No more
disgraceful imputation could have been made upon Curll, or Curll's
miserable dependents. A man who could so prostitute his talents must
have been utterly vile. Pope has sins enough to answer for; but his
other meannesses were either sacrifices to his morbid vanity, or (like
his offence against Swift, or his lies to Aaron Hill and Chandos)
collateral results of spasmodic attempts to escape from humiliation. In
money-matters he seems to have been generally independent. He refused
gifts from his rich friends, and confuted the rather similar calumny
that he had received 500_l._ from the Duke of Chandos. If the account
rested upon mere contemporary scandal, we might reject it on the ground
of its inconsistency with his known character, and its likeness to other
fabrications of his enemies. There is, however, further evidence. It is
such evidence as would, at most, justify a verdict of "not proven" in a
court of justice. But the critic is not bound by legal rules, and has to
say what is the most probable solution, without fear or favour.
I cannot here go into the minute details. This much, however, may be
taken as established. Pope was printing a new edition of his works at
the time of his death. He had just distributed to his friends some
copies of the Ethic Epistles, and in those copies the Atossa appeared.
Bolingbroke, to whom Pope had left his unpublished papers, discovered
it, and immediately identified it with the duchess, who (it must be
noticed) was still alive.
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