Curll’s Collection of Wills
A very curious and now rare collection of wills was made about 1720, by Edmund Curll, who, according to Pope and Swift, possessed himself surreptitiously of these as well as of many anecdotes of the private lives of some of his contemporary celebrities, and published them anonymously, garbling and altering in a scurrilous manner many of the facts he had obtained, so that Arbuthnot observed to Swift that “Curll was one of the new terrors of death;” and the author of “The Man of Taste” wrote:
“Long live old Curll! he ne’er to publish fears,
The verses, speeches, and last wills of Peers.”
Besides the memoirs and will of “Alderman John Barber,” of “Peter Le Neve, Esq., Norroy King-at-Arms,” and that of “Anthony Collins, Esq.,” he issued thirty-one pamphlets containing the “Life, Correspondence, and last Will and Testament” of each of the following worthies. The list of them is to be found on the last leaf of the said life of Alderman Barber, and is as follows:
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“ 1. Archbishop Tillotson. 2. Bishop Atterbury (Dean of Ch. Ch.). 3. Bishop Barnes. 4. Bishop Curll. 5. Earl of Halifax. 6. Lord Carpenter. 7. Lord Chancellor Talbot. 8. Lord Chancellor Pengelly. 9. Judge Price. 10. Rev. Mr. George Kelly. 11. Mr. Wright of Newington. 12. Wm. Congreve, Esq. 13. Mr. Addison. 14. Mr. Prior. 15. Mr. Locke (with his letters and memoirs). |
16. Matthew Tindall, LL.D. 17. Mr. Nelson. 18. Dr. Radcliffe. 19. Dr. Williams. 20. Dr. South (2 vols., with his posthumous works). 21. Dr. Hickes. 22. Dr. Burnet (of the Charterhouse). 23. Mr. W. Partridge (the Astrologer). 24. Mr. Mahomet (Servant to his late Majesty). 25. Mr. John Guy. 26. Mr. Wills (the Comedian). 27. Elias Ashmore, Esq. 28. Arthur Maynwaring, Esq. 29. Walter Moule, Esq. 30. Wm. King, LL.D. 31. Mr. Manley (Author of the ‘Atlantis’).” |
Indeed, Curll seems to have had an itching hand for seizing on everybody’s will; for, among other of the singular productions he put before the public, is a satirical work called “Pylades and Corinna: Memoirs of the Lives, Letters, and Adventures of two Lovers, Richard Grinnett, Esq., of Great Shurdington in Gloucestershire, and Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas Jenner of Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, together with all the Incidents of their Sixteen Years’ Courtship, and two complete Copies of their last Wills and Testaments;” and yet more extraordinary, he invented a will for the Evil One, which he styled: “Satan turned Moralist; or, The Devil’s last Will and Testament. Price 1s.” A copy of this rare book, worthless though it may be as far as it might afford entertainment to any reader of the present day, would, we fancy, command a good many shillings now.
Of these, fifteen are still extant, and in the library of the British Museum, viz.: those numbered, in our list of Curll’s publications, respectively 2, 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29; but it is no easy task to find them, even in the Catalogue.
A Weird Custom
In one of Balzac’s best novels, “The Country Doctor,” he tells of a strange custom which prevails in some of the mountainous districts of France. It will be recalled that the Country Doctor leaves Paris and takes up his abode in a remote country district, the purpose being to make amends for a life which at the outset had not been blameless and had brought about remorse and contrition. He devotes a long and useful life to the unsophisticated country people among whom he locates.
The custom referred to is that upon the death of a husband the neighbors surround the bier and at intervals wail, “The master is gone! The master is gone! The master is gone!” The widow with her own hands cuts off her hair and places it in the hands of the corpse, as an evidence of devotion and constancy.