Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/333

 

CURLL, EDMUND (1675–1747), bookseller, was born in 1675 in the west of England (New and General Biog. Dict. 1798, iv.), of humble parentage. He was apprenticed to ‘Mr. Smith, by Exeter Change,’ most probably the Richard Smith who published an edition of Cæsar's ‘Commentaries, made English by Capt. Bladen,’ ‘at the Angel and Bible without Temple Bar,’ in 1705. The ‘second edition, improv'd,’ a mere reprint with a new title, was ‘sold by E. Curll at the Peacock without Temple Bar,’ in 1706. ‘A Letter to Mr. Prior’ was also published by him. It is likely that Curll succeeded to Smith's business on the same premises, changing the sign of the house from the Angel and Bible to that of the Peacock. In 1708 he published ‘An Explication of a Famous Passage in the Dialogue of St. Justin Martyr with Tryphon,’ ‘the first book I ever printed’ (Apology for W. Moyle, p. 17), and, in conjunction with E. Sanger, a translation of Boileau's ‘Lutrin.’ Like other booksellers of the time, Curll sold patent medicines. He had not been long in business when he began a system of newspaper quarrels with a view to force himself into public notice. Having published a quack medical work known as ‘The Charitable Surgeon,’ he got up a fictitious controversy about its authorship in ‘The Supplement’ newspaper of 8 April 1709. An interesting volume lately added to the British Museum shows us that Curll was a pamphleteer during the Sacheverell controversy in 1710. It contains some curious notes in Curll's own neat handwriting. The first book entered under his name in the ‘Registers of the Stationers' Company’ was ‘Some Account of the Family of Sacheverell,’ on 13 Sept. 1710. Very few books at all were entered at that period, and his name only appears ten times between 1710 and 20 Aug. 1746. In 1710 he had taken the premises in Fleet Street formerly occupied by the well-known bookseller A. Bosvill, where he published ‘A Complete Key to the Tale of a Tub,’ ‘printed for E. Curll at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church.’ He remained at this address until 1718. Besides his house in London he also had a shop in Tunbridge Wells, as an advertisement dated 15 July 1712 calls attention to one ‘on the walk at Tunbridge Wells. Gentlemen and Ladies may be furnish'd with all the new Books and Pamphlets that come out; also French and Italian Prints, Maps, &c.’ (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. ii. 484).

In 1716 Curll had his first quarrel with Pope on the publication of ‘Court Poems,’ in March 1716, by James Roberts, a minor bookseller. In the advertisement it is hinted that certain ‘lines could have come from no other hand than the laudable translator of Homer.’ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had some share in bringing out the book, and it is impossible to say whether or not Pope secretly promoted the volume while openly expressing annoyance. Pope, finding that Curll had to do with the publication, sought an interview with him through Lintot, which led to the famous scene at the Swan Tavern in Fleet Street, told in the ‘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.’ This was circulated shortly after the event, and reprinted in the ‘Miscellanies’ of Swift and Pope. It was followed by a ‘Further Account,’ and ‘A strange but true Relation how Mr. E. Curll out of an extraordinary desire for lucre was converted by certain eminent Jews.’ The meeting was the only occasion on which the poet and bookseller were in company (Dunciad, ii. 54, note). It is certain that some practical joke was played upon Curll, who refers to the ‘emetic potion’ he was made to drink in the ‘Curliad,’ where he describes how the ‘Court Poems’ came to be published. Pope returned to the subject in ‘Moore's Worms, for the learned Mr. Curll, bookseller’ (E. Smith, 1716); and Curll retaliated with satirical advertisements (see Flying Post, 5 and 10 April 1716) relating to the translation of Homer.

Four days after the death of Robert South, on 8 July 1716, a Latin oration was delivered over the body in the college hall of Westminster School by John Barber, then captain of the king's scholars. Curll obtained a copy of the oration and

The Westminster boys enticed the bookseller into Dean's Yard, and tossed him in a blanket. The incident is referred to in the ‘Dunciad,’ and Pope gleefully speaks of it in a letter to Martha Blount. It was the theme of a poem, ‘Neck or Nothing, a consolatory letter from Mr. D—nt—n to Mr. C—rll,’ sold by Charles King in Westminster Hall (1716), believed to have been written by Samuel, the elder brother of John Wesley, and sometime head usher of the school (Alumni Westmonasterienses, 1852, pp. 255–6). In the ‘Curliad’ (p. 25) the victim states that the torture was administered, not with a blanket, but ‘a rugg, and the whole controversy relating thereunto shall one day see the light.’

