Nothing could be more becoming; and it does not appear that Addison knew, when writing this note, that Pope was the author of the anonymous assault.

If, as the biographers say, Addison's action was not kindly to Pope, it was bare justice to poor Dennis.

Pope undoubtedly must have been bitterly vexed at the implied rebuff, and not the less because it was perfectly just.
He seems always to have regarded men of Dennis's type as outside the pale of humanity.

Their abuse stung him as keenly as if they had been entitled to speak with authority, and yet he retorted it as though they were not entitled to common decency.

He would, to all appearance, have regarded an appeal for mercy to a Grub-street author much as Dandie Dinmont regarded Brown's tenderness to a "brock"-- as a proof of incredible imbecility, or, rather, of want of proper antipathy to vermin.