The interpretation of these outward signs may not be very obvious to modern readers; but it is plain from other indications that he was one of the frequenters of coffee-houses, aimed at being something of a rake and a wit, was on speaking terms with Dryden, and familiar with the smaller celebrities of literature, a regular attendant at theatres, a friend of actresses, and able to present himself in fashionable circles and devote complimentary verses to the reigning beauties at the Bath.

When he studied the _Spectator_ he might recognize some of his features reflected in the portrait of Will Honeycomb.

Pope was proud enough for the moment at being taken by the hand by this elderly buck, though, as Pope himself rose in the literary scale and could estimate literary reputations more accurately, he became, it would seem, a little ashamed of his early enthusiasm, and, at any rate, the friendship dropped.

The letters which passed between the pair during four or five years down to the end of 1711, show Pope in his earliest manhood.

They are characteristic of that period of development in which a youth of literary genius takes literary fame in the most desperately serious sense.