He tried, indeed, to get Faulkner to prefix a statement tending to fix the whole transaction upon Swift; but the bookseller declined, and the letters ultimately came out with a simple statement that they were a reprint.
Pope had thus virtually sanctioned the publication.

He was not the less emphatic in complaining of it to his friends.

To Orrery, who knew the facts, he represented the printed copy sent to Swift as a proof that the letters were beyond his power; and to others, such as his friend Allen, he kept silence as to this copy altogether; and gave them to understand that poor Swift--or some member of Swift's family--was the prime mover in the business.

His mystification had, as before, driven him into perplexities upon which he had never calculated.

In fact, it was still more difficult here than in the previous case to account for the original misappropriation of the letters.