Note 208 — QUARRELS OF AUTHORS;

Curll was a bookseller, from whose shop issued many works of an immoral class, yet he chose for his sign “The Bible and Dial,” which were displayed over his shop in Fleet-street. The satire of Pope’s Dunciad seems fairly to have been earned, as we may judge from the class of books still seen in the libraries of curious collectors, and which are certainly unfitted for more general circulation. For these publications he was fined by the Court of King’s Bench, and on one occasion stood in the pillory as a punishment. Yet himself and Lintot were the chief booksellers of the era, until Tonson arose, and by taking a more enlarged view of the trade, laid the foundation of the great publishing houses of modern times.—Ed.