo. Printed for Edmund Curl, 1727.

[In this are Verfes, &c. afcribed to Mr. P. which were not his.]

II. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence for thirty years: from 1704 to 1734. Being a Collection of Letters which paffed between him and several eminent perfons. Printed for E. Curl, 8°, 1735, Two editions.

The fame in duodecimo, with cuts. The third edition.

[Thefe contain several Letters not genuine.] III. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence, Vol. II. Printed for the fame, 82, 1735. [In this volume are no Letters of Mr. Pope's, but a few of those to Mr. Cromwell reprinted; nor any to him, but one faid to be Bishop Atterbury's, and another in that Bishop's name, certainly not his: One or two Letters from St. Omer's, advertized of Mr. Pope, but which proved to be only concerning him; fome fcandalous Reflections of one Le Neve on the Legiflature, Courts of Juftice, and Church of England, pag. 116, 117. and the Divinity of Chrift exprefsly denied, in pag. 123, 124 With fome fcandalous Anecdotes, and a Narrative.

The

The fame in duodecimo.

IV. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence, Vol. III. Printed for E. Curl, 8°, 1735. [In this is only one Letter by Mr. Pope to the Duchefs of Buckingham, which the publisher fome way procured and printed against her order. It alfo contains four Letters, intitled, Mr. Pope's to Mifs Blount which are literally taken from an old tranflation of Voiture's to Mad. Rambouillet.]

The fame in duodecimo.

V. Mr. Pope's Literary Correfpondence, Vol. IV. Printed by the fame, contains not one Letter of this Author.

(

-The fame in duodecimo.

VI. Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence, Vol. V. containing only one Letter of Mr. P. and another of the Lord B. with a fcandalous preface of Curl's, how he could come at more of their Letters, 8°, printed for the fame, 1736. VII. Letters of Mr. Pope and feveral Eminent Perfons, Vol. I. from 1705 to 1711. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Weftminfter, 8, 1735:

The fame, Vol. II. from 1711, &c. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Weftminster, 8°, 1735.-The fame in 12mo, with a Narrative.

VIII. Letters of Mr. Pope and several Eminent Perfons. From 1705 to 1735. Printed and fold by the bookfellers of London and Westminster, 12mo, 1735.

[This edition is faid in the title to contain more Letters than any other, but contains only Two, faid to be the Bishop of Rochefter's, and printed before by Curl.]

6

IX. Let

Surreptitious and Incorrect Editions, &c. xi. IX. Letters of Mr. Pope and several eminent Perfons. From the year 1705 to 1735, Vol. I. and Vol. II. Printed for T. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-nofter-Row, 1735, 12mo.

[In this was inferted the Forged Letter from the Bishop of Rochefter, and fome other things, unknown to Mr. Pope.]

PREFACE

PREFACE

Prefixed to the First Genuine Edition in quarto, 1737.

I

what is here offered the reader, fhould happen in any degree to please him, the thanks are not due to the author, but partly to his friends, and partly to his enemies: it was wholly owing to the affection of the former, that fo many Letters, of which he never kept copies, were preferved; and to the malice of the latter, that they were produced in this manner.

He had been very disagreeably used, in the publication of fome Letters written in his youth, which fell into the hands of a woman who printed them, without his, or his correfpondent's confent, in 1727. This treatment, and the apprehenfion of more of the fame kind, put him upon recalling as many as he could from those who he imagined had kept any. He was forry to find the number fo great, but immediately leffened it by burning three parts in four of them: the reft he fpared, not in any preference of their ftyle or writing, but merely as they preferved the memory of fome friendships which will ever be dear to him, or fet in a true light fome matters of fact, from which the fcriblers of the times had taken occafion to asperse either his friends or himself. He therefore lay'd by the Originals, together with thofe of his correfpondents, and caufed

a copy