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_.