A

FULL AND TRUE ACCOUNT

OF A HORRID AND BARBAROUS

REVENGE BY POISON,

ON THE BODY OF

MR EDMUND CURLL,

BOOKSELLER;

WITH A FAITHFUL COPY OF

HIS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.

PUBLISHED BY AN EYE-WITNESS.

FULL AND TRUE ACCOUNT, &c.

Ir has not, I believe, been remarked by any of Mr Pope's editors, that the tragic scene, which is here narrated with so much pathos, had actually its origin in a practical joke, played off by Pope upon the celebrated bibliopolist. Yet Edmund Curll seems to admit the reality of his purgation, and gives an account of the occasion and cause of its being administered, as a demonstration of his general proposition, that Pope was a "precedent of the most depraved vice." The passage, which occurs in a preliminary address to Mr Pope, prefixed to Curll's second volume of the poet's Literary Correspondence, may serve to throw light upon some parts of the following humorous tract.

"You very well know, Sir, that in the year 1717, when the Court Poems (viz. the Basset-Table, the Toilet, and the DrawingRoom) were published, upon your sending for me to the Swan Tavern, in Fleet Street, in company with Mr Lintot, and inquiring into the publication of that pamphlet, I then frankly told you, that these pieces were, by Mr Joseph Jacobs, a dissenting teacher, given to Mr John Oldmixon, who sent the same to be published by Mr James Roberts in Warwick Lane, and that my neighbour Mr Pemberton and myself had each of us a share with Mr Oldmixon in the said pamphlet. For this you were pleased to treat me with half a pint of Canary, antimonially prepared, for the emetic effects of which, it has been the opinion of all mankind, you deserved the stab. My purgation was soon over, but yours will last (without a timely repentance), till, as the ghost says in Hamlet, with all your imperfections on your head, you are called to your account, and your offences purged by fire. Yet notwithstanding your behaviour to me, in turning this matter into ridicule, and making me the subject of several of your libels, all which I have equally despised, I made you an offer of reconciliation, though you yourself was the aggressor."

A

FULL AND TRUE ACCOUNT

OF A HORRID AND BARBAROUS

REVENGE BY POISON,

ON THE BODY OF

MR EDMUND CURLL, &c.

HISTORY furnishes us with examples of many satirical authors, who have fallen sacrifices to revenge, but not of any booksellers, that I know of, except the unfortunate subject of the following paper; I mean Mr Edmund Curll, at the Bible and Dial in Fleet Street, who was yesterday poisoned by Mr Pope, after having lived many years an instance of the mild temper of the British nation.

Every body knows, that the said Mr Edmund Curll on Monday the 26th instant published a satirical piece, entitled Court Poems, in the preface whereof they were attributed to a lady of quality, Mr Pope, or Mr Gay; by which indiscreet method, though he had escaped one revenge, there were still two behind in reserve,

Now on the Wednesday ensuing, between the hours of ten and eleven, Mr Lintot, a neighbouring bookseller, desired a conference with Mr Curll, about settling a title-page, inviting him at the same time to take a whet together. Mr Pope, who is