His attempt to evade his responsibility was a mere equivocation--a device which he seems to have preferred to direct lying.
The character of Bufo might be equally suitable to others; but no reasonable man could doubt that every one would fix it upon Halifax.

In some cases--possibly in that of Chandos--he may have thought that his language was too general to apply, and occasionally it seems that he sometimes tried to evade consequences by adding some inconsistent characteristic to his portraits.
I say this, because I am here forced to notice the worst of all the imputations upon Pope's character.

The epistle on the characters of women now includes the famous lines on Atossa, which did not appear till after Pope's death.[27] They were (in 1746) at once applied to the famous Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough; and a story immediately became current that the duchess had paid Pope 1000_l._ to suppress them, but that he preserved them, with a view to their ultimate publication.

This story was repeated by Warton and by Walpole; it has been accepted by Mr.
Carruthers, who suggests, by way of palliation, that Pope was desirous at the time of providing for Martha Blount, and probably took the sum in order to buy an annuity for her.

Now, if the story were proved, it must be admitted that it would reveal a baseness in Pope which would be worthy only of the lowest and most venal literary marauders.