ee-house, declaring that he would apply it to his tormentor should
he ever show his nose in the room. As Philips was celebrated for skill
with the sword, the mode of vengeance was certainly unmanly, and stung
the soul of his adversary, always morbidly sensitive to all attacks, and
especially to attacks upon his person. The hatred thus kindled was never
quenched, and breathes in some of Pope's bitterest lines.

If not a "devilish trick," this little performance was enough to make
Pope's relations to the Addison set decidedly unpleasant. Addison is
said (but the story is very improbable) to have enjoyed the joke. If so,
a vexatious incident must have changed his view of Pope's pleasantries,
though Pope professedly appeared as his defender. Poor old
Thersites-Dennis published, during the summer, a very bitter attack upon
Addison's _Cato_. He said afterwards--though, considering the relations
of the men, some misunderstanding is probable--that Pope had indirectly
instigated this attack through the bookseller, Lintot. If so, Pope must
have deliberately contrived the trap for the unlucky Dennis; and, at any
rate, he fell upon Dennis as soon as the trap was sprung. Though Dennis
was a hot-headed Whig, he had quarrelled with Addison and Steele, and
was probably jealous, as the author of tragedies intended, like _Cato_,
to propagate Whig principles, perhaps to turn Whig prejudices to
account. He writes with the bitterness of a disappointed and unlucky
man, but he makes some very fair points against his enemy. Pope's
retaliation took the form of an anonymous "Narrative of the Frenzy of
John Dennis."[5] It is written in that style of coarse personal satire
of which Swift was a master, but for which Pope was very ill fitted. All
his neatness of style seems to desert him when he tries this tone, and
nothing is left but a brutal explosion of contemptuous hatred. Dennis is
described in his garret, pouring forth insane ravings prompted by his
disgust at the success of _Cato_; but not a word is said in reply to
Dennis' criticisms. It was plain enough that the author, whoever he
might be, was more anxious to satisfy a grudge against Dennis than to
defend Dennis's victim. It is not much of a compliment to Addison to say
that he had enough good feeling to scorn such a mode of retaliation, and
perspicuity enough to see that it would be little to his credit.
Accordingly, in his majestic way, he caused Steele to write a note to
Lintot (August